Game on as Melbourne Park prepares for the eSports Open

THE best of Australia’s professional eSports will be in action at one of our city’s most iconic sporting venues this weekend — so make the most of a footy-free weekend.

IF you’re wondering what to do on Melbourne’s footy-free weekend, then perhaps the Melbourne eSports Open is the event for you.

The Open will give Melburnians a chance to experience the growing world of competitive video games at one of the city’s iconic sporting venues, Melbourne Park.

The best of Australia’s professional eSports will be in action with Overwatch and League of Legends finals taking place on Rod Laver Arena.

Gaming fans will also have the chance to test their skills in a range of open competitions on Margaret Court Arena with Fortnite, Minecraft and NBA 2K18 just some of the video game competitions being run.

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Fortnite will be featured all weekend. Picture: Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson

Managing director of TEG Live, Tim McGregor said events like the Open would help to grow one of Australia’s hottest sporting trends.

“The Open is the first event of its kind in the Asia Pacific and globally there is not much else like it,” he said.

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“When you are standing outside Margaret Court Arena, the noise created will have you feeling like you are at a football match such is the frenzy, energy and excitement of the fans,” Mr McGregor said.

“We have 15 or 20 tournaments happening simultaneously with the headlines being Overwatch and League of Legends.”

“To be able to create event where we are bringing multiple games and events under the same room is an opportunity to expand eSports is fantastic, I see no other trajectory but upwards, we will see more and more of these events pop up.”

Between 15,000 to 16,000 people are expected to attend the Open over the two days with one of the headline events of the entire weekend being the League of Legends Oceanic Pro League (OPL) Grand Final at Rod Laver Arena.

The Chiefs eSports team will face off against the DireWolves. Photo: Chiefs eSports Club

Undefeated in 2018, eSports team DireWolves will battle it out against the Chiefs with the winning team representing Oceania at the League of Legends World Championship in South Korea.

Founder and CEO of DireWolves Nathan Mott said that the Grand Final would look tie up what has been an amazing year for his team.

“We have been undefeated for a year in the OPL with access to a training facility at the SCG as opposed to a standard gaming house being instrumental in our success,” Mr Mott said.

“Hopefully at the Grand Final on Sunday we can tie a ribbon and take it out and then go to the World Championships representing Oceania,” he said.

For star player Kelvin Troung events such as MEO were providing life changing opportunities for eSports players in Australia.

“Events like this show how far we have come in terms of becoming professional gamers,” Mr Troung said.

We get to play at a live event at a place like Rod Laver Arena, I never thought that I would be the person on stage,” he said.

As eSports continue to grow in popularity, competitions such as Sunday’s Grand Final continue to grow in significance.

“Other regions have two or three spots but for us (Oceania) there is only one spot, if you don’t get it you have to come back next year and try again,” he said.

“Everyone wants to go to World’s, this is our dream.”
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