The State of Esports 16
We had a pretty good run in Georgia for games and esports - but today we’re going to focus on December. And what better way to close out 2023 than with a whole week of gaming, gaming culture, and esports?
And I’m talking specifically about Games Week Georgia.
From December 11 through the 17, we celebrated the gaming and esports industries with multiple events, competitions, and conferences all leading up to Dreamhack Atlanta.
Let’s break some of them down.
GirlGamer Festival was held at the Skillshot Atrium and brought top female Rocket League teams to compete. Also on the schedule were several panels, workshops, and activations from industry leaders. Several schools were with field trips to the event and the place was packed. Bella, Courtney, and Kate of Gen.G Black took first place and will be representing the US at GirlGamer International.
Next on the calendar was the Esports Summit - a one-day conference geared toward connecting the industry and education leaders of esports. This too had a slew of workshops covering a range of topics including content creation, health and wellness in gaming, scholastic and collegiate program best practices, and pretty much everything else.
The Georgia esports league also hosted their Fallhalla finals during the summit - members from Esports @ UGA, Kennesaw State University Esports, Spelman College Esports, and Maroon Tiger Gaming of Morehouse College battled it out in Brawlhalla for a share of $500 - top spot went to Crossfire of Maroon Tiger Gaming - who also took home a custom art Snackbox Fight Stick from Georgia based Junkfood Arcades.
The Georgia Entertainment 100 event capped off the Summit with an invite-only party bringing together directors, producers, studio executives, elected officials, and members of Georgia’s creative economy to celebrate the year and recognize the top successes of 2023.
It all wrapped up with Dreamhack Atlanta - the 3-day conference held at the Georgia World Congress Center is the epicenter of gaming, culture, and esports in the south. Siege, the largest game development conference in the southeast was there. championships and competitions in COD mobile, multiple fighting games, StarCraft 2, and Magic the Gathering, were there. 10s of 1000s of square feet of gaming demos, activations, and vendors, were there. We even had 6000 square feet dedicated just to represent Georgia, there. Were you there? If you missed it, don’t worry. It will be back in 2024 in October.
