Arena of Valor tournament will mark Tencent's E3 debut
Partnership with ESL will see playoffs hosted in Los Angeles ahead of next month's $550,000 World Cup
Tencent is finally showcasing at annual games expo E3 - albeit in a limited, esports-centric fashion.
The Chinese gaming giant owns League of Legends developer Riot Games and casual games firm Miniclip, with varying stakes in Supercell, Glu Mobile, Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft and Bluehole - and yet it has never publicly attended E3 before.
That all changes this year, Variety reports, thanks to a partnership with esports organiser ESL. Tencent has arranged for the Arena of Valor playoffs to be hosted at the E3 ESL Arena next week.
Arena of Valor is a free-to-play mobile MOBA that launched on iOS and Android late last year. The playoffs are part of an ongoing tournament, and will whittle down the best European and North American teams before the Arena of Valor World Cup. This will also take place in Los Angeles next month, with a prize of $550,000.
The E3 playoffs will be held on June 12th and 13th and broadcast via the official Arena of Valor Twitch channel.
"Tencent is committed to supporting and growing the mobile esports community by leveraging structured esports competition on both a local and large scale," said Tencent America's director of esports Ramon Hermann.
"The Valor Series playoffs showcase the absolute best in mobile esports, as 'Arena of Valor' offers gamers a fast-paced, competitive multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) experience without compromise, especially if you're playing on gaming-inspired Razer hardware."