27 Sep, 2018
McMECHEN — While some at sports bars Wednesday evening across the Ohio Valley watched the Pirates play the Cubs, Jerry’s Bar was playing host to the local e-sports scene with a Fortnite: Battle Royale tournament.
Four men brought their game consoles to the bar to play a double-elimination tournament of the third-person shooter, while Will Dove, of ProGame Sports — the event’s sponsor and partner — was on hand to stream the event online.
Dove, who acted as the host of the event, invited four of his friends to compete to test the waters for how the event would be received. He said he hopes more events such as the one held Wednesday will take place in the future.
“We’re going to be hosting, probably, weekly tournaments, whether it be Madden, Fortnite, any of those types of games,” Dove said. “It’s going to be a big thing come game time, when this does blow up. This is a big thing in sports, and being able to invest in this is going to be crazy.”
While some select bars across the country have looked at broadcasting e-sports in the past — with Starcraft, League of Legends, and Dota 2 being uncommon sights around their respective world tournaments — bar owner Jake Padlow said he sees the games as an untapped market compared to the established giants of football, baseball and other common spectator sports.
“The typical sports — it’s boring,” Padlow said. “It’s repetitive, it’s the same thing. You don’t bring a new audience. If you brought e-sports to the track, it’d blow up.”
Padlow also said the bar’s normal clientele, who skewed toward being older, were initially unaware of the game’s popularity. But he said he’s starting to see potential for a younger crowd to be drawn in.
Dove said that, down the line, the bar would be looking to bring in other games. Those could include Call of Duty, League of Legends and Runescape, to name a few.
While there was no prize money involved, Padlow said ProGame Sports was paying the entrants as compensation for helping test the waters. ProGame’s phone app also was being tested. The app facilitates betting on the outcome of events.
Just before the first game of the tournament started, player Jason Custer said he was thrilled to be in the initial stages of a growing field.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Custer said. “This is an expanding field, that’s really got a chance to be popular. It’s a really great experience.”
Fortnite: Battle Royale, a multiplayer game, has been the top-grossing console game in 2018 and has placing seventh in computer-game sales. At the recently-opened Halloween stores opening their doors across the valley, Fortnite licensed and inspired merchandise to stock the shelves. Crackshot and Skull Trooper costumes with their oversized, cartoonish weapons, sit right next to classic favorites such as the Joker and Harley Quinn merchandise.
The games can be followed on Twitter @Pro–game–sports, or on Dove’s stream at twitch.tv/DrDoveMan.
Overview. Sports wagering in America received its wings on May 14, 2018 when the United States Supreme… Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the 1992 federal law that hadPeer-to-Peer Marketplace
The Wheeling Wheelman rode his training, talent and grit to capture his biggest victory to date, taking the prestigious 2019 Snowball Derby Monday at the 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla. It was Braden’s first time qualifying for the race, and even that was chancy, given the circumstances.
But to WIN? That, my friends, was remarkable.
To quickly recap: 1. Braden was wrecked in practice Friday, destroying the right side of the car. The crew replaced the entire suspension, got the ride ready and, despite no practice with “the new car,” Braden was able to qualify for the race. 2. He qualified 30th, which, on a short track with an old, slick, asphalt surface, put his car in the crosshairs for more beatin’ and bangin’ and perhaps another wreck. 3. He went a lap down on an early pit stop. 4. He was spun by another car in the last five laps.
But to pull himself and Team Platinum together and make a run to the front after all the issues? Braden, just 25, relied on his experience and talent. When the car went a lap down and fell to 34th, the crew gambled and took on new tires before any of the other cars. This allowed him to maneuver, dart and dodge his way to sixth, and put himself into position to make a run for the win.
Travis Braden is fast, and he’s smart. He’s got two degrees in engineering from West Virginia University — mechanical and aerospace — and knows his car inside and out.
“I can build a car from the ground up,” he admitted. “A lot of the drivers can’t say that.”
It was the most improbable finish of his career. It was wild and it was staggering, several times over. But if you’ve paid close attention, you could’ve seen this coming, because it was also methodical and surgical. It was Travis Braden showing how it’s done.
The Wheeling Wheelman rode his training, talent and grit to capture his biggest victory to date, taking the prestigious 2019 Snowball Derby Monday at the 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla. It was Braden’s first time qualifying for the race, and even that was chancy, given the circumstances.
But to WIN? That, my friends, was remarkable.
To quickly recap: 1. Braden was wrecked in practice Friday, destroying the right side of the car. The crew replaced the entire suspension, got the ride ready and, despite no practice with “the new car,” Braden was able to qualify for the race. 2. He qualified 30th, which, on a short track with an old, slick, asphalt surface, put his car in the crosshairs for more beatin’ and bangin’ and perhaps another wreck. 3. He went a lap down on an early pit stop. 4. He was spun by another car in the last five laps.
But to pull himself and Team Platinum together and make a run to the front after all the issues? Braden, just 25, relied on his experience and talent. When the car went a lap down and fell to 34th, the crew gambled and took on new tires before any of the other cars. This allowed him to maneuver, dart and dodge his way to sixth, and put himself into position to make a run for the win.
Travis Braden is fast, and he’s smart. He’s got two degrees in engineering from West Virginia University — mechanical and aerospace — and knows his car inside and out.
“I can build a car from the ground up,” he admitted. “A lot of the drivers can’t say that.”
MCMECHEN — Pro race car driver and Wheeling native Travis Braden grew up wishing that video game technology... would be more realistic — especially when it came to racing. That time has come.
The Wheeling Wheelman rode his training, talent and grit to capture his biggest victory to date, taking the prestigious 2019 Snowball Derby Monday at the 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla. It was Braden’s first time qualifying for the race, and even that was chancy, given the circumstances.
But to WIN? That, my friends, was remarkable.
To quickly recap: 1. Braden was wrecked in practice Friday, destroying the right side of the car. The crew replaced the entire suspension, got the ride ready and, despite no practice with “the new car,” Braden was able to qualify for the race. 2. He qualified 30th, which, on a short track with an old, slick, asphalt surface, put his car in the crosshairs for more beatin’ and bangin’ and perhaps another wreck. 3. He went a lap down on an early pit stop. 4. He was spun by another car in the last five laps.
But to pull himself and Team Platinum together and make a run to the front after all the issues? Braden, just 25, relied on his experience and talent. When the car went a lap down and fell to 34th, the crew gambled and took on new tires before any of the other cars. This allowed him to maneuver, dart and dodge his way to sixth, and put himself into position to make a run for the win.
Travis Braden is fast, and he’s smart. He’s got two degrees in engineering from West Virginia University — mechanical and aerospace — and knows his car inside and out.
“I can build a car from the ground up,” he admitted. “A lot of the drivers can’t say that.”
