INDIANAPOLIS — Quentin Morris adjusted his headphones with his left hand and clicked his mouse with his right.
He struggled to keep the headphones on his ears while trying to listen for his opponents and possible treasure chests in Fortnite. While playing, Morris had to make a small jump to get out of his seat as his feet couldn't reach the ground.
It’s what you’d expect from a 10-year-old kid.
Morris was one of the youngest participants in the inaugural Nocturnal esports tournament. There were 25 people in the Fortnite bracket while 32 other people played Soulcalibur VI at the historic Union 525 in downtown Indianapolis.
“I just wanted to see how good I was and see if I could get better,” Morris said.
Indianapolis might not be the most popular city for esports, but Nocturnal was another showcase of what esports have done to local communities in bringing more people together than most could have imagined.
“For us, it was a great opportunity to test the technology we’ve been working on and have a lot of fun,” McIntyre said. “There’s a lot of esports organizations in Indianapolis that are somewhat dispirit, and an event like this brings everyone together.”
Challonge, a tournament management technology company, put on the event Saturday afternoon with hopes to bring more people to the growing esports community.
Since 2009, it has put on more than 13.5 million tournaments in almost every country around the world. Other companies that use Challonge are Capcom Pro Tour, Red Bull, USA Rugby and Monster Jam.
Video Game Palooza partnered with Challonge to donate 10 percent of the ticket sales from the tournament toward their charity to help kids learn science, technology, education and math through video games.
“Right now, you’re looking at kids that are as young as 8 and as old as probably 50s,” Challonge CEO Matt McIntyre said. “You’ve got everybody. That’s what makes esports special because it gives everyone a chance to come together.”
The event offered not only the chance to play against strong competition but also play for cash prizes.
Sixteen of the 25 Fortnite players and eight of the 32 Soulcalibur VI players were guaranteed to come away with a cash prize if they were able to make it to the later rounds of the tournament.
Some participants in the Soulcalibur VI tournament were playing the game for the first time. Despite the disadvantage compared to some of the seasoned players, 18-year-old Kansas McQueen from Indianapolis had enough experience in fighting games, in general, to put up a quality fight.
“I’ve never played any Soulcalibur game before, so I’ve been trying to be competitive since it came out, and I decided to come here to see what I could do,” McQueen said.
For kids like McQueen and Morris, the industry is only going to grow from here.
According to Newzoo, esports industry revenue is expected to hit $1.1 billion in 2019 and could reach up to $1.65 billion by 2021.
Morris said he hopes to grow up and become part of that industry like famous Fortnite streamer Ninja, who streams on multiple platforms and makes roughly $18 million per year from his viewership and endorsements.
Games like Fortnite have taken the world by storm, as it has quickly become one of the most popular esports and video games in the world. Nearly 80 million players logged in during the month of August.
“I like the possibility of 100 people getting into a game and how you can build anything,” Morris said. “It’s just so colorful, and you can do anything you want basically.”
