The world of PC gaming tournaments is a major business, attracting skilled players from all over the world and their devoted fans. Planning and executing a successful gaming tournament requires a passion for gaming, serious planning, endless effort, and the buy-in of the gaming community you want to reach. Here are our tips on how to plan and execute a successful PC gaming tournament.
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Select your game
The first step in any gaming tournament is the selection of your game. More than anything else, this detail will determine the kind of tech you need, the number of players and attendees you can expect, and the type of venue you’ll need.
Staying on the cutting edge of gaming news and trends is important for gaming tournament organizers, but the classics tend to attract more teams, gamers, and larger audiences. Sports games, fighting games, first-person shooter games, battle royale games, and MOBAs can reliably be counted on to draw huge crowds and many of the most influential gamers and teams. Talk to the people in your gaming community about the kinds of games they’re most interested in seeing at a gaming tournament and get a consensus to help you select the right game for your event.
Pick a venue
If you’re thinking about selecting one of the game types discussed above, you’ll want to look into a public event space. Hotels, convention centers, and sporting arenas often have spaces set aside for events and tournaments. Selecting a venue that has experience hosting a gaming tournament may help you avoid future headaches.
In addition to ensuring that your venue is big enough to meet the needs of your tournament, you will also need to talk to their in-house IT team about the bandwidth they will have set aside for your tournament. Many tournament organizers in recent years have learned the hard way that the WiFi offered at the event space just isn’t capable of handling the demands of dozens of gaming teams or hundreds of individual gamers. No matter where you’re holding your event or how much bandwidth they promise you, it’s always a good idea to invest in a WiFi hotspot rental that is dedicated to your tournament’s needs. Our Freedom WiFi hotspot rentals offer unlimited data to an unlimited number of users with speeds up to 150MBps from the top carriers across the US. With wifi hotspot rentals, your gamers will experience uninterrupted gameplay throughout your entire event and your audience will stay immersed in the gaming experience.
Even if your venue has experience hosting gaming tournaments, it’s unlikely that their in-house IT team will have the expertise or time to help you troubleshoot and ensure that all of your equipment is compatible with the equipment on-site. However, our rental agents work with you and your venue’s staff to ensure that your rental equipment is compatible with the tech you already have or that the event offers. With our On-Site IT Services, we can also help with any IT-related service on-site at your event, ranging from setting up your network to configuring your rental equipment at the event site. Our goal is to ensure all of your technology-related tasks are handled, allowing you to focus more on your event.
Pick all-star tech
When it comes to a gaming tournament, the one area that you definitely can not skimp on is the tech you provide to your gamers. In addition to having identical machine capabilities across all devices, you’ll also need monitors, microphones, keyboards, headphones, and mice for each player that registers. That could be anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred for larger tournaments. Gamers are a community, so if your event doesn’t deliver on the tech, word will quickly spread.
While there are many options for gaming PCs on the market, our most popular and best-performing gaming desktop rentals include top of the line models like the Dell XPS, HP Omen, and MSI Trident and Aegis. The GTX 1080 graphics card remains one of the best graphics cards for PC gaming at 1080p, 1440p, and even 4K. If your gamers are looking for a GPU that can handle any game at nearly maxed out quality, the GTX 1080 delivers. We also offer RTX-equipped gaming desktop rentals for hyper-realistic gameplay.
When you’re hosting a gaming tournament or competition, the computing and GPU power of your hardware are all that matter. All of our gaming desktop rentals feature GTX 1080 graphics cards or better that will have your gamers fully immersed in game-play. Whether you need 10 gaming desktops or 100, we have the equipment you need when and where you need it. Check out Gaming is Serious Business to learn more about our gaming desktop rental options.
Market directly to the gaming community
When deciding how to market your event, keep in mind the game you’re promoting for your tournament. Your event logo, landing pages, registration site, and everything related to your event should be in line with the game you’ve chosen for your tournament. Not only does this help set the stage for your event, but it also helps get attendees and gamers excited before they ever set foot in your venue.
Gamers are a community and word-of-mouth can go a long way to helping ensure the success of your event. Aligning yourself with the gaming community around the game or style of game you’ve chosen, and bringing in influencers from that community early on, is key. Talk to the top gamers in your game and offer them incentives, such as discount codes or merchandise, to promote your event and help bring in attendees.
Host pre-event “networking parties” online to allow your attendees to engage with the influencers that are promoting and will be attending your event. Not only does this help you spread your message and excitement around your event, but it can also help you begin to craft the “in-world” experience that so many gamers crave. Begin setting the stage now for what attendees and gamers can expect at your event.
Sign up players
Teams of professional gaming tournament competitors often bring their own following to the events they participate in. Therefore, the teams you select to participate in your tournament can have a huge influence on your attendance rate and engagement at the event. Do some research on the major players and legendary competitors for the game you’ve selected and reach out to them early and often about participating in your tournament.
Get the audience involved
Much of the audience’s attention at a gaming tournament is directed toward the game and the players, so keeping your audience engaged is vital to making your gaming tournament a success. While other tournaments may overlook the audience experience, their ticket sales are what will determine the success or failure of your event.
Keep everyone in the venue in on the action with large scale video wall rentals. Configurable to any size or shape, our video wall rentals support HDMI, DVI, Display Port, and other input options. No matter the dimensions or resolution you need, our video wall solutions will help you create an eye-catching display that will keep the attention of your audience.
Want even more help in executing your event? Check out Discover Our Event Production Services to learn more about how we can help take the pressure off your team and let you focus on what matters–making your event a success.
Powering your gaming tournament
Our rental agents will walk you through the rental process, work with you to figure out the event technology rentals that best meets your needs, and any additional equipment that you may need to make your gaming tournament a success. Our comprehensive approach allows us to give you a quote specific to your event and rental needs.
When you rent from us, you get the best equipment and top-of-the-line support. Our trained technicians deliver, set up, and prepare all of your gaming tournament rentals so that you and your event planner can focus on delivering the best experience for your event attendees and competitors. Our agents coordinate all the logistics of delivery and installation and can have techs on call to troubleshoot and fix any problems that may arise with your rental technology. Get a quote for your gaming tournament tech rental today.
Rent with Tech Travel Agent Brian
Do you need someone to help you leave your audience in awe? Tech Travel Agent Brian Kubala specializes in technology solutions including advertising kiosks, large displays, video walls, projectors and screens, laptops, gaming PCs, workstations, and any other technology you’ll need to engage your audience. Brian can answer any questions you have about computers and other necessary equipment, as well as the renting process. Contact Brian today at 1-800-736-8772 ext. 270 or fill out a fast, easy online quote form.
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*We are a Business to Business (B2B) rental firm. All rental orders must be placed by an authorized representative of a qualified business. First-time business customers are screened for compliance to ensure the order is legitimate and authorized. In short, you must be a business that has been established for a minimum of 2 years with an email address connected to a corotate domain and a ship to address that also meets our requirements. To see the full requirements, visit our Requirements to Rent page.
**Are you part of an eSports team or gaming community? If so, keep in mind we would love to help supply the gaming hardware for your next event, however, we are strictly a business to business rental firm. Since gaming teams, clubs, and comminutes of gamers would not qualify as a business, simply ask your corporate sponsor if they are willing to place the order for your gaming event on your behalf.
