Drink and brewing company AB InBev has launched a new service – Cooldown – allowing esports fans to find and set up their own viewing parties in local bars across the UK.
Cooldown is a rebrand of Mylocalesportsbar with extra functionalities on top, and has partnered with well-known esports org OpTic Gaming for its launch, with a giveaway and viewing party.
TheCooldown.gg website allows esports fans to look and ask for viewing parties in their local bars, and allows AB InBev’s bar partners ‘to tap into the unbridled growth of an emerging industry as they post their own events and attract a new audience’. Both customer and bar owners are notified of each other’s intentions, helping them set up an event together.
Consumers can request a viewing party and bars can also set up their own event, but Cooldown will also organise events throughout the year, with ‘major’ influencers, esports teams, contests, giveaways and more.
To illustrate that for the launch, Cooldown will collaborate with ‘OpTic Gaming, which of course has a fanbase in the UK, for a giveaway and tournament.
Cooldown told Esports News UK that users can arrange viewing parties in bars ‘anywhere in the UK’. You can see bars already signed up to Cooldown here and find out more about requesting an esports viewing party at a bar here.
There will be a £10,000 giveaway with a range of prizes geared towards gamers and esports, including custom PS5s, gaming chairs, game vouchers and more.
This will culminate in an online tournament with Optic and an official OpTic Gaming viewing party on July 24th 2021, where fans can come together and watch the final Call of Duty Major at ‘a prime location, which will be revealed at a later date’.
“Our fans are an incredibly cohesive community and are always eager to support us together, but lacked the opportunity to do so. Cooldown cleverly fills that void for the GreenWall and that is why we wanted to contribute as much as possible.”
Hector ‘HECZ’ Rodriguez, OpTic Gaming
Hector ‘HECZ’ Rodriguez, founder and CEO at OpTic Gaming, said: “When AB InBev contacted us with their proposal to bring together esports fans at bars and locations to watch esports together, we were instantly on board.
“Our fans are an incredibly cohesive community and are always eager to support us together,but lacked the opportunity to do so. Cooldown cleverly fills that void for the GreenWall and that is why we wanted to contribute as much as possible.”
“We feel that Cooldown bridges the gap between the ever-important millennial and Gen Z generations and our bar partners,” added José García, esports lead at Cooldown. “Esports is booming and thanks to its wide range of games and competitions provides plenty of opportunities to engage customers.
“Considering the world is unlocking again, it was the right time to launch Cooldown and give gamers, esports fans and bar owners a new lease on life and another reason to go out and enjoy a good match of esports with their friends.”
Ovidio Gómez, Cooldown’s brand manager, commented: “We wanted to give esports fans the ideal event to look forward to after the tough lockdown restrictions. Now is the ideal time to live free again, enjoy our esports hobby in each other’s company. The kickoff campaign with OpTic is just the start, much more is to come.”
In the upcoming months, the platform will also highlight esports news and allow fans to engage in a fantasy esports league.
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.
