- GameStop has announced content partnerships with CompLexity Gaming, Envy Gaming, and Infinite Esports, which includes OpTic Gaming, and the Houston Outlaws.
- The GameStop Performance Center will open this summer as a dedicated facility for CompLexity Gaming and the Dallas Cowboys.
- Each team will partner with GameStop to engage local fans with gaming workshops and online content.
Videogame retailer GameStop announced several esports partnerships on Wednesday, all centered on its home state of Texas. The partnership includes CompLexity Gaming 
, Envy Gaming , and Infinite Esports .
GameStop acquired the naming rights to CompLexity Gaming’s new training facility in Dallas, which opens this May. The 11,00-square-foot GameStop Performance Center will share a headquarters with the Dallas Cowboys, whose owner Jerry Jones holds a majority stake in CompLexity. The new facility will house a gaming area, high-tech training space, video studios, and a retail store.
Meanwhile, GameStop also announced a multiyear sponsorship deal with Dallas-based Envy Gaming, which owns Team Envy and Overwatch League team Dallas Fuel . The partnership includes a number of local gaming clinics that invite amateur players to interact with and learn from the professionals.
A partnership with Infinite Esports will include its OpTic Gaming franchise as well as Overwatch team, the Houston Outlaws.
“We believe the Dallas/Fort Worth area is becoming the epicenter of esports with a lot of professional teams relocating to North Texas—and we are right in the middle of this movement,” said Frank Hamlin, chief marketing officer for GameStop. “It helps that GameStop shares the same backyard with all three esports teams.”
CompLexity, Envy (along with Dallas Fuel), and OpTic Gaming (along with Houston Outlaws) will provide “deep insights beyond tips and tricks,” GameStop told The Esports Observer, through a series of videos, curriculums, and in-person events at the GameStop Performance Center.
Once a player completes the curriculum, they will have an opportunity to compete on an amateur level through tournament platform partner Matherino.
GameStop will host other events like Overwatch viewing parties and collegiate esports events through the Collegiate Star League (CSL). The retailer will participate in key events, including the Summer School League, back-to-school campus tour in the fall of 2019, and the 2020 CSL Grand Finals.
“We are entering esports in a big way and we believe that our grassroots approach will empower the amateur community in a meaningful way through the partnerships we have in place,” added Hamlin.
GameStop partnered withOverwatch teams in 2018, organizing viewing party meet-and-greets with nine teams including Philadelphia Fusion, Los Angeles Valiant, New York Excelsior, and San Francisco Shock. The company told The Esports Observer that it plans to continue down this path “at a bigger scale” in 2019. Additional details will be revealed “soon,” the company teased.
The videogame retailer showed particular interest in developing the esports community in Texas last year, sponsoring OP Live Dallas, a gaming and esports festival. The event, held in September, was produced by eGency Global in partnership with SMU Guildhall, the game design graduate program at Southern Methodist University.
