Wizards District Gaming faces off against Celtic Crossover Gaming at District E, a new esports venue in downtown D.C.

Elliot Williams / DCist/WAMU

It’s Friday night, and I’m watching two young men in grey sweatpants hurl insults at each other from across a room between heated rounds of NBA 2K, one of the most popular sports video games of the past two decades. Though this may sound like a scene out of a college dorm room, it’s actually much more interesting than bored undergrads talking trash.

In fact, it’s a professional esports league — the NBA 2K League — playing at a new venue near Capital One Arena, and there’s a $60,000 grand prize on the line, part of $2.5 million in cash prizes to be distributed in tournaments throughout the season. This is serious stuff, and the associated NBA organizations have legitimate drafts to determine who has the chops to face off in front of the league’s nearly 209,000 followers on Twitch. Now, for $10 a ticket, you can also see them play live in downtown D.C.

Meet District E, the new esports events venue from Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), the company that owns Capital One Arena, the Wizards, Capitals, and Mystics, among other brands. (Monumental founder Ted Leonsis’ son Zach has led the company’s foray into the esports world.)

On Friday, as the real-life Washington Wizards played the Orlando Magic next door, some of the country’s best gamers played the NBA 2K Slam Open tournament at the 14,000-square-foot Gallery Place facility; which opened two weeks ago and which Monumental bills as part of downtown D.C.’s “revitalization.” District E features an events area, gaming practice rooms, a private players’ lounge, and an adjacent sports bar open during events, District Bites. The NBA 2K League in February said District E would host its sixth season.

District Bites, the adjacent bar, is set up for esports audiences and fans coming out of games at Capital One Arena. Elliot Williams / DCist/WAMU

Monumental Sports has been investing in esports since 2016 and owns Team Liquid, which competes in multiple games and recruits players from across the globe, as well as Wizards District Gaming, a two-time championship-winning team based here in D.C. But despite the initial buzz around esports that began about a decade ago, investors, disappointed by early returns, have started to back off. So why open this place now?

“I always tell people that with esports, seeing is believing,” Andrew McNeill, MSE’s senior director of esports, said in a recent phone interview. “You have to see it in person to really understand it and for it to really click.”

People are naturally drawn to competition in any capacity, he adds, and live gaming is not so different from watching poker players sit around a table before going all-in. “Our players are very, very animated,” he says.

Reader, I needed to see it to believe it. So I showed up to the Slam Open with my notebook and recorder in hand.

6 p.m.: I arrive at Gallery Place, a bit confused by the large crowds. Then I realize this is the line to enter Capital One Arena where the Wizards will play actual basketball in an hour. A security guard directs me to the media table near the Regal Cinemas entrance on the second floor, where I pick up my NBA credentials (ooh, fancy). I head back downstairs and pass through security to enter District E.

6:09 p.m.: There are no more than 40 people seated in the crowd or standing around. (To be fair, social media posts suggests the tournament’s other nights had more fans.) Most people are wearing badges that indicate some sort of affiliation with one of the competing teams, the NBA, or the production staff. The players’ friends and family members (I assume based on their league passes and team-branded clothing) take up two large tables near the stage and eat food from the bar. One woman soothes a baby that has started to cry.

The Wizards District Gaming (WDG) and Celtics Crossover Gaming (CLTX) teams, five players each, meet on a circular stage in the middle of the room. Three players from each team sit in comfortable-looking chairs in front of monitors, while the other two players stand behind their teammates to coach them before getting in on the action themselves in subsequent rounds.

The game tips off and the best-of-five tournament is underway.

6:15 p.m.: I watch a few minutes of gameplay. This is the 3v3 Blacktop version of NBA 2K, in which players compete in a street-ball setting on a virtual outdoor court. There’s upcoming 5v5 play this season, as well. The in-game athletes are all customized with colorful hair, from bright purple to eggshell white, giving me ideas for my own avatar — did I mention I’m a casual gamer and play NBA 2K at home, though not nearly as well as these guys?

The Celtics crew takes an early 14-6 lead and goes absolutely bananas. A handful of announcers provide play-by-play analysis over speakers — LOUDLY. Most people in the crowd are busy looking around at each other and not the game.

A DJ plays beats in an area to the side of the stage. I look across the room and notice Zach Leonsis sitting front-row, grinning to himself as the game heats up and the players start talking smack. CSG wins the first game 22-13 and one commentator reflects that this was “one of the fastest games I’ve seen.” I’d have to agree.

6:19 p.m.: The next game kicks off, and I notice I’m sitting next to some members of the Pistons GT team, who would go on to win the tournament on Saturday. It’s not as cool as sitting next to the actual Detroit Pistons, sure, but what other pro league gets you this close to the players?!

With the backup teammates standing behind the gamers, it’s nearly impossible to see the score at the bottom of the main projector screen opposite our seating area. I have to turn around to look at a screen behind me to see who’s in the lead; CLTX wins game two, 22-18. I start to wonder if this venue is really set up for in-person fans or just an excuse to open a bar for fans looking for bar specials after Capitals’ games.

District E is a new 14,000-square-foot gaming venue in Gallery Place. Elliot Williams / DCist/WAMU

6:30 p.m.: With a break in the gaming, some of the players do offstage interviews for viewers on Twitch. I head to the bar to see if I can find some regular observers to interview. The first person I approach tells me he’s with the NBA production team that came down from New York, but he can “find me someone who’s associated with District E,” who’d be better for soundbites.

I receive a few blank stares before spotting a family of three that looks completely unaffiliated with the NBA or a production crew. I stop them and they inform me they’re not here to watch the tournament but wanted to pop in and see what the hoopla was about. “Well, this is the future, right?” the father shrugs, looking at the intense gaming happening behind me, before the three of them head to the exit.

A flatscreen shows one of the esports games between two community teams. Elliot Williams / DCist/WAMU

6:40 p.m.: Game three is underway, and a few more people have arrived, including a young man who took my vacant seat. Real fans?! I wonder, before actually asking him why he’s here.

He introduces himself as Kai Dixon, a student at Howard University who plays the tactical shooter game Valorant for the university’s esports program. In a previous era, this might be something you wouldn’t brag about to a stranger — but Howard’s Call of Duty team recently won $80,000 in a tournament, so the gamers have brought pride to the campus like the other athletes this year.

Dixon tells me he’s never seen a pro gaming tournament in person before.

“The environment is very similar to a live sports event, even though it’s an online game,” Dixon says. “See, everyone’s getting hype when something happens…”

Just then, things do get crazy. Wizards District Gaming pulls off a game-three win, beating Boston by four points. Two players engage in a shouting match, and now I’m fully invested. Justin Howell, D.C.’s most entertaining gamer, shouts what sounds like, “You don’t want this!” A Boston player named Jhade Black — whose gamer tag is simply “Colt” — counters with: “Come take this L!”

I hear someone behind me whisper, “What’s the score?”

6:53 p.m.: Despite CLTX shooting a perfect 8 for 8 from the field, WDG wins the next game 22-18, tying the series. I don’t know what that says about the merits of this level of competition, but regardless, it sets off a new round of trash talking.

I find Aiden Deshaies, a fan who’s watching from the side of the stage. This is only the second time Deshaies has seen a live esports match between pros, he says; he is studying esports management at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. The 2K league invited New Haven’s entire esports program down to D.C. to tour the new facility and sit front row at the tournament.

“Watching these players argue like this, I haven’t seen anything like it,” Deshaies says.

A cameraman pans to our section and tells us to cheer; I realize we’re probably on the live Twitch feed, so I sit back down to watch the final game.

7:09 p.m.: Celtics Crossover Gaming wins game five in a nail-biter, 22-20, and a flurry of green and white lights flash around the stage. The team and their supporters go wild. “The “Celtics take down the boogie man in D.C. and have a shot at winning the tournament,” the announcer shouts. I don’t know who our boogie man is, but I don’t think I want to find out?

7:15 p.m.: I head to the bar and grab a beer, a Featherduster Hazy IPA from City-State Brewing Co., to be exact — one of the four local brews on tap.

The food menu offers a range of Detroit-style pizzas, sandwiches, and, surprisingly, some more restaurant-y options like a low country shrimp and grits, a pan-seared Maryland rockfish, and a butter roasted half chicken served with french beans.

The entrees are all $26 or more, and cocktails cost between $12 and $18, which is pricey, but not surprising considering the association with Capital One Arena, which has always had expensive concessions.

A family eats Häagen-Dazs while observing the gamers at District E. Elliot Williams / DCist/WAMU

7:30 p.m.: I look up and realize there are at least five large screens nearby, and I have a better view of the live feed from the bar than I did sitting near the stage. The next match begins between two amateur “community teams” the 2K league invites to play on the big stage. Soon, I head out.

7:45 p.m.: I walk away thinking about Dixon, the Howard student. He was so excited to watch his first pro esports game and see in real life what a future career in his chosen field could look like — not unlike my first time interning in a newsroom and witnessing real-world journalists pitching stories; or my first time attending a live concert, knowing the arts would always be part of my life.

When I look around and think too hard about what I’m doing, it’s true — watching other people play video games seems like a weird way to spend a Friday night. But considering the hours of strategizing and team-building that led up to this tournament … I don’t know, it actually seems pretty cool. Cool enough for Dixon to show up and bring some friends, and the group from New Haven to travel to the District. Cool enough for me to head home, pick up my controller and turn on NBA 2K.

Filed Under: Arts and Culture, dispatch, dispatches, district e, esports, monumental sports, nba 2k league, ted leonsis, wizards district gaming, zach leonsis,