Gamers battle on ROG gear in upcoming ESPN EXP tournament series

ESPN is expanding efforts to elevate esports by adding two new tournaments to EXP, its newly launched esports gaming series. The EXP summer session kicks off July 11, 2019 with a Pro-Am Apex Legends Exhibition alongside the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles that will feature players from across the gaming community. Our very own ROG Stream Team members xChocoBars and NickEh30 will be participating, along with a slew of perennial sports athletes, esports gamers, and streamers invited by ESPN. The next stop on the road is the EXP Invitational – Apex Legends at X Games Minneapolis on August 2 and 3, 2019, where 20 of the best Apex Legends squads will fight their way to the top of the bracket.

ROG is proud to have sponsored ESPN’s inaugural EXP event at the Collegiate Esports Championship in May 2019, and will continue supporting the series and supplying competition-grade gaming hardware for the two upcoming events. Every team will enter the battle royale on tournament-ready ROG Strix GL12CX esports desktops paired with ROG Swift PG248Q gaming monitors.

Photo from the ESPN Collegiate Esports Championship in May 2019

Bringing esports to everyone

The upcoming EXP competitions underscore the dedication of both ROG and ESPN to bringing professional esports to a wider platform. You’ll be able to catch the action on multiple digital platforms including the ESPN app and a tape-delayed show focused on key events and storylines. That show will air across ESPN and ABC linear networks, showcasing pro gaming to mainstream audiences worldwide. 

Through sponsoring events like PAX, Dreamhack, ESL One, and the EXP series, we continue supporting a wide cross-section of the gaming industry, from everyday players to developers, streamers, and pro gamers. Competitive play is a particular passion at ROG, since we were founded as a division within ASUS tasked with creating innovative, elite equipment for serious gamers. ROG hardware is engineered to compete at the highest levels, and there is no better place to see it put to the test than at a tournament filled with upcoming and established esports champions.

Achieving esports excellence

Tournament participants in the upcoming EXP series will play on ROG gear designed for competitive gaming.

The ROG Strix GL12CX is a liquid-cooled and factory-overclocked gaming desktop designed to give competitors a serious edge in battle. Developed specifically for tournament play, its case features a hot-swap SSD bay hidden behind a magnetic front cover. This hot-swap system is vital for esports events, where games and player profiles are often stored on 2.5” SSDs. With the hot-swap bay, organizers can easily remove and insert drives without ever lifting a screwdriver or rebooting the system.

The ROG Strix GL12CX gaming desktop

The surprisingly compact 27-liter chassis contains the latest high-end hardware, including an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU powerful enough to deliver the triple-digit frame rates required for professional play. Competitors will immerse themselves in the action on blazing-fast ROG Swift PG248Q monitors. This high-refresh gaming display features an overclockable 180Hz refresh rate that enables silky-smooth gameplay, plus an ultra-quick 1-ms response time that ensures enemies and other targets are rendered without any ghosting or blurring. NVIDIA G-SYNC technology is also available to reduce stuttering and eliminate tearing.

The ROG Swift PG248Q gaming monitor

Game casters will follow the action on new ROG Strix SCAR III gaming laptops that represent the top tier of portable esports machines. Released in Spring 2019, the Strix SCAR III is the world’s first gaming laptop to offer 240Hz panels in both 15- and 17-inch sizes. Slim bezels frame the display, giving casters a more immersive and in-depth view of the game.

The ROG Strix SCAR III

Equipped with a powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, the SCAR III delivers silky smooth visuals at any speed of play. Its latest 9th Gen Intel® Core™ CPU, blazing fast M.2 NVMe SSD, and up to 32GB of RAM mean that content creators can spectate, play video, take notes, chat, and do anything else they need to host their streams in style.

Let the games begin

Expanding the EXP series is a significant step toward making competitive gaming a must-see, mainstream sport. ROG is excited to help bring esports to a bigger stage with ESPN, the essential platform for pro athletes.

Tune in to the events live online or on the ESPN mobile app. The pro-am Apex Legends exhibition takes place on July 11 from 6-8PM PT, while the EXP Invitational takes place later in the summer at X Games Minneapolis, from August 2 to August 3 at 3-8PM Central.