NHL Rolls Out Esports Championship Event In Vegas To Capture More Young Fans

By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com

Photos By DANIEL CLARK, LVSportsBiz.com

 

 

With the sports world and fans spending dollars more balkanized than ever these days, it’s mano-a-mano among sports leagues to capture young fans and win them for life.

 

So, the National Hockey League figured it was a good investment to stage a video game tournament across the U.S., Canada and Europe and dole out $100,000 in prize money, including $50,000 to the winner, to the best hockey gamers in North America and Europe.

 

 

Here’s 16-year-old Matthew Grenier, the youngest gamer to make the final six.

Two-thirds of the 15,500 NHL world championship gamer registrants were in the prized 20-30 year-old demographic, said Chris Golier, NHL vice president for business development who was overseeing Tuesday’s six-man NHL world championship gamer event at the Esports Arena at the Luxor on the Strip. The NHL is in town this week, holding its season awards show Wednesday at the Hard Rock casino-hotel.

 

“It’s learning how to speak to them,” Golier said of reaching the millennials through esports video gaming.

 

Las Vegas knows all about the gaming scene. Along with Los Angeles, Las Vegas has emerged as a co-hub for North America’s esports growth as both hotel-casino and entertainment companies MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment have identified esports as a growth category and visitor draw for their hotel properties along the Strip.

 

Golier said Luxor’s esports venue is a “high visibility, high-profile arena” that is one way to appeal to younger fans and turn them onto the NHL product.

 

Joining the final six NHL competitors — two each from the U.S., Canada and Finland — were honorary captains and Golden Knights players Alex Tuch and Malcolm Subban. Both are hockey video gamers and Subban recalled his brother P.K. Subban, a Nashville Predators defenseman, used a “toe” to try and stop younger brother Malcolm from winning a video game.

 

LVSportsBiz.com bumped into P.K. Subban at an NHL player availability event at Encore down the Strip later Tuesday afternoon and older brother P.K. said younger brother Malcolm was a “cry baby” for complaining about his toe technique to win the video games.

 

Asked about how much he plays, Tuch, the swift-skating 22-year-old forward, simply said, “A good amount.”

 

Both Tuch and goalie Malcolm Subban are 20-something millennials who are the in age bracket that the NHL is trying to reach.

 

In case you’re curious, here are your half-dozen NHL gamer finalists from more than 15,000 registrants.

 

Interested in watching the video game competition? Check out the options.

The esports arena at the Luxor is a former club converted as a gamer venue by MGM Resorts, which told investors and analysts in a May presentation that esports were the fastest growing segment in the Las Vegas sports industry.

 

Meanwhile, Caesars Entertainment Studios is working with an esports company from Beverly Hills, California to stage a battle royal-style competition of 15 five-person teams in the H1Z1 Pro League. LVSportsBiz.com covered an H1Z1 event in April at the Caesars studio. Even the Mountain West college basketball tournament in March held a UNLV vs Boise State esports event that was covered by LVSportsBiz.com.

 

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The NHL gamer championship enlisted Vegas Golden Knights game emcee Mark Shunock, who is known for his loud, booming “It’s Knight Time” declaration before VGK games at T-Mobile Arena.

 

Announcer Shunock introduced the gamer esports event with his Knight Time voice, exhorting the crowd of a 100 or so with, “It’s Game Time,!” to kick off the gamer championship Tuesday.

 

Tuch, hanging out in a corner for a broadcast spot, got a kick out of the Shunock “Game Time” announcement and laughed, while Golden Knights Communications VP Eric Tosi gave Shunock the power first salute.

 

The championship games included two broadcasters who referred to Canadian competitor Nicola Bruna, who goes by the “FoolX90” handle. “Fool controls the neutral zone with the puck,” one of the broadcasters declared.

 

LVSportsBiz.com will be back in action Wednesday for the NHL awards event at the Hard Rock. Expect Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee and coach Gerard Gallant to win awards tomorrow.

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