Chinese online retailer Alibaba will "seek to break even" with its second World Electronic Sports Games tournament, according to Josh Ye of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. The company "pumped in" around 150M yuan into the inaugural series, which aspires to become the Olympic Games for esports. Alisports esports GM Wang Guan said that the preliminary phase of the second World Electronic Sports Games was "already under way in 20 cities across China ahead of the finals which are set to take place early next year." Wang said that the first tournament, which claimed to have involved players from over 120 countries, cost the company "in the region" of 150M yuan. He said, "We lost about 60-70 percent of that lump of money. But we reached about 4 million players." Wang said that the cost this year had been reduced by around 73% because, rather than organizing the championship itself, Alisports "switched to partnering with host cities." Wang: "We had over 40 applicant cities and we ended up with 20 cities for this year. We provide the prize money and most of the working staff. The cities chip in to host their local games" (SCMP, 7/19).
