Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum set for August start in Hong Kong and metaverse

The Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum (DELF), a conference about the metaverse, esports, Web3 and gaming, is set to happen on August 26th-28th — both in-person and in the metaverse. The event will feature talks and panels, alongside esports tournaments featuring a large number of esports titles as well as DELF’s first-ever metaverse experience.

The organisers announced more than 10 esports tournaments that will be staged during the 3-day event. These include FIFAe, VALORANT, LoL, TOROS, Minecraft and Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, as well as an indoor drone racing tournament.

DELF is Hong Kong Cyberport’s annual signature event to champion the city’s esports and digital entertainment development. This year’s conference will explore how entertainment will transcend beyond reality and virtuality as we enter the realms of Web3 powered by blockchain, AI and immersive technology.

The speaker line-up includes Co-Founder of Animoca Brands Yat Siu, Head of Instagram’s Public Policy for the APAC region Philip Chua, as well as Co-Founder & COO of The Sandbox Sebastien Borget. Executives from Epic Games, Sony, Yahoo, disguise, Accenture Song and other companies will also be in attendance. 

DELF will additionally host show matches between professional esports players, most notably including the members of the Hong Kong eFootball representative team, as well as a celebrity Street Fighter V (TOROS) tournament. A student VALORANT tournament, named the APRU Rampage Invitational, will gather eight teams from Asia and another eight teams from North America. The esports tournaments will be held both live and virtually.

Apart from being hosted live in Hong Kong, the conference will also take place in Decentraland where guests will be able to visit digital art galleries, metaverse and NFT-themed booths as well as join industry talks and esports tournaments.

The Decentraland experience is designed by VIRTRIX, a 3D VR design studio from Hong Kong.

VIRTRIX’s Co-Founder, Justin Chan, said: “VIRTRIX’s first metaverse experience for DELF will be the first large-scale metaverse event in Hong Kong. The event will be held at VIRTRIX HQ, a 9-storey, 150,000 square foot venue.

“The event will feature live DJ performances, live gaming competitions and panel discussions, a digital art gallery, a metaverse & NFT start-up exhibition, as well as escape game experience[s] with Lost Hong Kong and more.”

Supported by Cyberport