WASHINGTON — Esports competitions have garnered millions of new fans over the years. Now, downtown D.C. has a new place to watch its players compete.
On Friday, Monumental Sports and Entertainment held a grand opening ceremony for “District E.” The live events space, which is located next to Capital One Arena, in Gallery Place, will host esports competitions throughout the year.
Monumental first announced plans to open the 14,000 square foot facility in January 2022. District E, which will be able to host anywhere from 400 to 500 people at a time, also includes a restaurant and bar space.
"We'll work with Ticketmaster to book acoustic shows and comedy tours,” said Zach Leonsis, President of Media & New Enterprises for Monumental.
Leonsis said he believes District E represents the next step in the maturation of esports competition.
"Obviously, we come from the traditional sports world where we are filling our arena with 20,000 people on a near nightly basis,” he said. “Esports isn't quite there yet, but they are drawing tens of millions, and in some cases, for a game, like Leagues of Legends, hundreds of millions of people are watching,” he said.
District E will also host the 2023 NBA 2K League season.
NBA 2K League President Brendan Donahue said the new Gallery Place location is impressive.
"We've always had a physical space for our top competition, but nothing like this,” he said.
Donahue added esports gaming is worthy of such a venue too.
"To put it in perspective, our finals last year, we had two million people watch,” he said.
Justin Howell, who goes by the gamer tag “Just Awkward” plays for the Wizards District Gaming esports team.
He said it was great to see a new space be dedicated to his sport.
"Coming from playing in my home to this whole entire facility is like a dream come true," he said.
The very first 2K League esports competition at District E will take place Wednesday. Tickets are $10.