Page 75 - Sharp Spring 2021

artists like The Weeknd are passionate about a game — in his case, Call of Duty.”
Now chief strategy officer, Adamou points out that OverActive’s celeb investors, which include Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner, are not pitchmen but part of the “ownership group.” Paying for their shares gives them skin in the game, making it in their best interest to help secure long-term success. “He’s a partner of ours, as opposed to a client. Let’s not confuse being an influencer with being a shareholder.”
No doubt The Weeknd is happy with that too. OverActive has announced that its $500 million, 7,000-seat esports arena in Toronto’s Exhibition Place is set to open in 2025. Designed by architecture firm Popu- lous, the ultra-futuristic concept looks like a valet-parked spaceship. Toronto Defiant’s Andreas “Logix” Berghmans predicts his future field “could very well become the hub of all big esports events in Canada.”
While many of the planned 200-plus annual events will be concerts or other performances that prefer a purpose-built venue with better sound and sightlines than a hockey arena’s, giving esports top billing
sends a message that it’s finally emerged as a true competitor to traditional sports. One that will only grow, Adamou says, consider- ing the average age of the esports audience is 23, or less than half that of an average hockey or football fan. “We want to build this for tomorrow’s generation.”
Esports, of course, have long been touted as the next big thing, an invariably precarious position. But the esports bubble has already burst, says Matt Levitan, co-owner of Press Start Marketing, which has repped EGLX events and WorldGaming Network (WGN).
“I sat on a lot of investment panels and it was really difficult to listen to the [same] message about how big gaming was when I started in gaming in 1995,” he says. “It’s been out of the basement for quite some time now.”
That narrative attracted big-name spon- sors and Bay Street investors, sending stocks surging, but started to deflate even before COVID — and for the better, as the remain- ing stalwarts are letting the industry grow as the audience ages up. Cineplex sold WGN last year, for example, but it found a more suitable home with collegiate platform CSL Esports.
TORONTO 2025 ESPORTS STADIUM
“The bankers are starting to leave the building; they’re already figuring out what the next big thing is on the rise,” Levitan says of the quick-buck carpetbaggers. “Because this isn’t on the rise — the teams are big, the stakes are high, the players are professional, and these are real leagues. The story for you is that it’s not going to go away. Esports will continue to thrive because the true top of the pyramid is the gamers themselves that love to compete.”
Traditional sports aren’t going away ei- ther. But they’re a little like rock music to esports’s hip hop — not an out-there analogy given both were dismissed as youth fads and succeeded by abandoning rulebooks: rap used mixtapes when radio was out of reach, just like esports adopted video-streamer Twitch over television. Now, the monopoly on professional competition and spectator sports is breaking up, and is already gone in Asia, where gaming tournaments fill arenas and stadiums.
We’re still some years away from that in North America, but the map’s been laid out — and if pro gamers know anything, it’s how to win a map.
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