Northern Arena eSports Final Attracts Hundreds at Bell Centre

Dota 2, CS:GO, Gears of War 4 Action at Hand in Montreal Tournament

SportsAdriano Valente — Published November 14, 2016

The event hosts came to centre stage and introduced the first two teams, as the crowd roared with a level of excitement and enthusiasm that would carry on well into the night. The Northern Arena Montreal LAN Finals had kicked off.

The LAN—short for local access network—took place this past weekend from Nov. 10 to 13, but preliminary matches were held between Thursday and Saturday at the Sheraton Centre Montreal and the Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain.

Northern Arena is relatively new to the eSports scene. The Montreal LAN was their first event in the city. The tournament featured multiple teams from North America, Europe and Asia—all participating in some of the biggest multiplayer games out there today.

Dota 2 and CS:GO were the most popular events of the night, while The Coalition’s Gears of War 4 also made an appearance.

The first game of the day was Dota 2—a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA for short. Players are divided into two teams, of five players. Each player controls their individual “hero” and work to destroy enemy towers while leading smaller units across the map.

It was the most exciting event of the day by far, attracting the largest crowd and setting the tone with a competitive air and passionate fan base.

Fans cheered as the teams made their way across the map, often executing multiple actions at once in a way that would be difficult to follow had you no prior knowledge of the game. Chinese favourites, Wings started the match off sluggish but quickly turned the tables on North American underdogs Team NP to clinch the first round.

“It’s kind of eye-opening, you know,” said Felix Bertrand, a high school student during the intermission between the two matches. “I came here for Counter-Strike and it’s pretty cool ‘cause now I’m discovering all these other games as well.”

Any hope of usurping the victory was gone for Team NP as Wings came back and dominated in the second round, coming away with the $48,000 first place prize.

“I met most of the Dota 2 faces and took some pictures with the as well,” said Karim Yacout, a Master’s student at Polytechnique. “It was a good opportunity to meet people I only see on streams and on Twitch.”

Next up was the Gears of War 4 tournament.

The third-person shooter offered a drastic, less cluttered change of pace in terms of gameplay. The games rounds were still displayed on three screens—one large for general viewing and two smaller ones for each side of the arena—but presentation was lacking in comparison. It wasn’t as engaging as the previous tournaments had been.

“The Gears scene is so in your face,” said Jackson Doucette, a member of the Canadian Military. “I’ve noticed the atmosphere, especially being in a big arena like the Centre Bell. It’s something that you don’t see all the time.”

The clutter of fans that did show up to watch the games more than made up for their lack in numbers by the amount of support they showed their teams. As Doucette said, “there was some tension there” as teams Fully Spaced and SetToDestroyX were locked in multiple close rounds that eventually saw Fully Spaced wipe out their opponents and claim the $10,000 prize.

The CS:GO tournament saw many of the Dota2 spectators back in their seats as European powerhouse G2 Esports took on North American OpTic Gaming. The first-person shooter pitted both teams in competitive matches, each 30 rounds. G2 absolutely dominated in the
first half of match one, mounting a 12-4 lead at one point.

Halfway through the second match, a few members of Northern Arena’s event staff threw leftover merchandise at the crowd as excited fans waved their hands and called out to them. Fans cheered and reached out for free shirts as OpTic began to close in on the lead, eventually forcing the game into a third match.

Chants of “Let’s go OpTic” rang through the arena as passionate fans held up cardboard cut-outs and wailed on their thundersticks. It was quite clear that OpTic was gaining momentum. At this point G2 had begun to unravel. After their come from behind victory in match two, OpTic kept pushing as they steamrolled through G2 in the upset win.

By this point in the night there was almost no one in the Bell Centre, as most fans had left to beat traffic or catch the last metro home. But still, there were those who stayed behind and watched till the absolute end. They were the same people who cheered proudly when host Marissa Roberto asked the audience who’d been there all day.

After they’d given out the $50,000 giant cheque, the cheers eventually died down and the majority of those who had remained exited the Bell Centre , the faint sound of thundersticks clashing together could be heard on the way out.