Gregory Leporati
Articles by Gregory Leporati
When esports blew up, DDR moved to the suburbs
Even in a packed arcade, David Maiman stands out from the crowd. He's wearing a black T-shirt with multicolor DDR arrows darting across the front, his long, dark hair curling down to his shoulders. As he walks into his local arcade in suburban Long Island, he's almost like a celebrity, shaking hands with the manager, snapping selfies with fellow players and cheering on his friends as they set high scores. "Rhythm games are social," says Maiman, traces of a New York accent in his voice. "That's what makes DDR, and our community, so special."
Build morale by slaying monsters after work
On the 62nd floor of One World Trade Center, Lorghoth the Decayer is waiting. A party of brave coders and digital strategists gathers around a conference table to slay the wicked beast -- praying the D20 rolls their way. It's just another Wednesday night at Code & Theory, a digital creative agency in New York City's tallest skyscraper. Every other week, a team of developers and designers hops into a conference room (with a stunning view of Manhattan) to participate in a unique, after-hours exercise: a Dungeons and Dragons game night. Timm Woods, a professional dungeon master, leads each session, guiding the colleagues through intricate adventures filled with gypsy-camp raids, vindictive scarecrows and the cruel mists of Ravenloft. Woods, an energetic and scruffy Brooklynite, has been a professional dungeon master for about five years, running everything from after-school campaigns to private parties and events. The weekly sessions at Code & Theory represent the next step in his business plan: going corporate.
Cheers, chants, and 'Overwatch' at NYC’s first eSports supporters club
Richard Ng didn't plan it this way, but he might just be standing at the forefront of an eSports revolution. The 38-year-old brand strategist finds himself moonlighting as the founder of the Five Deadly Venoms Crew, a supporters club for Overwatch League's New York Excelsior team. What started as a simple Discord request to meet up with nearby eSports fans has quickly grown into a local phenomenon, hosting weekly, standing-room-only viewing parties at Waypoint, a cozy LAN café on the Lower East Side. This past weekend's event had more than 70 attendees -- a lively, exuberant crowd that found plenty of reason to cheer as NYC routed the Los Angeles Valiant 4-0. "There were no lofty aspirations at first," said Ng, as he recalled the group's humble beginnings. "We had 15 people come out for the first one, and it just snowballed from there."