Love them or loathe them, e-sports are here to stay, with professional gaming increasingly accepted among the realm of traditional athletic sporting events.

Debate rages over whether gaming should be considered sport at all. However, the opening match of the 2017 fall season of the King Pro League (based on Tencent's hit mobile game King of Glory) at a dedicated venue in Shanghai on Thursday underlined e-sports massive popularity in China.

A role-play fantasy mobile game featuring characters from Chinese history, King of Glory has become a phenomenon in China, attracting over 200 million registered players - 54 million of those on a daily basis - since its launch in 2015.

Two hours before Thursday match, throngs of fans queued outside the entrance to the venue, which features a theater-like competition hall equipped with jumbotrons, subwoofers and an impressive lighting system.

The electric atmosphere was akin to a live NBA game - here, though, the "athletes" competed motionlessly with smartphones in their hands rather than a basketball.

Entering its third season, the KPL has already eclipsed some of its major sporting rivals in viewership and revenue. The final of the league's 2017 spring season on July 8 recorded a peak live audience of 38 million on all platforms, well exceeding the 25 million that watched Game 5 of the NBA Finals in June.

According to industry database Gamma Data Corp, the King of Glory generated 2017 first-quarter revenue of over 5.5 billion yuan ($835 million) from users purchasing virtual equipment and upgrades - that's three times as much as soccer's Chinese Super League made through the entire 2016 season.

Still, the burgeoning e-sports industry still has a way to go to match mainstream sports in terms of format, commercial operations and talent cultivation, according to KPL President Zhang Yijia.

"To gain more public acceptance for us to be a virtual sports competition, we need to look into the cases of traditional sports entities, such as the NBA or the English Premier League," said Zhang, who is also director of the mobile e-sports department of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group.

"Establishing rules and standards, for example, will bring the league closer to traditional sports, rather than just being a pastime for personal recreation," he added.

Starting from this season, the 12 clubs in the league will be divided into two conferences, based in Shanghai and Chengdu respectively.

Teams will play home and away, with a round-robin format pitting cross-conference rivals against each other in the regular season through November before the top two seeds on each side advance to the playoffs.

Clubs can plan for the long term, too, with the league built on a robust financial system which imposes strict regulations on revenue distribution and salaries in a bid to ensure fair competition and stability.

"To model our club on one in a sound professional sports league meets our demand for sustainable development," said Yao Jingyu, general manager of defending champion QGhappy.

"The well-organized system, which includes gamer training, recruitment and management, as well as protective financial measures, will help grow more professional e-sports athletes," she added.

Tencent plans to invest at least 30 million yuan ($4.5 million) to build a media center in Shanghai to provide streaming services and produce content for 10 broadcasting partners, revealed Zhang. The company also plans to work with the Communication University of China to develop professionals to work in the media operation.

So, could we eventually see e-sports at the Olympic Games? Cheng Hang, founder of Shanghai-based sports media company Hupu Sports, thinks it's inevitable.

"If traditional sporting events such as the Olympics say no to e-sports, they will no longer be as appealing to sponsors and fans," he said.

It certainly seems as if the traditional sporting world is sitting up and taking notice.

The General Administration of Sport of China (GASC) recognized electronic gaming as the country's 99th athletic event in 2003, and has since organized a number of national e-sports competitions and exhibitions, while the Olympic Council of Asia announced in April that it will include e-sports as an official medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

"E-sports play an important role in enriching traditional sporting culture and will help win over more young fans if we involve it reasonably in current sporting events," said Tang Hua, director of the e-sports division at the GASC's sports information center.

sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn