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In the spring of 2026, the trend of China's e-sports is shifting from professional leagues and international venues to provincial-level local tracks across the country. From Guangdong's e-sports Guangdong Super League, which is divided into divisions according to Guangfu culture, Bay Area culture, Chaoshan culture, Hakka culture, and western Guangdong culture, to Jiangsu's replica of the football Scottish Super League model, the e-sports Scottish Super League that has landed in 13 cities, to Shandong, Anhui and other provinces are about to enter the game, and the word “ provincial super ” has become the most popular keyword in the e-sports industry at the moment.

Unlike professional leagues such as LPL (League of Legends Professional League) and KPL (Honor of Kings Professional League), which have been deeply involved for many years and focus on top players, the core protagonist of this craze is 99% of ordinary players who cannot stand in the professional arena. It is an e-sports industry that is eager to find new additions, and is also a local government that is eager to tell city stories in the context of young people. A reporter from Yangcheng Evening News had an exclusive interview with the relevant person in charge of the Guangdong Super League, the relevant person in charge of the Jiangsu Super League, and the person in charge of the Huya event who has been deeply involved in the provincial Super League in many places. Let’s talk about the logic and future possibilities behind this craze.

Two ways to play, one answer

When all provinces across the country gathered to enter the provincial supermarket of e-sports, Guangdong and Jiangsu, which were the first to run through the model, took two completely different paths and provided two reference samples for the industry.

From its birth, the e-sports Guangdong Super League has anchored the core positioning of "“ industry priority ”".“ Guangdong is doing e-sports, and the industry is a big deal.” Xia Peng, the relevant person in charge of e-sports Guangdong Super League, bluntly said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News that the core framework of e-sports Guangdong Super League is Guangdong tourism, Guangdong products, Guangdong talents, and Guangdong competition, which respectively correspond to the integration of culture and tourism, agricultural consumption assistance, and e-sports education, four major directions of industrial implementation. Unlike other competitions that simply bind cultural tourism, the tentacles of the Guangdong Super League extend to a deeper level; the Guangdong product sector will connect with the main anchor resources and link agricultural resources and e-sports specialty products in 21 cities in Guangdong to drive consumption; the Guangdong talent sector Linked with e-sports majors in Guangzhou, Foshan and other colleges and universities It is expected to open up employment exports for e-sports students; it is currently promoting the implementation of the e-sports industrial parks in Guangzhou and Foshan, trying to complete the local gathering of the e-sports industry with the event as the core.

In Xia Peng's view, Guangdong's ability to take the industrial path stems from irreplaceable local advantages: “ Guangdong ranks first in the country in terms of the number of e-sports users and game manufacturers, and its manufacturing foundation is thick enough. Judging from the market and industrial thickness, only Guangdong can support such a model.” The division of competition areas has also jumped out of the simple administrative area, with the cultural context of the five major competition areas as the core, making e-sports events the carrier of local culture.

On the other side, the e-sports Scottish Super League, created by the original team of the Football Scottish Super League, has embarked on a mature path of “ sports ”.“ We have drawn on the mature competition model of Scottish Premiership football, with the goal of creating a professional-like e-sports league in Jiangsu.” Yang Peilong, assistant to the general manager of Jiangsu Sports Competition Co., Ltd., told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the core framework of the e-sports Super League is the manager system of 13 prefectures and cities. Each manager team selects local athletes, coaches, and referees to form a city. The representative team adopts a home-and-away single round-robin competition system and opens promotion channels to counties County-level teams are promoted to the municipal league through the tournament, where they compete with 13 city teams.

Different from the industrial orientation of the "Cantonese Super League", the Scottish Super League focuses more on the system construction of sports events themselves; the event is fully implemented in cultural and tourism scenic spots, creating a viewing experience of “ one city, one competition, one competition and one scene; setting up special youth training funds and platforms Internship opportunities open up a career upward channel for grassroots players; link up with Scottish Super League football events that have already left the circle Realize the popular linkage between football and e-sports events in the same city, so that e-sports can become an important part of the city's sports IP.

The two paths appear to be very different, but the cores are highly consistent. They all jump out of the logic of professional event “ focusing on the top of the tower and serving spectators ”, returning the protagonist of the event to ordinary players, trying to build an e-sports stage with universal participation outside the professional system.“ In the eyes of ordinary people, professional e-sports can only be regarded as spectators, and even spectators are not considered spectators.” Xia Peng said, “We want to unite the 99% of people who cannot become professional players so that they no longer just watch, but participate in it themselves.”

Who is pushing the provincial superman forward

The concentrated outbreak of the provincial supermarket in e-sports is no accident. Behind this craze is a tripartite resonance of policy east wind, industrial anxiety and urban demand.

Support at the policy level is the core basis for the implementation of provincial super competitions. In May 2025, Guangdong Province issued the "Several Policies and Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of Guangdong's E-Sports Industry", which clearly proposed to build a multi-level e-sports event network. Guangzhou and other cities have also successively introduced special policies for game e-sports, providing financial subsidies of up to millions of yuan to local e-sports events. As far as local governments are concerned, the e-sports provincial super is no longer a game for young people, but a high-quality starting point that can quickly gather the attention of young people, stimulate cultural tourism consumption, and shape the young image of the city.

At the industrial level, provincial super events are an inevitable choice for the e-sports industry to break through the ceiling of growth.》 The 2025 China E-Sports Industry Report shows that the number of domestic e-sports users is close to 500 million, and the industry revenue is nearly 30 billion yuan. However, more than 80% of the revenue comes from the live broadcast sector, and the hematopoietic ability of the event itself and the club has always been weak. When the professional event market in first-tier cities gradually saturates and sinks to a broader provincial market, it becomes a common choice for the industry.

“Provincial events are an important supplement to professional events and a core development trend in the e-sports industry. ” The person in charge of the Huya Company event told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that Huya has deeply participated in e-sports Guangdong Super League, e-sports Jiangsu Super League and other provincial events. The core focus is on the activation ability of the e-sports provincial supermarket to users. In “ professional events, most users are Passive spectators, but the provincial supermarket gives them the opportunity to participate in person and participate in depth, which can greatly improve user stickiness It can also create a new content track besides professional competitions and self-organized competitions for the live broadcast platform.”

What's more, the provincial super events provide a whole new narrative vehicle for local cities. In the past, most of the top e-sports events were concentrated in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and it was difficult for other prefectures to share the event dividends. The "Provincial Super League" event has moved the venue to scenic spots, business districts, and city landmarks across the province, so that every prefecture and city can become the protagonist of the event. Through e-sports events, it connects local cultural and tourism resources, drives offline consumption, and uses young people's The favorite way is to tell local city stories well.

After the excitement, three hurdles

After the excitement of the opening ceremony, the real test of the e-sports provincial super has just begun. There are still many questions to be solved in this "National E-Sports".

The first hurdle is the sustainability of the event. The first tournament can be run with government subsidies and brand sponsorship, but where do the operating funds for the second and third editions come from? Can the mature profit model of traditional sports leagues such as tickets, peripherals, and local business cooperation be passed in non-top regional e-sports events? If a healthy self-hematopoietic capacity cannot be established, it is likely that the craze will be followed by chicken feathers.

The second hurdle is the balance between universal participation and event viewing. Provincial "super events" generally block professional players from the door and focus on grassroots players participating. This will inevitably lead to a discount in the competition level and viewing quality. How to make ordinary players willing to play and the audience willing to watch it will greatly test the wisdom of the event team. In Xia Peng's view, the core of this issue is to correct the positioning of the event: “ We have never thought about being more ornamental than LPL. Professional events are the top of the tower, national events are the base of the tower, and table tennis can last forever. A large part of the reason is that it is national sports. What we have to do is get more people involved, not just for the spectators.”

The third hurdle, is the homogenization trap. Most of the current provincial super events in each province focus on the integration model of “ e-sports + cultural tourism ”, and it is easy to fall into the same dilemma. If we cannot find a differentiated positioning based on the characteristics of local industries and cultural resources, and just follow the trend and run the competition, we will eventually only become formalism without memory points. The person in charge of the Huya event also said that if the provincial super event wants to last long, it must continue to incubate local e-sports experts and cultivate urban IP, so that the event has popularity, content thickness, and dissemination breadth, and build a sustainable local e-sports content ecology.

This provincial super-boom in e-sports, which has swept the country, is essentially a large-scale practice in the process of China's e-sports moving towards mature industries. These practices are also exploring a question: In addition to being the top profession for a few people and the online entertainment for the majority of people, can e-sports truly become, like basketball and football, a company rooted in different cities, with a local fan base, and able to drive offline consumption and Popular sports activities with cultural identity?

Perhaps there is no overnight answer to this question. The reporter asked Yang Peilong a question at the end of the interview: Last year, Scottish Premiership football was very popular. Have you reviewed it since then? Is this accidental, or is there a certain methodology? Can these experiences be replicated in the eSports Scottish Premiership?

HUYA’s recent price action continues to suggest that buyers remain in control despite the pullback from its earlier highs. The overall structure reflects a classic accumulation pattern, where up moves are supported by strong volume, while declines occur on lighter volume, indicating that selling pressure is not aggressive and dips are being absorbed rather than driven by distribution.

Looking back at the earlier rally, volume expanded significantly during the push higher, signalling strong conviction from buyers. In contrast, the subsequent retracement saw relatively muted volume, reinforcing the view that the weakness is likely a healthy pullback instead of a full trend reversal.

More recently, HUYA has formed and is now reacting positively from a base around the $3.00 level, with price showing signs of rebound and stabilisation after the decline. This base formation is important as it reflects consistent demand stepping in, providing a platform for a potential next leg higher. The recent bounce back towards the $3.30 region, accompanied by improving volume, suggests that buyers are starting to step in more actively, reinforcing the view that the base is holding. As long as this level holds, the near-term structure remains constructive.

At the same time, HUYA’s improving fundamentals are beginning to reinforce this setup. The company’s business transformation is yielding results, with its diversification strategy gaining traction. Financial performance is also showing a return in topline growth alongside improving margins, suggesting a healthier revenue mix and better monetisation quality. This adds support to the current accumulation phase and points to more sustainable mid-to-long-term opportunities.

From a volume profile perspective, there is a high-volume support region below current price, indicating strong historical accumulation. With price attempting to lift away from this area, it increases the probability of a rotation towards higher resistance zones.

The key level to watch remains $4.28, which stands out as a major resistance and prior supply zone. A move towards this level is likely if current structure holds. A breakout above $4.28 with strong volume expansion could confirm continuation, while rejection may lead to further consolidation within the current range.