Hello and welcome back to another Tuesday Telecast, Des Moines Gaming Club’s weekly update. Hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday weekend and enjoyed some time off. We are back open today after Sunday and Monday of being closed and we will have a normal, full schedule this week. Today through Saturday we will be open from Noon-9pm and then Sunday 11am to 4pm.
We are thrilled to be hosting tournaments nearly every day that we are open with Tuesday’s now being the only day without a tournament scheduled. Wednesday’s at 7pm is our FGC night where we offer tournaments in Tekken 7, Street Fighter V, and Guilty Gear Strive. Major shout out to Curtis and the rest of the fighting game community for coming out this past wednesday. We learned a lot and are very thankful for all the support and insight you all have provided. For tomorrow, players will be able to enter into 2 or even all 3 games if they so choose. It is still $7 for one tournament entry but we will increase the venue fee by $1 if you enter into multiple tournaments so with the pots added it will be $12 for 2 tournament entries and $16 for all 3. This format will also be used on Sunday when we host our first ever sports game tournament day. That will start at 1pm on Sunday and we will offer tournaments in Madden 21, NBA 2k 21, and of course FIFA 21. We have the sports games on the new gen xboxes but folks are welcome to bring their own controllers or setups.
Moving on we have our Smash Bros. weekly Thursday night at 7pm, Rocket League at 7pm Friday night, and then warzone at 6:30 Saturday night. Now that we have regular tournaments going every week we want to start forming leagues for some of the team based games like Call of Duty Cold War, League of Legends, Overwatch, etc. Up to now we have gauged interest in leagues for certain games by folks submitting forms on our website. However, now that we are open, we are toying with the idea of replacing that method with a live spreadsheet or list of some kind where people can put their name down to show interest and thus other interested players can see how many and who has shown interest in a particular game. Then, once enough players have signed up we let everyone and we get the league going. Still some details to work out but if anyone has any suggestions on league formation, let us know!
Other than tournaments of course we have casual play available during our open hours so feel free to come in and practice on your favorite game on LAN or try out a different game. Even when tournaments are going on, either the PCs or consoles should be available since our tournaments usually only use one or the other. So like Smash Bros night you won’t be able to play casually on our consoles but the PCs are available. And it’s vice versa on Friday and Saturday nights when we are using the PCs.
That’l do it for updates on the club for now, let’s move on to some esports industry news.
Some new Twitch viewership stats have been released recently and it is somewhat surprising. Last month, Luminosity gaming blew every other esports org out of the water in terms of hours watched on Twitch. They came in at 29.4 million hours watched in just the month of June with 2nd place NRG not even coming close at 18 million hours watched. Luminosity’s dominance is mostly thanks to their new partnership with popular streamer xQc who makes up 74% of those 29 million hours watched. Coming in 3rd and 4th are TSM and FaZe Clan respectively.
Recently, one of the top Call of Duty pros has come out and said that Warzone may be the end of Call of Duty multiplayer as we know it. James “Clayster” Eubanks who is one of the most successful and most popular CoD pro stated that Warzone appears to be taking over the Cod scene completely. When Warzone was released just over a year ago it brought a lot of new eyes to the scene but now Clayster is questioning how long the CDL can balance the traditional multiplayer mode when there is just so much time, money, and attention going to Warzone. He points to the need of a strong ranked system in the game that can help the everyday player keep an interest in the competitive side of Call of Duty. Definitely a good thought and something the CDL does need to keep in mind.
Finally, the Nintendo Switch Pro model has been revealed. Called the Nintendo Switch OLED it will be priced at $340 and has a 7-inch OLED screen, enhanced audio capabilities, and a newly added wired-LAN port when used in TV mode. It is still up in the air if this new model will completely replace the old switch. Either way, Nintendo continues to define their own the space in the gaming industry by offering a “brand new” system for only $340 as they constantly keep their prices much lower than Xbox or PlayStation.
Thanks for watching everyone, that’l do it for today. Have a good one and see you soon!