Esports adds buzz to 2018 Tokyo Game Show

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CHIBA. KAZINFORM The Tokyo Game Show opened on Thursday, with the Japanese gaming industry hoping to grow the country's budding esports market through more professional players, audiences and fans.

At the annual extravaganza in Chiba, east of Tokyo, professional game players will compete in esports tournaments for eight game titles, including Street Fighter V Arcade Edition and Puzzle & Dragons with prize money of 10 million yen ($89,000) each. They will play on two big special stages each with seating for some 600 spectators.

In a separate event, professional esports players from soccer team Urawa Red Diamonds and Dutch club Feyenoord Rotterdam faced off in U.S. video game giant Electronic Arts Inc.'s football game "FIFA 19."

"There will be a lot of esports tournaments from now on so I hope there will be more participants," said Tsubasa Aihara, who represented Japan and won gold along with partner Naoki Sugimura during the Asian Games in Indonesia this month, where esports debuted as a demonstration event, KYODO NEWS reports.

"Starting as a virtual unknown and claiming victories one by one, there is a chance to become the winner, as I have been able to," said the 18-year-old Aihara, touting esports' universality and accessibility to people of all ages, regardless of sex and physical ability.

Esports is already popular in South Korea, the United States and Europe, but not in Japan where online competitive gaming is just beginning to gain popularity despite the country being home to famous game titles and a large gaming market.

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