For this month’s featured video, we selected the following from Oculus Connect that took place earlier last month. Oculus Connect highlights the latest developments in VR technologies led by Oculus (owned by Facebook).
During the keynote, Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, gave a presentation not just on Oculus technologies but the content and overall ecosystem advances and what’s coming next year. He also revealed the much anticipated Oculus Quest, shipping in the Spring of 2019 for $399. Have a look:
LAS VEGAS – October 9, 2018 – ESP Gaming today announced that the first-ever World Showdown of Esports (WSOE), a multi-genre esports tournament series, will take place October 14-15 and feature top competitors of Dota 2. The action will unfold live on twitch.tv/WSOE from the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas and crown the first WSOE Champion. Competing teams, featuring veteran players and rising stars – including compLexity Gaming, Alliance, Team Serenity, J.Storm, The Final Tribe, Happy Guys, ROOONS, and Pain X – will play for $100,000 in cash prizes.
Taking inspiration from boxing and mixed martial arts, the WSOE will crown champions in several title-based competitive divisions, with the winners defending their titles at subsequent events. Unlike other competitive gaming series, the WSOE will feature year-round storylines and showcase teams and players from a variety of genres and games across mobile, PC, and console.
Dota 2 is the featured game for WSOE 1, the inaugural WSOE title event. “Dota 2 is one of the longest-standing competitive gaming titles, and its rich history in esports makes it a perfect fit for the narrative-driven competition of WSOE,” said Jeff Liboon, President of ESP Gaming. “The WSOE is an intimate, premium event designed to capture the spirit of competition for fans and players alike. We are excited to present Dota 2 fans a new opportunity to support their favorite teams as they vie to become the first-ever WSOE Champion.”
WSOE also revealed that ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) will be the official hardware sponsor of the tournament series. ASUS will provide all gaming hardware including G11 Gaming Desktops, ROG Swift PG248Q Gaming Monitors, ROG Strix GL504 Gaming Laptops, ROG Strix Flare Keyboards, ROG Strix Fusion Headsets, ROG Gladius II Origin Gaming Mice, and ROG Scabbard Gaming Mousepads. Fans will also have the opportunity to win top-of-the-line ASUS ROG equipment throughout the series.
“Our partnership with ASUS Republic of Gamers gives us the ability to provide best-in-class gaming devices for our competitors while optimizing the viewing experience for WSOE fans around the world,” said Richard Blankenship, Senior Vice President of Business Development at ESP Gaming. “ASUS ROG has been at the forefront of the esports community and we are thrilled to incorporate their high-performance products during our inaugural season.”
WSOE 1: The Dota 2 Showdown begins Sunday, October 14 and continues Monday, Oct. 15 starting at 9 a.m. PDT each day. Richard Lewis, WSOE’s head of talent, will host and fans can watch live on Twitch at twitch.tv/WSOE. More information about the WSOE schedule and formats will be shared soon.
Along with the announcement of the Oculus Quest virtual reality (VR) headset for spring 2019 came the announcement of about 50 titles to launch with it. A few of the upcoming game titles were shown at Oculus Connect 5 and held a dominant presence on the expo floor. We had the opportunity to test drive a few of these titles in made-for-the-game, room-scale environments, which were in many cases as noteworthy as the demos themselves
Another game, Dead and Buried Arena, was an arena-scale, co-located multiplayer, mixed reality game experience, which we did not try but was also demoed for the Oculus Quest.
Project Tennis Scramble
I probably shouldn’t compare sports from over a decade ago on the Nintendo Wii to a pre-release game on the Oculus Quest, but the comparison feels really hard to avoid. Not that it’s a bad thing, as Wii Sports is considered one of the best “example games” for the Wii.
The Quest’s Tennis Scramble games were demoed in a scaled-down two-sided tennis court parted with a net, completed by a bucket of bright green tennis balls off to the side. Only in a space as large as a convention center expo hall could this presentation environment at scale be possible — or maybe a few arcades and very large living rooms for one such tennis game play space.
Project Tennis Scramble in action (photo credit: E4G)
I demoed the game with another participant, and after being greeted by Oculus’ Jason Rubin, We were calibrated, our avatars were automatically selected for us; and then before we knew it, we were ready to duel it out with pre-selected cutesy Rayman-like armless floating body avatars.
The in-game environment, where the action takes place, was bright, bold, cartoony, and still distinctively a tennis court environment. Seeing ancillary characters from the Mario universe in the stands would not have been out of place.
Project Tennis Scramble, developed by Armature Studio, seems to be an early name for the game, given the “project” monicker. The game, whatever its name will be and whatever final form it might take, would likely be better suited as a pack-in or bundle like Wii Sports (See, another reference to that set of games, again) was for its system.
SUPERHOT VR
The VR version of the SUPERHOT slow-mo FPS from 2016, this version retains a similar look and feel on the Oculus Quest. If you’re not familiar with the original, SUPERHOT, created by the SUPERHOT Team, is a level-based FPS with bullet time-influenced game play. The more the player moves, the faster the game proceeds, with red polygonal enemies coming for you with all manner of weaponry. Luckily, the environment is also stocked with ad hoc weaponry the player can use.
Playing SUPERHOT VR
This basic form of game play is baked into the virtual reality version of the game, too. On the wireless Quest, stacked with 6DoF , moving your body to avoid bullets or an opponent’s punch feels natural. Without wires, Uppercut-punching an opponent feels natural, firing a virtual pistol does too. But with a trigger, time could be “sped up,” so the enemies rush at you faster if you are confident you can take them on. In the early levels, it’s easier. As the levels progress, of course, the choices and puzzles, with the placement of weapons and enemies, get a little more tricky.
As with Tennis Scramble, the play space the organizers had for demoing SUPERHOT VR was spacious, in shades of black and white and red, and delineated for the borders. The practical play area paralleled a grid-like wall in the headset too — or a player might stumble into the physical wall.
All in all, SUPERHOT VR felt like an organic, well-chosen experience to show off the Quest hardware’s capabilities.
Face Your Fears 2
Chalk this game up to a literal WYSIWYG. In this game, if you are phobic about zombies, spiders, and jump scares, then yes. this experience will give you the cold sweats and second or third thoughts about opening the creaking door.
Face Your Fears 2, developed by Turtle Rock Studios, is a sequel to the original horror-themed VR title. In this demo, I was in a clapboard-type room with dull illumination on the other side, complete with a swivel desk fan and cobwebs to bring a form of life to the play space. As a demonstration space, it was pretty impressive stuff.
Setting the mood for Face Your Fears 2
The demo is limited to a certain objective, but for the 5-10 minutes it takes to reach it, it might feel closer to forever. You, the poor protagonist searches for a lost sister in a ghoulish haunted mansion under a moody, moonlit sky. Horror tropes are gleefully embraced, from spiders jumping out at you, to zombies greeting you (or shutting the door on you). Sound effects are used to good effect, as is the sense of immersion and the limits of what you can see or do to counter the encroaching the horrors. When playing through the demo, I felt my stomach knotting up, my breath going shallow — it’s an intense kind of immersion. From the demo space next door, adding to that impression, I heard a scream or two from another demo participant. Feeling helpless is, perhaps, the ultimate horror movie trope, usually reserved for someone not destined to survive.
To find out whether you can guide the hero to the end of his quest, you’ll have to wait until spring to play Face Your Fears 2.
These games are a few of the first sprinkles of water from a wave of games to be announced over the next several months. If we come across any at any events, we’ll be sure to share our impressions of those Oculus Quest games!
Arlington, VA, October 3, 2018 – The Consumer Technology Association(CTA)TM today announced that AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will deliver a keynote address at the upcoming CES 2019. Dr. Su’s address is scheduled for Wednesday, January 9 at 9:00 AM in the Venetian Palazzo Ballroom. Owned and produced by CTA, CES 2019, the world’s largest innovation event, will run January 8-11, 2019 in Las Vegas.
In 2019, AMD will catapult computing, gaming, and visualization technologies forward with the world’s first 7nm high-performance CPUs and GPUs, providing the power required to reach technology’s next horizon. During her CESkeynote, Dr. Su and guests will provide a view into the diverse applications for new computing technologies ranging from solving some of the world’s toughest challenges to the future of gaming, entertainment and virtual reality with the potential to redefine modern life.
“AMD is transforming the future of computing in our ever-expanding digital world and revolutionizing the $35 billion gaming industry,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. “We look forward to Dr. Su’s keynote as she paints a picture of the next-generation of computing that will help redefine the future of gaming and virtual entertainment.”
Dr. Su is AMD president and chief executive officer and serves on the company’s board of directors. Previously, Dr. Su held executive leadership and engineering positions with AMD, Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. and IBM after receiving her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2017, she was named one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune Magazine and the “Top Ranked Semiconductor CEO” by Institutional Investor Magazine. Under Dr. Su’s leadership, AMD has introduced two completely new chip architectures and more than ten different product families, resulting in double-digit annual revenue growth in 2017.
Dr. Su’s address marks the first CESkeynote from AMD in show history. She joins IBM chairman, president and CEO Ginni Rometty as confirmed CES 2019keynote speakers. Additional CESkeynotes will be announced in the coming weeks. Visit the CESKeynote page for the latest updates.
CES is the largest and most influential technology event on the planet, featuring 4,500 exhibitors across 2.75 million net square feet of exhibit space. The 2018event attracted 182,198 attendees, including a record 63,784 international attendees, according to the official show audit. The show provides access to the very latest transformative tech such as 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, smart home, smart cities, sports and machine intelligence, as well as new areas for 2019 including tourism and resilience.
Registration for CES 2019 is now open. Download or subscribe to the CES Tech Talk podcast, back for a second season to explore all the emerging tech trends attendees will see and experience at CES 2019. For the latest exhibitor news and show announcements, visit CES.tech.
We’re excited to be presenting yet another great list of upcoming industry events! To help you discover upcoming game industry conferences, conventions, festivals and other events, we post a consolidated list here on Events for Gamers each month.
View the complete October event list below. You can also click here for the main calendar view.
City of Industry, CA – September 27, 2018 – MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, has partnered with ESL for its MSI Gaming Arena (MGA) 2018 World Championship and as the exclusive gaming sponsor of the ESL One 2018 Grand Finals at the Barclays Center in New York on September 29 and 30.
MGA 2018 World Championship Before the Grand Final, MSI Gaming Arena (MGA) 2018 will host the world’s top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams fighting for the coveted MGA Trophy and $60,000 prize pool on September 30 at the Barclays Center in New York. After the regional qualifiers, the four remaining teams will secure their spot in the MGA 2018 CS:GO Grand Finals.
As a part of the event, players will be amplified by MSI’s newest high-performance gaming products including the Infinite X desktop and Oculux NXG251 gaming monitor. The Infinite X is the pinnacle of desktop performance with top-of-the-line MSI GAMING graphics card and latest Intel Core processor. The Oculux is making its North American debut during the tournament. It is MSI’s first gaming monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate and NVIDIA G-Sync technology. Additionally, MSI GE73 gaming laptops will be used to power the event’s broadcasts.
The MGA 2018 Grand Finals will feature exciting CS:GO matches thanks to the top players from around the world playing on the best gaming hardware.
ESL One 2018 The ESL One 2018 Grand Finals, one of the biggest CS:GO competitions, returns to New York with MSI as the only gaming partner of this world-class tournament. During the weekend’s tournament, the eight top CS:GO teams will compete for a $250,000 prize pool.
MSI will provide high-performance gaming products including the MSI GeForce RTX 2080 GAMING X TRIO graphics cards and Z370 GAMING PLUS motherboards. The RTX 2080 GAMING X TRIO features an improved TRI-FROZR design to generate large amounts of airflow to keep the powerful GPU cool. The MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS motherboard is a heavy-duty board with Turbo M.2 slots, Audio Boost and brings gamers’ experiences to life with lightning-fast performance.
“We look forward to bringing ESL One New York and premier competition back to the Barclays Center for another showcase of exciting esports,” said Yvette Martinez-Rea, CEO, ESL North America. “The passion behind the fans will fuel the amazing eSports experience ESL looks to create, and we aim to make this event unforgettable.”
The Oculus Connect 5 (OC5) keynote, to lead off Facebook’s Oculus ecosystem virtual reality conference, has been expected to highlight the accomplishments and near-future of their market-priced all-in-one Oculus Go. Undoubtedly what will snag the attention of attendees even more is more hard info about upcoming hardware. So, with the keynote now in the books, what are the highlights gamers and VR enthusiasts have to look forward to?
Oculus Quest
After Facebook (and owner of Oculus) CEO Mark Zuckerberg lead off the keynote by ruefully admitting that, while one billion VR users is the goal, the company has so far seen about 1% of the objective reached. To reach that, Zuckerberg continued, would require three things: offering standalone hardware, hand presence and six degrees of freedom (6DoF). At that point, Zuckerberg announced the Oculus Quest VR headset, which was formerly Project Santa Cruz.
Oculus Quest from the front (photo credit: Oculus)
The Oculus Quest hardware is described as the company’s “First All-in-One VR Gaming System”. Priced at $399 and with a spring rollout in 2019 scheduled, the Quest offers 6DoF, Toch controllers, self-contained computing and therefore wireless, with no requirement for additional sensors for device or user positioning.
A few of the specs that have been offered for the Quest are that it’s going to include 64GB in storage, but it’s not clear how much will be for compute operation versus storage. Also a spec to wait for is the battery life, but according to a Gizmodo story today, “Oculus told Gizmodo the Quest will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. That’s more powerful than the 821 found in the Go and the same processor found in Lenovo and Google’s Daydream headset, as well as smartphones like the Samsung S8. ” Optically, the Quest will feature adjustable 1600×1440 lenses per eye, which should put the Quest on par, in terms of resolution, with the HTC Vive Pro and Focus.
On the software side, over 50 titles will be available at launch. Only a few were called out, though, including ports of better-known VR game properties, such as Robo Recall, the Climb, and Moss.
Oculus Go
The Oculus Go launched at Facebook’s 2018 F8 conference earlier this year, positioned as an accessibly priced, high-quality experience for VR. It was announced during the OC5 keynote that 80% of Oculus Go owners are new to the ecosystem, suggesting attention from new audiences, albeit with no specifics how large that audience itself might be.
Among the announcements focused on the Go is new ways to watch Go content and new content to watch. Namely, YouTube VR is coming to the Go, which basically means Vr-ready content will be viewable as intended on the Go. Oculus is also scheduling a slate of events for the autumn, including NBA games, for the Oculus Venues app.
Of special interest to gamers is likely to be the TV-casting feature, which allows the content watched in a headset to be streamed to a smartphone or a television. Imagine being able to play an intense game of Lone Echo arena and be able to show off the action to friends — instead of going it alone in virtual reality and being awkward around your friends.
Oculus Rift
Lastly, the granddaddy of all the Oculus, Oculuses (or is that Oculi?), the Rift, was also gifted plenty of announcements at the OC5 keynote too. the Rift will see a potent bump on the software side with a update top Core 2.0, which will enable more developer tools, avatars and connectivity for greater social engagement in, and through, VR. Furthermore, the Rift Platform, which features hybrid apps for switchable 2D to VR experiences, should give developers, especially in productivity and enterprise spaces new tools to work with.
The Rift will also see Lone Echo II, Echo Combat, Ready at Dawn, Vox Machinae, and Space Bullet, for the autumn and toward the all-important holiday sales season.
Keep an eye out for more news from OC5, as Events for Gamer explores the latest from Facebook and Oculus in virtual reality!
Gaming peripherals company, SteelSeries, has announced a limited-edition line of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) branded peripherals. The new mouse and mousepad will feature a design based on the CS:GO’ renown gun skin, the M4A4 Howl. The mouse and mousepad combo are featured at FACEIT Major: London 2018, the thirteenth CS:GO major championship.
From the announcement press release today:
“Valve has been a valued partner for a long time, first with the creation of the Rival 300 Fade and Rival 300 Hyper Beast, and CS:GO integration in SteelSeries Engine,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, SteelSeries CEO. “The Rival 310 and QcK+ Limited Howl Editions are the next chapter in our partnership to help CS:GO players be as accurate as possible while sporting an iconic look. We are avid supporters of the competitive scene and are proud to announce our new line at the FACEIT Major in London.”
Branding aside, what about the mouse and pad themselves? The Rival 310 is a gaming-oriented mouse utilizing the TrustMove 3 sensor, uses a split-trigger button design and mulit-color Prism RGB illumination compatible with SteelSeries Engine software. The Howl Edition of the Rival 310 shares the similar specs of the original mouse’s specs.
The Rival 310 is a mouse made for unparalleled accuracy due to the power of the SteelSeries exclusive TrueMove3 sensor. The Rival 310 Howl Edition takes advantage of the Rival 310’s high performance while sporting the legendary design of CS:GO’s most infamous gun skin. The mouse uses a split-trigger button design and mulit-color Prism RGB illumination compatible with SteelSeries Engine software. The Rival 310 Howl Edition is available in North America for $69.99, in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for €79.99, and in the Pacific for $79.99.
The QcK+ Limited Howl Edition mousepad features a similar visual design used in the Rival 310 Howl Edition mouse. The 450mm x 400mm x 3mm mousepad is made of a hi9gh thread count micro-woven cloth, with mouse glide, tracking accuracy and minimized friction in mind. The mousepad also uses a non-slip base and never-fray stitching, ensuring the surface will never fray or peel. The QcK+ Limited Howl Edition is available in North America for $29.99, in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for €34.99 and in the Pacific for $34.99.
The mouse and mousepad can be seen in action in Section N at the event (and perhaps on stream). In the meantime, scope out this still frame of the mouse and pad in the hand of a demonstrator.
SteelSeries CS-GO mouse and mousepad (photo credit: SteelSeries)
To read up on more info about the complete line of Howl Edition SteelSeries products, visit https://steelseries.com/csgo.
Registration for the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is now open! Hosted in the heart of Las Vegas, the show will run from January 8th to the 11th in 2019, CES 2019 will showcase a range of technology across 24 product categories, including tech such as 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, smart home, smart cities, sports, machine intelligence and more.
CES 2019 registration rates for general audiences range from $100 for expo access to the maxed-out $1400 package that includes all five days of expo access and conference programming. Registration rates will rise on December 17th. Sort out the details on the CES 2019 registration information page.
Glancing back at CES year that was, here are a few of the dozens of gaming gadgets and tech that was announced at the 2018 CES:
As a newer, redesigned, higher resolution VR headset of the original, the HTC Vive Pro was one of the bigger, more impactful virtual reality (VR) announcements from the prior CES.
Described as a powerful VR-capable handheld PC, the Hades Canyon NUC was offered up as Intel’s latest-generation gaming-oriented portable computer hardware.
To get a handle on the overall scale of this show, the CES 2018 audience was audited and the organized stated they pulled in over 182,000 attendees, with a record-setting near-64,000 international attendees, with over 6,500 exhibitors, across a sprawling 2.78 million square feet of expo space. Expect a similar scale in terms of attendees, exhibitors, and expo space in the massive upcoming 2019 show. In other words, if you go, wear good shoes and plan for staying hydrated.
Events for Gamers will be watching for gaming-aligned news ahead of CES 2019, for any announcements to pass along!
For this month’s featured video, we selected the following from gamescom that took place earlier last month. As always, gamescom has a ton of exciting games and peripherals and other interesting industry related booths to browse through. The show is so large, even focusing on computer electronics can take a day to get through. The show kicked off with one of our personally most exciting announcements, the right of Real-Time Ray Tracing in games, powered by Nvidia GPUs. Have a look:
The gaming culture convention GameOn has always been a place of knowledge. Over the years this conference has seen many world-class speakers, prominent educators, psychologists and economists who shared their experiences in the gaming world. This year will be no different. On November 2-3rd, GameOn will host its fourth conference with the help of the largest Lithuanian game studio Nordcurrent.
Inspiration for developers
On a mission to grow the local indie scene and educate the developers, GameOn invited a true industry rock star as keynote speaker. Rami Ismail is a well-known persona in the games industry. His studio Vlambeer has released critically acclaimed games such as Nuclear Throne, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box, or Serious Sam: The Random Encounter. Besides awesome games, Rami Ismail has many other achievements – in 2018 he received the GDC Ambassador Award, which honors individuals who are helping video games advance to a better place through advocacy or action.
GameOn will also have guests from beautiful Switzerland. Philomena Schwab, a board member of the Swiss Game Development Association, founded her independent game development studio Stray Fawn Studio, which recently released its first highly successful game Niche. Philomena Schwab will share her expertise in creating virtual communities and share secrets on how to connect with your players. She was also listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 list of computer technology professionals.
And not only developers
Game developers won’t be the only ones to gather their share of our conference wisdom. GameOn will host a separate conference track dedicated to those who want to learn more about the gaming culture in general.
Dr. Johanna Pirker is another GameOn guest featured on Forbes 30 Under 30 as a science professional. has This honorable guest started researching and developing VR experiences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011. During her talk, Johanna Pirker is going to present her experiences playing games from different countries, genres, and backgrounds. She will talk about stories trying to find these games and lessons learned about cultural diversity in gaming.
Leszek Szczepanski from Guerrilla Games studio worked on Killzone: Shadow Fall and Horizon: Zero Dawn. He came from a place in Poland where barely any game development used to happen. Living on the other side of the former Iron Curtain might make one feel far away from many exciting possibilities. Leszek Szczepanksi will debunk this myth and share his journey to Triple-A gamedev scene.
Another interesting talk will be given by Tsahi Libermann, a true veteran of game development. For many years now, Tsahi has been connecting the Israeli game industry with game industries around the world. Tsahi also leads the biggest game design and development school in Israel. In his talk he will review “peace-telling games” and show examples of conflict resolution games.
The list of these honorable guests will soon be filled up with some more famous names from all over the world. You can learn more about the conference on the GameOn event page.
While some details about this tragedy are coming into focus — and will continue to do so as legal system processes the evidence — the shooting has also left behind questions in addition to the grief and anger. The recurring discussion about games and violence are likely to continue to turn up, as well as the discussions about access to guns and treatment of mental illness in the United States.
But, as noted earlier, one of the front-and-center questions is about games-focused events and security, especially in the United States. Electronic Arts, at the heart of this incident, has chosen to cancel the remaining Madden Classic qualifiers to review the safety protocols for their competitive gaming events. So the spotlight on security has shifted to larger fan-driven events, like Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) West 2018, TwitchCon 2018, BlizzCon 2018 and others.
Since PAX West 2018 has come and gone, what steps did their organizing team take? The Seattle Times reports that uniformed and plainclothes police were installed at the Washington State Convention Center. The event’s most current security guidelines, which include pre-checked cosplay non-functional “weapons,” were posted online.
However, some attendees were hoping for and were expecting more rigorous security measures at PAX West, even at the cost to their comfort or convenience. Some attendees felt a high level of protection was not present at the PAX West 2018 show.
More ppl need to point out the lack of security at gaming events/cons. Just walked into @Official_PAX yesterday without being screened, wanded, or patted down.
I understand this would slow down an already slow process, but safety cannot be sacrificed for convenience. #PAXWest
As noted by Alex Novosad (@GSPint) and Billy Kandris (@Karrott316) on Twitter, the competitive gaming-focused Fortnite pop-up at PAX West 2018 apparently had more consistent and comprehensive security.
The fortnite event portion on pax west has back checks metal detectors and security on sight 100% of the time
Other events and parties at PAX West 2018 also took up the mantle of increasing security, such as by requesting cosplay weapons, regardless of compositions or functionality, not be brought to their event. The “DMC5 SSStylish Pizza Party,” for example, made a request of attendees to make security screening easier and enhance the feeling of safety at the event.
Post on “DMC5 SSStylish Pizza Party” Facebook page about security steps
TwitchCon and IEM Chicago 2018 are larger events next on deck this autumn and will almost certainly face similar scrutiny. Unlike the PAX West, team, who only had a week to respond and adjust, these particular events have more than a month to level up security, if necessary, We emailed the organizers of these shows to get a sense where they stand on the topic. TwitchCon, BlizzCon 2018 and IEM organizers did not send a reply to the query. However, TwitchCon organizers have recently stated that they are looking into updating security protocols for the upcoming show for San Jose, California.
It’s an uncertain how much of theevents-related security changes, however many are implemented, will remain in place over the long run. For now, it appears many attendees at game conventions and competitions would feel safer with more safety precautions, not less.
