Gun Violence Looms Over Gaming Events After Esports Mass Shooting

There's a stereotype that video games are a lonely, anti-social hobby, with players who spend hours alone in the dark, but that's not actually true. Many video game players love to gather to test their skills, check out upcoming games, and generally just geek out together. PAX, E3, and tournaments such as Evo are ingrained in gaming culture.

But after the deadly shooting at an official qualifier for Electronic Arts' Madden Classic Tournament—a popular football game—over the weekend in Jacksonville, Florida, the companies and organizations that host those events are rethinking how they handle security.

The shooter, himself a competitor at the tournament, opened fire, killing Taylor Robertson, 27, and Elijah Clayton, 21, and injuring nine more before turning the gun on himself.

“We have made a decision to cancel our three remaining Madden Classic qualifier events while we run a comprehensive review of safety protocols for competitors and spectators,” Andrew Wilson, the CEO of Electronic Arts, the company that publishes Madden and ran the tournament, said after the shooting. “We will work with our partners and our internal teams to establish a consistent level of security at all of our competitive gaming events.”

EA isn’t the only company rethinking security in the wake of the shooting. North American League Championship Series commissioner Chris Greeley told Motherboard in an email that “the safety of fans, players, and employees is the top priority.”

Greeley said NALCS uses multiple security measures including bag checks, item restrictions, metal detector screenings, and on-site security “to ensure the safety of all those in attendance.”

“While we won’t comment on specific modifications regarding our safety and security procedures, we are continuously evaluating and iterating on our security plans for all of our events," he said.

ESL, the oldest and largest esports organization, also told Motherboard it is reviewing safety options after the shooting. “We will take action where necessary to protect our community, partners, and everyone associated,” ESL told me by email.

Stephanie Tinsley, a public relations representative for various video game companies who attends a lot of public gaming events, told Motherboard that she’s worried about the safety of herself and her clients. “I'm a little anxious about going to PAX this weekend but a lot of people feel the same so at least I'm not alone,” she told Motherboard in a phone interview. “I think anyone who's responsible for other people at events need to make their safety a priority.”

Mass shootings are a particularly American concern that Tinsley has had to explain to non-American clients. “Some of them ask, sort of jokingly, ‘Will I get shot to death?’” She said. “At first I was like, ‘No you're fine, statistically.’ But after a while I was like, ‘OK, this can happen anywhere, anytime.'’’

Tinsley said that she ensures her team and clients have emergency plans in place before going to an event, and that preparation for mass shootings is now always a part of them.

“I make sure people know where the exits and fire escapes are,” she said. “That turned into a more expansive guideline plan. I reached out to emergency responders and researchers, pulled information from Ready.gov and the CDC website [which has information about how hospitals should respond to an active shooter]. I wrote it all down, I have a map of the show floor, and I distribute it to clients if they want it.”

Tinsley’s safety plan for this weekend’s PAX in Seattle, for example, is six pages long, and includes blueprints of the convention center. Tinsley declined to share more specifics about her security planning because making them public could make them less effective. The Entertainment Software Association, which runs E3, declined to share any specific protocols for the same reason.

Tinsley noted that security around video game industry events can vary widely depending on the location, organizers, and timing. “Look at PAX East prior to the Boston Marathon bombing,” she said. “There was no bag check. Now there's a bag check, and they did it right; they have it down to a science. You have exhibitor entrances that can skip the fan lines. You go through a metal detector; they pat you down.”

PAX West in Seattle, she said, has no bag checks and no metal detectors.

“Across the 15 years of PAX events we have provided a safe and welcoming environment for more than a million attendees to come together for their love of gaming and we are ensuring that we adhere to that tradition at PAX West 2018,” PAX organizers said.

While they didn’t elaborate on what steps they would take to keep attendees safe, they did say they work closely with Washington State Convention Center, private security, Seattle Police Department, and federal law enforcement authorities “to identify risks, assess them, and develop our comprehensive security protocols.”

Tinsley was disappointed in that approach. “PAX says, ‘trust us, we have this,’" she said. “It was disappointing, when you're looking at what just happened… Have you heard an airline tout their safety record? They don't do it. It's PR 101, because eventually something will happen.”

Something almost happened in 2015 when two Pokémon trading card game players threatened on Facebook to shoot up a Pokémon tournament in Boston. Police followed up on the threat and discovered the pair had an AR-15, a shotgun, and hundreds of bullets. There was a heightened police presence at the event, but organizers didn’t inform participants. They learned about it in the news.

Tinsley said that she wants to see increased security at video game events, as well as any large public gathering, even if that means longer security lines. There have been more than 1,800 mass shootings in the US since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, and no serious legislative effort that could conceivably reduce the number of mass shootings in the near future. For that reason, Tinsley is going to keep putting together extensive safety plans of her own for every event.

"This is the worst part of the job,” Tinsley said. “It makes me feel gross and depressed but it's necessary.”