The past few months were difficult for all of us due to the pandemic, but since life is back to its normal status, it’s time to lighten up the atmosphere a little. We are giving you a reason to be excited to welcome September as one of the biggest ESports and gaming event in Egypt and the MENA region will mark its start and it is going to be virtual.
Get ready for the ESports Summit event where 25 tournaments will be hosted.
We were lucky to have an interview with Mai Salama, the organizer of the event and managing partner at The Worx, and Hashem AlBorno who is the Co-Founder & ESports Director of Gamers Lounge to tell you all the details about the event.
1- First of all, tell us more about the event, any special guests?
Hashem El Borno: The Esports Summit is an annual esports event where gamers from all over Egypt across different gaming platforms can compete in professional and casual tournaments over a prize pool and many tournament titles.
Mai Salama: Our players are all professional players and hence we can safely say they are all very special
2- What made you interested to be an organizer of a gaming event?
Mai Salama: Given that we at The Worx believe in building platforms and always love to tread in new territories, we had been trying to enter the esports world for a while and we were taking our time to study it. We crossed paths with Gamers lounge when we invited them to speak with us in several events and that’s where the relation started. They had already held the first Esports tournament in 2018 which hosted 5,000 professional players, we then joined forces and started working on the 2019 edition where we hosted 8,000 players this year we are expecting over 12,000 players and hopefully, we will continue growing more and more every year.
https://www.facebook.com/Gamersloungeme/videos/1589276431172466/
3- Do you think the event being virtual will affect the number of participants?
Mai Salama: Virtual allows more countries to participate, so we expect way more exposure and interaction.
Hashem El Borno: Yes indeed it will, this year’s edition will be different in numbers as people can now compete-from home, enabling more participants to join.
https://www.facebook.com/Gamersloungeme/videos/2412344025653348/
4- In a world after the coronavirus, do you think events can still be virtual, or this option would end with the end of the pandemic?
Hashem El Borno: In esports and gaming, online events have been a thing for quite a while and it has it’s own experience just like attending physical ones, the experience of watching a huge stage with your favorite players playing will always be an irreplaceable experience though.
Mai Salama: Esports or Egaming as most people know it in essence a virtual sport, so I believe there is room for virtual esports tournaments but as Hashem said, nothing beats the physical experience.
5- In your opinion how did the quarantine affect the whole event business?
Mai Salama: it put a big hold on the event business in general, put it to sleep but I think now that the shock is gone we can resuscitate it with some alterations. Having said that, Esports physical events of course got affected but the field itself continued and thrived virtually.
Hashem El Borno: Games are played online and gamers are used to watch tournaments online as well. Esports is one of the markets that can benefit more from the current situation than others.
6- Why the event will take 30 days instead of 3 days like the previous years?
Mai Salama: We decided to do it differently since its virtual, then we might as well also do it with a twist, so it would be nice for the Esports players and professionals to enjoy a whole month of games, tournaments, game analysis, its like living in an Esports festival.
Hashem El Borno: Due to the time period before we only used to highlight the Semifinals & Finals matches but this year we decided to cover the whole tournament starting qualifiers till the tournament ends.
7- What are your expectations from this year’s ESports Summit Event?
Mai Salama: well, for starters it will be taking place over a full month, 30 days of games, tournaments, qualifiers, winners, castors, and game analysis, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hashem El Borno: Every year in our industry is different, new games, new players and we’re planning a whole new level of tournaments for our lovely audience.
8- What is the event that you haven’t organized but dreaming about it?
Mai Salama: Hosting the biggest esports tournament in the world from Egypt
9- What makes this edition of ESports Summit different from the previous ones -except that it’s going for 30 days-
Hashem El Borno: The idea that it’s all online and open for all everyone to participate, we’ll explore more hidden talents that sometimes struggle from being present for physical events!
10- What would you say to the participant?
Mai Salama: I would say, get ready, gear up, have fun and show us some good games 🙂
We are super excited about this event and we can wait to see the huge success it will achieve.