US Open bringing tennis gaming to life

Article posted by Coliseum, August 26^th, 2024

Image: US Open

The US Open is set to showcase all the thrills and spills of gaming at the 2024 tournament with the Advantage Arena.

Advantage Arena is an interactive gaming zone designed to immerse fans in the world of tennis, online and in real life, like never before.

The gaming lounge will provide an unparalleled on-site opportunity for fans to engage with their favorite tennis stars through tennis-themed games including Fortnite, US Open: Champions of the Court on Roblox, TopSpin 2K25 and Tennis Clash.

The attraction will be open to all US Open attendees throughout the tournament, from the free-to-attend Fan Week on August 19-25 to the US Open’s final days.

Located inside the Chase Center on the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center grounds, the Advantage Arena will feature 13 playable gaming stations where fans can compete with one another.

The 14,000-capacity USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a stadium complex within Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States.

The US Open Tennis Championships, commonly called the US Open, is a hard court tennis tournament held annually in Queens, New York. Since 1987, the US Open has been chronologically the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the year.

Fans who attend the US Open and visit the Advantage Arena will have a chance to win more than 3,500 prizes, ranging from free copies of TopSpin 2K25, a total of over 600,000 in-game redeemables on Roblox, and other unique unlockables within Tennis Clash.

The Arena will also feature stations for fans to immerse themselves in US Open: Champions of the Court–a virtual world that launched last year featuring singles and doubles matches against pro players, treasure hunts and obstacle courses known as ‘Obbys.’

This year’s in-game themed areas the Ralph Lauren Ball Crew Obby and a refreshed, vacation-themed Obby featuring a brand-new culinary experience in the Emirates ‘Fly Better’ Adventure Zone.

The experience also features the all-new Polo Ralph Lauren Photo Quest, giving U.S. players a chance to win real-life Ralph Lauren merchandise.

Fans can also play inside a virtual Arthur Ashe Stadium as one of their real-life favorite players on TopSpin 2K5, and on US Open courts and tournament play on Tennis Clash.

Brian Ryerson, the USTA’s head of product and user experience, said, “It’s incredibly exciting for us to connect our growing presence in the gaming space with the on-site fan experience at the US Open.

“Not only are we reaching more fans by collaborating with some of the most popular gaming titles in the world, the ‘Advantage Arena’ gives our fans on-site a number of new, fun ways to engage with tennis, while also potentially drawing new fans to the US Open.”

Highlighting the playable games is ‘Tennis Storm,’ a new player-vs-player game created in UEFN and integrated into TikTokers’ Birdo and Dagwummy’s Minigame Box PvP Fortnite island, created exclusively for the US Open.

Players use tennis racquets to hit explosive tennis balls scattered around an arena to eliminate opposing players, and the last player standing wins.

The US Open smashed single-session and daily attendance records in 2023, becoming the first Grand Slam to welcome more than 950,000 spectators over a three-week period.

The US Open welcomed 957,387 fans over the 20 days encompassing both the main draw and the US Open Fan Week, a nearly eight percent increase over 2022.

The tournament’s 2023 main-draw attendance was a US Open record 799,402, including sellouts in all 25 sessions in the Arthur Ashe Stadium for the second year in a row.

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