Chinese esports organization Weibo Gaming (WBG) announced on Sunday that it signed a partnership deal with two Chinese teams: Dota 2 team Xtreme Gaming (XG) and StarCraft II team DKZ. XG will rebrand to WBG.XG, while DKZ will rebrand to WBG, becoming a StarCraft II division of WBG. The partnership is a play for Saudi Arabia’s Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
WBG is one of the 30 teams in the Esports World Cup Club Support Program, alongside other China-related esports organizations LGD Gaming and NIP Group. XG has been recognized as the best-performing Dota 2 team in China, and has qualified into EWC’s $5M USD Dota 2 competition. In addition, XG was also invited to Dota 2’s The International Copenhagen this year.
Chinese StarCraft II team DKZ holds the contract of top Chinese StarCraft II player Li “Oliveira” Peinan. Peinan has been the most commercially-valued and best-performing Chinese StarCraft II player in China; he is the first Chinese world champion for 24 years in Chinese StarCraft esports history and won the 2023 Intel Extreme Masters StarCraft II. In addition, DKZ is also the home of South Korean StarCraft II player Kim “herO” Joon-ho.
The Esports Advocate attended the latest Chinese StarCraft II competition StarsWar in Xi’an, and correctly predicted at the time that Peinan will be signed by WBG for the EWC StarCraft II competition. Sources close to WBG told TEA that the organization is looking forward to signing Nova Esports’ Peacekeeper Elite player Zhu “Paraboy” Bocheng for EWC—Bocheng has been one of the most commercially valued players in the Chinese Peacekeeper Elite competitive scene.