St. Albert and Morinville gamers will be street fighting and smash-brothering for cash this weekend during Alberta’s first-ever esports expo.
About 1,400 people would be at the Edmonton Expo Centre Feb. 18-19 for the inaugural Alberta Esports Expo. Organized by the Alberta Esports Association, this free event aimed to promote the growth of video-game athletics in Alberta, and was the first federally funded esports convention in the province.
Esports have taken off in Alberta in the last two years in part due to the pandemic, said CK Dhaliwal, business development and academics manager for the Alberta Esports Association.
“The minute people got locked in their homes, they needed new ways to connect and engage with one another,” he said, and for many, that meant video games.
Dhaliwal said some 1,400 people had signed up to attend the expo as of Feb. 12, which was about a thousand more than he had expected. Expo attendees would get to check out the latest games and technologies and learn about esports through panel discussions.
The highlight of the expo was the tournaments, where hundreds of people would compete in games such as Smash Bros., Street Fighter, and Splatoon for a piece of some $10,000 in prizes.
Brawling it out in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament (a fighting game starring video game icons such as Mario and Donkey Kong) was Morinville’s Michael “Kursed” Logie, the 10th-best Smash fighter in Alberta and a six-year veteran of the competitive Smash scene. He was also co-hosting a panel on building community in esports.
Logie said he has been playing various games in the Smash Bros. franchise since 2006 and started hosting tournaments in high school.
“Me and my friends thought we were pretty good,” he said, so they entered their first professional tournament in 2016.
“I got wrecked!” he recalled, with a laugh.
Growing community
Esports were sports based on competition through video games, Logie said. They might not be as physical as some sports, but they require the same skills of strategy, teamwork, and mental fortitude, plus the ability to outwit your opponents.
Esports teams had coaches, managers, sponsors, and mobs of passionate fans, Dhaliwal said. Esports athletes have to maintain strict diet and exercise routines to ensure peak performance at game-time — no Doritos and Mountain Dew on the couch here. At the same time, esports tend to be more accessible to people than regular sports, as you don’t have to be super-tall or strong to play in them.
Logie said he typically practiced for about 20 hours a week in both online and in-person games when he wasn’t working or studying molecular biology at MacEwan University.
“There’s not a lot of money in Smash Bros., unfortunately,” he said — the most he’s made from a win was $500 — so esports was more of a hobby than a career for him.
Alberta’s esports scene was new but growing, Dhaliwal said. Schools such as Vimy Ridge Academy have started esports programs, and post-secondaries such as the University of Alberta were establishing teams, with some team members going on to win scholarships. While players could go pro, esports athletes often pursued traditional degrees to get jobs in the video game industry.
Logie said he has made many friends through esports, which has let him connect with others who share his passion for gaming.
“For the longest time, I didn’t want to embrace that I was a nerd,” he said.
“I always really struggled to find my place, and I found esports and Smash Bros. to be my home.”
Logie encouraged people to seek out local tournaments and experience esports.
“It’ll change your life in the best way possible.”
Visit esportsalberta.ca/aee for details on the expo.
