At a fireside chat held in the Codefi building in Cape Girardeau, Brett Payne, founder, and CEO of Contender eSports had a conversation with John Truitt about the market potential for eSports as an industry. Discussed at the event were topics such as the Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard acquisition, the rapid expansion of the eSports industry, and the potential for Contender eSports locations in smaller communities.
The event was on January 27th and was part of Codefi's regular 'Fireside Chat' series, held at their coworking space in downtown Cape.
While originally beginning in Springfield, 'Contender eSports' works to franchise eSports arenas for public use with a monthly subscription. According to Payne, there has been explosive growth in this industry since the start of the Pandemic.
“Obviously it's growing exponentially. One of the most difficult things to do, and what we do, is keeping up with what’s happening every single day… The number of people that are playing is growing exponentially month by month. So I think a lot of that was advanced with Covid, with the lockdowns.”
In addition to simply running a space for people to play video games, they also facilitate tournaments and put together prize pools on a weekly basis. At the end of the meeting, Truitt announced that he and his company Relentless Contenders plan on opening Contender eSports locations in Cape Girardeau, MO, and Paducah, KY.
“The plan for this year is to roll out two sites: one in Cape Girardeau and one in Paducah, and then we’ll expand from there. Sometime later this year we plan to have those in place.”
If the timeline stays on track, residents of both Cape Girardeau and Paducah should expect these locations to be open at some point throughout 2022.