MIDLAND, Texas — Normally, gaming expos take place in big cities. Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, TX. are the usual suspects.
But the e-sports community out in the Permian Basin has been growing slowly but steadily throughout the years.
This was noticed by Shane Bell, who wanted to start a gaming expo for quite some time. Now, he figured: what better time than now to bring an expo to the Permian Basin.
“The Permian Basin is a huge gaming community. The [Super] Smash [Bros] tournament scene is huge down here in West Texas, they travel through all the different cities down here and play together," Bell said. "There’s no reason we can’t have a big event like this down here in West Texas, we’ve got the facilities for it, we got the hotels, we got the airport and it’s cheaper than Dallas or Houston or San Antonio.”
Thus, the Texas Battle Bowl was born.
Gamers will be able to compete in a multitude of games, including Call of Duty, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mortal Kombat along with tabletop games like Warhammer 40K.
People from across the state and the country will be coming to Midland to compete, which means they'll be spending their money in Midland on travel, room and food.
Naturally, that means a boost to the Midland economy,
“We've got players coming in from Florida, we've got competitors coming from all over the state coming in. So they're staying in hotels, they're eating at restaurants [and] supporting small businesses," Bell said. "Our vendors, local vendors, a lot of them run small businesses."
It also costs quite a pretty penny to travel to different cities to take part in these tournaments. Just ask Eric Rivera, who knows a thing or two about gaming tournaments.
After all, he was one of the founding members of Faze Clan, one of the most popular and well known e-sports teams in the country.
"So if you want to account for travel and the hotel and obviously for food and stuff, I'd say anywhere from, depending on where you’re going, two grand to five grand.” Rivera said.
He is going to help run the Fortnite competitions on Friday, just another event going down at the Battle Bowl.
But it won't just be gamers coming down. Game developers will be running booths at the Battle Bowl, where they can get feedback on their games and share advice with other likeminded individuals.
“Fundamental principles that I work from is that a diversity of opinions, diversity of perspective and new and enlightened perspectives," Thomas Stracener, a game developer at Traffic Jam LLC, said. "You only get that when you’re interacting with other people and you learn something new that you haven’t thought of and it really becomes a seed from which other ideas grow.”
So, Midland gets a boost in revenue, game developers get feedback on their games, but what to competitors get?
Aside from potential winnings, they also get comradery with others like them.
“I think it just has to be the experience of just meeting fellow gamers," Rivera said. "We are here to compete, we are here to win, but we also do a lot of this stuff online, in our rooms, so we get a chance to come out and meet people just like us.”
The event will also benefit the Red Cross and their "Gamers vs Disaster" charity event. A portion of the proceeds made will go towards the Red Cross.