China defeated Japan in the Identity V final at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, a result that made team member Mu Xinyue the first woman to win an esports gold medal at the Games.
The medal was awarded in the team competition for Identity V Asian Games Version, a 1v4 asymmetrical survival game in which four players take the survivor role against a single hunter. Teams switch roles across a match, and points are determined by survivors escaping and by the hunter's eliminations.
How the final was decided
The opening two rounds were close, ending 4-4 and 5-5. China took the third round 7-2, and Japan stayed in contention with a 4-4 result in the fourth. Play was suspended for close to 30 minutes during that fourth round because of an on-site network-cable problem. After the restart, China took a 3-1 lead in the first half of the decisive fifth round and closed out the result there.
China's roster was made up of hunters Shi Xiangwei and Sun Le alongside survivors Lu Shujia, Chen Mingming, Lu Yahui, Fan Siqi and Mu, who competes under the in-game name Tao Wan'an. She said she stayed calm through the stoppage and waited for the referees and organisers to decide how play would continue, according to Xinhua.
A first against a wide participation gap
Mu was the only woman in China's esports delegation at the Games, and she took the gold on a mixed-gender roster rather than in a separate women's event. Registration figures reported by Xinhua put the number of esports athletes at the Games at more than 500, of whom 14 were women.
Esports first appeared at the Asian Games as a demonstration sport at Jakarta 2018 and became an official medal sport at Hangzhou 2023. Xinhua also reported that South Korea's Park So-yeon became the first woman to represent her country's national esports team at Aichi-Nagoya.
