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Watch the Esports Arena Las Vegas Grand Opening Today

The Esports Arena Las Vegas opens its doors today at 4PM PT, starting off with a major announcement from Ninja and continuing with a handful of exciting esports exhibitions.

Ozzie Mejia

March 22, 2018 2:00 PM

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The Esports Arena has quickly become a premier competitive gaming destination in Southern California. The Santa Ana facility has played home to major events for Street Fighter V, Super Smash Bros., Hearthstone, and more. It's home to the weekly Wednesday Night Fights tournament. It's even been home to the titanic clash between Goku and Vegeta. But on Thursday afternoon, the Esports Arena will open its next and biggest location so far.

The Esports Arena Las Vegas is ready to open its doors on Thursday afternoon, a little over one year after it was first announced. Built inside the Luxor hotel and casino, the facility is a joint venture between Allied Esports and MGM Grand International. Built over a former nightclub across 30,000 square feet, the Esports Arena Las Vegas promises a state-of-the-art esports experience for both players and spectators, with a two-story video wall, multiple VIP rooms, and a viewing area called The Dome. To demonstrate, a full night of live events are planned for tonight, all of which can be viewed below.

Watch live video from EsportsArena on www.twitch.tv

The celebration is set to begin Thursday at 4PM PT, where Tyler "Ninja" Blevins (fresh off his Fortnite game with Drake) is scheduled to make a major announcement. This will be followed by several esports exhibitions, which include:

• A Dragon Ball FighterZ rematch between Dominique "SonicFox" McLean and Goichi "Go1" Kishida, following Friday's "First to 10" at Final Round and Sunday's Grand Finals
• Rogue facing off with Ghost Gaming in 3v3 Rocket League
• eUnited facing Spacestation in SMITE

The night's festivities will be hosted by personalities and analysts from across the esports world, including Dan "Frodan" Chou (Hearthstone), Jack "CouRage" Dunlop (Call of Duty), Kelly Link (SMITE), Ovilee May (League of Legends), and Zach "Coney" Zeeks (Super Smash Bros. for Wii U).

It won't take long for the new Esports Arena Las Vegas to play home to a major event. This weekend kicks off the Smash Masters League with the Battle for Vegas. This $25,000 event will kick off a global circuit for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, which will unfold throughout the year and conclude back at the Esports Arena Las Vegas this December.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?