BBC Newsbeat
Team liquidThe second Asports World Cup (EWC) has started in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In the next seven weeks, teams from all over the world will compete in 25 matches including call of duty, league of legends and EA Sports FC (EA FC).
For Grabs is part of $ 70m (£ 50m).
There are awards for individuals and teams, but despite the name of the tournament, players do not compete for their countries.
Most of the organizations are members such as team liquid, one of the largest asports squads in the world.
The BBC Newsbeat went behind the curtain at its headquarters, to find out why EWC is so important for them, and why they feel that they cannot ignore the controversial competition.
Located in Uutrete in the Netherlands, Team Liquid’s base part office, part video game arcade and part luxury student residence.
There are two rooms where teams can compete with head-to-head or online, and streaming booths where they can transmit live to followers on Twitter.
Many top players of Liquid live and train, where an on-site chef provides three meals a day, all of them are designed to promote concentration and response time.
It is important to distinguish between the two when the game works and plays work, and members tell the newsbeat that they spend about eight hours a day in the run-up for major competitions.
One of them is Levi Day Word.
Like many other people, he found EA FC (formerly known as FIFA) as a child.
Now at the age of 21, he is playing against the world against the world in a career.
He says that being part of the team liquid, they get high-spec facilities and access to experienced coaches.
“We have a gameplay coach, we are analyzing the Games in the past and from the tournament in friendly games, where we try things. We also have a performance coach and mental coach,” he says.
Being a place, he says, more important than what you can think.
“I think it is important to have a good environment with coaches, to get a good chemistry with players and employees”, they say.
Getty imagesBecause EWC competitors do not represent their countries, teams are capable of bringing talent from all over the world.
Yanya, part of the Apex Legends Squad of Team Liquid, joined his country Mexico.
He says EWC is “the best feeling in the world because you are playing the best player”.
“You get a lot of enthusiasm. You get a lot of adrenaline,” they say.
Team Liquid is watching its performance last year, when they finished second behind the Saudi Side team Falcons.
Yanya emphasizes that it does not affect her, though.
“I don’t feel pressure, I believe,” they say. “We are practicing a lot.”
Team liquidPersonal display is an important part of EWC and players are large cash prizes to win.
But there are also special bonuses for the club championship – the team that wins the most events gets $ 7m (£ 5m).
More players mean the chance to compete in more events, and more likely to purify that top award.
The Levi team is a new member of the Liquid, which he incorporates when his former side was absorbed in it.
Consolidation – In swallowing small people to big asports teams – and the merger has become more common, not only due to awards for tombs.
Many asports organizations have been bust after a large -scale investment bounce in this scene in recent years.
Team Liquid founder and co–CEO Victor Gusans says that it is more important to keep money than ever.
Team liquidWhile the prize money is not everything, Victor says that the EWC team is financially important for the liquid.
“This is another source that we can plan and project for our year and it allows us to build a company and establish ourselves as a permanent esport organization”, they say.
He says that the team is “ambitious” with its plan to win the club championship after finishing second last year.
Victor believes that it is necessary to compete in more and more events to take the top location, but that “it is not worth expanding if your core rosters are not already great”.
You need to attract the best talent.
So when the online chess was added as a program to this year’s Asports World Cup, Team Liquid signed the world’s top chess Grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.
ActivenessSome Asports fans have been important for teams participating in an event hosted by Saudi Arabia, and large -scale funded -funded events.
The state has been accused of several human rights violations and has strict laws that women can do.
Like other Middle East states, it has been severely criticized for anti -LGBT laws – homosexuality is punishable by death.
It invests many millions of people in sports, video games and asports, which critics argue that it is an attempt to promote its public image.
Has been backlash.
Individual players have chosen not to participate, such as Street Fighter 6 Pro Chris CCH, who Rejected from one place in this year’s competition After qualifying through a partnership incident.
However, given his growing relationship for asports, he admitted that it would have almost made it impossible to compete with any Saudi-Linked competitions.
Victor says that this team is a “sensitive and difficult situation to navigate” for the liquid, which has publicly supported gay rights.
“We are very vocal that we believe in Esports for all,” Victor says.
“So there is a contradiction. But we believe that if we want to live almost in five or ten years, we need to play in EWC.”
