Esports Stadium Arlington announced Monday a partnership with gaming peripherals company HyperX. HyperX has been named the “preferred peripherals sponsor” and will provide the gaming center, a pay-to-play LAN area within the venue featuring PCs and consoles, with headsets, keyboards, mice, controller charging docks, and mouse pads at every available station. The company will also provide products for giveaways at the venue.
Esports Stadium Arlington declined to comment on the specific financial details of this partnership.
The venue was forced to close on March 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; a reopening was planned for early June, but was delayed as its owners reacted to the ongoing number of new infections in the state.
The new partnership with HyperX comes just ahead of Esports Stadium Arlington’s “grand re-opening” now taking place July 11. The venue will open in phases, with limited capacity on opening day as it adjusts to the recent uptick of reported COVID-19 infections in Texas. Weekly community tournaments, recreational gaming, and product giveaways will be available to customers when it opens.
When asked about the safety of visitors, Esports Stadium Arlington President Jonathon Oudthone told The Esports Observer that the company is taking every possible precaution to keep customers safe and is following local, state, and federal safety guidelines.
“Our staff has been properly trained on all precautions that the City of Arlington and the CDC has recommended or put into place,” Oudthone said. “This includes requiring that customers and staff wear masks at all times, reducing our available gaming stations to 50% to account for social distancing, increasing the frequency at which we sanitize and clean gaming equipment and stations, limiting our overall Gaming Center capacity, providing sanitization resources such as hand sanitizer and mask as well as implementing contactless customer service procedures.”
Oudthone added that staff have been trained to perform health screenings including temperature checks and to properly handle anyone that might be exhibiting symptoms. These safety procedures are being done in consultation with “city-appointed health professionals and the Arlington Fire Department,” he said.
When asked about how the company will adjust to the evolving situation with COVID-19 infections on the rise in the state, Oudthone said that they will continue to monitor the situation and take action when necessary:
“With the nature of opening our facility in phases, which only includes the Gaming Center and select spaces for now, we feel confident in our ability to create a safe and clean environment for all guests. Being the largest dedicated esports facility in North America has its advantages in that we have plenty of space to create social distancing while keeping our total attendance numbers at a (much) lower than normal capacity.”
