Esports tourney draws 2K to DC Armory

Esports showed it can draw in D.C.

The District’s first-ever DOTA Minor Tournament, Captains Draft 4.0, was attended by more than 2,000 people at the DC Armory from Jan. 5-7. Winner Team Secret, of Turkey, beat Vici Gaming, of China, to take home $300,000 in prize money and advance to the annual Dota 2 International tournament in Seattle.

Closing seconds of the Grand Finals of Captains Draft 4.0. What a great tournament! @TeamSecret & @Vici_Gaming gave it their all. WTG!!! Who wants to see more LANs in NA? 🙌🙌🙌#CD4 #DotainDC #dota2 @moonduckTV pic.twitter.com/Z2mnKcpl5D

— Events DC (@TheEventsDC) January 7, 2018

The first-ever event was sponsored by Events DC and Moonduck Studios, and featured eight top DOTA teams.

As we reported last month, the tournament builds on Events DC’s goal to make the District a major player in the esports market. Events DC started down the esports path a year-and-a-half ago by exclusively sponsoring the NRG CS:GO esports team, which made appearances at this year’s SXSW, Awesome Con and recreation centers in the District.

“This is a big deal,” Max Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Events DC, told Technical.ly DC. “We aim to be the global capital of esports. That includes tournaments, matches and opportunities for people to look at different angles of the industry.”

While it’s not on TV, the audience in the arena is compounded via broadcast. In this case, the tournament was reportedly seen by 80,000 people on Twitch. 

“We could not be happier or more proud of our first event,” Nikki Elise, general manager of Moonduck TV, said in a statement. “We look forward to the next one and aspire to make it even better.”