“We always dreamed about one day having a place where people worked, where they lived and where they played. It’s obviously coming to fruition," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones says.
The new 11,000-square-foot facility sits just across the street from the Ford Center, keeping things close to home for Dallas' biggest sports franchise. And like the Ford Center, the GameStop Performance Center will offer benefits for both players and fans. Resources for managing the athletes' nutritional, physical and mental well-being are only part of what's found within.
Representatives from Complexity, the Dallas Cowboys and GameStop touted what the building means for a continued investment in professional esports.
"People ask, 'Why esports?’ That’s our future," Stephen Jones says. "One of our jobs in the Dallas Cowboys is to keep up with this stuff, and esports are showing that you don’t have to be 6-4, 240 (pounds) and run a 4.40 (40-yard dash) to be an athlete.”
This sleep pod is just one way players can manage stress and pressure during training.
Complexity Gaming
Traditional athlete or not, Complexity's professional players, partners and streamers will have access to some serious tech and amenities once operations finish moving to Frisco. The performance center boasts training classrooms for reviewing plays and building strategies, a lounge for watching matches, and a "decompression porch" for cooling off, complete with a near-future-looking nap pod.
There are also mirrored practice rooms where simulated noise will mimic live-performance environments, streaming studios where much of Complexity's online content will be produced and the Silicon Valley-sounding Mind Gym.
The last one was a favorite of Complexity CRO Daniel Herz, who led a tour of the facility. It's equipped with some proprietary training software that can develop reactions, critical thinking and other cognitive skills while also helping players manage stress and fatigue.
Results and data will be used to improve how Complexity helps their players deal with burnout and other mental health issues distressingly common among esports athletes. Herz even mentioned developing white papers using the results.
"The life of a pro gamer is demanding: They’re traveling, they’re playing many hours," he says. "So how do we help with that? How do we improve their cognitive abilities without making them work for six hours at a time?
"A big thing for us is changing stereotypes, creating healthy gaming habits, showing how it can be improved at a cognitive level, and then trickle that down to the community.”
Training rooms like this provide the different teams space to develop winning strategies.
Complexity Gaming
“We didn’t want to build an arena," Herz says. "We wanted to build something that’s really going to give back to the community and provide that benefit.”
Though the doors officially opened Monday, Complexity won't start hosting clinics or workshops until the summer. Publicly available watch parties and other events will be announced soon. Herz said the entire organization is excited for the future within the performance center's walls.
"We are going to do everything we can to lift more trophies but with a cause and a story behind it," he says. "We’re creating an ecosystem here that will hopefully last not for two years, but for 20."
