Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo announced a strategic partnership with the popular online game, League of Legends (LoL).

Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, will offer its live-streaming services to broadcast the 2017 League of Legends World Championships which will be held in Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing from September 23rd to November 4th. A total of 24 teams across the world will attend the annual eSports competition.

Meanwhile, LoL players will be allowed to receive game rewards on Weibo and share their gaming videos to the social media site.

“70 percent of young Weibo users are also eSports players. The strategic partnership will not only promote the activeness of LoL players but also expand the influence of eSports competitions,” said Zhang Zhe, senior operating director of Weibo.

As a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games, a subsidiary of Chinese internet giant Tencent, the game has more than 100 million monthly active users in the world; half of them are also Weibo users. Nearly two-thirds of professional LoL players have opened Weibo accounts. The 14 international LoL teams, including SKT of South Korea and FNATIC of Europe, also have accounts on Weibo. 

Source: Sina, Techweb

Proofread by William Logsdon