{"id":825,"date":"2018-04-13T16:58:42","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T23:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=64526"},"modified":"2018-04-13T16:58:42","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T23:58:42","slug":"annual-gaming-fest-outgrows-csulb-venue-heads-to-new-long-beach-esports-studio-with-big-partners-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/annual-gaming-fest-outgrows-csulb-venue-heads-to-new-long-beach-esports-studio-with-big-partners-this-weekend","title":{"rendered":"Annual Gaming Fest Outgrows CSULB Venue, Heads to New Long Beach Esports Studio with Big Partners this Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Beachcon 2017. Photo courtesy of Beachcon.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 1rem;\">Thousands of gamers are expected to head to an industrial area of northwest Long Beach this weekend where a 16,000-square-foot esport arena and live broadcast stage will host the annual gaming festival, Beachcon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What began in 2005 as a student-run LAN party (a gathering of people with computers or game consoles establishing a local area network connection to play multiplayer video games) under Cal State Long Beach (CSULB)\u2019s Housing and Residential Life department, has now grown into a community-run convention for the first time ever, dedicated to showcasing the best of video gaming in Long Beach, according to organizers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The convention also includes diverse staff hailing from as far as San Diego, Utah and even Vancouver, said Beachcon\u2019s chief director Cat Tompkins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Held usually at The Pointe inside CSULB\u2019s Walter Pyramid, Beachcon outgrew the facility. Organizers said thousands attended the two-day convention in 2016 and 2017 inside a space meant for a couple hundred people.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"NfI1nzT99x\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/12th-annual-beachcon-gaming-festival\">12th Annual BeachCon Gaming Festival to Celebrate Long Beach \u201cGeek\u201d Culture<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;12th Annual BeachCon Gaming Festival to Celebrate Long Beach \u201cGeek\u201d Culture&#8221; &#8212; the Hi-lo\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/12th-annual-beachcon-gaming-festival\/embed\/#?secret=ZS6xVXjF3t#?secret=NfI1nzT99x\" data-secret=\"NfI1nzT99x\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, Beachcon has also partnered with two new groups: the Long Beach-based indie production facility Thunder Studios, which launched a gaming division this March known as Thunder Gaming, and American Video Game League (AVGL).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The production facility built a dedicated 16,000-square-foot esports arena and live broadcast stage within its 150,000-square-foot production space to \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">develop, produce, and promote original programming in the gaming category,\u201d according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2018\/01\/29\/1313933\/0\/en\/American-Leisure-Holdings-Inc-s-GG-Media-Network-Enters-a-Strategic-Alliance-with-Thunder-Gaming.html\">release in late January<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tompkins said Thunder Studios has also brought out an amazing array of partners and people to make the event happen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">AVGL (the American Video Game League) will be running their April Anarchy <a href=\"https:\/\/avglcollege.org\/news\/468\">live grand finals <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with a $20,000 grand prize pool. For more information visit <a href=\"http:\/\/tv5.espn.com\/esports\/story\/_\/id\/22782545\/three-tournament-announcements-highlight-week-college-esports\">the link here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aside from these two partnerships, Beachcon will also host a Southern California College\/High School Esports Fair to connect colleges and high school organizations to collaborate and promote recruitment. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Local nonprofit Anxiety Gaming will also be back, this time to run a rest\/offline lounge area. The fest will also feature an artist alley and cosplay contest. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beachcon will take place Saturday, April 14 from noon to 1:00AM and Sunday, April 15 from noon to 10:00PM. While free in previous years on campus, tickets to Beachcon are $5 each day to cover venue fees. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more information <a href=\"https:\/\/beachcon.org\/\">click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thunder Studios is located at <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">20434 South Santa Fe Avenue.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of gamers are expected to head to an industrial area of northwest Long Beach this weekend where a 16,000-square-foot esport arena and live broadcast stage will host the annual gaming festival, Beachcon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":66330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[456],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","tag-gaming","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=825"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}