The strategic move to take the "Demacia Cup" global comes in the third year of Huya's transformation.

By Ju Hao

Edited by Guofu

On the evening of October 17, outside the Beijing Smart E-sports Events Center, autumn rain drizzled, while inside the venue, the champions were being crowned. The BFX team from the Korean division defeated the Chinese team WE with a score of 3:1 and won the championship of the Demacia Cup International Invitational Tournament.

Huya official event photo

01 BFX defends its "regional king" title, but is the real winner Huya?

For LPL, it is undoubtedly a pity that they failed to keep the silver trophy symbolizing the championship even when competing on home soil. But for Huya, the event organizer, the Demacia Cup has helped them complete a proof of their capabilities.

In 2023, Lin Songtao, Chairman of Huya, officially put forward the transformation strategy, planning to increase the proportion of game-related service revenue in Huya's total revenue to 30% within 3 years. From purchasing event copyrights to self-hosting events, it is exactly one of Huya's transformation goals.

In 2025, Huya took over the top domestic cup event for the first time by hosting the Demacia Cup; and this year, Huya joined hands with Tencent E-sports to turn the Demacia Cup into a global international invitational. This is the first international leap of the Demacia Cup since its establishment in 2014, which also means that Huya's event organization capabilities have withstood the test of international event standards.

Huya official event photo

The changes Huya brought to the Demacia Cup are obvious.

In previous years, the Demacia Cup only had teams from Asia, and was more entertainment-oriented. Many teams did not send their full main lineups, and some streamer teams were invited to participate. The strength gap between teams within the division was large, and it seemed not that important who won the championship.

This year, the Demacia Cup was arranged before the S tournament for the first time, with 12 teams from 6 major divisions competing for a total of 1.5 million yuan in prize money. Every number is enough to make e-sports enthusiasts excited. When players controlled their heroes to rush out of the fountain, audiences on both sides spoke different languages and cheered for their supported teams respectively. The sense of confrontation between the two sides tightly linked the outcome of the game with the glory of the division.

Huya official event photo

The 12 participating teams were often overshadowed by the top seed in their respective divisions in regular events; but on the Demacia Cup arena, they are the absolute protagonists of the event. There is no huge strength gap, no absolutely sure win. Before the final, BRO almost staged a reverse 3-2 comeback against WE, and BFX defeated KT, the runner-up of the last S tournament. Every team was striving to create miracles, and the suspense of the event lasted from the opening to the final whistle.

Huya official event photo

Apart from the wonderful game scenes, the Demacia Cup also did not forget to optimize the audio experience of the event. The official launched multiple original music tracks, and each BP round in the final was matched with exclusive BGM. The previously slightly boring waiting sessions are now full of fun. Among them, the Chinese-style BGM incorporating guzheng elements is perfectly combined with modern electronic style, which has won heartfelt praise from many netizens.

Screenshot of Bilibili community comments

After the game ended, I chatted with two foreign audiences. They said that the team they supported had been eliminated early, but the atmosphere of the final and the content of the matches still surprised them a lot.

The influence of the Demacia Cup has broken through the boundaries of divisions. It is no longer just a local event for LPL audiences. More and more eyes from global players are gathering here. Even if their home teams are eliminated early, the attraction brought by the event can still keep them staying.

As an event hosted in China, the Demacia Cup allows global audiences to experience unique cultural heritage. I think "Fight Without End" is not only the slogan of the Demacia Cup, but also an answer to Huya's own event hosting journey.

02 Beyond the silver trophy, Huya embarks on a new 10-year journey

Just like the Demacia Cup, Huya is also growing. In the impression of many people, Huya is still a platform centered on live streaming rooms, but in fact, it has penetrated the core of game services into every corner of the industry ecosystem.

Huya's financial report for the second quarter of 2026 shows that game-related services accounted for 36.7% of Huya's total revenue, reaching 638 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.1%. It has become a major pillar supporting the enterprise, and the three-year transformation goal has actually been overfulfilled.

Among them, game publishing is the main driving force of Huya's transformation. In the first half of this year, the mobile game *Goose Goose Duck*, co-published by Huya and Kingsoft World Games, became a huge hit with its strong social attributes driven by streamers on various platforms. On the eve of the public beta, the number of pre-registered users across the network exceeded 20 million.

Promotional image of *Goose Goose Duck* mobile game

To make a success of game publishing, Huya also launched a supporting event variety show *Gooscar Night* for *Goose Goose Duck*. In the second season of the variety show, Huya invited top game streamers such as Dasima and Li Zhien to push *Goose Goose Duck* to the public stage with dense funny points and reversed plots. In the current era of declining channels and fierce user acquisition competition, Huya has taken a path of leading the ecosystem with content.

Live screenshot of *Gooscar Night*

Apart from *Goose Goose Duck*, Huya also has two in-development projects, *Swordsman Love: Reunion* and *Match Adventure*. For Huya, whose male and female user structure is slightly unbalanced, betting on match-3 games is an exploration to break out of the comfort zone. Huya chose to co-brand with high-quality IPs, drive community topics with secondary creation memes of Zanmang Loopy, and finally expand the circle of potential consumers. In July, Huya's self-developed SLG game *Mythic Beasts Island* obtained the game version license, which means Huya's game territory will continue to expand to the upstream in the future.

Official promotional image of *Match Adventure*

In terms of events, Huya has built a complete matrix covering three layers: copyright events, self-hosted events, and mass events. In 2025, Huya obtained the hosting right of the Demacia Cup for the first time; today, Huya has firmly held the copyrights of more than 300 e-sports and sports events, with over 1.7 billion views. From purchasing event copyrights, to independently creating events, and then sinking into communities, Huya is feeding back the live streaming ecosystem with its own event resources, helping to connect online and offline game service scenarios.

Huya official event photo

Following the market trend, Huya is also actively entering the AI field. In 2025, Huya AI first entered the public view through the Legend Cup, and AIGC was officially integrated with live streaming. From coach BP to real-time commentary, relying on rich event data, Huya has cultivated AI agents into all-knowing "experts", effectively increasing the frequency of user interaction during Huya's events.

VAM digital human is another key layout of Huya. Huya AI makes the live stream attractive, while digital human makes the live stream last longer. Huya's self-developed multi-modal digital human can support 24-hour non-stop live streaming, and meet various interactive needs such as dancing and Werewolf game, with bullet chat interaction delay reduced to less than 0.5 seconds, further narrowing the communication distance between audiences and AI agents. For Huya's top streamers, future live streaming will no longer be limited by physical strength and duration. Real people can rest while the live streaming room never closes, and the streamers' content space will be expanded exponentially.

Promotional image of Huya VAM1.0 digital human

While its business scope is expanding, Huya's physical assets have also been officially settled. On October 13, Huya's global R&D headquarters in Foshan was officially put into use, and the coordinated pattern between Guangzhou and Foshan was thus established. This building carries Huya's new dream, and will radiate new light and heat to game lovers all over the world.

Real shot of Huya Foshan Global R&D Headquarters

Back to the night of October 17, the spotlights crowned the BFX players, golden confetti flying all over the place, spreading the glory of the winners. The team holding the silver trophy is not from LPL, but the enthusiasm of players is always burning; similarly, Huya may have suffered setbacks in the past, but its passion for exploring the future is witnessed by players and time.

This article is first published on "36Kr Games".