All Over Albany

Hudson Valley Gamer Con

Video games are now being treated like sports. Colleges are fielding teams. And some of those teams will be at the Albany Capital Center March 30-31 for a new event called the Hudson Valley Gamer Con, which is being billed as the "largest Northeast collegiate esports event to-date." Blurbage:

This event has plans to highlight the Capital Region as a destination for gamers, esport fans and software developers alike. The conference and expo will feature seating for more than 800 guests to watch the ECAC esports Championships featuring three popular game titles including League of Legends and Overwatch. A third title will be revealed in the coming months. ...

Additionally, there will be an expo that caters to the regional gaming and esports community, featuring up to 50 vendors. The expo has plans to showcase regional game development studios, Empire State Development's Digital Game Hubs at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and New York University, college programs focused on games and esports, local artists, independent developers and other esports lifestyle brands. Portions of the expo will feature hands-on gameplay and retail vendors.

Sixteen colleges are currently set to compete at the event.

Esports -- essentially people playing video games in organized competitions -- have become big business and are drawing a huge amounts of attention. An event last year in Poland drew more than 170,000 people and 46 million unique online viewers. And many American colleges and universities field esports teams, some of them even offer scholarships.

A star Fortnite player who goes by the name Ninja is on the cover of ESPN The Magazine this month.

Tickets for Hudson Valley Gamer Con are $24 per day / $14 per day for students and available online.