Tencent explores e-sports opportunities in Türkiye with Digital Assets

E-sports continues to walk slowly but surely on a path to global recognition with the sector offering something new and exciting, each passing day. One of the biggest players in this field, Tencent which is behind the likes of PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings, paid a visit on Friday to Ihlas’ Digital Assets to discuss the future of e-sports.

Excited to be in Türkiye, Lucas Zheng, head of Global Business Development and Partnerships at Tencent, was eager to see Digital Assets’ new projects in the field of e-sports. Accompanied by Tencent’s Senior E-sports Managers Karyn Huang and Mahmut Emin Öncel, Zheng visited Digital Assets’ offices in Istanbul.

Ihlas has created and sponsored IDA E-sports, which currently competes in Star League, one of the biggest PUBG Mobile tournament series in Türkiye.

Zheng met with Volkan Ormanli, general manager of the Digital Assets, overseeing the brand’s push in e-sports. Zheng and Ormanli discussed the future of gaming, how e-sports is becoming mainstream, and possible collaborations in the field.

Zheng emphasized that Türkiye was a fresh market for Tencent and that they wanted to grow and expand their presence in the country.

He revealed that plans for an amateur and a professional level e-sports tournament in Türkiye were underway for August and September respectively, for Tencent’s Honor of Kings mobile game. The professional-level competition will take place in the lead-up to the global tournament, scheduled to take place in October.

Honor of Kings is the world’s largest multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, published by Tencent Games. The game was launched in mainland China in 2015 but was not available to non-Chinese players until this year. Honor of Kings arrived in February in Türkiye, before releasing worldwide on June 20.

Tencent representatives also took a tour of Ihlas Media Group’s complex in Istanbul, visiting e-sports departments, and also the news and media sections including the television channel studios.