经济学人韩国电竞水平比国内强

原文标题：Gaming in AsiaPowering upSouth Korea is trying to reclaim its e-sports crown from ChinaChina’s e-sports players are challenging South Korea’s dominance

[Paragraph 1] Some 4,000 fans gathered at the BEXCO Centre in Busan, a big port city in South Korea, on May 29th. Another 2.2m tuned in online. They were there for the finals of the Mid-Season Invitational, a prestigious e-sports tournament. A dozen teams had been competing over the course of three weeks to show off their skills at League of Legends (LOL), an online strategy-fantasy game. Now just two remained: Royal Never Give Up from China and t1, representing the home side. As the battle raged, t1 soon sputtered. The mood in the hall grew sombre. Some fans left early. By the time the Chinese team, locked down at home and joining virtually, emerged victorious, few were left. Confetti rained down in a half-empty hall.

[Paragraph 2] The enthusiasm, and crushing disappointment, reflect the place e-sports have in South Korean youth culture. The games are not just fun, but a source of national pride. Since the 1990s players have honed their skills in PC bangs (internet cafés), where children would go straight after school. Games such as StarCraft and lol filled time and fired up competitive spirit like after-class basketball in America or football in Brazil. The pool of talent expanded, and South Korean players came to dominate online-gaming championships.

[Paragraph 3] No longer. China is now on the rise. Chinese companies are at the heart of gaming globally. The country’s biggest tech firm, Tencent, owns Riot Games, which developed LOL, as well as 40% of Epic Games, which makes Fortnite. They are among the most popular games in the world. Interest in the pastime has grown, too. There are some 685m gamers in China, including those who play on their phones, compared with 33m in South Korea. Over the past few years China has consistently beaten South Korea in big championships.

[Paragraph 4] South Korea conspired in its own downfall. “Skilled Korean players and coaches played a role in cultivating the e-sport scene in China,” says Choi Eun-Kyoung of Hanshin University, near Seoul. South Korean masters, drawn in by big money, taught Chinese players the lessons of their success and established real-world gaming academies and systems for spotting and recruiting talent.

[Paragraph 5] South Korea now spies a chance to catch up. Last year, China limited under-18s to three hours of online gaming a week. Given that serious players start as young as 14 and practise some 70 hours a week, Chinese e-sports are bound to suffer. South Korea, meanwhile, last year scrapped a decade-old law banning under-16s from playing online games in the dead of night. Local governments are investing in gaming academies. During a campaign visit to lol Park, an e-sports venue in Seoul, Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s new president, asked gamers for ideas on how to improve the perception of gaming among parents, who think it is addictive and a waste of time. “Our deeds shape the future,” he said, quoting a lol character. China’s deeds may help, too.

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量508左右）原文出自：2022年6月4日《经济学人》Asia版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理：Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）

英雄联盟季中冠军赛（League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational，简称MSI）是Riot Games（拳头游戏）在2015年增加的国际性赛事，迄今已举办6届。当时的赛事中文名称为2015英雄联盟季中邀请赛，于2016年后更名为英雄联盟季中冠军赛。季中冠军赛是英雄联盟中最重要的国际赛事之一，每个赛区春季赛（第一赛季）的季后赛冠军才能获邀参赛。英雄联盟季中冠军赛与英雄联盟全球总决赛、英雄联盟全明星赛三项赛事被并称为《英雄联盟》全球三大赛。2022英雄联盟季中冠军赛是由拳头游戏组织，以《英雄联盟》为项目的国际性电子竞技比赛，于2022年5月10日-29日在韩国釜山举办。中国LPL赛区的RNG战队以3:2战胜韩国LCK赛区的T1战队，夺得MSI冠军。

RNG：前身为中国皇族电子竞技俱乐部，成立于2012年5月，现拥有英雄联盟分部、刀塔2分部、王者荣耀分部等多个游戏分部。旗下英雄联盟分部取得5次LPL联赛冠军，取得3次MSI季中冠军赛冠军，取得2次英雄联盟全球总决赛亚军。SK telecom T1，是一支韩国电子竞技俱乐部，前身是Boxer于2002年创立的Orion战队。2003年12月曾更名为Union，2004年由韩国SK电讯赞助并更名为SKTelecom T1。019年2月25日，SKT官方微博发布消息正式更名T1。而其中英雄联盟分部则在2020LCK春季赛开始正式更名。

【重点句子】（3个）

The enthusiasm, and crushing disappointment, reflect the place e-sports have in South Korean youth culture. The games are not just fun, but a source of national pride.这种狂热和极度失望反映了电子竞技在韩国青年文化中的地位。电子竞技不仅趣味无穷，而且是民族自豪感的源泉。South Korean masters, drawn in by big money, taught Chinese players the lessons of their success and established real-world gaming academies and systems for spotting and recruiting talent.韩国游戏大师们被巨额资金吸引，向中国玩家传授了成功的经验，并在现实生活中建立了游戏学院和系统，用来发现和招募人才。South Korea conspired in its own downfall.韩国自己导致自身地位的没落。

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