"Where have you guys been?" Where was Scion Esports in 2022 and what does the future hold?
For those of you that don’t know, the time between CyPhaCons 2022 and 2023 was a pretty slow time for Scion Esports. The primary reason it was a bit of a dark age for the esports side is because it was an incredibly busy time for our parent company, Lake Charles Toyota.
As you know, Scion Esports almost never charges anything to attend or play in the tournaments we produce, unless it is 100% to fund a prize pool. That means we are heavily dependent on sponsor support, which comes virtually exclusively from Lake Charles Toyota.
For the last 18-24 months, the car business has been in an unprecedented upheaval due to general supply chain issues and the same microchip shortages that are keeping PS5s and the latest video cards scalped all over the world. These issues have caused great uncertainty in the car business and Lake Charles Toyota had to shore up its primary business functions to ensure that were able to maintain our staffing levels and continue providing the level of service and care our customers have come to demand. We are proud to be able to say that through it all we never terminated a single employee or downsized or cut any services, and we never added “market value adjustments” to the price of a single vehicle, which is not something many car dealerships can say. Customers always come first at Lake Charles Toyota, and the best way to keep happy customers, is to keep happy employees.
Keeping the business operating in an effective and financially responsible manner throughout this trying time has cost a great deal of money and also required a great deal of attention from our leaders.
Unfortunately, that led to an unavoidable but temporary reduction in some of our grassroots efforts, like esports.
Another factor that has limited our ability to focus on (and spend money on) esports is a related project, the opening of the new Lake Area Adventures facility in Lake Charles on Country Club Road.
This is an exciting local business that the Tarvers are partners in and also heavily involved in the planning and organization of. Our team is proud of what we accomplished at Lake Area Adventures, and if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, you need to. This is especially good for esports because included in the facility is a brand new state-of-the-art Gamers’ Lounge which is slated to soon become the new permanent home of Scion Esports! We’re excited to see what we can do with this amazing facility.
Be ye not dismayed! There is light at the end of the tunnel. The car business is normalizing and LAA is up and running and is a smash hit with families all across Southwest Louisiana. We don’t have anything specific to announce right now, but we anticipate an exciting year of Scion Esports events in the balance of 2023, both at Lake Area Adventures and at other venues.
Stay tuned to our website and social media, and if you aren’t already, hop in our Discord at discord.gg/scionesports to keep up with all the latest goings-on at Scion Esports.