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Chinese club AG.AL wins 2026 Esports World Cup as Macron hands over the trophy, 25 years after China’s first esports gold_我的网站

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    Photo: Courtesy of AG.ALThe 2026 Esports World Cup (EWC) concluded in Paris on Sunday local time, with Chinese esports club AG.AL (under Chengdu AG Esports Club) claiming the overall club championship. It became the first Chinese club to win the title since the tournament's launch, with French President Emmanuel Macron presenting the championship trophy.
AG.AL's victory was not decided until the final stage of the competition. In the last event, Trackmania, French player Gwen held his nerve under pressure to claim the title, helping AG.AL overtake Saudi Arabian club Team Falcons in the standings and secure the overall championship.
This victory reflects a new trend in global esports competition: competition among top clubs is no longer determined solely by one popular game or a single star player, but by a club's overall capabilities in multi-title strategy, talent development and global operations.
For AG, the title was not just a last-minute breakthrough, but the result of a global strategy that had been developed over years.
"Although the tournament itself lasted only around two months, we had been preparing for it for more than two years," Chen Longsheng (EDDY), AG.AL VP&COO, told the Global Times on Monday. He said AG began expanding its overseas esports operations around the EWC in 2024, selecting promising players from around the world and now covering more than 20 esports titles.
This multi-title strategy is also closely linked to EWC's unique competition format. Unlike traditional esports tournaments that often focus on a single major game, EWC adopts a club-based ranking system covering multiple titles, including Honor of Kings, CrossFire, and Trackmania. AG.AL competed in more than 10 events, accumulating points across different competitions before completing its comeback in the final stage, according to AG.
Chen said the format has also changed how clubs evaluate the value of different esports titles.
"From our perspective, there is no absolute distinction between major and minor titles. As long as players in a game have the ability and passion, they can help the club earn valuable points," he said.
He noted that titles such as Tekken and Trackmania may have smaller audiences compared with some mainstream esports games, but outstanding players in these fields can still become important contributors to a club's championship ambitions because they offer the same opportunity to earn crucial points.
Under this new competitive environment, esports clubs are also shifting from building teams around a single title toward developing more diverse talent systems.
However, for an esports club competing on the global stage, finding the right players is only the first step. Building a stable team among players from different countries and regions, while ensuring smooth operations at international tournaments, also tests a club's management capabilities.
"Cross-border operations involve challenges including language communication, contract arrangements, legal regulations, and player support," Chen said. "Different countries have different legal environments and salary systems, and coordinating all of these issues is actually very complicated." 
According to AG, during this year's EWC, staff members followed the teams throughout the process, from players' arrival in Paris, to training arrangements, communication with tournament organizers, post-match interviews and their departure.
"Fans see the players on stage, but behind them there are many operations staff ensuring that the entire team runs smoothly," Chen said.
AG's own development journey also reflects the changes that have taken place in China's esports industry over the past two decades.
In 2001, AG's predecessor won the StarCraft title at the World Cyber Games (WCG) Grand Finals, earning China's first world-level esports gold medal. Twenty-five years later, AG once again reached the top of an international competition. But the way esports is contested has changed dramatically - from battles centered around individual games to competition among global clubs based on talent, operations, and broader ecosystems.
"Over the past two decades, Chinese esports have gradually moved beyond the era when success depended mainly on individual players or a single game title, and developed into a more mature ecosystem involving clubs, professional leagues, content creation, commercial partnerships, and international exchanges," Shanghai-based esports commentator Natto told the Global Times on Monday.
According to Natto, the growing international presence of Chinese esports clubs also reflects a broader change in how the industry views overseas markets.
"Going global is not only about sending teams abroad to compete," Natto said. "It also means understanding different audiences, building communication channels and allowing more people to see the diversity of Chinese esports."
。         A foreign guest tries to use the "Meet China" Inbound Tourism Digital Consumption Screen in Yuyuan Garden, Shanghai, east China, Sept. 27, 2025. (Xinhua/Chen Haoming)Heatwaves sweeping across Europe this summer have made air conditioners a hot commodity. For many European consumers, however, the challenge was not only purchasing a cooling device, but also having it delivered and installed quickly.
Joybuy, the European online retail business of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, has addressed this demand by taking its integrated delivery-and-installation service to overseas markets.
Through its European logistics network, the company enables consumers in over 30 cities, including Paris and London, to receive same-day delivery and installation of air conditioners when orders are placed in the morning.
"Highly efficient" and "beyond expectations" are phrases frequently used by European consumers to describe the service.
By 2025, JD.com had established nearly 200 bonded warehouses, direct-mail warehouses and overseas warehouses across 25 countries and regions worldwide, according to Feng Lei, vice president of JD.com. In Europe alone, the company had built over 60 warehousing and delivery sites, supporting high-quality delivery services for overseas consumers.
Chinese services are increasingly gaining recognition worldwide. For many overseas visitors, China has become a destination not only for shopping, but also for experiencing innovative and personalized services, including autonomous driving, integrated bath and spa services, customized healthcare, intelligent robots and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapies.  
    Foreign trainees learn Baduanjin, a traditional breathing and stretching exercise, in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Aug. 7, 2025. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)
According to the National Immigration Administration, China received 22.91 million inbound foreign visitors in the first half of 2026, up 20.4 percent year on year. Visa-free entries accounted for 77.7 percent of this total.
Da Ren Tang, a century-old TCM brand in north China's Tianjin Municipality, has launched a TCM-themed tourism program that offers overseas tourists various products, health consultations and wellness experiences.
The program features seasonal tea tasting, meridian massage sessions and herbal pill-making activities, helping visitors explore the connection between traditional culture and modern life.
To better serve international travelers, Umetrip, a Chinese aviation travel service platform, has launched HiChina, a one-stop travel service tool designed to help international visitors plan their trips in China.
The platform offers multilingual flight searches, online check-in, electronic boarding passes and real-time alerts. It also integrates practical functions including electronic arrival card application, English map navigation, NFC-enabled public transport payments, real-time translation and tax refund location searches.
By covering the entire travel process from arrival to departure, the platform aims to make traveling in China more convenient for international visitors.
"We use digital services to enhance the reputation of 'Chinese services,' helping unlock the potential of inbound consumption and increase the global influence of 'China Travel,'" said Liu Feng, vice president of Umetrip.
In March, China introduced a package of measures to boost travel service exports and expand inbound consumption. These initiatives include optimizing tax refund services for departing visitors, launching multilingual versions of lifestyle service applications, and further streamlining visa procedures to enhance foreign tourists' consumption experience in China.   
Foreign residents in China have also witnessed firsthand the rapid upgrading of the country's service consumption.
Ivan Monich, a Russian teacher at Tianjin Foreign Studies University who has lived in China for many years, described the convenience brought by digital services as part of "the comfort of life in China."
In his view, mobile applications that combine navigation, real-time traffic information and ride-hailing services have made travel much easier. "Everything I need is right there in one app," Monich said.
Wang Yiming, former vice president of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that China's 15th five-year plan (2026-2030) for expanding consumption emphasizes "orderly relaxing control over market access in the service sector and optimizing the market access environment for new business forms and new sectors," creating favorable conditions for the development of China's service consumption.
Liu Xiaolong, global partner of U.S.-based management consulting firm Kearney Management Consultants, said that as China's service consumption continues to move toward higher quality and more experience-oriented offerings, the country will become an important market for global service enterprises.
China is also expected to provide new ideas and opportunities for the global service consumption sector through innovations in cultural intellectual property, consumption models and other areas, Liu said. 
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