Tencent Esports and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) are beginning a long-term partnership aimed at standardizing and advancing technology across the Asian esports industry.

Tencent Esports officially announced on the 23rd that it has signed a strategic partnership with the OCA.

Under the agreement, Tencent Esports has been designated the OCA’s official esports technology partner, and the two sides will maintain a long-term cooperative relationship for 10 years, from 2025 through 2035.

Going beyond simple event sponsorship, the partners plan to jointly build an integrated system that connects esports and traditional sports—spanning technical support, the establishment of standards, and ecosystem development.

Tencent Esports first began providing technical support when esports was adopted as a demonstration sport at the Jakarta–Palembang Asian Games in 2018. After strengthening the strategic partnership in 2022, Tencent Esports played a key technical role in the process by which esports was adopted as an official medal sport at the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, and in ensuring the event was successfully operated.

To institutionalize these collaborative outcomes, the two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at an OCA Executive Board Meeting held in Bahrain in October 2025, formally confirming a 10-year long-term partnership.

Personnel exchanges were also carried out to support concrete execution of the partnership. Yati Zhang, Director of Tencent Esports, was officially appointed as the OCA Esports Manager. In this role, Zhang will serve as a central figure leading hands-on work across the region, including the build-out of esports competition systems throughout Asia and the development of the broader ecosystem.

OCA Director General Husain Al-Musallam emphasized that this partnership is not merely a title upgrade, but a unification of responsibilities.

“Through our cooperation over the past decade, we have confirmed Tencent Esports’ industry-leading capabilities,” he said. “This partnership signifies that Asian esports has moved beyond a phase of simple participation and has entered an era of jointly building systems.” He also expressed his commitment to working with Tencent Esports to create sustainable best-practice models for the development of esports worldwide.

Alongside the partnership announcement, Tencent Esports unveiled its in-house “Tencent Esports Competition System (ECS).” ECS is an advanced technical solution that consolidates Tencent’s operational experience from major events—including the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou—and further elevates it into a comprehensive platform.

The system is slated to be introduced across the full lifecycle of major Asian multi-sport events, including the Asian Games, going forward. Tencent expects that ECS will help secure fairness and stability in competition while improving operational efficiency. In addition, by combining Tencent’s product competitiveness with its operational know-how, the company plans to accelerate the digital transformation of major competitions across Asia and drive qualitative growth in the Asian esports industry.

This article was translated from the original that appeared on INVEN.