Gamers battle it out at Esports exhibition tournament at TELUS Spark

Gamers go head-to-head at exhilarating Esports exhibition Calgary Esports League held its first Esports League exhibition tournament at TELUS Spark on Tuesday evening.

Competitive gaming has exploded over the last couple of years and hundreds of gamers got in on the action at the Esports League exhibition tournament that was held at TELUS Spark on Tuesday evening.

Calgary Esports League was created to help develop the competitive video gaming community in Calgary and organizers estimate more than 350 gamers attended the inaugural event.

“Everybody is here tonight and everybody is having a great time,” said Wes Nelson, Co-founder Calgary Esports League. “Esports is the thing that is happening right now.”

Five games were featured and included; League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Tekken 7.

The event was also live-streamed on Twitch to allow audiences to tune in to the action.

Competitive gaming continues to grow and Esports organizers say the total viewership is predicted to surpass the NFL by the year 2022.

“Like it or not, it’s on its way to displacing traditional sports in viewership so between YouTube and Twitch and the different streams, like it's the new exciting thing that everybody's into and the younger generations are coming up and they're familiar with it and they love it and they want to get involved with it,” said Nelson. “In the last year, maybe two years at most, it’s just kind of reached critical mass world-wide and it’s turning into a big spectacle with big money and big names.”

The Esports exhibitions provide an opportunity for gamers of all levels to participate and individuals and teams can register to take part.

“We’re trying to focus less on the competitive aspects and more about just covering a lot of games, getting a lot of people here. We’re trying to activate the community,” said Nelson. “We’re trying to get the community at large to come together.”

Organizers say they hope the event helped Calgarians learn more about competitive gaming even if they aren't video game fans.

The prize pool at Tuesday’s event was $2000, which was spread out across the five featured games.

“It’s not a huge amount but for a first event, it’s nice to have some incentive for people to come in and try their hardest,” said Nelson.

The next event is at TELUS Spark on February 12. Click HERE for ticket information.