Esports Arena is a chain of indoor
arena
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
s and event centers dedicated to
esports
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
. The buildings are specifically intended to host esports tournaments and events. The first location, Esports Arena Orange County, opened in
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...
, in 2015 and seats 1,400 people. In addition to hosting professional events, amateur events are also held at the arenas. Multiple Esports Arena venues have since been established worldwide, partially funded by the Chinese sports and video game company partnership Allied Esports.
History
Former military intelligence officer Paul Ward started thinking about starting a major video game venue in 2010. He and his childhood friend Tyler Endres had fond memories of attending
LAN parties
A LAN party is a gathering of people with personal computers or compatible game consoles, where a local area network (LAN) connection is established between the devices using a router or switch, primarily for the purpose of playing multiplayer ...
and small-scale video game competitions while growing up, but were disappointed by the existing venues for such events as adults. Paul Ward and Tyler Endres, who are both 29, met in middle school playing basketball, and later attended nearby Azusa Pacific University together, but are gamers at heart. "Our kitchen in college was TVs and Xboxes," said Endres, and they ran impromptu tournaments whenever possible.
[Draper, K. (2017-08-30)]
E-Sports Found a Growing Niche, Now They Start to Find Homes.
New York Times.
Esports Arena was founded by Ward and Endres as a location where amateur players can practice and mingle. The two initially had trouble finding a venue for their idea, though their pitch was positively received by Santa Ana building owner Jack Jakosky, who, despite not playing video games himself, saw potential in the idea. In order to afford a 10-year lease on the building, Ward and Erdes received a
Small Business Administration
The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent agency of the United States government that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and stren ...
loan, checks from friends and family, and an anonymous large investment.
The space they built — much of it by hand, laying carpet and running heavy-duty internet infrastructure themselves — is relatively spartan, with concrete floors and few fixed objects. "It needs to be modular," Ward said, because the arena is constantly hosting events of different sizes with different needs.
Knowing the crucial difference between gaming and esports is at the heart of the concept. According to the Dutch research shop Newzoo, there will be 2.3 billion gamers worldwide by December 2017, but 191 million esports enthusiasts and 194 million occasional viewers.
[Fischer, B. (2017-04-17)]
Esports venue firm targets 'sweet spot' of casual gamers
Sports Business Journal.
The Esports Arena, the country's first venue opened specifically for esports competitions, opened in 2015. The building opened on October 3, 2015, to host a
''Hearthstone'' tournament with a $20,000
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
prize pool. The 15,000 square-feet venue is housed in an old renovated brick building in downtown Santa Ana and holds slightly under 1,000 people. Though major leagues are hosted in the Esports Arena, the building is primarily used as a "
gym
A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...
", offering memberships and passes to amateur gamers. Technology companies
Corsair
A corsair is a privateer or pirate, especially:
* Barbary corsair, Ottoman and Berber pirates and privateers operating from North Africa
* French corsairs, privateers operating on behalf of the French crown
Corsair may also refer to:
Arts and ...
,
Eizo
is a Japanese visual technology company, founded in March 1968, which manufactures display products and other solutions for markets such as business, healthcare, graphics, air traffic control, and maritime. The company is headquartered in Ha ...
and CyberPowerPC sponsored the gaming equipment, which included 130 computer stations and 64
Xbox
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...
consoles when the building was opened.
As it was opened, Ward and Endres planned to
livestream
Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...
daily amateur matches.
Commentators
Commentator or commentators may refer to:
* Commentator (historical) or Postglossator, a member of a European legal school that arose in France in the fourteenth century
* Commentator (horse) (foaled 2001), American Thoroughbred racehorse
* The Co ...
and award ceremonies of such events would then create a certain atmosphere. In an interview with the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', Endres stated that the "we're selling an experience, not Internet time."
By August 2016, Allied invested in Esports Arena and announced plans for the Oakland location to get started on the national expansion. Allied is now billing the planned Vegas location as the center of its worldwide network of esports.
Locations
In August 2016, Ward and Endres received a multimillion-dollar investment from five Chinese sports and video game companies – together known as Allied Esports – in order open a second Esports Arena on
Jack London Square
Jack London Square is an entertainment and business destination on the waterfront of Oakland, California, United States. Named after the author Jack London and owned by the Port of Oakland, it is the home of stores, restaurants, hotels, Amtrak ...
in
Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
. The deal marked the beginning of a network of arenas partially funded by Allied Esports. The 16,000 square-feet Oakland location opened in May 2018.
A 30,000 square-meter Esports Arena was established in the
Luxor Hotel
Luxor Las Vegas is a 30-story casino hotel situated on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The hotel is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International and has a casino with over 2,000 slot machines an ...
in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
in 2018, funded by Allied Esports and
MGM Resorts International
MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment company operating destination resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Detroit, Mississippi, Maryland, and New Jersey, including Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, and Pa ...
. Jud Hannigan of Allied Esports described Esports Arena Las Vegas as the esports equivalent of the
Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...
,
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...
, or
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
. Chris Glove, co-director of the Nevada Esports Alliance, stated that the Las Vegas location "will start to give some shape to the esports identity of Las Vegas." The naming rights were sold to gaming headset company
HyperX
HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company
A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and inte ...
, and HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas opened on March 22, 2018.
Events
Esports Arena Orange County has hosted various major tournaments, including the finals of the 2015 ''
Vainglory (video game)
''Vainglory'' is a free-to-play video game with in-game purchases, developed and published by Super Evil Megacorp for iOS, Android and PC. The game is a version of the MOBA wherein two opposing teams of three or five players fight to destro ...
'' season and
SoCal Regionals 2016
SoCal Regionals 2016 (sometimes shortened as SCR 2016) was a fighting game event that took place in Santa Ana, California on October 14–16. Held by Level, Up, the event featured eight tournaments, among which one of the eleven ''Street Fighter V ...
. The Esports Arena hosted the preliminary rounds of the
2016 Capcom Cup.
The Santa Ana facility has hosted live tournaments in titles such as Nintendo's ''
Super Smash Bros.'' and Blizzard Entertainment's ''
Heroes of the Storm
''Heroes of the Storm'' is a crossover multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment. It was released for Microsoft Windows and macOS on June 2, 2015. The game features various characters from Bli ...
.'' The arena is also open to casual gamers. Esports Arena also has locations in select
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
stores, which host small-scale events and tournaments.
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://esportsarena.com/
Esports venues in California