E-sport tournament proves point
Its organiser says the question now is whether the community is willing to back the event’s growth. Logan Savory reports.
An e-sport organiser says they have proved they can host a tournament and that there is a demand for it in Invercargill. Now he wants to take e-sport to the next level.
Invercargill hosted its first organised e-sport tournament at the weekend, led by Your Corps Multiplayer Video Game founder James Wards in conjunction with ILT Stadium Southland.
E-sport is a booming global industry in which video gamers play competitively.
Eighty players, aged 8 to 12, lined up on Saturday and a further 80 13- to 17 year-old competitors took to the stadium on Sunday.
A prize of $1000 was put up for both days, with Isaiah Noble winning the 8-12 age group and Aiden Stewart winning the 13-17 age group.
Wards said: ‘‘The point of putting this on was to prove A) we can do it; and B) there is a demand for it.’’ He believed the weekend proved both those, and he was pleased some community funders and other leaders took the time to experience the tournament firsthand.
‘‘The conversation that needs to happen now is if the community is willing to support [its growth]?’’
Wards said he had 20 multiplayer computers, which meant they could only cater for 160 competitors across two days at the weekend.
He would love to be able to buy 100 multiplayer computers to open future tournaments up to even more competitors.
He also wants to add 18-andover age group events.
Invercargill was now already more advanced than other New Zealand cities, which did host e-sport tournaments but did so predominantly online, he said.
Getting people together and interacting was Wards’ drive.
He believes the more tournaments that can be organised, the more engaged children become, rather than playing video games by themselves in their bedrooms with the curtains closed.
Wards has hosted multiplay gaming activities at South Alive in Invercargill, the Invercargill Library, the Gore RSA, and in Balclutha.
In December, Wards was named as one of 100 Kiwibank Local Heroes for his work in the youth wellbeing space.
However, he said they were still battling the stigma attached to video games, particularly from the ‘‘older generation’’.
Wards said he approached more than 40 Invercargill schools prior to the first e-sport tournament at the stadium in regards to talking to the schools about e-sport, but just two schools agreed.
Wards said the bulk of the 15 volunteers who helped run the tournament were high school students. The experience of putting on such an event would also provide them with ideal life skills, he said.
ILT Stadium Southland general manager Nigel Skelt said the weekend’s two-day event had been an eye-opener. ‘‘It was incredibly enlightening just seeing the passion from the kids taking part.’’
Skelt said it firmed up a belief that e-sports could provide the stadium with a potential growth area, in terms of utilising the space the stadium has available.
The weekend did not proceed without a hiccup, given Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Covid-19 alert level 2 announcement on Saturday night.
Wards said the event was a credit to stadium management, who put the required protocols in place to separate areas of the stadium to ensure Sunday’s action could still go ahead under the level 2 guidelines.