Have you been watching the Overwatch League, marvelling at the production values and wondering if we’d ever get esports arenas on that scale here in Australia? Wonder no more. Gfinity Esports Australia and Hoyts are doing it right now.
The core of the idea is that Hoyts and Gfinity will work together to build a chain of broadcast-ready esports arenas within existing Hoyts theatre locations. The idea is that, with these state of the art locations already installed and ready to go, they will be well placed to pull global touring esports events looking for a base in the Oceanic region.
The first of these arenas is set to open in Q2 of 2018 in the Hoyts Entertainment Quarter in Sydney’s Moore Park. The first event to be hosted there will be the inaugural Gfinity Elite Series, presented by Alienware. This tournament sees players battle it out across three games — Counter-Strike, Street Fighter V and Rocket League — to claim victory.
With the Moore Park location in place, the plan from there is to roll out similar arenas around the country.
If you’re an esports fan in Australia, today is an extremely good day. GGWP to all involved.
An earlier version of this post incorrectly listed FIFA 18 as one of the three tournament titles when this is only part of the UK program. Counter-Strike is on the Australian docket and we’ve updated the piece to reflect this.
———-
