After seven years of growing in Daytona, the Community Effort Orlando fighting game championship returned to Orlando last weekend with its biggest attendance yet.
From Friday to Sunday, 6,000 spectators and competitors from all over the world filled a 200,000 square foot space at the Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. Attendance was a massive improvement compared to the 300 people in attendance at the inaugural competition 15 years ago. CEO’s success is a microcosm of Orlando’s overall growth in the esports community as a hub for competitive gaming.
Hundreds of computer monitors filled the room, all displaying dozens of different fighting games like Street Fighter, Tekken, and Super Smash Bros. Competitors matched up at different gaming tables, or match pools, ready to take on their opponents, climb the ladder out of their pools, and reach gaming glory.
Round 1 featured John Bartley from Louisville, Kentucky. He approached his opponent with his personal arcade-style controller. Bartley selected his favorite character in Street Fighter 6, the green, animalistic brawler, “Blanka.” His opponent selected Zangief, a red-costumed, colossal wrestler, known for grappling.
And grapple after grapple, Bartley submitted defeat to his opponent
“I have pretty good experience against grappling,” Bartley said. “I just got a little nervous. I dropped a couple of combos that would have won the game, but it's how it goes.”
Bartley and his wife, Alecia, drove from Louisville to attend CEO. They try to go to one tournament a year.
“We were a CEO last year. We liked it. New venue this year, so we decided to come out and try it again,” he said.
Alecia isn’t a competitor, or at least not yet.
“I've got the bug, so I'm learning how to play,” she said.
Alecia came out to support her husband. She was disappointed to see him lose, but the two were ready to watch the rest of the competition; they’re both big fans of watching Street Fighter matches.
“I love watching because You'll you never know what can happen,” she said.
Behind her is a non-metaphorical wrestling ring in the center of the room. Inside, it is yet another monitor and game console used to display featured fights at the tournament. On either side of the ring are two huge video displays for all to see the players’ match.
“We like to add that whole facade. It's a fighting game, after all. There's no actual fighting going on in it, but we want people to feel like it’s a grand stage,” said wrestling ring owner and CEO founder Alex JaBailey.
The CEO creator isn’t just a fan; he’s a competitor, too. During the weekend festivities, JaBailey was entered in the Street Fighter 2 tournament… Although it didn’t go as planned, he lost his match competing while communicating with his staff via text to make sure the event was running smoothly and keeping his guard up in the game.
In defeat, JaBailey looked frustrated, but he shrugged it off, shook his opponent’s hand, and strode away, off to put out a small “fire” the staff was dealing with.
“It's about video games and having a good time. I am a competitor, first and foremost,” he said.
JaBailey started playing Street Fighter in college. Once finished, he began touring the world competing in tournaments and learning how to put one on.
In 2010, JaBailey began CEO in Orlando with a small crowd and a big dream.
“I looked at my community, and I said, let's grow this thing in Florida. We can do something really special. And over the years, I learned something new every year, until we kept growing it. And now it's at a very good state where we can turn this into something special for Florida,” he said.
CEO temporarily left Orlando for a bigger venue in Daytona, but the event outgrew the space and returned to Orlando this year, using, for the first time, a large space in Shingle Creek.
In Daytona, CEO cost about $3 million to put on, JaBailey said, which was accomplished. During the event, he wasn’t sure what this year’s expenses were exactly, but he was confident it would also be a multi-million-dollar event.
“You just gotta take risks and hope that people come and support you. And so far, we're killing it,” he said. “Going into the grand finals, on Sunday, the energy you feel around that ring when the matches are good is something like it. And that's what makes me happy. Makes me tear up at the end of the weekend, like this is why I do this.”
The Sunday night finals were streamed on Twitch, and at one point or another, at least 200,000 people were tuned in. Inside the venue,2,000 people sat outside the wrestling ring, eager to see who would dominate in Street Fighter 6.
The finalists featured two players from South Korea. The winner of the night, Shin Moon-sup, aka Leshar. With his opponent at match point, the 25-year-old staged a comeback victory. The crowd erupted in a joyous raucous as Leshar claimed his $7,000 prize.
The South Korean finalists were hardly the only international guests, as competitors also came from Switzerland and Japan. That kind of travel for video game tournaments is becoming more common in Orlando as the City Beautiful continues to level up as an esports hub.
Orlando Esports Journey
Beyond CEO, Orlando has attracted some big names in gaming.
Over the last 15 years, Orlando has grown in the esports community, hosting competitions like the Call of Duty World League Championship in 2017 at the Kia Center, the Pokémon Regional Championship in 2023 held at the Orange County Convention Center, and EA’s Madden Championship, hosted at Full Sail University’s esports arena, “The Orlando Health Fortress.”
The latter, which occurred earlier this year, featured 14 of the top Madden players competing on the Fortress’ main stage for a share of the $1 million prize pool.
“We're a city that's rooted in family entertainment and innovation, and it just only makes sense that we're leaning heavily into an industry that connects with that audience, audiences of all of those different ages,” said Sari Kitelyn, director of esports at Full Sail.
Kitelyn noted that Orlando is ripe with ideal qualities for it to be an esports town. It has huge venue space, like the Orange County Convention Center, the Rosen Shingle Creek, the Amway Center, and Full Sail’s Orlando Health Fortress. Additionally, it also has tremendous industry experience in putting on large events from veterans of the tourism sector and those working in production, but the crucial element that makes esport productions possible in the city is Orlando’s investment in fast internet, Kitelyn said.
“There are a lot of cities that are not necessarily understanding the power and the impact of that bandwidth and of that level of technology infrastructure,” she said. “Those that are working within the event space, in Central Florida, they already get it, and that's what's really awesome, is that you go to the table and you have to understand that, no, we need hardwire internet for 100 PCs all at the same time.”
According to Kitelyn, Orlando’s esports watershed moment came in 2013 when Full Sail hosted Major League Gaming’s Dota 2 and Call of Duty Championships.
“That event marked one of the region’s first high-profile moments on the national esports stage and helped set the tone for what’s now a thriving, multi-faceted esports ecosystem,” she said.
While Full Sail has invested in game development for about 30 years, its hosting of the MLG set in motion an investment toward more esport development in the area.
In 2019, Full Sail’s Orlando Health Fortress opened. According to the university, it is the largest collegiate esports arena in the nation. The Fortress was an old sound studio converted to accommodate 500 spectators, a main stage, and a massive LED lighting rig.
Since opening, the Fortress has hosted the Red Bull Conquest – a regional fighting game tournament series – in 2019, the Blizzard Hearthstone Collegiate Championship that same year, and the NBA2K League Draft in 2024.
This week, Full Sail took another step into expanding community esports by opening its “Armada HQ,” a gaming and production center on campus. It includes 45 PC game stations and console lounges with PS5 and Nintendo Switch systems.
The HQ is home to the school’s esports varsity team, the “Armada.” The team is in the off-season currently and is hosting tryouts this summer, hoping to flesh out a roster between 80 and 100 athletes. The team took home the league champion title in the spring of 2023 for the MOBA game Smite, and the eastern conference champion titles for Super Smash Bros in 2023 and 2024.
Armada HQ had a soft opening in March for its athletes, but is now open to all students who are looking to casually game. But Armada HQ also has opportunities for students interested in esports commentating with a dedicated broadcast studio for streaming production.
“We want to support this kind of evolution for our students,” Kitelyn said. “This industry is being built right now, and we want to give them the opportunities to understand the landscape.”
Kitelyn thinks Orlando’s esports’ potential is only going to grow with more broadcast opportunities, more commercial events and more collegiate events.
“There are so many different aspects of areas that we can kind of go into, and all those tapping in so well, to what Orlando is really bringing to the table, the growth opportunity is going to be seen,” she said. “I honestly, really do believe that the growth here is limitless.”
