In a China that relies on e-sport, children are deprived of video games

The atmosphere stretches when the game begins: the cousments contract, the thumbs are agitated on smartphones screens and sentences only come out by scraps - a few quick words sent to inform the partners."Be careful - I'm going - there are four - it's not yet dead!He is not yet dead!The team's coach, one of the best in the country, follows on the big screen the part of the honor of the Kings (distributed internationally under the name Arena of Valor), the most popular video game in China.The team cashes.Some players have childish faces, a little acne, or a slight brown down as a mustache.But all are over 18: on August 31, China announced to limit the practice of video games to three hours per week for minors.

"It destabilized everyone: there were minors in all the teams," said a player, crossed at the exit of the large building welcoming the seat of Royal Never Give Up (RNG), one of the main stables in the countryWith more than 200 employees, a hundred players on different games and world titles at its record.When the players speak under the eye of their managers, the speech is more polite: "I support this policy, because studying is very important", assures Lu Shushen, 18, who joined the team in September.Previously, the young man avoided the restrictions already in place using the identity cards of his parents and his big sister.A more difficult practice today: Tencent, the world number one video games, based in Shenzhen, in southern China, strengthens controls, including by facial recognition to ensure that players are the person that'they claim to be.

Chinese paradox

In China, the communist authorities have been trying for years to limit the time that young people have their eyes riveted on screens.These efforts crossed a level in August, with the imposition of the strictest rules ever adopted: those under 18 have the right to play only three hours a week, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, between 8 p.m.and 9 p.m..A quasi-prison that most parents support, concerned with the school success of their children, but which has shaken the teenage forums.

Ces règles risquent dans le même temps d’anéantir les rêves de grandeur affichés pour le secteur de l’e-sport, la pratique professionnelle du jeu vidéo compétitif.Illustration of this paradoxical relationship between China with the media: the Asian games of 2022, organized in Hangzhou, one of the centers of digital companies west of Shanghai, will be the first to include competitions of E-Sport to the side of traditional sports.

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