A decade ago, Mike Milanov gave me a tour of the new headquarters for Team Liquid, an esports team in Los Angeles that was supported by gaming PC maker Alienware. The computer maker helped Team Liquid entice esports athletes by enabling a pampered life. They got access to expert health and medical advice, food from an amazing chef, and massages to help them with recovery after matches.
It took a lot of vision to do that, as Los Angeles was soon beset with esports headquarters. Then the esports winter set in. Milanov is now at the forefront of another movement in gaming — this time in Saudi Arabia, where the nation is taming nature to carve a gaming and esports city out of some giant desert cliffs, like something out of the film Dune.
Milanov is now head of gaming at Qiddiya, a dreamy “Giga Project” underway near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis want 17 million visitors a year to go to Qiddiya by 2030, making it the “largest tourism destination worldwide.” Similar to Team Liquid’s headquarters, the aim of Qiddiya is to build a whole city where gamers, esports athletes, and their fans can feel at home. Milanov is gearing up to sell people on the idea of Qiddiya. Will giant sandworms get him, or will it all pay off?
It’s an ambitious effort to build a city in the desert cliffs and eventually create 325,000 jobs for people living in the place. And it’s the future home of the Esports World Cup, which was held this year in an outdoor mall in Riyadh dubbed The Boulevard. The Boulevard is just one long street — a kind of test for the same kind of vision as Qiddiya.
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These are manifestations of a strategic plan to invest $37 billion in gaming and esports through the kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in an attempt to diversify the economy away from oil and create jobs for Saudis.
The prize pool for the Esports World Cup was $60 million, but some people decided not to go. Critics say that this amounts to one more attempt at “sportwashing” and an attempt to draw attention away from human rights issues such as the lack of rights for LGBTQ+ people in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Like Team Liquid CEO Steve Arhancet, Milanov decided to dive all in.
“The best thing is for all of the Arabic countries not to be grouped together when you think about your opinion, and for you to come check it out personally. That’s what I did, and then right afterward I started at Qiddiya,” Milanov said.
While some projects are competing for both attention and dollars, Milanov said, “We’re all on team KSA.”
Disclaimer: The New Global Sport Conference paid my way to Riyadh. GamesBeat is a media partner with NGSC. Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
