Malta's first ever professional gaming tournament was launched at the Quickfireesports centre, which is part of InterContinental Malta. This event, which is sponsored by the MTA, is the first ever Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to be held in Malta. It will be taking place between today and 2 December, and will bring eight teams from all around the world, including China, Russia, Europe and the USA to compete for a prize pool of $150,000.
A total of 4,000 people are expected to attend this four-day event, which will include some of the top professional gamers in the world. In fact, the eight competing teams can all be found in the top 30 worldwide. One of the competing teams, the American one, is currently ranked as number three in the world for Counter-Strike.
The event is going to be live-streamed through various social media channels and will be broadcast in eight different languages including English, Russian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish. It is expected that this tournament will attract over five million unique viewers worldwide and also a great local audience.
The parliamentary secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation, Silvio Schembri noted that just a few months ago he was addressing the first ever Malta e-Sports Forum and spoke about the local government's vision to make Malta into the "Home of Gaming Excellence" and now, through this international scale event, they can say that their vision has become a reality. Events such as these are the future and everyone involved believes that the Maltese Islands has all the criteria to be a high quality e-sports destination.
The Malta Tourism Authority's executive chairman, Gavin Gulia, commented that the Maltese Islands are now fully equipped to host traditional events as well as events which make use of the latest technology. This event promotes our country as a destination where the best gamers can meet as well as compete against one another. This is one of the reasons why Malta is being promoted as an ideal all-year-round destination and not just as a traditional holiday venue.
Ivan Filletti, head of Operations & Business Development for Gaming Malta, said that the e-sports market is very large and incorporates many different games and therefore there is a lot of room to grow.
Simon Decesare, chief executive of Eden Leisure Group, said that this event is a first in Malta and will open Eden up to becoming a leader in the e-sports events organisation.
Tickets for the event, as well as more information, can be viewed on https://www.supernovamalta.com/