'World's first' all-inclusive gaming compound opens in California
"There's literally no other space like this in the world," said COO of 100 Thieves.
CALIFORNIA (Reuters) - The video games is already a burgeoning industry. Now, two offshoots, e-sports (competitive gaming) and content creation (gaming broadcasts), are becoming booming industries in their own right.
On January 22, gaming organization 100 Thieves, one of the top 10 most valuable e-sports brands in the world, opened the doors to its 15,000 square foot Culver City studio which combines e-sports and content creation with video production studios, editing facilites and fashion design.
"There’s literally no other space like this in the world," said John Robinson, the president and COO of 100 Thieves.
"There are other e-sports teams that are building just training facilities for practice, but this is the first one that really combines practice, entertainment and content creation as well as everything that we are doing on the lifestyle and apparel side," he explained.
Robinson admitted that these new businesses can still be confusing to much of the general public, despite the fact that there is a reported audience of 24 million American viewers who tune in to e-sport matches each month.
He said, "It’s a little bit like the entertainment industry and a little bit like the pro-sports industry in the sense that like our players are praticing every week Monday to Friday for games they’re playing on the weekends and when they go play in those games hundreds of thousands or millions of people are watching them online - so just like traditional sports. And on the entertainment side it’s just like you know you go watch your favorite you go watch your favorite people on Instagram or on Twitch like our people are always creating that content so every day you’ll see people within the world of 100 Thieves reaching hundreds of thousands or millions of our fans."
100 Thieves, which was founded in November 2017, is co-owned by Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s manager, Scooter Braun, and the facility is sponsored by Cash App, a mobile payment service. Its CEO, Jack Dorsey, is also the CEO of Twitter.
"Jack Dorsey has been one of our biggest supporters. Cash App was you know they have seen our vision and they really brought the Cash App Compound to life. They really understood that we wanted to build something big and ambitious so yeah they really made this happen, Jack has been a tremendous support of 100 Thieves so we are happy to have him here. Scooter was also one of our earliest, earliest believers in gaming and e-sports so he actually invested in 100 Thieves and is one of our co-owners," said Robinson.
Content creation, which often revolves around video game commentary, has seen many young people making thousands or even millions from the comfort of their own bedrooms. Although this can be lucrative, there are downsides that the 100 Thieves compound hopes to remedy.
Content creator Rachel Hofstetter, also known as Valkyrae, said, "One of the hardest things about building your brand in content creation is because when you’ve working from home it’s lonely, you never leave the house, you don’t have co-workers except for people you talk to online and so being able to leave the house and come to a facility with you know employees and other people that do what you are doing, I feel like is really good for your mental health so I think it’s great."
Robinson hopes the 100 Thieves studio will also break down the virtual wall that separates e-sport stars and content creators from their fans. Every month they have arranged what they call "apparel drops" where fans can come and pick up the latest gear and also meet their idols.
"100 Thieves has always been about transparency and giving more back to our community and our fans so they’re going to see more content, they’re going to see better content and they’re actually be able to come visit us here. So they come to our apparel drops but then also when those happen they’re going to get to meet our players, get to meet our entertainers, get to meet our creators and just kind of like be immersed in the world of 100 Thieves for the first time in a physical location which before today wasn’t possible," he said.
