Distinctive: Eredivisie and DreamHack Athletics Game titles workforce up for ‘sports gaming festival’

Dutch football league Eredivisie and esports operator DreamHack Athletics Online games (DHSG) have declared a new ‘sports gaming festival’ titled GG DreamHack Sporting activities in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

The competition, identified as GG22 for short, will be hosted by worldwide party area MECC Maastricht and aims to blend sports online games, esports, and relatives-pleasant festivities. GG22 is set to debut June 4th-5th, 2022.

Arnoud Schonis, Venture Supervisor, Esports at Eredivisie CV, discusses the sports gaming pageant in an exceptional interview with Esports Insider.

Related: Abios: Taking a punt on FIFA esports

“Situated in the dangling tail of The Netherlands, Maastricht’s proximity concerning Belgium and Germany invitations the neighbouring nations to also participate,” Schonis mentioned. According to the release, GG22 plans to be the biggest athletics gaming competition in Europe aiming to host up to 10,000 people.

The function was initially hinted at during the KPN eDivisie Season 5 announcement. The site of the league’s finals was teased to be held at a nevertheless-to-be unveiled ‘massive gaming festival’ through June 2022. Nevertheless, Schonis has now confirmed that GG22 will host the €50,000 (~£42,500) prize pool last. 

Outside of the KPN eDivisie finals, the programme will aspect stay on-stage leisure, an Expo Place, a LAN zone, and various areas for console gaming and athletics simulators. The festival will also have spots for regular sporting activities and ‘active gaming’ — physical activities improved with technologies, this kind of as interactive wall ball.

“Filled with loads of different sporting activities games-associated actions,” Schonis stated, “the strategy is targeted on dealing with teammates, opponents and other website visitors respectfully. With this in intellect, we feel the ‘GG’ notion is in the DNA of our celebration.”

Aimed at Gen Z and Millenials intrigued in gaming, physical physical fitness, and competitiveness the competition will deliver an possibility to not only resonate with the KPN eDivisie’s audience but provide collectively other sporting activities and gaming supporters to interact in a shared festival natural environment.

Associated:  KPN eDivisie announces fifth season with new format, return to Tv

Eredivisie — the top rated-amount Dutch football league the KPN eDivisie is based mostly on — and other common sporting activities, give supporters the prospect to go to matches. However, provided the digital nature of esports, with some presently without actual physical functions, a tangible connection amongst lovers and league can be hard to foster.

DHSG also operates eFootball leagues in Sweden (eAllsvenskan) and Norway (eSuperligaen) as effectively as golf’s very first esports proposition, the European eTour. The GG22 festival is an chance for DHSG to develop a deeper romance with the neighborhood and engage its supporters with a sports, esports and gaming encounter

No sponsors have been named at the time of the announcement, but Schonis confident that there are numerous organization opportunities accessible for the competition — from marketplace stands to party partnerships.

Roger Lodewick, CEO of DreamHack Athletics Game titles, commented: “Sports gaming is getting to be more and more preferred. As DreamHack Sports activities Video games is entirely focusing on reworking conventional sports activities [IPs] into esports, building and organising an esports and gaming competition particularly built at sport and sports activities gaming is a all-natural stage for our corporation.

“We want to carry both of those the sporting planet and the sports activities gaming entire world together, cross-pollinating the large enthusiast foundation of the traditional athletics with the agile and younger demographic of sporting activities gamers. Alongside one another with our prolonged expression partner Eredivisie and the astonishingly freshly renovated MECC Maastricht, we foresee GG DreamHack Sporting activities to be a benchmark for all sports gaming festivals about the environment.”

Relevant: Jesse Lingard discusses JLINGZ esports and Enhance Gaming partnership

Marc Rondagh, Company Progress Manager Eredivisie CV, additional: “As Eredivisie, we often consider to move forward with the KPN eDivisie. We have finished this given that the get started of the KPN eDivisie in 2017, as well when we began our collaboration with DreamHack Sporting activities Game titles in 2019 and we will do so upcoming summer months with a real two-working day gaming competition in Maastricht.

“For us, this completes the circle. What begun as a promotional device to younger people today for the Eredivisie, has resulted in absolutely nothing considerably less than a competition where both of those worlds will meet up with each individual other.”

Esports Insider says: GG22 is an intriguing choose on hybrid and cross-more than gatherings. There have been makes an attempt in the earlier at bridging gaming with other enjoyment in festival form, this kind of as Insomniac’s on-hiatus Enjoy festival.

GG22 is a curious deconstruction of the ‘esports’ idea by presenting gaming and conventional athletics below the exact roof, which will probably improve consciousness of the scene and give prevalent ground concerning sports and esports lovers. It will be specifically attention-grabbing to see how the event’s place will occur into perform for attendance.

Subscribe to ESI on YouTube