ALBANY – After a brief hiatus, HV Gamer Con is returning to the Capital Region.
The e-sports competition is scheduled for the Albany Capital Center on March 19 and 20. It is the first time HV Gamer Con will offer a tournament to the public in addition to its intercollegiate showdown.
The tournaments will kick off virtually on March 9. College teams will compete playing three games: Rocket League, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and Overwatch. Public players will compete in Madden 22 and NBA 2K22.
Dan Coonan, president and CEO of the Eastern College Athletic Conference, said about 125 schools and 800 teams will participate in the event, a significant uptick from the 12 that competed in the first competition four years ago.
The top eight college teams as well as four public gamers will be brought to the Albany Capital Center on March 19 facing off in the finals for bragging rights and up to $1,500 in prizes.
The HV Gaming Con finals don’t officially start until 5 p.m. March 19, but gaming members of the public who want a chance to play can try their hand in an open tournament at noon that day. The top scorer will be given a slot in the finals.
Individuals looking to play must be 13 or older, be able to get to the center and have an entry ticket. Tickets for a day cost $15 and the cost for the weekend is $30. Students can buy tickets at discounted rates starting at $10 for the day and $24 for the weekend. Registration for the online qualifiers is open until Feb. 17 and tickets for the event go on sale Feb. 5.
The event is being put on by ECAC in collaboration with Compete4Ever, Albany Capital Center and the Center for Economic Growth. The event will also have several panels available to attendees with information on college gaming, how schools can launch e-sports teams and the industry.
Compete4Ever owner Larry Ridley also suggested attendees might even spot a former Super Bowl winner and NBA player at the tournament. “It’s going to be a fabulous event,” he said.
This year marks HV Gaming Con’s in-person return to the region since 2019. In 2019, about $300,000 was put into the event, which yielded over 2,500 attendees, Michele Vennard, board chair of the Albany Convention Center Authority, said at a press conference Wednesday.
The competition was held virtually in 2020 but wasn’t held in 2021. It’s billed as the “largest esports event in the region.”
Vennard said Gamer Con experienced “exponential” growth since it first came to the region and is indicative of the evolving gaming industry taking up residence there.
CEG chief economic development officer Katie Newcombe said the Capital Region’s gaming cluster currently has more than 500 workers across 24 studios, a 25 percent increase since 2019.
What’s more, the number of video game patents listing Capital Region inventors has doubled and one in 10 Activision patents are grounded here.
“They say that play is a driver of innovation and here in the Capital Region digital gaming cluster, we’re taking that really seriously and quite literally,” she said.
Shayla Colon is a Native New Yorker who previously worked for Hearst CT Media. She now covers business news for the Albany Times Union. When she’s not reporting, find her working out or tucked away in a corner with a book, preferably Hemingway or Fitzgerald.
