When the Busan International Film Festival is over in November, Busan, which used to be called the "City of Movies," transforms into a "City of Games." This is because "G-STAR," the most extensive international game exhibition in Korea, is ahead. Busan has been hosting G-STAR every year since 2009, promoting e-sports (a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers) and carrying out various projects.

In March, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-Joon directly revealed the "plan to nurture the game industry base area." According to data distributed by the city of Busan, the "Game Contents Business Park" will be built on the former Busan University of Foreign Studies site. It will create a game industry start-up system with public institutions, research institutes, educational institutions, and private companies related to the game industry. Mayor Park also emphasized fostering the game industry, saying, "The game industry accounts for about 70% of the content exported by Korea."

"Channel PNU" intends to look back on the overall trend of the Korean e-sports industry and the e-sports industry in Busan, starting with G-STAR, which was held for the first time in three years.

■ From StarCraft to League of Legends

E-sports have been steadily growing. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency's "2021 e-Sports Survey Report," the size of the domestic e-sports industry increased from 72.29 billion won in 2016 to 120.41 billion won in 2021, and the global e-sports industry scale increased from 4.93 million dollars in 2016 to 947.1 million dollars in 2021.

Domestic e-sports began to increase after Blizzard released StarCraft in 1998. The government introduced the information industry to overcome the 1997 IMF foreign exchange crisis. With the development of the Internet network industry, the number of "PC bang (internet cafes)" increased, and a nationwide StarCraft trend began. The peak of the popularity of StarCraft was Shin Ju-Young's victory in the tournament. Shin Ju-Young won a competition hosted by Blizzard (an American video game developer) and started in the PGL (American Professional Game League). He was the first Korean pro gamer.

With Shin Ju-young's advance into the United States, voices were raised that a professional game league should also be created in Korea. In response, the Korea e-Sports Association was established in 1999, and with the hosting of the WCG (World Cyber Games) in 2001, the professional league was created in Korea. After that, as “pro gamer” emerged as a job, the current pro gaming team was made.

It was "star players" who led the golden age of e-sports. Since 2001, as a professional team has been launched and the pro league has progressed, "first-generation star players" such as Lim Yo-Hwan, Hong Jin-Ho, Park Jeong-Seok, and Lee Yun-Yeol have made out. The hot popularity of the first-generation star players led to "second-generation star players" such as Lee Young-Ho, Lee Je-Dong, Kim Taek-Yong, and Song Byung-Gu after 2007. However, in 2010, when match-fixing and illegal sports betting problems occurred in professional e-sports games, the overall foundation of the league was shaken, and e-sports entered a dark period.

The dark era of e-sports, which seemed never to end, ended with the Riot Games "League of Legends" fad. In 2012, LCK (League of Legends competition in Korea) appeared and succeeded in producing star players such as Mad Life and Faker. As the LCK became a franchise in 2021, its popularity continued.

Increasingly, e-sports is becoming a mainstream sport. It was adopted as a demonstration event at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang and adopted as an official event at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, solidifying its international position. Discussions on the official events of the 2024 Paris Olympics are continuing, and national competitions are being held worldwide.

■ Busan, the Mecca of E-Sports

Busan has held G-Star since 2009 and is actively working to develop the e-sports business. The Korea Game Exhibition (KAMEX), held from 1995 to 2004, closed at the end of 2004. Since 2005, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (currently the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) and the Korea Game Industry Promotion Agency (currently the Korea Creative Content Agency) held G-Star, merging KAMEX and several game exhibitions. The first venue of G-Star was KINTEX in Ilsan, and since 2009 it has been held in BEXCO in Busan.

G-Star was held at BEXCO from November 17th to 20th in Busan for the first time in three years on the same scale as before COVID-19. Unlike last year when large game companies did not participate, large domestic game companies such as Nexon Korea and Netmarble participated this year. Experience booths were also expanded.

Busan continues to make continuous investments to become "Busan, the city of games." In particular, it has been active in hosting e-sports events and has created success. The 2014 World Championship (League of Legends' best international competition) quarterfinals, 2018 World Championship Group Stage, 2018 World Championship quarterfinals, and 2022 MSI (international competition) were successfully held. League of Legends characters were created and exhibited at the Haeundae Sand Festival, and MSI was used in the Gwangalli Drone Show, showing moves to link the region with e-sports.

In 2020, the region's first e-sports stadium (BRENA) was opened, and various e-sports competitions and events were held. 19 competition games, including Tekken Korea-Japan matches, Overwatch Korea-China matches, Overwatch Contenders Korea season 2 finals, and Busan-Gyeongnam high school e-sports competitions, were held in Brenna. 60 events about e-sports, including fan viewing parties, e-sports talk shows, and e-sports career exploration programs, were also held in Brenna.

Busan is the first city in Korea to be home to a professional e-sports team. On July 14th last year, an agreement was signed with Liiv Sandbox for a regional location. Liiv Sandbox moved its headquarters to Busan after the contract and is creating a new culture by holding various programs such as fan viewing parties and boxing days using Brenna as well as participating in competitions.

Reporter Im Hyeon-Gyu

Translated by Seo Hae-Seong