Kitchener, Ont. venue powering up as international esports championship expected to sell out The Aud

Kitchener is getting ready to host a major E-sports tournament. As CTV's Colton Wiens reports, it's the first time it has come to Canada.

Kitchener, Ont. is getting ready to welcome a major esports tournament to the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

For four days in June, The Aud will host the Call of Duty League Championship Weekend for the first time.

“The Aud has hosted everything: monster trucks, hockey, the circus, concerts. Esports was a new one that we could try and tackle,” Allister Scorgie, Director of Sport Hosting for Explore Waterloo Region said.

“This will be one of the marquee events in Canadian esports history, with this being the first time the championship has come to Canada,” Neil Duffy, Chief Commercial Officer of Americas at Overactive Media said.

Organizers said it will be a spectacle to behold.

“Probably closest comparison is a concert in terms of the amount of audiovisual and the technology and equipment that goes into it. But it runs like a sporting event, almost more closely to a golf tournament than anything,” Scorgie said.

“The stage, different than a concert, it’ll be in the middle, so it’ll be at centre ice. We’ll have seating 360 [degrees] all the way around. That’s going to maximize the number of people we can get in this building,” Allyson Samms, Manager of the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium said.

Last year’s championship weekend was held in Texas, drew thousands of fans and had a prize pool of over $2 million.

When organizers knew this year’s championship would be in Canada, they started exploring options in Toronto and the surrounding community. But there was something about Kitchener that offered them a chance to level up the experience for years to come.

“I would like to make this a recurring event. I would like to bring other events there too. Because it’s also much more cost effective for the fans. When the fan can show up and get a hotel room at a reasonable rate and not have to pay $50 a day for parking, it makes their experience a lot better, especially in this economy,” Duffy said.

Ten of the top teams from around the world will qualify for the competition. The Aud will get a temporary power up to meet the needs of the tournament.

“What they need to stream and to play those sports, that’s one piece that we don’t have built into the building. But the unique piece about the Aud is that we are owned and operated by the City of Kitchener, so that entire IT support is at City Hall that does collaborate with our venue to support them installing everything they need,” Samms said.

As for ticket sales, organizers said some sections of the arena are already sold out, but there are still many tickets available. However, they expect by the end of May, when all teams have qualified for the championship, tickets will start to sell out.

“There are two more majors in the season, so we should have the teams finalized in May. For who’s going to be here, and once you start getting the increase in attention from the teams out in LA and Dallas and Boston, etc., it’s going to start to get busy. If you want to be here, get your tickets and be here,” Scorgie said.

Organizers said with the 7,777 seats in the Aud, plus floor seating, it’s shaping up to be one of the largest events ever held at the arena.

“But the biggest demand is going to be fans and spectators. Some of the teams have huge fan bases that travel well. So, especially with all of the things going on globally, with the economy, it’s a great chance to drive tourism to the region and drive some economic impacts through visitation. Hotels will be full that weekend for sure. Restaurants will be busy, retail will be busy, the Aud will be busy and that’s a really good situation for the region,” Scorgie said.

“They’re cheering and screaming and yelling and decked out. It’s more passionate - I kid you not - it’s more passionate than at a (Toronto Maple) Leafs playoff game. I went to the Leafs playoff game three days ago,” Duffy said.

The Call of Duty League Championship Weekend will be held June 26-29th at The Aud.