5G Gaming Arena: eSports at full speed at Mobile World Congress

Mediapro (via LVP), Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital) and Telefónica and have presented at the MWC22 the 5G Gaming Arena project with the aim of demonstrating the capabilities of the 5G network applied to the eSports and gaming sector.

Through two demonstrations (5G Wild Rift Cup, focused on Riot Games' popular mobile game; and Dirt 5 Time Trials Challenge, focused on cloud gaming), it has been confirmed how the Increased bandwidth, la Network Speed and the Low latency, which this technology provides, allow gaming experiences to be much more engaging and will enable more powerful social interaction features.

In addition, the project has the collaboration of Riot Games, Xbox, Samsung, Sirt and INDESCAT, and the support of the Department of Vice-Presidency and Digital and Territorial Policies of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

5G Wild Rift Cup

At the 5G Wild Rift Cup, held in collaboration with Riot Games and Samsung, ten prominent influencers such as Manute and Jackie (5 million followers on social networks between them), and different proplayers, have faced each other in a game of League of Legends: Wild Rift, one of the most popular mobile video games of the moment with terminals connected to the conventional 5G network.

The experience in online multiplayer mobile games depends on the stability, speed, and latency of the different network connections used by players.

Thanks to 5G technology, download speed increased mobility and reduced latency, allowing an immediate response that makes it possible to hold eSports competitions in which mobile players will be able to compete with others connected from fibre networks.

The demonstration took place in 4 different locations: the MWCapital and Telefónica stands at the MWC22 venue, the Movistar eSports Center in Madrid and at the 5G laboratory of the 5G Ponent Area located at the Lleida Chamber of Commerce. Jackie, Navalha, Lazypopa, Sugus Susana, Silithur, Manute, Zeiling, Kidi, Paracetamor and Rafa Escribá have competed in it. During the competition, commented by LVP casters Shiki and Toad, both participants and visitors to the stand have been able to appreciate the qualitative leap in the experience that 5G technology applied to eSports represents.

Dirt 5 Time Trials Challenge

The next demonstration consisted of an individual race against the clock on the circuits of the Dirt 5 video game with Samsung 5G mobile terminals through the official platform of the event GHME Europe, a competition platform powered by the Big C that uses advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, blockchain technology and big data to take eSports beyond a simple championship.

The video game is not downloaded to the terminal, but is in the cloud (Xbox Cloud Gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate), which allows you to enjoy the experience of state-of-the-art video games without depending on the mobile hardware and thanks to the advantages provided by the 5G connection (downloading a large volume of data in real time).

Finally, it should be noted that, according to the consulting firm Newzoo, there are currently around 3,000 million people who play video games around the world, with the sector's turnover exceeding 180,000 million dollars. In Spain, according to AEVI, the sector had a turnover of 1,747 million euros in 2020, 18% more than the previous year.