Lenovo doubles down for gaming in 2017

The gaming industry is going to see a whole lot more of Lenovo in 2017. The technology company announced today a collaboration with Intel, as well as a strategic partnership with Microsoft, in moves to help the gaming community flourish both locally and around the region.

League of Legends

Together with Intel and Garena, Lenovo is helping to realize League of Champions, an amateur League of Legends tournament open to teams from Southeast Asia. Each nation’s finalist will ultimately meet for the finals in Bangkok, Thailand, from 13 to 15 January 2017 – winners get to head home with Lenovo sponsored prizes.

League of Legends is one of the leading eSport titles in the world. In October, the 2016 LoL World Championships attracted 43 million unique viewers during the grand finals between South Korean teams SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy, surpassing the 36 million who tuned in last year. It had a prize pool of US$6.7 million ($9.54 million), of which US$3 million was raised by fans via in-game transactions.

Naturally, there’s a highly active following in Southeast Asia as well, with Garena’s TLC (The Legends Circuit) serving as an official tournament series for the pros.

Dota 2

On the other side of the coin is Dota 2, LoL’s only competitor with an equally massive player base. Lenovo is partnering with Microsoft to serve as platinum sponsors for ESL One Genting, happening from 6 to 8 January 2017.

ESL is the world’s largest and oldest eSports organization, hosting events of typically high caliber. Their last foray into Singapore was for the Intel Extreme Masters Season VIII in November 2013. Dota 2’s own world championship, The International, boasted a staggering US$20.7 million prize pool; as with LoL, the vast majority of it was raised through fans.

In Genting, Malaysia, Dota 2 fans will be treated to eight world-class teams battling it out in the very first tournament of the year. Aside from being a sponsor, Lenovo plans to host two competitions for the game’s fans – winners will score Lenovo gaming peripherals and a chance at an all-expense paid trip to ESL One Genting itself.

Lenovo hardware

These announcements accompany Lenovo’s latest additions to their Y-gaming series of hardware.

These are the IdeaCentre Y710 Cube ($2,499 onwards), which packs an Intel i7 3.4GHz processor and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 into a compact tower;  the Y27g 27” curved gaming monitor ($899 onwards), sporting a 1920×1080 Nvidia G-Sync panel with a 144hz refresh rate and 4ms response times; and the IdeaPad Y910 gaming laptop ($3,999 onwards).

“Driven by the emergence of video game streaming, virtual reality and augmented reality as a means of enhancing and expanding interactive entertainment, PC gaming still remains highly relevant,” said Khoo Hung Chuan, Lenovo’s Country General Manager of Singapore and Malaysia, Central Asia Pacific.

“Despite fierce competition, we still see a strong opportunity to be part of the gaming sector as part of our continued commitment to users.”

[Lead: ESL]