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Chinese Singer Li Zhenning Launches KOALA Esports to Compete in NBPL

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Hongyu Chen

1 year ago

Chinese Singer Li Zhenning Launches KOALA Esports to Compete in NBPL

Chinese pop singer Li Zhengning announced that he had established a new esports organization KOALA Esports (ELA) to competing in NetEase’s Naraka Bladepoint franchise – Naraka Bladepoint Professional League (NBPL). Li will act as the celebrity partner of the team. ELA was formerly Naraka Bladepoint team YZG Esports.

The 2023 NBPL Spring Split will start on March 9. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Li is a member of the Chinese boy band UNINE, and currently has 8.4M followers on Weibo. He was active in the esports space last year, when he participated in esports events for Honor of Kings, League of Legends, Peacekeeper Elite, and acted as the guest shoutcaster of the Naraka Bladepoint World Championship. This news marks Li’s first major move in esports.

Hongyu Chen

Hongyu "Eddie" Chen serves as conduit from China to the rest of global esports scene as the only Chinese journalist living in China while writing for Western media outlets. For the last four years Eddie served as the China esports correspondent for The Esports Observer and Sports Business Journal. He is a bilingual graduate of MA Business and Marketing and a certified BEng Electronic and Communication Engineer.