DC's new Entertainment and Sports Arena last weekend "rocked with a rambunctious, concert-like atmosphere" for Red Bull: Conquest, its inaugural esports event, but "no amount of smoke and lighting could disguise the thousands of empty seats in the arena constructed to accommodate a capacity crowd of 4,200," according to Tramel Raggs of the WASHINGTON POST. Official attendance numbers for the event were not made available, but Competition Dir Jimmy Nguyen said that the event "attracted about 200 participants, as well as 50 to 75 members of the growing fighting game community." The three-day "offered one-, two- and three-day passes, with prices ranging from $15 to $25." Event participants "paid a one-time fee of $25, which included a three-day spectator pass." Other major esports events last weekend "may have sapped some of the potential attendees." Additionally, fighting game events "tend to skew smaller in crowd size than more well-funded, game publisher-organized enterprises like Overwatch League or the League of Legends Championship Series" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 11/20).
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