Held across four months, a wide range of games, activities and challenges will take place at SARENA eSports centers in Dammam and Riyadh
The Move To Game initiative is going to the next level in December, with a series of live challenges at gaming hub SARENA in both Riyadh and Dammam.
Starting on December 2 in Dammam and December 7 in Riyadh, and running until March 31, 2021, the Saudi Sports for All Federation and its Move to Game partner SAFEIS (Saudi Federation for Electronic and Intellectual Sports), have teamed up with 14 Saudi sporting federations to host a range of activities, gaming tournaments and sports challenges at the SARENA centers, with virtual challenges continuing to take place online. Both locations will kick off the newest phase of Move To Game with a dedicated ladies’ night.
The Federations taking part include badminton, handball, volleyball, hockey, lacrosse, golf, table tennis, bowling, billiards and snooker, rowing, weightlifting, wrestling, karate, and jiu jitsu.
Launched in April this year, Move to Game is an innovative online tournament that merges a love of gaming and physical fitness. The initiative aims to attract people from a variety of backgrounds, interests, ages and abilities through its mix of challenges – including dedicated Community Sports Groups competitions – and has so far generated more than 10 billion steps from more than 151,000 participants across the Kingdom.
As well as helping the nation get active, Move To Game helped raise SAR 1 million for Zahra Association’s Breast Cancer Awareness campaign in October, with 1,000 participants walking or running more than 66 million steps over two weeks.
The latest phase of the program will feature a different theme and different Federations each month, starting with MTG Park in December. The Federations taking part will be badminton, handball, volleyball, and hockey.
January’s theme will be MTG Target, with participation from the golf, table tennis, bowling, and billiards and snooker, and lacrosse Federations.
In February, the theme will be MTG Warrior, with the rowing and weightlifting Federations taking part, while March will see the wrestling, karate and jiu jitsu federations leading the MTG Self Defense theme.
As well as staging games and challenges, the Federations will perform demonstrations on stage and share knowledge about their respective sports, with special prizes awarded to onsite SARENA winning visitors.
Similar to the virtual challenges, participants at the SARENA gaming hubs will need to do a physical activity and then join a sport challenge, activity, or e-tournament. The major difference being they will undertake the physical activity in person with the sports Federations.
In line with Covid-19 protocols numbers will be strictly limited, with only pre-registered individuals allowed to take part. There will be two periods of the day during which a specific number of people will be allowed to enter the arena – 50 people at the Riyadh venue, and 30 people in the Dammam. Registration will close once these numbers have been reached.
There will be four weekly ladies’ nights per month, and one family day at the end of each month. PepsiCo, which signed as partnership agreement with the SFA in August, will be the official food and beverage sponsor for the ongoing activation.
SARENA is the largest gaming center and eSports venue in the region, with the Riyadh branch alone spanning 2,000 square meters, complete with game stations and a tournament area.
To register for the live Move To Game challenges, visit movetogame.com/registration
