On July 5th, Major League Baseball announced on the Chinese social network platform Weibo that they will launch their first eSports league, the MLB China eSports League in China.

The MLB China eSports League will see 8 eSports teams fight it out over 3 months playing the console game MLB the Show that has been authorized by the MLB. The tournaments will be held in 7 cities, including Chongqing, Chengdu, Xi’an, Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai.

MLB opened its China office in 2007, and the MLB Baseball Park was taken to China in 2009. The MLB Baseball Park, which has now been upgraded to become the MLB Experience, has become the largest baseball event in China. So far over 40 cities have been toured, with a total of over 20 million people participating.

MLB is not alone in being an American major sports league that has expanded into the eSports industry. NBA 2K League was founded in 2017 and has now attracted quite a few sponsors and the NHL has recently seen the successful ending of its 2019 Gaming World Championship.

Reference: MLB Weibo Account

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick