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“Please play harder.” Gwangju City is focusing its efforts on revitalizing e-sports and related cultural content industries. We established the nation’s first high school e-sports team, and are discovering and supporting local indie games. Last August, the Gwangju City Sports Council and the Gwangju City Office of Education approved e-sports teams at two high schools, including Gwangju Technical High School (10 students) and Gwangju Natural Science High School (6 students), as school sports teams for the first time among high schools in the country, and have been operating them for three months. Athletes from the two schools will be able to receive the same support for sportswear, various supplies, and competition participation fees as other school sports teams starting next year. The Esports Industry Support Center, jointly operated by Gwangju City, Gwangju Information and Culture Industry Promotion Agency, and Chosun University, has been providing e-sports clubs to six schools since last year, including Gwangju Technical High School, Gwangju Natural Science High School, Dongil Future Science High School, Jeonnam Technical High School, Hampyeong Film School, and Shaolin School. We provide equipment and other equipment to enable operation. Oh Myeong-hoon, instructor of the Gwangju Technical High School esports team, said, “We invite professional gamers as instructors once a week to help them learn real-life skills.” He added, “Students who had only been told to ‘don’t go to PC cafes’ started working hard in school and training after joining the team. “There is,” he said.

The e-sports stadium (4,290㎡) at Chosun University is the largest in the country and is serving as a stepping stone for the revitalization of e-sports in Gwangju. It is equipped with a main stadium, an auxiliary stadium, a sub-control room, a fish zone (training room), and a mini studio. The main stadium has a capacity of 1,005 seats and can host international competitions, and its strength is that you can watch the game vividly. Gwangju Esports Stadium has hosted a total of 55 games since 2020, including 21 various competitions this year. Kim Kwan-woo (Seongnam Spirit Zero), who won a gold medal in the game event at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, will also participate in the domestic game competition held on the 2nd and 3rd of next month. The Gwangju E-Sports Education Center, which is operated by Honam University and entrusted with it, operates related vocational training courses such as gamer training courses, e-Sports game and operation planning, broadcast commentary, and one-person media-based channel operator. Since opening in December 2021, it has produced more than 500 graduates per year. Gwangju City is also focusing on fostering the local gaming industry. The Gwangju Global Game Center, which is operated by the Gwangju Information and Culture Industry Promotion Agency, a Gwangju City-funded organization, has also been carrying out the ‘Indie Stars’ project since 2016 to discover indie games developed by small groups or small and medium-sized enterprises. Southpaw Games released a 2D action game called ‘Skull’ in 2021 and achieved a huge success, with cumulative sales exceeding 1 million in just one year. Baek Eun-ah, head of the content industry department, said, “Gwangju City predicts that the e-sports industry will become a competitive cultural content industry in earnest,” and added, “We will prepare policies that can create high added value through the convergence and integration of various contents.” . Reporter Jeong Dae-ha [email protected]