Since the end of the summer, I’ve decided to update my knowledge of places and events with esports potential. This has led me to travel across the province, and I still have several regions to cover.
Note: This article is an automated translation. For the original article, click on Français in the menu.
Of the thirty or so spaces I visited, there were four locations that caught my eye, and which I’d like to tell you about.
In a series of LinkedIn posts, I’ll quickly introduce each location, explaining the context and why I found them particularly interesting.
The first location I’d like to introduce you to is the MTL Gaming Centre in Montreal’s Chinatown.
Even though I’m in the various Smash groups, if I didn’t have an industry colleague keeping me informed about local Fighting games communities, I’d probably have gotten lost. The venue is not easy to find, and since it has no signage outside, you’ve probably walked past it without knowing it. Thank you Ibrahim Iqbal.
Whatever your level, you’re always welcome to join in. What I really like about this place is its authenticity. After nearly 10 years in the business full-time, I’ve seen a lot of esports projects. And I can tell you that a quick glance around this place was enough for me to realize that the people involved are passionate about what they do, and have a wealth of experience.
If you want to experience competitive grassroots gaming, this is the place to go.
The second location in the series is Salon Tanuki in Granby.
It’s a comfortable, family-friendly place, with modular spaces for consoles, a mini-café, and a training room with over a dozen high-performance PCs.
What I particularly like about this place, and why I’ve decided to share it with you, is the complementary nature of its various components. On the one hand, there’s all the infrastructure required to host an esports program and activities, but also enough freedom to allow the local population to come and enjoy themselves.
It’s not an easy model, especially given the current size of the market, and the fact that there is a limit to the number of programs and student teams that can be maintained in any one city. Nevertheless, this type of project helps democratize our discipline to people outside the big cities. 😀
The third location in this series may surprise you: the Maisonneuve library in Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough.
I’ve been saying it to entrepreneurs for years, and now I’m repeating it to my students in the esports microprogram at UQTR – Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, watch out for the municipal environment. As is often the case in traditional sports and various leisure projects, cities can play a predominant role in a local ecosystem.
Looking at the resources required to host daily supervised and competitive video game activities, analyzing the current needs and challenges of libraries, and considering that libraries, according to UNESCO, are creators of communities, we can quickly see a great deal of complementarity.
When I saw the installations already being set up, I had a big smile on my face.
The fourth, and final, location in this series took me by surprise. There’s a VR esports arena at La Ronde, which is located on Montreal’s Île Sainte-Hélène…!
.I discovered it by chance as I was heading for the exit when the theme park closed. As a result, I wasn’t able to try it out or see for myself what normally happens.
After some research, I learned about VR Esport Arena by Phenomena, which is working to develop a VR esport scene in Montreal, and elsewhere in the world.
Honestly, I find the whole thing super interesting and can’t wait to see how it develops!
