In a sense, esports have existed since the first time nerds gathered together to play video games competitively (or 1972 per Guinness World Records). Competitive video gaming has always existed, and especially good players could earn a few shekels here and there but the scene didn’t really become truly professional and a viable career until the last decade.
Today, professional organizations exist to promote and train high-caliber players who are winning hundreds of thousands up to millions of dollars for competing in global tournaments. The popular game League of Legends split $5,000,000 between 17 teams at the 2025 World Championships, with the winning team, T1, taking home $1,000,000 between 5 players.
With that in mind, Alienware invited Tom’s Guide to check out the Team Liquid training facility in Santa Monica, California, where CEO Steve Arhancet and team GM Scott Harrison showed us what it takes to support multiple esports teams and athletes across a range of games.
While we were there, Team Liquid’s World of Warcraft Guild was preparing to for the latest Race to World First to complete the latest expansion and beat the final raid boss for the long-running MMO.
WHAT IS THE FACILITY?
The Alienware Training Facility specifically supports the esports organization Team Liquid. The group supports three training facilities between Sao Paolo, Brazil, Utrecht, Netherlands and Santa Monica.
Each facility supports multiple teams, though the California one is mainly for the League of Legends teams since the Riot Games headquarters is located a 20-minute walk or 4-minute drive away. Depending on what teams need, it can act as a bootcamp before a tournament. CEO Stephen Arhancet noted that one of their CS:GO teams practiced at the facility the week prior before heading to a tournament in Austin.
“You have to have the players in the same region, close to a server, to have balanced play. That's why we fly all the players in to boot camp here.”
For the Race, the team flew in players from around the globe. Harrison, for example is from the UK, and he said a majority of the team is based out of the United States and Canada but they still need to come to Los Angeles for the big event.
Unlike the Utrecht and Sao Paolo facilities, the Santa Monica facility is more like a true training facility. The Brazilian and Dutch versions are more fan-oriented, with shops and fan zones.
High-end gear
As you can imagine, the actual gaming equipment itself is pretty top-of-the-line, and all of it comes from Alienware. From the PC towers that the players use to actually game to the streaming equipment, the partnership is more than just the logo on the wall.
Players use customized Alienware setups, but the platform starts with the Aurora and Area-51 platforms, which feature the latest AMD Ryzen 7 CPUs and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics cards.
That powers the game, but they also use monitors like the Alienware AW2725DF with its 360Hz refresh rate to ensure smooth gameplay. As I discussed with Scott Harrison, most esports games run at 1080p resolution, but 1440p is the preference for World of Warcraft since there’s so much going on in the game, especially in raids where up to 24 players and enemies are on the screen at the same time. Harrison said he likes what Alienware has, especially the OLED options like the Alienware 27 AW2726DM.
The PCs are shared but each team has someone who will come in and set them up for each specific game with the appropriate images and programs. “It’s a lot of wiping the League player’s PCs when [Siori] arrives,” Harrison said of the guild member who handles that for his team.
“Some players will even come in with a measuring tape to measure the distance from their chair to the desk and monitor to get into their comfort spot,” Arhancet added.
Tracking performance
While there still seems to be a natural urge to bah humbug the idea of performance and esports, Team Liquid put serious thought into helping players perform their best.
The facility has an onsite kitchen with a private chef who cooks multiple meals for the players. When we arrived, breakfast burritos were on the menu with turkey sausage, bacon, and crispy potatoes as options. Lunch was an Indian buffet. She also has to consider dietary restrictions, mentioning that one of the League players is a vegan, while some others have allergies that need to be taken into account.
During an event like World First, the chef is there almost as long as the players. I was told she would arrive before 7 AM and might not leave until after 7 PM, and that it would be a daily job. “The Race to World First is a marathon, not a sprint,” Arhancet emphasized.
Interestingly, one of the major factors is sleep. Harrison said that the guild used to play for up to 15 hours a day, but in the last couple of years dropped down to 14 hours a day to ensure that players get enough sleep. “In Nerub-ar Palace (September 2024), we stuck to that schedule and won the race by two days, which was unprecedented,” he said.
Team Liquid actually has the players wear Whoop bands to track sleep patterns and other information to provide players with data on their performance. “We did a test with our Counter-Strike team measuring breathwork and found players who hold their breath when peeking corners have higher accuracy,” Arhancet provided as an example.
There is also a Pro Lab, where performance coaches review gameplay and can watch teams as they practice with real-time data. For the Race, it was taken up by members of the guild, but for other teams, the multi-monitor setups enable tracking and performance metrics that the players might not see during games.
There are still some gamer touches like Team Liquid’s partnership with Monster energy drinks. I was told that players mostly use them for boosts during long days, but Harrison said that players were encouraged to eat properly at meal times before they had their first can.
Comfort and amenities
With players sitting at their computers, there needs to be some amenities when they need a break. There is a dark relaxation room with couches and TVs where players can take a nap or do something else. During the race, players aren’t allowed to talk about WoW in the relaxation room. It’s meant to give them some space away from the game for a little bit.
“Being in Santa Monica, we also encourage players to go outside, get some sunlight, and do hand and body stretches,” Harrison said. He added that the guild has a joke about walking to the Santa Monica Pier (actually 3 miles away and about a 50-minute walk depending on your pace).
Some of the spaces in the building are dark, but Harrison actually encourages players to keep lights on for eye health. They mentioned having a partnership with Philips Hue to install lights that mimic natural daylight.
There are also on-site showers, though Team Liquid also has deals in place with the apartment complex right behind the facility that allow the players to have a space that is theirs to rest, eat, and clean up as they need. Harrison said that some players room alone while others have roommates, depending on their preferences.
Takeaways
If you ever read any coverage of traditional sports, the Team Liquid facility feels akin to training camp for the NFL or the support teams that ensure riders at the Tour de France get the proper amount of sleep and equipment during that two-week-long race.
There are differences: more PCs and graphics, but it’s a professional organization with all that entails, from performance monitoring to quality food and player support.
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