Esports giant ESL has announced that, in collaboration with ICS, they'll be bringing an ESL Arena to the Wacken Open Air Festival, featuring daily tournaments and exhibition matches for players of all skill levels, featuring bands at the show as well as professional teams.
If you don't know, Wacken Open Air is a huge heavy metal festival taking place from August 2 to 4, and CEO of ICS Festival Service GmbH Holger Hübner thinks that it's a good fit for esports. "Like many games, heavy metal creates fantasy worlds. Sabaton's collaboration with World of Tanks is just one example of how much the two categories have in common," he said.
"The medium of computer games is more and more mainstream in all areas of life, as the music has been now for many years," added Ralf Reichert, CEO of ESL. "An iconic, multi-day music festival like Wacken is a very interesting opportunity to test the esports phenomenon in a new setting and take it into a new environment."
Games included at the ESL Arena include PUBG and League of Legends, with prizes available for competitors, although there's plenty more going on like training sessions as well, with partners for the arena including NicNacs, Razer, and Hummel.
Will you be there at Wacken?