Previously, the Government of Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding with Garena and Bego Free Fire. The MoU was to make arrangements for Pakistan to hold its first e-sports natoional tournament. Garena, a Singapore based international gaming company partnered with Bego Free Fireare to facilitate this tournament. Fawad Chaudhary , the Federal Minister for Information and Technology, came on to twitter to announce the big news:
The concept of e-sports has been around for as early as 1972, when the first ever e-sports event took place in Stanford University where students competed in the game Spacewar. However the industry has seen an exponential growth as the viewership and revenue has increased, where the global revenue reached up to $1 billion in 2019. Tournaments and event setting bigger sponsors and improvements in the gaming software has facilitated its growth. The biggest prize money and the gaming domination is primarily established by Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Defense of the Ancients 2 and Overwatch.
Pakistan has been in the shadows in esports till the Lahore-based player, Arslan Ash won EVO Japan and USA 2019 in Tekken and was later declared to be the ESPN E-Player of the year. Currently, the highest earnings of a Pakistani player is by Sumail in Defense of the Ancients 2.
