Shellharbour Civic Centre has been transformed into a major international fighting game venue this weekend.
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While there may have been a few verbal stoushes and heated exchanges in the council chambers in the past.
The new building has never seen anything like what happened when the doors opened on Saturday morning and hundreds of young gamers started flooding in.
The two day international fighting game tournament provides an opportunity for Illawarra and Sydney gamers to compete against some of the best in the world.
Competitors are playing for a chance to share in over $12,000 in prize money.
But as part of Youth Week activities at the civic centre there will be a free youth competition on Sunday for anyone under 19 to come in, sign up, play a free tournament and have a chance to win Nintendo merchandise.
Sean Thorpe said Expand Gong 4, run by volunteers from University of Wollongong's Video Game Association (VGA) and Fighting Game Community (WollongongFGC), is definitely bigger than last year and is shaping up as the best one yet.
And the major fighting game tournament is attracting more global attention than ever before from live streaming on five international channels including VG Bootcamp (VGBC), the biggest twitch stream in the world for Super Smash Brothers.
Up to 100,000 viewers are expected to watch VGBC's live stream.
"At any point in time it could peak at 10,000 to 20,000".
Mr Thorpe said last year there were 153 competitors and this year 274.
"And people are coming in from the area to have a look," he said.
The competition is not done online.
Each game is a battle between two people and if you win you progress further into the tournament which runs from 10am to 8pm both days..
"The Smash Ultimate Bracket itself has 212 people in it. It is basically and elimination bracket with a second chance," Mr Thorpe said.
"Because this is a grass roots event we want people to have a good time and as much participation as possible.
"Here you get knocked out your join something else and you stay in the experience.
"With a new streaming partner and venue and 100 more players than last year this just keeps growing and growing".
Mr Thorpe said the five international gamers had already posted photos and information about Wollongong and Shellharbour on their social media channels.
Each of them are sponsored and have tens of thousands of followers.
"We actually took them down the coast road from the airport and they got to see Sea Cliff Bridge and other sights," he said.
For Illawarra and Australian players it is a chance to put their skills to the test against the best.
Blaine McVie recently moved to Wollongong from Melbourne and said it was fantastic to have such a significant competition in the Illawarra.
"This is my first video game tournament ever. It is wonderful. The venue is actually really cool," he said.
"I've been practicing. I am ready".
Reece Simmons, Reece Walker and Lachlan Berry, of Wollongong, have played in previous Expand the Gong's and have been training six months for the 2019 competition.
"We are really glad to see so many people turn up," Mr Berry said.
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