We play — and we teach

Dear partners, colleagues and friends, quality education is without question near the top of every parent's list. And while our gaming activities might sit more in the entertainment bucket, we're spending more and more time on education too — interest from schools in the Vodafone PLAYzone Arena keeps growing. The times call for a modern approach, and Comenius's famous idea of "learning through play" has taken on a whole new dimension. We teach kids practical skills in an engaging way — things like staying safe online. Hands-on courses about careers in gaming and esports are also becoming more popular. I'm convinced it's a promising career path, because something is always happening in this growing industry. This newsletter is proof. Enjoy the read.

Record interest from companies

Thank you. There really isn't a better word to open this topic. Thanks to you — our long-term and new partners — we'll host more corporate events at the Vodafone PLAYzone Arena this year than ever before. Forty-eight have already taken place, and another 14 are on the calendar. Brands and institutions including Škoda, Logitech, Dell, Samsung, Xiaomi and the Czech Basketball Federation have all run events here. We still have a few dates open — whether you're looking for a venue for a partner event, a press conference, a team-building day or a Christmas party. If you're thinking about a venue that's a little out of the ordinary, where we'll build everything to fit your brief, drop us a line and we'll find a date.

Number of the month: 1,790

Gamescom is one of the biggest gaming events in the world. This year it drew over 357,000 visitors to Germany. We played a part in the festival too. For our long-time partner Alienware we built a custom booth, and we supplied their peripherals to some of the biggest names in global gaming — Team Liquid, SEGA Europe, LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS (publisher of PUBG Mobile) and TiMi Studio Group (the studio behind Honor of Kings, Arena of Valor and Call of Duty: Mobile). In total, we shipped 1,790 pieces of gaming gear (PCs, monitors and peripherals) to Cologne.

In the control room with Michals

In today's newsletter I'll take you into the control room. Surrounded by dozens of monitors, our team makes sure the live broadcast reaches phones, tablets, computers and TVs without a hitch. It's thanks to these colleagues that viewers don't miss any of the important details. The control room is run by Michal Szabo — nobody calls him anything other than Michals. Michals spends most of his working hours at the Vodafone PLAYzone Arena. In his free time he enjoys getting out into nature and is into history, especially military history. And like everyone at PLAYzone, Michals loves a good video game. If you'd like Michals to "direct" your project, just book the broadcast studio at the Vodafone PLAYzone Arena.

Caught our eye: Matys's fairytale success

This Cinderella story has a lovely next chapter. Matúš "matys" Šimko was for a long time one of the unluckier names at Tipsport MČR CS. He broke the curse in that legendary 2023 final when he and Sampi.Tipsport turned the match around from 0:2 to 3:2 and picked up his first win at one of our events. Since then he's been on a rocket-ship. He moved to the legendary Fnatic organisation, and this summer in Prague at Tipsport Conquest of Prague he took first place again — and again only after coming from behind in the final. Now Matys has his biggest career win yet. This time, playing for G2, he's celebrating the BLAST Open Fall 2025 title after beating Vitality, one of the best teams in the world right now, in the final. And guess how that final went… Matys just never gives up.