The Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau/Sports Commission are pleased to announce the return of the Sixty Six Games Expo presented by State Farm. The 2nd Annual Sixty Six Games will take place January 17-19, 2020 at Grossinger Motors Arena. The Expo brings gamers and industry leaders together in a gaming celebration featuring League of Legends tournaments, retro gaming lounge, cosplay contest, vintage game vendors, esports clinic, and more. The event is one of the first and only live and in-person esports tournament in central Illinois, as well as one of the few video game conventions and clinics in the region.
The esports tournament will feature 12 high school division teams and 20 open division teams from throughout the Midwest competing in bracket play for a $6,000 prize pool. High profile Open Division teams are registered to participate, such as Illinois Wesleyan University, Illinois State University, Arizona State University, Purdue University, and more.
The BN Video Game Convention will have games for sale from vendors, the opportunity to meet and trade games with other gamers, cosplay, PS4 VR, door prizes, etc. The Esports Clinic will help guide schools that are interested in adding an esports program and it will further educate those schools and individuals who already have programs. The special guest this year is Billy Mitchell who achieved the first perfect score of 3,333,360 points on the original Pac-Man. David Ramsey, writing for the Oxford American, described Mitchell as “probably the greatest arcade video game player of all time”.
The event will begin Friday, January 17 with the Open Division League of Legends Tournament at 5pm. The Open tournament will resume and the High School Division Tournament will begin on Saturday, January 18 at 8am. The BN Video Game Convention will take place on Saturday and Sunday, 10am-6pm, and the Esports Clinic on Saturday, 9am-3pm. Please visit the website for more details on other activities.
Single day tickets are $13 for adults, $6 for children 3-12, and 3-day passes are $30. They can be purchased at the Grossinger Motors Arena Box Office at 309.434.2679. The estimated direct economic impact for hosting the Sixty Six Games Expo is $78,600.
The Sixty Six Games Expo presented by State Farm is organized by an ad hoc committee consisting of representatives from the Bloomington-Normal Sports Commission, Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network, PlayNormal Esports, District 87, Red Raccoon Games, Illinois Wesleyan University, Illinois State University, Grossinger Motors Arena, and others.
For more information, visit www.sixtysixgames.com or contact Matt Hawkins at the Bloomington-Normal Area Convention and Visitors Bureau at 309-665-0033 or matt@visitbn.org.
