We Participated in Yuzawa City's Corporate Exchange E-sports Tournament!

Yuzawa Factory　Seya Kaneko

On May 24, 2025, our company participated in the e-sports event "Corporate Exchange Digital Battle" hosted by Yuzawa City, Akita Prefecture and Corporate Exchange Digital Battle Executive Committee. We were invited by Yuzawa City, and Orbray employees joined the project from the planning stage. We actively participated in the management by making various proposals, including producing novelty items to be presented to the winning team.

Corporate Exchange Digital Battle

Yuzawa City organized this tournament to promote interaction between local companies and residents, aiming for the sustainable development of the city. E-sports is competitive computer gaming. While it's entertainment with passionate fans worldwide, it literally is a sport that requires physical training for quick and accurate operation of consoles to control game characters. In Japan, competitions between prefectural representative teams were conducted as cultural programs at the National Sports Festival from 2019 to 2021, and there are currently discussions about making it an official competitive event.　Tournaments with total prize money reaching hundreds of millions of yen are also held.

Our company decided to participate because we believed it would deepen friendships with nearby companies through e-sports, activate internal communication, and potentially increase recognition in the local community.

This time, Yuzawa City selected CAPCOM's popular fighting game "Street Fighter 6." Our staff actively participated from the planning stage and also handled venue setup, event management, and hosting on the day of the tournament.

Three employees participated as players—one each from the Technical Department, Manufacturing Division, and Quality Assurance Department, totaling three members. The team name was "Orbray Blue." They practiced after work and on weekends, preparing thoroughly for the competition.

In the tournament, each team designated a vanguard, middle fighter, and captain, with players in the same positions competing against each other. Victories by the vanguard and middle fighter earned 10 points each, while a captain's victory earned 20 points. After a round-robin tournament, the top three teams competed in a final tournament. Orbray Blue finished third overall, but achieved the highest number of perfect KOs among all participating teams with five.

Expanding "Circles of Exchange" Within and Outside the Company

This tournament generated many new connections. Twelve companies with offices in Yuzawa City joined as sponsors. The competing teams included Katsura Co., Ltd., T-Solutions, Hokuto Bank, Akita Epson, and three teams from the city hall, totaling eight teams.

By participating in the tournament, we not only connected with these companies but also noticed that the tournament became a topic of conversation within our company from the preparation period. People from different departments and generations approached us, offering encouragement and support, creating a sense of unity and vitality within the company.

Additionally, we manufactured and provided sapphire medals for the winning team using our proprietary processing technology, which became an opportunity to showcase our company's product capabilities.

Challenges and Prospects

While the tournament yielded many positive results, several challenges became apparent. First was the number of spectators. E-sports should be enjoyable to watch even for those who have never played, but we reflected that we hadn't sufficiently conveyed its appeal to those unfamiliar with e-sports beforehand. Also, some companies declined participation due to unfamiliarity with e-sports and lack of understanding of the tournament's purpose, while others couldn't participate due to scheduling conflicts, resulting in a small number of participating companies. Since the period between the tournament announcement and the event was short this year, we plan to start promoting the appeal of e-sports and the tournament 2-3 months before next year's event through local media coverage and repeated SNS posts to build excitement in advance.

We also regret not fully utilizing the excellent opportunity to introduce our company to many people. For the next opportunity, suggestions were made to set up booths with company information materials or simultaneously hold student-oriented events.

Since this is a sport that can be played even during snowy winters, we believe regularizing the tournament and inviting more companies and students would create greater excitement. We also want to propose manufacturing and providing novelty items to showcase our technical capabilities.

Communicating Corporate Appeal Through E-sports

We believe e-sports tournaments can be excellent opportunities to widely communicate corporate technology and appeal. Moving forward, we want to expand the possibilities of "e-sports × corporate PR × community contribution" and contribute to local society in various ways, leveraging our technical capabilities and teamwork.