WESG Grand Final: Everything You Need To Know

The WESG Grand Final 2018-19 will be held in the Chongqing Olympic Sports Center from March 7-17.

The World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) is hosted by AliSports, the sports segment of the e-commerce company Alibaba Groups. AliSports, a partner of the Olympic Games had a major contribution towards recognising esports to become a medal event in the 2020 Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou. Esports were indeed played as a demonstration sports in last year's Asiads held in Jakarta.

According to their official site the total prize pool for this year's finals across all divisions will amount to about $ 5.5 million. The games included in the finals for this year include CS:GO, Dota 2, Hearthstone, StarCraft II, Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 (PES 2019) and Vainglory.

While a majority of these games have been a common sight at the past WESGs, Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 and popular mobile Multiplayer Based Online Arena (MOBA)- Vainglory will be making their debuts at this year's finals.

Vainglory is a popular MOBA for mobile devices.

The overall prize pool has certainly increased in the finals of this year's WESG compared to the past ones. However, games like CS:GO have seen a fall in their prize money from $1.5M in the 2016 and 2017 version of the tournament to $890K this year.

The Chongqing Government will also pay a big role in the event. According to Alisports, the WESG 2018-19 Grand Finals will be co-organized by Alisports, Chonqing General Administration of Sports and the Chongqing Innovation and Technology. The Chongqing Government also played a role in the Dota 2 Chongqing Major which was co-organized by Chongqing Cable Networks.

As far as sponsors go, a number of them have been announced. Alipay from the Alibaba Group itself will be a major sponsor for the event. Popular hardware brand HyperX and computer brand ROG are also amongst the names. Huya will be the streaming partner.

More details about the event can be found on the news section of WESG's official site here.