Arcadia Is Changing The Sports and Gaming Landscape

The digital worlds of sports and gaming continue to evolve into unimaginable heights, and Arcadia is here to take things to another dimension.

Arcadia is a new sports platform that combines the athleticism of traditional sports and the limitless possibilities of the digital world through its stadium-sized video game format where players become avatars and directly control movement and progress by running, jumping, pushing, and sliding. Arcadia creates a complete athletic experience that allows 2-10 players to compete in the world’s largest, multiplayer VR arena that can be played inside or outside while encouraging users to play and compete against each other.

Later this year, Arcadia will launch a six-city tour called the Arcadia Trials, where they will search for its first-ever pro-Arcadia Athletes where both gamers and fans will be given the chance to vote for Arcadia to visit their hometown, and a shot at being crowned the Arcadia Champion.

ONE37pm: It’s so good to speak with you, Chris! Let’s first start by asking how you guys developed the concept of Arcadia.

Olimpo: So the truth is—it’s a collective idea that has been around for a while going back to things like Tron in 1982, but we have been able to bring the concept together. I had the privilege of being able to direct and produce Tom Cruise’s first VR film and having had that experience, I was able to understand VR on a deeper level by seeing the things that people can’t see. We have been able to make Arcadia a reality by bridging gaming and sports. We are creating a new sport, and it is an original idea that blends the two together while also focusing on solving specific problems to make as a visual.

ONE37pm: You guys will be going on a six city tour called Arcadia Trials later this year. What do Arcadia's recruiting efforts entail?

Olimpo: It is going to look like a real sports tryout in a virtual dimension, and it will be broadcast on social media. We actually like to use the term “athletic gamers,” and we had tryouts in Montreal with over 1,000 players. It was interesting because we never knew who was going to win. Sometimes when it was gamers vs athletes, the gamers would crush it. Usually, the players that had a leg up were the ones that were both gamers and athletes. As far as our tryouts—you can go to Arcadia.tv/tryouts and register to vote for your city.

From there, we will have people line up, and we are going to film them, do interviews, etc. We are going to select two players from each city to fly out, and they will compete in a bracket tournament that crowns the first-ever  Arcadia champion. That will close out Stage 1 of Arcadia.tv. We are aiming for a fall start date, but it’s not confirmed yet. We may start this year, and go into the first quarter of next year.

ONE37pm: What are some of Arcadia's proudest accomplishments thus far?

Olimpo: We are proud to have launched to the world, and we are already working on the future! We are also proud to have announced a partnership with Warner Bros and bring Space Jam: A New Legacy into our Arcadia Sports Platform. It was absolutely insane! It was one of the most fun games I have ever played, and I’m not being biased either. To have that partnership with Warner Bros. was amazing, and there is definitely a lot in store for the future.

ONE37pm: Final Question—Where do you see Arcadia in five years?

Olimpo: I see Arcadia being a fully legitimate sport where we have sold out stadium events. I see it being similar to the Olympics where there are a variety of games. I also envision technology being lighter for athletes, and that there will be a new status quo when it comes to sports and gaming. Fans and audiences will come to expect this as a new reality, and we will have star Arcadia athletes.

We actually predict that a professional athlete will leave their league to join Arcadia, and that it will be a young up-and-coming athlete that makes that transition. We definitely think that could happen in five years!

Be sure to follow the official Arcadia Instagram for all of their latest updates, and check out their official website here.