DOTA in Doha

A young boy sat in front of a computer, concentrating on the virtual battle upon the screen. A small crowd of boys peered over his shoulder, chewing gum and attempting to give advice to the player.

The battle reached its climax, all the eyes were fixed on the screen, now more than ever.

The central arena in Virtuo City, Doha, Qatar; Photography by Xiahanqing Wu

“ESports, a restrictedly rules-guided and competitive form of video gaming playing in teams against each other at a professional level, catch the eyeballs of people, especially youths, around the world,” said Vaykath Chen, a professional League of Legends player from Cyprus.

Chen describes the passion that drives people to watch eSports live events. “To enjoy the virtual competition with better visual effects and professional live-streaming comments, people are normally eager to pay for a ticket and sit in a huge arena with other 50,000 audiences together.”

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On Jan. 16, 2020, a grand ceremony took place at the Khalifa International Stadium: the launch of the three-year-long Qatar eSports WEGA Global Games and the celebration of the birth of a new hub of eSports.

As Qatar’s first international eSports tournament, it is collectively hosted by WEGA, the world’s leading eSports organization, Aspire Zone Foundation and Truxtun Capital, from 2020 to 2022. This year, four games will be featured: CS: GO, DOTA 2, Street Fighter V, and eFootball PES 2020.

In Qatar and throughout Asia, eSports has developed rapidly in recent years. It is because, as a professional sport, it brings business opportunities to countries. At the 2018 Asian Games, eSports was introduced as an international-level comprehensive sports game for the first time. It attracts attention, discussions, and investments globally.

Chikish, Y., Carreras, M. & Garci, J. (2019). eSports: a new era for the sports industry and a new impulse for the research in sports and economics? Sports (and) Economics. pp.477-508. Publisher: FUNCAS (Spanish Savings Banks Foundation).

Many people see eSports as an entertainment rather than a serious sports event.

“I mean, what kind of sports allow people to eat during the so-called ‘games’? [eSports] is just casual entertainment,” said Craig Llewellyn LaMay, a professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, teaching sports communication.

Deeb Mahmoud, one of the lead organizers of the Qatar Fighting Gaming Community (Qatar FGC), grew up in Qatar. He described the backlash he faced from his parents. According to Mahmoud, growing up as a gamer in Qatar has been tough in a conservative culture. “My parents just see me as a never grown-up child who likes to play games, although I have organized some of the biggest tournaments here.”

The purpose of gaming or eSports depends on the difference between the players and the types of video games played. For instance, millions of football lovers also engage in FIFA Online Video Games to experience being a football manager in the digital world.

“I know there are some people play FIFA, [although] I don’t have much experience with them, from what I’ve seen, they view it less as [an event among] eSports and more as a fun pastime to do in between outings,” said Khalid Omar, an amateur eSports player who is a sophomore student from Qatar University (QU).

An important phenomenon he pointed out is that even eSports players sometimes confuse the boundaries between gaming and eSports.

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Although Qatar’s eSports industry is still at a grassroots level with a humble beginning and has not been fully recognized among the local community, Qatar attempts to offer eSports a more acknowledged representation by professionalizing and commercializing eSports in the future. What Qatar has done includes hosting the Qatar eSports WEGA Global Games and opening Virtuo City, the biggest gaming hub in Qatar.

Qatar’s local eSports tournaments have been gradually developing in recent years. For example, Qatar FGC hosts weekly competitions among its community members. Most of the tournaments in Qatar are still community-driven by self-sponsoring or seeking outside sponsorships, according to Mahmoud.

200 installed gaming stations in Virtuo City; Photography by Xiahanqing Wu

Virtuo City in Doha Festival City is Qatar’s first video game and eSports center. Virtuo City has 200 installed gaming stations with a spectacular 360-degree view of the game while the gladiators of gaming go into battle. It has held local eSports tournaments since last year.

“During the weekends, the total amount of customers can be up to 800 to 1,200 per day,” Jay Michael Recto, eSports tournament specialist and supervisor of Virtuo City, said. “The youth are our main customers.”

In Qatar, local eSports clubs also play an important role in promoting eSports. “People used to go to the Internet cafes for a particular game, but there was never a formal eSports club within Qatar up until five years ago,” Mahmoud said. Now, there are different clubs for different games.

Omar participated in QU’s eSports club. Although QU has banned gaming-related activities, offline eSports games still survive because QU perceives them as formal competitions. Amateur eSports players also love this community.

Mahmoud described WEGA Global Games as a turning point because it might push the change of the dynamics of Qatar's eSports industry further.

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At a press conference of WEGA Global Games on Jan. 8, 2020, Mohammed Alkuwari, chief of marketing at Aspire Zone Foundation, pointed out the bright future that the eSports industry in Qatar is one of the most promising industries with a predicted 40 percent growth rate annually.

Both Recto and Alkuwari also expressed that the developing eSports industry will attract more individual players and game companies to Qatar, which contributes to the development of tourism.

Indeed, the three-year-long global tournament will promote the eSports industry in Qatar. However, concerns remain.

“The global tournament seems to have more corporations than usual. I would like to think that, along the chain, there must be some advisors or consultants who realize that these things can’t be entirely based on data from other countries,” Omar said.

Recto foresees a bright future in the eSports market. The more important thing is that, he said, “Qatar needs to be more flexible and less orthodox while predicting the market potentials.”

Mahmoud, like every other Qatar’s eSport amateur players, is optimistic about the future of the eSports industry in Qatar with the WEGA games. “We hope WEGA will do it right as the first event,” Mahmoud said.

(Co-edited by Jiayi Shen and Gregory Anthony Toppo)