Korean esports organisation Gen.G have announced plans to create a new hub in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The announcement came earlier this month during the Esports World Cup. This marks the fourth city Gen.G will be expanding to, following headquarters in Seoul, Shanghai, and Los Angeles. Aside from opening up a new office, Gen.G is looking to bring its expertise in education to the MENA region.
Nicole Choi, MENA Partnership Lead at Gen.G, explained on broadcast during the EWC, the organisation’s plans in the Kingdom.
“Our models are very different from country to country and, being new here, we want to know the locals better so we have been working with a lot of local partners like Stc, and international partners like LG UltraGear, and the Saudi Esports Federation to bring these courses alive.”
Gen.G is known for offering various educational courses through the Gen.G Global Academy (GGA) programme. Aside from the traditional training courses to help gamers improve their gameplay, Gen.G also offers certification courses for coaches in collaboration with the Saudi Telecom Company and less game-focused jobs such as project management, marketing, and partnerships.
Choi also revealed an upcoming course with the goal of helping aspiring entrepreneurs open up their esports teams, teaching them all the necessary knowledge to run and scale up their own organisation.
ESI reached out to Gen.G Global Academy’s (GGA) President Wang Guan to learn more about the decision which led them to establish the organisation’s presence in the MENA region: “We see the next era of esports to be created here in the MENA region, with KSA as the epicenter. And we want to be part of building that next era of the industry.”
Wang revealed Gen.G wants to establish training infrastructure for both online and offline settings, with the latter being conducted alongside local partners.
Given the organisation’s increasing presence, ESI asked Wang whether Gen.G had plans to expand to the European region: “We would love to see if we can attract potential users and esports enthusiasts to our activities in MENA. We are happy to explore the opportunities in international programs covering Europe.”
Earlier this year, Gen.G announced the opening of a new building for GGA near the company’s HQ in Seoul, South Korea, with lecture rooms, esports training centres, streaming rooms, scrimmage zones, and rest areas.
On the competitive side, Gen.G recently won both VCT Masters: Shanghai and the Mid-Season Invitational in League of Legends. Aside from these two game titles, Gen.G has competitive teams across Rocket League, PUBG, PUBG Mobile, and NBA2k.
Thanks to the combination of education and competitive excellence, Gen.G has also formed a strong portfolio of partners including global brands such as PUMA, Monster Energy, LG UltraGear, and car maker Hyundai, as well as institutional partners such as the University of Kentuchy.
