Yoshimoto Kogyo to enter the eSports business, four teams announced

Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. Ltd, is a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate which employs the majority of Japan’s comedic talent and known for owning numerous stages and theaters, which include Lumine the Yoshimoto and NMB48 Theater.  And now Yoshimoto Kogyo will be entering the eSports market.

On March 7th, Yoshimoto Kogyo held a “Yoshimoto Kogyo eSports Business Presentation Press Conference” on March 7th at Yoshimoto Hall in Shibuya.

The press conference began with Nakamura Ichiya, policy researcher and Keio University Graduate School of Media Design Professor introducing the eSports market and how it has been growing 32% worldwide each year and the number of players will be hitting 100 million.

Nakamura talked about how eSports would become a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games but Japan has fallen in terms of market size and number of players in eSports.

But with the launching of JeSU (Japan eSports Association) and the issuing of professional licenses and also to allow prize money in eSports competitions, a full-scale competition in Japan can be foreseen in the future.

As Japan is paying attention to the increasing popularity of eSports, Yoshimoto Kogyo will enter the eSports business and with its clientele of 6,000 entertainers, will develop new ways of watching and enjoying eSports.

It was announced that Yoshimoto Kogyo is planning to start a professional team of eSports and having multiple teams work in both overseas and in Japan.

The first team announced by Yoshimoto Kogyo is Yoshimoto Detonator, a professional team specializing in “Dota2” and the team is aiming to be the best and will train its athletes based in the Philippines.  “DeToNator” is a professional team already in the Philippines and with this collaboration, the goal is to be the best in the world in 3-5 years.

The second team announced by Yoshimoto Kogyo is Yoshimoto Encount, a professional team specializing in “Overwatch” and will compete in Asia.   This will be a pair of teams which include Akihabara Encount and a tag group that will participate in the Taiwan league.

The third team announced by Yoshimoto Kogyo  is Yoshimoto Rivalent, a team of Japanese players who will compete in “Shadowverse”, a digital collectible card video game (developed by Cygames) and is the most popular mobile card game in Japan.

The fourth team announced by Yoshimoto Kogyo is Yoshimoto Extractor, a team from Japan that will compete in “Pokken” (Pokemon Tournament DX).  It was announced that there are plans to collaborate on game distribution aside from a team launch.

Yoshimoto Kogyo is planning to supervise and manage these four teams as part of “Yoshimoto Gaming”.

Yoshimoto Kogyo also discussed utilizing “twitch”, “OPENREC.tv”, “Extractor.live”, “YouTube Gaming”, “Nico Nico Douga” and “Abema TV” to promote their teams and will utilize game commentary and focusing on training talent specializing in gameplay aiming for success in various game platforms.

And as Yoshimoto Kogyo has been successful with stages and theaters, as well as large-scale shopping malls and move theaters, they are planning to hold eSports events for beginners, competitions and events to entice eSports fans.  As well as developing eSports events.

Also appearing at the press conference was DEEP MMA featherweight champion and “Street Fighter 5” competitor Jyobin (Matsumoto Koichiro), “Splatoon 2” competitor Nishizawa and “Call of Duty” and “PUBG” competitor Koike who runs the YouTube channel “Makelele Koike no Game Jikkyo”.  Each of these three signed a contract with Yoshimoto Kogyo

Four players went against Jyobin in “Street Fighter V Arcade Edition”, who defeated the four with no problem.  But then they blindfolded Jyobin, who lost but still showed how he could still fight while blindfolded.

And another major announcement was that with EVO2018 taking place in Las Vegas in August 3-5, Yoshimoto Kogyo will have a “Yoshimoto Gaming Pro Selection Competition Event” to be held at e-sports SQUARE AKIHABARA and that Yoshimoto will sign a pro-agreement with the top prize winner and pay for their travel cost to Las Vegas to participate in EVO2018.

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