Gaojing Partners with Riot Games, Mediapro for Esports College Cup

Mentioned in this article

• Chinese company Shanghai Gaojing Culture Media has partnered with Riot Games and Spanish media company Mediapro for its 2019 World University Cyber Games (WUCG).
• The WUCG will connect with the League of Legends International College Cup 2019, which is a yearly tournament co-hosted by Riot Games and Hong Kong-based Cyberport. 
• Spanish media company MediaPro will provide media support to bring WUCG to international markets, including Latin America.

Chinese esports organization Shanghai Gaojing Culture Media (Gaojing) hosted a press conference in Sanya, Hainan to announce that the company will host the 2019 World University Cyber Games (WUCG) Esports Festival between Dec. 3-7. The 2019 WUCG grand finals will be hosted at the festival, as well as the Animations Comics Games (ACG) show and an electronic music show. 

During the conference, Gaojing announced that the company has partnered with Riot Games to bring the two tournament systems between WUCG and League of Legends International College Cup 2019 together. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. WUCG is a multi-game tournament, which not only includes League of Legends, but also Dota 2, Honor of Kings, Hearthstone, and The King of Fighters 14.  

In addition, Gaojing announced a partnership with Spanish media company Mediapro to bring WUCG to international markets, including Latin America. More regions have not disclosed at the time of writing. In regards to its music programming, the 2018 WUCG Esports Festival featured DJ Alan Walker, a year after his live performance at the 2017 League of Legends World Championships.

On June 14 Gaojing closed a Pre-A funding round of over ¥10M ($1.45M USD), co-led by investment bank Orient Securities. The other lead investors included Yao Capital, owned by NBA star Yao Ming; and Pusi Capital, owned by Wang Sicong, who also owns esports organization Invictus Gaming and production company Banana Culture.

Gaojing recently signed a partnership deal with travel booking site Tong Cheng for WUCG, which provides travel plans and benefits for university players and fans who attend WUCG events. The tournament is also sponsored by SPD Bank and Chinese sanitary brand Space7.