RAGE ASIA 2020, sponsored by CyberZ, Avex Entertainment, and TV Asahi, will be held on August 29 (Sat) and 30 (Sun), 2020.
Since the first RAGE tournament was held at the end of 2015, it has been one of the largest prize money offline tournaments in Japan, but in light of the recent Corona disaster, "RAGE ASIA 2020" will be held entirely online.
Prior to the tournament, a joint online information session was held by the three organizers of "RAGE ASIA 2020" on Thursday, August 27, 2020.
In this article, we will introduce the significance of holding RAGE ASIA 2020, RAGE ASIA's unique initiatives, and RAGE's future outlook.
RAGE's First Global Tournament!
"RAGE ASIA 2020" is RAGE's first global tournament.
Many invited teams from Japan and other Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, and Korea will participate in the tournament to determine the top of Asia.
Shingo Otomo, director of CyberZ, Inc., the organizer of RAGE, and general producer of RAGE, the e-sports business jurisdiction (hereinafter referred to as "Otomo"), said so.
The Tokyo Olympics were cancelled, but we felt it would be a waste to cancel RAGE.
So we decided to change the format and hold this tournament as an international match that is possible only in e-sports, with all players and spectators completely online.
We do not want to hold a mere festival as a big event, but rather, because of the current situation in Korona, we want to deliver e-sports tournaments and content that will energize everyone, online and from Japan," Otomo continued.
Mr. Otomo continued.
RAGE ASIA 2020 will feature two titles that are currently attracting a great deal of attention around the world: the mobile title " KNIVES OUT-knives out " and the PC title " Apex Legends ".
Mr. Otomo explains why he chose these two titles.
To that end, we have a strong desire to have more people watch our tournaments.
In particular, since this is RAGE's first international tournament, we want to make sure that this is not just an e-sports tournament for core fans, but also for e-sports beginners.
We want to bring this tournament to the lightweight audience that knows the game title itself but has never played the game itself, or has never seen an e-sports tournament before.
With this in mind, we chose the global IPs KNIVES OUT-knives out and Apex Legends as the titles for this year's event.
New spectator experience with the launch of V-RAGE
Nowadays, not only in e-sports but also in many other sports, competitions can be enjoyed both offline and online.
RAGE, which has been held offline, has also been streaming its tournaments through OPENREC.tv and YouTube.
In order to " let more people watch the tournament," RAGE ASIA 2020 will offer a new " V-RAGE " experience through VR, in addition to the existing streaming.
V-RAGE is a " virtual e-sports facility " operated by RAGE that allows users to watch e-sports tournaments and participate in events.
By connecting to V-RAGE during the tournament, visitors will be able to access the tournament stadium in the VR space, which has been designed and staged to match the appearance of RAGE ASIA 2020.
This system allows users to wear the BEAMS tie-in T-shirts that were recently featured on Saiga NAK, and watch the tournament while conversing with friends using the voice chat function.
V-RAGE launched its beta version in March 2020 and held the "RAGE" event in the virtual space.
We have also increased the number of contents and prepared a lot of plans in order to reach that number," said Otomo.
We have also increased the content and planned a lot of events in order to achieve that number," said Otomo.
Mr. Shigeyoshi Sakamoto, General Manager of the Event Production Group, Live Business Division, Avex Entertainment Inc.
I believe that the digital and technological strategies, including the V-RAGE event, will really appeal to those who don't go, and I think that the number of people who go to these events will not only double, but increase even more.
Mr. Otomo has the following to say about the future of V-RAGE.
So I think our mission is to continue to create content that users are satisfied with even if they have to pay for it.
We want to make V-RAGE something that people will want to use even if it becomes a paid content in the future.
That being said, we may also offer V-RAGE as a technology for other e-sports tournaments, not just RAGE.
If V-RAGE can create a new style of online spectating, we believe that V-RAGE can be used to spread a lot of content throughout the world.
Aiming to create e-sports content that can be viewed by 1 million people simultaneously
RAGE ASIA 2020 will be RAGE's first international tournament, but what is RAGE's vision for the future?
Mr. Otomo says, "Japan's e-sports scene is in a state of flux.
However, compared to other countries, I think the scale of the number of viewers is still in its infancy.
We would like to expand the e-sports fan base by repeating initiatives like this one, and we hope that the culture of watching e-sports in Japan will take root through RAGE.
In the future, we would like to create e-sports tournaments and content that can be watched by a million people at the same time.
Also, this is RAGE ASIA, but I would like to hold RAGE WORLD someday.
Mr. Sakamoto expressed his vision from the unique perspective of Avex, which has a base in Asia.
We are gradually being approached by e-sports operators in Asian countries, asking us to do something together.
This is something that is still rare in Japan, but I think we are starting to see a very positive trend.
Eventually, I think it would be very interesting if a RAGE network were to be established and global tournaments could be held not only in ASIA.
Kaname Ishida, General Manager of the Business Management Department, Business Production Bureau, TV Asahi Corporation, also expressed his desire to boost the e-sports industry from the standpoint of mass media.
Currently, companies that sponsor RAGE are trying to reach out to the younger generation.
However, I think that Telecosmos can help expand the fan base of RAGE and e-sports, especially in terms of attracting core targets outside the younger generation.
I think this would also broaden the base of sponsors.
To this end, we have a program called ReAL eSports News every Sunday late at night on Teletext.
This one covers eSports related news, including RAGE, every week.
Also, for RAGE ASIA 2020, we recently had a special one-hour late-night program just prior to the event.
Since the end of 2015, RAGE has continued to boost the e-sports market in Japan.
Starting with RAGE ASIA 2020, the e-sports market will continue to expand both domestically and internationally.
Details of RAGE ASIA 2020 can be found on the official website.