With the ESL Arena and accompanying stalls having taken up 4,680 meters squared of space, ESL was the largest exhibitor at gamescom 2015, showcasing over 15 different games - more than the Winter Olympics - and awarding more than US$250,000 in prize money.

Gearing up for gamescom

Such a massive event takes a lot of equipment to pull off, and ESL’s gamescom efforts were no exception. In order to keep everything running smoothly, the ESL team had to deploy:

• 5 kilometers of crossbars
• 2,400 tables and chairs
• 450 PCs
• 450 monitors
• 60 LCD screens
• 215 square meters of LED screens
• 650 extension cables

The amount of wires used by ESL at gamescom 2015 deserves its own special mention. With 3.5 kilometers used for electricity, 6.5 kilometers in network cables and 2.5 kilometers for the TV and graphics teams, combined there was enough wiring to run a cable up and down Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper - the tallest man-made structure in the world at 830 meters high - seven times!

The ESL IT team also had their work cut out for them, with them clocking:

• Around 750 clients in the ESL network and 350 WiFi clients
• Approximately 40 megabits per second of stream traffic on average
• Roughly 185 megabits per second down and 90 megabits per second up of internet usage

Catering to the crowds

Although 345,000 visitors attended gamescom 2015 (10,000 more than 2014), not everyone was able to make it to Cologne to enjoy the proceedings in person - but for ESL events we had you covered. ESL’s gamescom streams reached a massive 11,966,540 sessions and 5,865,320 unique views, equalling 3,820,310 hours watched in total - that’s around 436 years of esports!

ESL booked some 1,600 hotel rooms for various attending players, personalities and staff throughout the event, and during peak times had around 660 people to take care of simultaneously. Additionally, ESL also had a fleet of twelve vehicles shuttling those working on gamescom back and forth to make sure everyone got to where they needed to be. A few stats:

• During the peak travel times of 07:00 and 10:00, approximately 300 people were transported
• During the first three days of gamescom, each shuttle travelled around 1,500 kilometers on average daily
• An average of eight shuttles were on the road per hour between peak times
• And around 3,500 WhatsApp messages were sent to shuttle personnel for transport coordination

The exclusive ESL afterparty also racked up plenty of numbers of its own. Partygoers got to enjoy over 120 songs under the supervision of DJ Cem, Johnny Flash and the Shake n Bake Crew as well as around 2,400 beers and 7,500 long drinks, all kept cool by a refreshing 2,500 or so ice cubes.

ESL will soon be bringing more esports to Cologne with the ESL One Counter-Strike: Global Offensive championship at the LANXESS Arena! Grab your ticket for ESL One Cologne 2015 here or, if you can’t make it to Cologne in person, check out the Esports in Cinemas website for a grand finals showing at a theater near you!