Melbourne's Mixing Tennis With Esports

Image: Hisense Arena

In one of the more unusual combinations to kick off 2017, Melbourne will be holding a two day event at Hisense Arena.

It won't be for tennis, though. It's for esports.

Called the Melbourne Egames Expo - or MEGEX for short - the event will showcase several games including League of Legends, Call of Duty, Halo, Minecraft, Overwatch, and Counter-Strike. It'll be held just as the Australian Open is coming to a close - the Grand Slam doesn't finish until January 29, so it'll be interesting to see what the reaction from the tennis-loving crowd is to video games.

If I was the organiser, I'd be hoping that the Aussie Open doesn't get another spate of 40 degree weather. That won't do wonders for a bunch of networked PCs.

But I digress. The landing page says there will be showmatches, an expo, freeplay stations, a meet and greet with professional gamers, a Pro-Am, and a "pro-gamer team competition on stage" presumably for some of the bigger titles. (Unless there's a massive professional Minecraft team league that has been silent in Australia until now.)

MEGEX has an official account on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, although the Twitter account hasn't been used as of yet and the other social media channels have all been about PAX Australia of late. We'll undoubtedly hear more details fairly soon, since January isn't too far away - and if they're going to be within pegging distance of the Australian Open, chances are there is a huge marketing blast on the way.