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FAQ

Bad Machines is the first Esport's Bar in Durham, North Carolina. The bar features a stage, sound, lighting, cameras, and full stream setup for conducting live events for esports.

The show format is similar to boxing or pro wrestling (WWF style). We keep the show to around 1 to 3 acts a night, which is around 1 - 2 hours of show content. The show is shot before a live audience where players enter the stage to intro music, play on a couch center stage, and are commentated on during a live exhibition match that is recorded/streamed live to the world.

We are mostly targeting Smash, Fighting Games such as Street Fighter, Marvel, Strive, Tekken, as well Rocket League. We may consider other games as they come up, but we are mostly targeting games that do well 1v1 for now. Games such as Fortnite and PUBG are great games, but often harder to conduct in more private exclusive settings with a small group of players. In the future, we do plan to expand to 5v5 style games such as League of Legends and Dota2.

No. This is an exhibition match between 2 or more players depending on the game and match format. An exhibition match is a sports match which is not part of a competition but instead serves the function of demonstrating the skills of the players. We chose to do exhibition matches versus a tournament format because tournaments often require dozens if not hundreds of players to compete. They also are very expensive for the esports professionals to attend with no guarantee of prize money. We wanted to pick a format that is short and something where it guarantees all participants a payout for their time, effort, and of course showmanship.

We are paying players win or lose because we believe all players should at least earn something for playing in any competitive sport that is considered professional. Majority of esports revolves around tournament play, which means the esports professional must pay for travel, hotels, and entree fees to compete in a tournament with no guarantee of prize money to recoup their own costs in competing. That's if they are not sponsored by an esports team. Even then, they must win to stay on the team, which often means performing well to promote their team and brands. We wanted to create a competitive model around paying for both the competitive sport as well entertainment of the player regardless if they win or lose their exhibition match live at our venue.

We are. Bad Machines is an esports bar that serves both liquor and craft beer during as well between shows. This means we are taking our own revenue from the bar and re-investing it back into both the community and sport. While we are small and unknown right now, we hope to grow big with our brand and show to where we can receive additional sponsorship from outside brands. Until then, we are depending on the bar as well any additional ad revenue from our streams to help pay for the pros.

You should play to get experience playing in front of an audience as well on camera. You should also play to get your name out there. Use us as a platform to promote yourself as a brand live at the show and on our stream, which we are building a community of esports fans who not only want to see the semi-pro and pro players perform, but also the rising talent such as yourself. We are also paying you a fee to play. You are getting 60% of the door as well any additional fees we may give for doing a good show. Most amateur players play local major tournaments in their state are earning way less than what we are paying, and you don't even have to place top 8 with us. Just show up and play!

You should play to get exposure and promote your brand towards other teams. Use us as a platform to promote yourself live on stream and at the show. You should also play because we will likely put you against other pro's who will give you the competitive experience you need to meet them in the real tournament setting at the next major you attend. We know that most players, especially up-and-coming players, need as well love playing against the best in their league. Playing with us will help give you that experience that you may not get at other tournaments because of bracket/pool structures before you get eliminated. We are also paying pretty decent fees for semi-pro players. We will help pay for your travel as well your hotel. We'll try to do an even 50/50 split if you live out of state. That way we can get you out here while also being able to pay you a great fee for participating.

You should play to get exposure and promote your brand for your team. Use us as a platform to promote yourself and team live on stream and at the show. You should also play because we will likely put you against other pro's who will give you the challenge you seek. We also will likely put you against other semi-pro players, who would love to show you what they have to offer. You should play with us to really put on a good show and competitive match that your fans would love to see. We will also be paying for your travel, hotel, and paying you a fee to play in hopes to keep you coming back for more.

We pay all fees after the show at the night of the show. That means, you should walk out of our venue with either cash or check in hand before you leave back home. When it comes to travel/hotel, we will cover this BEFORE the show. For example, if you are a pro and we are covering travel/hotel, then we will pre-purchase your flights and hotel ahead of time. We however will only pay fees until after the show.

Yes. We do have a contract that only covers the agreement for the show. This will outline what we are paying for in terms of hotel and travel as well what we are paying for with fees. This is also outlines the code of conduct and the outline of any expectations of you or us at the show (e.g.: show up, play X game, etc). The purpose of this contract is so you, as a player, have an agreement between you and us. Think of this as a safety net for you to say that "yes" Bad Machines did agree to have me play and pay me X. For us, the safety net is the same for us to say that "yes" you as the player did agree to play for X fee on Y night.

In the future, we may offer longer contracts for repeated play. Like any show, having regular actors, or in our case, regular players, could benefit from a longer contract over X amount of shows. But, we are still a startup and still trying to build a fan base of our own before we do that. We would love to have regular players who play well and the fans love to see watch come play more than once over the year.

Absolutely you can. We want to get the hottest pros out here who want to not only play for the fans, but also talk about what they are doing next. If you are part of an established esports team that is sponsoring you as a player, then feel free to talk to us on how you would like to promote both the team and the brands that sponsor your team (or you). We have plenty of options from running commercials on stream to doing 1-on-1 interviews at the show to simply allowing you to rep your colors on stage. We also would be able to promote your team and sponsor pre and post the show to help.

Absolutely! We are supporters of the LGBTQ+ community and welcome all LGBTQ+ players as well fans. We also encourage all LGBTQ+ supporters to use our platform to promote as well advocate for LGBTQ+ community.

No. Unlike other sporting events like boxing, MMA, and wrestling, we do not split shows by genders. We do however acknowledge that esports, as a whole, is pretty much a male-dominated sport. We are actively looking at ways to not only attract more LGBTQ+ professionals, but also more women professionals too. We think it's important to cultivate and build a robust community around all types of people no matter where they come from.

At the end of the day, we are a bar who is throwing live events. We are no different than the music venues or comedy clubs in your town. The only difference is we are doing this for esports, which is still a very brand-new model to the world because so much of esports is based on tournament play. We are not throwing tournaments. We want to be like the WWF of esports. We want to throw regular shows featuring players that the fans can attach to and love watching for years to come. This is why we are paying for players to play, win or lose, because we are creating a show -- content that will hopefully pay for itself. The bigger we can make the show, the more we can pay that forward back to the community with bigger fees, maybe longer contracts, and of course provide a platform for esports brands a way to promote their own players as well sponsors. At least, that is the dream!


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Contact

(919) 780 - 7705
  • 218 Nottingham Dr
  • Cary, NC 27511
Directions

Hours

  • Mon-Tues: Closed
  • Wed-Thur: 5pm-Midnight
  • Friday: 5pm-2am
  • Saturday: 5pm-2am
  • Sunday: 5pm-Midnight

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