N3rd Street Gamers is opening a new esports facility next month in Huntington Beach, Calif. The venue will be the company’s third competitive gaming site and first on the West Coast.
Just as professional esports leagues such as the Overwatch League are staking out home cities for their franchises, NSG is expanding its own geographic footprint in an effort to make training centers and match venues more accessible.
For this new site, NSG partnered with Ultimate Media Ventures to create Localhost Battleground, a 22,000-square-foot facility that will host weekly and monthly tournaments.
“We are excited to keep pushing and innovating our esports and gaming communities by bringing them activations and experiences with our partner, N3rd Street Gamers,” said Jon Bukosky, CEO and founder of UMV, in a statement. “The ‘Battleground’ concept is the first of many collaborations between our two companies you will see rolling out across North America in 2019 and 2020.”
The Huntington Beach site will serve as the West Coast venue for the National Championship Series, the sub-elite tournament series created by NSG to form a development path for aspiring pro gamers.
The first Localhost location is near NSG’s headquarters in Philadelphia, and its second facility opened in Lakewood, Colo., in suburban Denver last December.
“Bringing Localhost to Southern California allows us to produce more frequent events for the National Championship Series and extends our reach to the West Coast,” said Ryan Barr, COO at NSG and Commissioner of the NCS, in a statement. “Localhost Battleground at Ultimate Media Ventures will allow us to host more recurring, standardized opportunities for players to earn NCS points, prizes, and support for travel to our competitions.”
SportTechie Takeaway
This new gaming site opens against the backdrop of a concerted industry effort to make esports more regional. The Localhost venues target developing gamers, and the Hungtington Beach location makes a competitive gaming environment accessible to the large population center in Southern California. As esports matures, expect to see more geographic-focused initiatives.