Cooldown Ventures, the company that acquired UK-based esports organisation Vexed Gaming earlier this year, has unveiled Cineleague.
Cineleague is an international esports tournament hosted in and broadcast to movie theatres, potentially including those in the UK.
The aim is to ‘build local communities and deliver amazing live entertainment experiences for the next generation of esports talent and audiences’.
Pakistan’s Cinepax (pictured) has been announced as the first international CineLeague partner. It runs 13 sites with 45 screens and 7,400 seats across nine cities.
Manchester’s Vexed Gaming will undertake a friendship tour of Pakistan in 2020, bringing a top professional team to play alongside the best local talent.
Cooldown Ventures is currently in discussion with a further 10 international cinema chains as part of the initial CineLeague roll out.
The company’s chief marketing officer, Sonny Waheed, has exclusively revealed his UK plans to Esports News UK.
“We will have, from the outset, the ability to broadcast to cinemas worldwide,” he told us. “The expectation of the programme is that each cinema chain (in each country) will broadcast their own events and then come together to broadcast the international tournament.
“We are currently in discussion with a number of chains around the word to continue the build up of the CineLeague – the UK is absolutely part of those plans and we’re keen to engage with the local sector.”
Sonny Waheed, Cooldown Ventures
“To start with, the domestic tournaments will be held within the cinemas and broadcast domestically throughout the cinema’s chain,” Sonny continued.
“As the events grow there may be need to find larger venues, however the programme is aimed at providing a significant amount of cinema-hosted events (not only tournaments).”
Specific games in the tournaments have not yet been announced, but this could be revealed in December.
Cooldown Ventures has been consulting with Cinepax to help curate content for the cinema chain’s esports pre-show events, which will eventually feed out into international tournaments.
Cooldown says its key objectives include the following:
- To create dynamic and enthusiastic esports-focussed local communities, centred around live experiences in cinemas
- To provide a platform for local talent to shine
- To give fans the opportunity to participate in tournaments for the games they follow
- To present esports to new audiences in a way that’s both highly accessible and engaging
- To deliver the first nation-to-nation esports tournament
“The CineLeague delivers esports with a cinematic twist, creating exciting opportunities for the existing esports community and new audiences too,” Sonny added. “We’re delighted to be working with Cinepax to develop esports in Pakistan – the market and many others like it are hungry for new entertainment. Esports is the perfect fit.”
Cinepax CEO Mariam El Bacha commented: “Esports is huge in Pakistan and it’s great to be able to nurture and build local talent and deliver locally created content.
“Cooldown Ventures have helped deliver a programme that will offer engaging, community-driven content that leverages the power of esports and the excitement of big screen entertainment.”
For more information on Cooldown Ventures and CineLeague, visit www.cooldownventures.com.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
