Put aside the Mountain Dew and Red Bull, put down the hot pockets. In a recent press release, Gamma Enterprises division Gamma labs announced a partnership with Complexity Gaming to target professional gaming as the newest demographic for its energy drink. Gamma hopes to market its Pre-Training Formula as "the official energy drink of complexity gaming."
But the partnership goes beyond trying to shill an energy drink to a never before thought of demographic for such a beverage. Gamma and Complexity are opening a training facility for professional gamers in Houston, Texas. The Complexity Gamma Gamers House "will provide professional gamers with a 24/7 training option...and will also be open to visiting professional gamers who require housing while traveling."
Gamma Labs CEO Clifford Morgan says, "Gamers are knowledgable about the products they put into their body, just like professional athletes. These players demand top performance physically and mentally, which is why our PreTraining Formula is the ideal product for them. Hand-eye coordination and extended periods of intense focus can be taxing both physically and mentally."
Professional gaming and corporate sponsorship is not a new thing, though it's usually limited to supplying teams with hardware and tech; keyboards, mouses, controllers, speakers, etc. Johnson & Johnson was seen as the first non-traditional company with a stake in professional gaming when it decided to sponser the Counter Strike team, "Ouch," in 2005.
The United States as a whole is somewhat new to professional gaming. By comparison, South Korea has 3 separate channels that broadcast competitive gaming 24 hours a day. Here, network G4 in the US is still considered highly niche by most audiences. With more and more people choosing to spend their free time playing games online instead of television, more companies can be expected to target this new deomgraphic in varying ways.
The Complexity Gamma Gamers House is expected to open this June.
