Hong Kong Premier League to play out on PES 2020 amid coronavirus suspension
- HKPL follows Spain’s La Liga and global Fifa 20 tournament in turning to e-sports to fill football’s vacuum
- League’s 10 teams will send a player each to battle it out while local commentators call the plays
A player from each club will be nominated to represent their team on PES 2020 on the PlayStation 4 in a knockout tournament to be held later this month.
The draw will be made by the computer, while in the absence of an official Hong Kong Premier League licence with game developers Konami they will use a fan-made patch from the Winning Eleven Hong Kong group, which has been releasing updates for the game since 2009.
With the Hong Kong Premier League suspended indefinitely as the city battles the coronavirus pandemic – September is being mooted as a possible restart date – the HKFA has come up with this solution along with ER e-sports.
Fans will be able to watch along on the HKCSL social networking site, with commentary for the games provided by e-sports experts and local football commentators. Those watching can also win prizes for correctly predicting results.
Southern’s James Ha, Eastern’s Chen Hao-wei, R&F’s Leung Nok-hang will play alongside Yuen Long’s Law Chun-ting and Lee Man’s Ngan Lok-fung. Tai Po will be represented byYang Tsz-pan with Lau Chi-lok for Rangers and Tsang Kin-fong for Pegasus. Happy Valley and Kitchee’s representatives have not yet been confirmed.
As football leagues around the world have battled the coronavirus many have turned to e-sports. Teams from Spain’s La Liga held a Fifa 20 tournament which was won by Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio, although clubs with official partnerships with PES 2020 such as Barcelona and Real Mallorca were not allowed to take part.
English League Two side Leyton Orient set up another tournament, Fifa Ultimate Quaran-team, which saw them invite professional teams from across the world to play an online tournament. A mixture of real footballers and e-sports professionals took part.
It is a similar story in Formula 1, which has held online race simulations that have featured professional race drivers, footballers and celebrities.
