Gamers8 festival ‘opens new avenues for Kingdom’s gamers’

RIYADH: The Gamers8 electronic sports festival, which kicked off at a purpose-built venue in Riyadh Boulevard City on Thursday, will showcase Saudi Arabia’s gaming community to the world, its organizers say.

The festival, created by Gamers Without Borders, will run until Sept. 8 under the theme “Your Portal to the Next World,” and will feature a string of professional e-sports tournaments, entertainment shows, workshops and global music concerts.

More than 23.5 million people in Saudi Arabia consider themselves gamers, prompting the groundbreaking Gamers8 event, and the Saudi Esports Federation hopes that the festival will be a source of pride to the Saudi gaming community.

“With a population so young, all gamers, even the older generation or former gamers, it was the time to start to focus on giving them an avenue to not just enjoy the games, but have that be your career path as well,” Prince Faisal bin Bandar, chairman of SEF, told Arab News in an exclusive interview.

Prince Faisal said that the festival will give young gamers the chance to come together, supply them with the knowledge and tools to pursue their passions, and provide a space where they can create a legitimate career out of e-sports and gaming.

“It’s something that I’m very excited about,” he said.

Prince Faisal said that one of the most overlooked benefits of e-sports is the community it offers gamers.

“One of the things that I’ve always loved about it the most is that it’s a community and a very close community globally.”

He said that scientific evidence showed that gaming can positively and proactively affect gamers. A study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health showed that gaming helped military veterans to cope with their