Six thousand – more or less – gamers and eSports/online game fans attended the very first Electronic Sports Festival 2018 in Vienna at the Hallmann Dome over the weekend (March 24 and 25). They were there to play out various virtual reality systems, some retro gaming while others just came to the chill-out zone to relax, observe and just have a great time, as a result turning the event into a mecca for all gaming fans.
Dubbed as the “biggest LAN party in the country,” many prominent figures were spotted at the event, even Minister of Economic Affairs Margarete Schramböck (ÖVP) graced the arena.
Over 450,000 viewers from home and abroad were watching Twitch live-streams to follow the exciting tournaments of the games “Counterstrike Global Offensive” or “League of Legends”, “Overwatch”, “Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds”, “DOTA 2”, “Rocket League”, “UT 2004” or “Hearthstone”. There were reportedly 400 gamers who went head to head to win the 20,000€ prize money for the two big live tournaments of the games Counter Strike Global Offensive (CS: GO) and League of Legends.
There were two arenas during the event, depending on the tickets, they were classified into the Explore Area and the LAN unit.
The LAN arena is where gamers can win from a total of € 20,000€ prize pool when they participate in the 12 tournaments ongoing since Friday until Sunday. This is the largest BYOC in Austria with a 1750sqm LAN Area, uninterrupted 48 hours of LAN Party. Premium tickets were 89€ each.
In the Explore Area, eSports fans were able to find out about the latest news on gaming products, consoles, tech and hardware exhibitions were also featured, while the Retro Area showed screen classics like “Super Mario Kart”. The colorful festival program also featured a virtual gaming area, console gaming, and some popular cosplaying attendees, fans dressed up adorably as their favorite characters.
Other highlights include: Xbox Halo 5 Free4All Tournament powered by Saturn, FIFA 18 Beat the Pro, and 34 hours eSports coverage.
Powered by T-Mobile and N26 Bank, the Electronic Sports Festival was hosted by DIAMIR Holding and DocLX Holding.
The organizers offered visitors free admission to the mega event. This is not only to give local “athletes” and gamers an unforgettable event, interested parties also got the opportunity to take a look at the mass phenomenon of Electronic Sports and see for themselves what fans are ecstatic about.
Next year, the festival will take place on an even bigger scale, according to a report given on Saturday.
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This is awesome, I wish that I could go to this! I have always been a gamer and grew up with a dad who designs computer games. This sounds like so much fun! Thanks for sharing. 🙂