Yongsan Esports Stadium

Welcome to Yongsan Esports Stadium! As its name suggests, it is a space designed specifically to host competitive gaming events and is located in the Yongsan District in Seoul, South Korea. Come take a tour of the space with GameSpot and experience the stadium for yourself in this photo gallery!

Main Entrance

The main entrance to the space was decked out in banners for the event being hosted. GameSpot was covering the World of Tanks Asia Pacific Season 2 finals, which had the four teams whose logos you see featured on the banners competing.

Preparing the Casters

A production crew of about fifteen staff ran around before the event kicked off to ensure everything was setup properly. Here, a member of the production team worked with the Korean casters to ensure they were properly equipped with microphones and ready to go.

Preparing the English Casting Desk

Next to the native Korean casting desk was the English-language casting desk, whose casting would not be relayed to the live audience, but to the online viewers watching at home.

Fans Begin to Enter

The venue seats approximately 200 people, with a raised stage and loud sound system to ensure that the back row can hear and see what is going on at all times.

Player Booths

On the left and right sides of the stage were the player booths. Each booth was branded with the respective team’s logo and sponsors. Even smaller details like player name plates stuck on the side of each monitor were given attention. The booth itself was decked out in wallpaper and logos from the relevant game.

Eager Fans

Several enthusiastic fans showed up early to get front-row seats and brandish their hand-made posters, which they would raise every time a camera panned over the audience.

Multiple Cameras

There were several professional cameras placed strategically throughout the venue. At the back, two elevated cameras could focus specifically on the casting desk.

Trophy Display

The trophy was displayed for all to see, and to remind players what was on the line.

Audience of All Ages

An enthusiastic audience member brought their child to spectate the event.

Fan With a Poster

Despite the matches having kicked off already, some fans continued to work diligently on their posters to show support for their favourite teams.

Dedicated Player Camera

A dedicated camera person stood at the end of each player booth to provide panning shots in between matches. Some matches went on for rather long, but the production staff stood by just in case something of note happened.

Team Banners

Sparing no expense, large banners of each team competing in the finals hung from the ceiling.

Analyst Desk

On the side sat analyst desk for pre-show and post-show content. Here the camera person who usually took care of the sweeping audience shots switched focus to the analyst desk.

Media Section

The very back row of tables was reserved for media covering the event. Staff stocked the tables with power boards, food, and drinks, to ensure that all media were able to watch and cover the matches comfortably.

Winner’s Stage

At the conclusion of the event, the winning team took to the stage amongst applause and loud blasts of smoke.

Celebrating First Place

When presented with the first place trophy, streamers promptly exploded from the ceiling and rained down upon the stage. Those poor staff who had to clean up the mess!

Hall of Fame

On the back wall of the space stood the Hall of Fame, decorated with photos and the hand prints of celebrated and established professional gamers.

Lim “BoxeR” Yo Hwan’s Hand Print

This gold hand print belonged to former StarCraft: Brood War player Lim “BoxeR” Yo Hwan, one of the highest-paid professional gamers to date.

Preparations For The Next Event

Despite the World of Tanks Asia Pacific Season 2 final wrapping up rather late, the production crew wasted no team in cleaning up the space and setting up for the next day’s event. Banners were taken down, wallpaper was ripped away, and furniture was all re-branded with astounding efficiency. Evidently, the crew who run events at Yongsan Esports Stadium take their business very seriously!