Counter-Strike’s Austin Major did more than just sell out the Moody Center in mid-June (the 40,000 tickets for the four-day event were all snapped up in less than six hours). The Austin Sports Commission reports it generated more than $102 million in total economic impact for the city, with 30,248 out-of-state fans (65% of eventgoers) and people from all 50 states and 37 countries. It drew a peak of almost 1.8 million viewers online, per Esports Charts.
“Austin was a tremendous success for us. … We were delighted. The mayor of Austin agreed and declared the final day of our competition ‘Blast Austin Major Day.’ So that will be an annual highlight for the record books for years to come,” said Blast Chief Business Officer Leo Matlock. “But it was a fantastic experience for us as a business and most importantly, the fans that came, the fans that watched online … and all the great sponsors and the city support we had. We were thrilled with this landmark event in the U.S.”
The city had takeaways of its own, said Visit Austin President and CEO Tom Noonan: “We learned that the esports audience is incredibly passionate and values a high-quality, authentic city experience beyond the competition venue.”
Rotational play
Most of Blast’s Majors don’t return to the same cities every year. Matlock likens it to F1 and how fans look forward to visiting different places (though it’s not exactly a one-to-one analogy here, as F1 returns to cities every year). “We’re working with cities like Austin, like Singapore in Asia, where we can build great relationships with the city and make these destinations amazing tentpoles for gaming fans to want to travel to and the players themselves to want to compete in. If you’ve got an amazing crowd, an amazing arena, an amazing destination, it adds some added importance to the competitors, which then shows in how they’re competing, which then filters throughout into the audience. So that’s why we like to mix things up.”
Heading into the Austin Major, Blast was excited to see how the Moody Center delivered as an esports venue (it’s drawn rave reviews for its presentations of sports and concerts). How did it handle the demands of competitive gaming, from both players and fans? Matlock said esports events and fandom sit “somewhere between real traditional sport like college sports, with high fandom and really loud crowds, and people who are used to going to watch a rock and roll show and are used to seeing a show.” The Moody Center “surpassed our expectations — and they were high,” he said, praising the facility’s show-production capabilities and lights. It made the first-of-their-kind Counter-Strike statues stand out even better in their debut.
“[They] nearly reached the ceiling, lording over everybody, which made for an amazing physical specimen,” he said. They’ll be at other Blast events.
But where Moody shined for esports was its acoustics.
“It’s quite hard balance for us to make, because if you’ve got some 10,000-11,000 people in the arena like we did at Moody, you need to make sure all of them can hear beautifully. And if you’ve got millions and millions of people watching all around the world on YouTube, on Twitch, on other streaming platforms, you want to make sure they can hear beautifully. We’re managing lots of different sounds,” Matlock said, noting that unlike a sports event, in esports the commentary streams out to the audience as well as those watching at home. “We’ve built some brilliant technology to do that, and Moody just only enhanced that. Wherever you have sat, you had an amazing multisensory experience from those different sound environments I’m talking about. And it also translated beautifully onto the broadcast, which was super important for us as well.”
Establishing a base camp
It was also the first U.S. event for Blast since opening an American HQ in New York City (Blast’s main office is in Copenhagen, Denmark), and the office has a focus on sales. Did having that new base help with the Austin event?
“It was great to sort of have a bit of a … I don’t want to say proof of concept — it was a lot more than that. It was great that we were announcing our intention to further globalize our business by opening a global hub for Blast in New York … and then to have this great global spectacle event, one of the biggest esports events in the world happening in America shortly after with those great sponsorships, all the sold-out arena for the four days, was a super validation that our investment and focus into the USA is going to pay dividends for us but also for our partners.”
And how will that NYC office factor into Blast’s next U.S. event, the Rocket League Major at Boston University’s Agganis Arena?
“As we’ve grown out our U.S. departments, we’re able to get a little bit closer to some of those fan sentiments and shape a little bit of our thinking. So, it’s a bit of a fan-first focus there, but also maybe particularly more on the brand side … it’s opening up a lot more brand-partnership opportunities. We’re closer to where the action is. More media dollars are being spent through Blast next year than have been last year, for example. And a lot of that is us really making a statement to the U.S. market.”
So, based on the positive experience at Moody Center, is it safe to say Blast will return to Austin sometime in the future?
“That’s a very safe thing to say,” Matlock said. “Our PR team will kill me if I say when and exactly when and with what game and when people can buy their tickets. But I’d be shocked if you’re not seeing a Blast Austin event in the next two years. That’s for sure.”
