Esports originally found its bearings in the Asian region with Korea being the original launchpad for many esports and their star players like BoxerS, Faker, QO and the likes. In more recent years, China has adopted esports as a major interest with Dota 2 and League of Legends being their main focus with their appearance of teams in the Grand Finals for both of those games respectively with CDEC and Star Horn Royal Club representing the Chinese. Whilst these are the major countries in esports there are also many smaller countries also with tournaments and teams, these include Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia who have all had an impact on the world stage for different games in recent years.
In Asia, betting is illegal in some countries such as Singapore, China, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia. Other countries such as Korea, Hong Kong, Macau and the Philippines it is legal to bet on sports. Even though there are laws which restrict or ban betting throughout parts of Asia, many people still do bet on games. Whilst it is not legal, there are reportedly many underground gambling rings which allow you to gamble on games, most notably in China and Korea where there has been a major problem as match fixing in smaller tournaments has occurred.
With the evolution of esports, there was also a increase in the interest in betting on esports with the history of betting on esports going back to the original days of Starcraft where it was either conducted online or through underground bookkeepers, there have been multiple match fixing scandals both in Korea and in other parts of Asia. This has affected most games which are available to bet on such as Starcraft, League of Legends and Dota 2.
The response by governing bodies is very swift with their punishment for these actions, which for pros can involve competitive bans for years as well as potential fines, community service and jail time. Whilst most of the world is lagging behind in terms of match fixing, Korea already has strict laws and regulations on betting in esports which is policed by both KeSPA and the police force who work together in forming task forces to investigate serious allegations of match fixing.
The Asian region as the forefather has had many different match fixing allegations dating back to 2009 in Starcraft with their being a major court case in 2010 pertaining to a match fixing ring. In the years since there have been many other match fixing scandals which involved teams such as AHQ Korea, Mineski and individual players from various teams. This is a major risk involved with the Asian region as well as being known to be unstable as there are a lot of upset wins in group stage which no longer matter as to team standing.
The metagame for League of Legends depends on the country to country in the Asia region. China’s LPL is commonly known for their calculated aggressive play to the extent that some commentators regard it as the region where “towers don’t exist” as they have a nature to tower dive. Korea’s LCK, on the other hand is more balanced in its style as they play to their strengths as a team composition where they choose a time when they are at an advantage to take fights, this leads to many longer games which are decided by one or two key moments. Taiwan’s LMS and South East Asia’s GPL are more variable with each team having their own playstyle which is more rigid that the teams in LPL and LCK, this can lead to victories due to stylistic differences where the team who is experienced in poke defeats a team who is trying to emulate an aggressive early game style due to their proficiency on their champions. These playstyles are heavily influenced by the coach, as teams with Korean coaches play a more Korean style whereas teams with Chinese coaches play a more Chinese style.
The metagame for China is Dota 2 is a stark contrast to their style in League of Legends as they are known for playing a slower style of Dota where games can last over an hour on a regular basis. This is emphasised by taking teamfights at roughly the 45 minute mark and then snowballing the map to gain key objectives. There is also the emerging Korean Dota 2 scene which has MVP as its major organisation with other organisations looking into teams after the success of MVP Phoenix at The International this year. The South East Asia Dota scene is relatively strong with Fnatic and both MVP Phoenix and MVP Hot6ix being the strongest teams in the scene before TI5. In the aftermath of TI5, the SEA region is similar to the NA region as there is a lot of experimentation in both team compositions as well as rosters. CS:GO is not very popular in the Asia region when compared to the MOBA genre, but it is quickly catching up to the other region in terms of strategies and gameplay. In the earlier days of CS:GO betting where CS:GO lounge was the main option, the Asia region and China in particular was known as the P90 region as even when they have money for rifles teams would be buying multiple P90s. The Asia region has recently been getting more attention from the rest of the CS:GO community due to ESL hosting the Asia qualifiers for the Cologne major, with teams from Vietnam, Korea, China, Australia and other Asian countries competing for two chances to compete at the major. Whilst the 2 Australian teams managed to secure the two positions at the major, teams like Mongolz and myRevenge showing that they are close to the level of teams like Immunity who are considered to be a tier 3 team worldwide.
There are also many other games which are emerging from the Asia region currently with Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone and Vain Glory being just a few to start gathering interest in the greater esports community in Asia. These games have a less established metagame and distinct style as a region. Hearthstone lacks a distinct style as it is not a game based on mechanics as much as it is by good strategic gameplay. Vain Glory on the other hand is still a new game and as such it is still working out its competitive scene with a focus on tournament play, whilst it is a new game, the winner of the recent Worlds Invitational were a Korean team.
Asia as a whole for esports betting is a relatively stable region, but for the purposes of betting, League of Legends relatively predictable whilst Dota and CS:GO are can have major upsets due to the how close everyone is in terms of skill. A warning for those looking to bet on the region, do not bet without proper research as match fixing does exist even though the risks can be minimized through proper research. This research includes the location of where they are playing from, likelihood of VPN crashes, is the event LAN or online etc.
