First Dota world finals in Shanghai kicks off

Another spectator was Ben Sloan, an American businessman based in Hong Kong.

"Chinese fans are some of the most passionate, and they really support their teams and the game. I hope the tournament will be held here again," he said.

According to Perfect World Zhengqi, a subsidiary of Perfect World Co Ltd and the operator of the game in China, the event's 26,804 tickets were sold out in just 53 seconds when they were made available in May.

Dota is an acronym for "Defense of the Ancients", one of the world's most popular multiplayer online battle arena games in which players level up their heroes and try to destroy their opponents' bases.

According to Statista, an online statistics tracker, the game has an estimated 11.19 million monthly active users worldwide as of January 2019.