The opening of esports franchise Team Liquid's new training facility in Santa Monica is a "recent example of how esports organizations in North America are increasingly putting themselves on par with professional and collegiate teams in traditional sports, providing organized environments and structure to support their players and staff," according to Noah Smith of the WASHINGTON POST. With their new home, Team Liquid "joins esports franchises Immortals/Los Angeles Valiant and Echo Fox" in L.A. in moving away from the gaming house model and "toward a more professional setup." Team Liquid's Alienware Training Facilities "sit in a nondescript, 8,000-square-foot space in an office park." The "lack of external allure belies the building's glistening, amenity-rich interior but also its importance as a key component in what the team believes to be 'the next evolution of esports.'" The facility includes a conference room with a "mammoth screen and three game-themed lounges, all of which have murals of the team's past glories." Each squad also "has a couch-rimmed rooms for postgame analysis and film sessions." There is also an on-site production studio "tasked with creating original video for YouTube, helping to promote Team Liquid and its players, as well as commercials." Monumental Sports & Entertainment Chair Ted Leonsis, whose company owns Team Liquid, said, "There's been this arms race in the NBA and the NHL where your practice facility becomes a differentiator on where a free agent wants to come because they spend more time at the practice facility than they do playing. So we wanted to make sure that we had a culture from day one that treated esports players as professionals." The Team Liquid facility was "designed in partnership with the team's sponsor, Alienware, whose name, logo, and associated neon accents are conspicuously displayed" (WASHINGTON POST, 5/11).
