(Yicai Global) Nov. 8 -- Chinese esports team Edward Gaming, or EDG, has won the 2021 League of Legends World Championship after defeating the previous titleholders three to two.

EDG took the trophy and the USD2.2 million prize money after beating South Korea’s DWG Kia in the grand final, the first in which a Chinese team had taken part, in Reykjavik, Iceland on Nov. 6.

EDG and its parent company SuperGen Group were set up in 2013 by Edward Zhu, the elder son of Zhu Mengyi, founder and former chairman of real estate giant Hopson Development Holdings. In May 2018, the team raised CNY100 million (USD15.6 million) from Yao Capital, a private equity firm founded by retired Chinese basketball player Yao Ming, and entertainment sector PE investor CICFH.

The 2021 LOL World Championship was broadcast by Chinese video-sharing website Bilibili, and reached a peak of over 400 million viewers. Bilibili tied up with Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends, last year, securing the exclusive rights to live-stream the tournament in the Chinese mainland for three years from 2020 for a total of CNY800 million (USD125 million).

Judged by many observers as pricey and unprofitable, the move brought in a wide range of game lovers and esports fans thanks to the popularity of the tournament. Based on the rapid growth of its live-streaming and premium membership business, revenue from Bilibili’s value-added services almost doubled to CNY1.63 billion (USD255 million) in the second quarter from a year ago, the Shanghai-based firm’s earnings report showed.

Bilibili’s potential growth in the live-streaming game services market remains very large in the long run, as its overall value is expected to exceed CNY43 billion (USD6.7 billion) this year, according to a report by iResearch. The number of users of live-streaming game services in China reached 355 million last year, up 18.3 percent from 2019, the report showed.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Futura Costaglione