PGL announces partnership with Perfect World
PGL has announced a strategic partnership with Perfect World for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 seasons. This collaboration aims to facilitate a cross-regional partnership between the production companies in Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 events, sharing broadcasting rights between their events.
Expanding global reach
The Romanian esports event organiser PGL and the Chinese entertainment company Perfect World have announced a partnership regarding their esports event production for the next three years.
PGL is best known for its events in the esports titles Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2. The company is currently hosting the ongoing Counter-Strike Major in Copenhagen, Denmark, and has hosted various premier events in the space since its formation in 2002.
Similarly, Perfect World has been hosting Counter-Strike and Dota2 in Asia and mostly in the Chinese market. Most recently, the company hosted the Asia-Pacific RMR for the Major in Copenhagen and will also be organising the first Chinese Valve Counter-Strike Major at the end of this year in Shanghai.
As part of the agreement, PGL will handle the production of all Perfect World events in English and will also receive exclusive global broadcasting rights outside of China. This arrangement aims to leverage PGL's expertise in the anglophone market, with Perfect World conversely producing all PGL events in China, also receiving broadcasting rights for the region.
Strategic partnership ahead of major industry changes
In August of last year, Valve announced its plans for CS esports going forward, sharing a vision of a more open system that would decrease the hurdles the industry had erected to increase stability and revenue streams for participating esports teams, gatekeeping participation to some of Counter-Strikes largest events in the process.
Consequently, the developer announced that no partnership agreements between tournament organisers and esports teams would be allowed in the esport going forward, directly impacting PGLās competitors BLAST and ESL FACEIT Group and their respective partnership programs. While the partnerships are currently still ongoing, they will have to cease by 2025, opening up more opportunities for other third-party tournament organisers to compete globally.
With the consolidation of formerly separate event organisers ESL, FACEIT, and Dreamhack under the EFG umbrella, the company increased its control of the global esports scene, most recently expanding in a major way in several esports, especially in the North American and EMEA regions. The partnership between PGL and Perfect World could help both companies catch up ground with the industry leader, which had only rarely operated events in the Asian market.
