- Esports tournaments can continue, where traditional sports have stopped
- Esports is the fastest growing sport in Sri Lanka, and is now an official Sri Lankan sport
- Forward thinking brands have partnered with Gamer.LK to run Esports events
- Over 3,000 people are taking part in Esports events from home
- Esports viewership is increasing with more people watching from home
With sports coming to a grinding halt during these unprecedented times, there’s one sport that has the flexibility to continue. Thanks to its digital nature, Electronic Sports allow athletes to connect to their competitors directly through the cloud, all while staying safe at home. Esports, gazetted as the 70th Sri Lankan sport by the Sports MInistry in September last year has been recognised as the fastest growing sport in Sri Lanka based on its fast growing number of participants and spectators.
Gamer.LK decided to cancel SLCG – the largest physical Esports tournament in the country – in early March where 10,000 participants and spectators were expected to gather over 3 days. With physical events off the table, Gamer.LK has moved competitions online. Partnering with some forward thinking brands, Gamer.LK is currently running multiple tournaments with over 3,000 Esports athletes connecting to their matches from home.
Red Bull Fight or Flight – 1,200+ participants signed up
Samsung Online Esports Showdown – 2,000+ participants signed up
Play From Home live streams powered by Sri Lanka Telecom – reach of over half a million and racked up 180,000+ views.
With gamers being at home, they are flocking to watch the local competitive Esports scene. Esports are well positioned as a spectator sport with high skilled matches getting tens of thousands of views. Red Bull Fight or Flight matches have so far received over 300,000 views across 6 days of competition with the climax of the tournament set for 11th April where the best PUBG Mobile squads will battle it out for a prize pool of Rs. 250,000 presented by Gamer.LK.