Brazilian music festival Rock in Rio, which commences today (September 2nd), has unveiled a whole arena dedicated to esports.
Events set to be held at the GamePlay Arena include the finals of Brazil’s CS:GO circuit, CBCS 1XBET Masters, and a VALORANT Game Changers showcase.
The arena kicks off with a Warner Bros. Games’ MultiVersus promotion, inviting attendees of the festival to play the title. This is followed by an activation from Ubisoft’s Just Dance on the main stage.
Later, the first official esports tournament will commence — a Konami eFootball tournament called e-Brasileirão PRO, in partnership with the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). These attractions will be repeated on the second day of festival.
In an official press release the festival’s CEO, Luis Justo, said: “Knowing the power of [the gaming] market, since 2017 Rock in Rio has a special look at this universe. The very first time we bet on an arena dedicated to electronic games, we attracted over 360,000 people to the place.
“In 2022, we innovate again and expand GamePlay Arena activations even further.”
On September 4th, a Free Fire tournament organised by DJ Alok, who is a Garena partner and even became a character in the game, will take place featuring some main organisations of the scene.
On the following weekend, the semifinals and finals of CBCS 1XBET Masters will be held on September 8th and 9th, respectively. The weekend will also feature two matches of the Wild Rift Showdown – Rock in Rio Edition, disputed by Brazilian organisations Liberty and Vivo Keyd, as well as another Counter-Strike tournament named Tribo Cup, organised by Brazilian streamer Alexandre ‘Gaules’ Borba.
The last day of Rock in Rio will feature a VALORANT GameChangers Showdown match between MIBR and Gamelanders Purple. MIBR will also make itself present at the festival through a panel in partnership with education institute Senac.
It’s interesting to point out that Roberta Coelho, MIBR’s CEO, is Rock in Rio’s former Head of Business Development and was involved in the making of 2017’s edition of GamePlay Arena. The organisation will speak about women’s careers in esports, following the recent release of its jobs platform WIBR.
Gaming is not the only thing that will be featured at the arena: DJ’s and local esports stars will also be on stage throughout the seven-day event. This includes Black Dragons CEO Nicolle ‘Cherrygumms’ Merhy, Riot Games caster Felipe Tonello and esports journalist Barbara Gutierrez. The arena is sponsored by telecom TIM, Ubisoft, Game Jam+, Warner Bros. Games, Flix Media, and Engov After.
