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Iasi city will host the 2023 World Esports Championships, a 10-day event featuring 10 esport disciplines and which will see over 1,200 players from over 110 countries competing, Iasi Mayor Mihai Chirica announced on Wednesday.
The 15th WE Championships next year will be the longest and most complex edition so far, with the municipality providing a generous setting worth of a festival of this magnitude; however, unlike other editions, emphasis will also be laid on creating development opportunities for a hub for esport start-ups, as well as on promoting academic programs in cooperation with the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, in a bid to leverage the development of the local gaming and esport industries.
"Iasi city's winning the contest for host of the next World Esports Championships has given me great joy. It was an intense competition among the big cities of the world. A big thank you for the support offered to Iasi to organize this fantastic event," president of the International Esports Federation Vlad Marinescu told a press conference on Wednesday, Agerpres.ro informs.
Secretary of State with the Ministry of Sports Thomas Moldovan said that this competition will develop sports tourism and more, while Deputy Mayor Daniel Juravle said in his turn that although Iasi is not the youngest city in Romania, it has the right energy and is ready to be the first local public administration to stage the World Eports Championship.
Known as the "city of beginnings", Iasi was also named Emerging City of 2018 at the CEE Outsourcing and Shared Services Awards held in Warsaw, Poland, is the 2019 winner of the Best Smart City Project award and in the same year came in second in the ranking of the fastest growing European tech communities (111 percent in 2019 compared to 2018).
