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Environmental lighting and free Asian street food plates, including banh mi, pancit and BBQ chicken skewers, were curated design choices by Intel and NRG’s Vice President of Brand Experience, Nicole Borhani, for the Oct. 11 night market event. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Once streams of visitors entered beneath red and gold hanging lanterns, they were invited to a wide array of activities, from shopping at the artist alley, competing in a CPU speed build competition and meet and greets with notable online personalities, including s0m, FNS and Sapnap.
As attendees bustled between each activity, they eventually joined the castle’s main stage, where CSULB’s Team Black, the “VALORANT” team, faced off against Santiago Canyon College’s collegiate team.
According to Team Black Manager Drew Nguyen, Long Beach State and Santiago have a prior history as they both faced off in Team Black’s first scrimmage.
Impressed by their previous match, Nguyen said Santiago invited and challenged the Beach to the NRG LAN tournament.
CSULB second-year pre-computer engineering major and Team Black player Ryan-Jayson Evalle fist bumps his teammate during the match on Oct. 11. As Evalle played, he said he could feel the stage shake as spectators erupted in applause, cheers and screams within each match point. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Audience members at the Intel x NRG Night Market watch Long Beach State and Santiago Canyon College face off in their collegiate match on Oct. 11. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
Team Black’s time on the NRG stage marks the night market as one of the first occurrences NRG has opened their castle up to the public, according to their Director of Business Development, Hauk Nelson.
After initial proposals between the two companies in May for a 30-to-40-day turnaround, Nelson said the event’s fruition resulted from a shared desire to curate a meaningful event for the VALORANT community under a night market theme.
“Esports is all about GenZ, right? Those are the folks who have the time to come out and support events like this,” Nelson said. “I think they are the backbone of our fandom as well, so we want to make sure we’re giving back to the fans, of course.”
As the event continued, attendees began to congregate towards the main stage for the night’s final event: an NRG CloutClash match, where s0m and FNS indulged in their heavily teased rivalry on the main stage.
Spearheading the two teams against each other, s0m and FNS drafted teams of YouTubers, Twitch and esports personalities, including Sapnap, sagemommy and Mooda.
Nicholas Armstrong, or Sapnap, played in the NRG CloutClash match on team FNS on Oct. 11. Before the match started, Armstrong said he was excited and tried to earn his spot as the 6th man on the roster. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
The playful clash ended with s0m’s winning, and each member was awarded a bedazzled Intel pendant.
Watching the match from the audience, attendee Lorenzo Alesiani said the Intel x NRG Night Market is vital for large esports organizations to host community-based events.
“It kind of normalizes esports more, apart from everyone being in their room,” Alesiani said. “I think events like this bring everyone together, it’s good for publicity and it sets a good precedent for organizations existing for the player’s benefits, not just a brand name.”
Though a tentative plan, Nelson said he would like to do more public events like the night market in the future and that NRG wants to use the castle for more events for the gaming community.
Future NRG events can be found here or on their social media.
