Perfect World director: "When we ran TI, Chinese DOTA 2 fans and players increased a lot. I think the same will happen with Counter-Strike"

The Perfect World Shanghai Major seemingly could not come at a better time, and the organizer hopes it can channel the recent boom in China and continue Counter-Strike's growth in the region.

Last November, Chinese tournament organizer and the official Counter-Strike distributor for the Chinese mainland, Perfect World, announced that it would host the second Major of 2024 in Shanghai.

The tournament will mark a significant milestone, as it will be the first time Counter-Strike's premier championship takes place anywhere on the Asian continent, after the past 20 Majors were held either in Europe or the eastern side of the Americas.

Top-level tournaments in China and the wider Asian region have come few and far between, and so for Perfect World hosting the first Major in the region is a unique opportunity to help support the game's growth in China and the wider Asian region.

"We've always wanted to bring a Major to China. It should have happened several years ago, but because of COVID it didn't," Perfect World's Senior Esports Director Archer Wang tells HLTV. "The Major is important for the Asian market. Our goal is to bring more and more Asian people, more and more Chinese people to Counter-Strike."

Though it came a few years late, the first Major in China seemingly couldn't come at a better time. Judging by the CS Asia Championships in Shanghai last November and IEM Chengdu in April, interest in Counter-Strike has boomed in China since a top event in the game was last held there in 2019.

Arena capacity was not enough to accommodate that interest at CAC, and IEM Chengdu turned out to be "the most successful ESL CS event in Asia by a mile," ESL VP Michal Blicharz said after seeing the impressive turnout by the audience throughout the playoffs. "Future CS2 Majors in China will be wild," he added.

The fans' overwhelming passion was laid bare during the two events as they swarmed players on their way from and to the tournament and in hotel lobbies, and massive queues formed for signing sessions.

This came as a shock, not just to the teams and the international community.

"It also surprised us, actually," Wang admits. "At CAC we didn't realize the fans would be so full of passion and that so many fans would come there. But this also gives us more confidence and challenges in planning subsequent competitions, hoping to provide a better experience for both fans and players."

In part, this stunning shift was a result of COVID, according to Wang. "There hadn't been any international Counter-Strike tournaments in China for three or four years. All the fans, they've only seen these top players on the screen and on social media, but they haven't been able to see them personally, the real people."

In explaining the boom, the Perfect World director says a steady increase in player base has also been a factor, and it is the tournament organizer's goal to supercharge this growth in China and Asia as a whole with the first Major in the region.

"When we ran The International 2019 in China, Chinese DOTA 2 fans and players increased a lot after that tournament. I think the same will happen with Counter-Strike."

Accommodating the Chinese community's interest will be the hardest challenge for Perfect World, Wang says. The organizer is considering something we'd only seen pulled off on a bigger scale once, at the IEM Rio Major in 2022.

"We are thinking about bringing some audience for the first two stages," he shares. "But that will be a totally different thing. If we don't have any audience, you can put everyone in a ballroom and it will be much easier, but if we have maybe thousands of people in the audience, you can't work this way. We have already locked some bigger exhibition centers and bigger arenas, and I think this is the biggest challenge."

Majors have typically only featured an audience in the playoffs, and with Asian teams not being competitive enough at the moment to make it that far into the tournament, having an audience in the first two stages will give fans the chance to see teams from their region or country compete against the best in the world live.

In this, Perfect World was also fortunate that The MongolZ secured Asia a third slot at the Major for the first time since 2019 by making it to the top 16 at the PGL Copenhagen Major. "We are crazy about that, we are so happy to see that. This is the most perfect time for us," Wang says.

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He hopes having three slots at the Shanghai Major, combined with the example Lynn Vision set with their qualification for Copenhagen and the increased chance for another Chinese team to make it, will positively impact the local scene's competitiveness in the future.

"Lynn Vision cried, all of us cried, when they made it to the Major. No one had done this for four years, and in the last few years maybe the Chinese community felt a little disappointed. Lynn Vision gave everyone a great example. They showed all the young people in Asia that you also get a chance for the Major."

Beyond the competition, Perfect World also want to provide more to the fans after seeing interest in the players akin to worldwide celebrities. "The Chinese fans are full of passion for all the players. We have to find more chances for players to keep in touch with all the fans, they can take photos, signatures," Wang shares. "Of course, this is provided that it does not affect the players' privacy and that the team agrees. We don't want to make the teams unhappy, we want to provide them with more options."

This also counts for the teams and players themselves, Wang goes on: "We want them to feel happy, not only about the Major, we want them to feel happy about the city, to feel Shanghai welcomes them.

"I think this will bring a lot of challenges for us. Everyone just wants to focus on the tournament itself, but we also want to provide teams with more chances to see the city and to communicate with the fans, and maybe have some time to go out of the practice room and see something new."

With the Shanghai Major being the first of its kind, the pressure is on Perfect World to put on a good tournament. "Everyone is looking at us," Wang says. "That's why we came to the Copenhagen Major and the Paris Major before. We came to learn how a Major should work."

Its success will inevitably drive Valve's future decisions on Major locations. Wang understands China won't be able to host a Major every year, but that doesn't mean Perfect World doesn't have other plans for the game beyond 2024.

"We will have the Shanghai Major for this year, but what will happen next year? I don't think we will have a Major every year in China, but we want to keep our CAC. Maybe next time there won't be just eight teams, maybe 16 teams, maybe the same size as a Major. The China market is eager for top-tier tournaments. Perfect World wants to provide that."