Nexus Gaming in Waco offers a unique blend of gaming, eSports leagues, themed rooms, and TCG, providing Central Texans with a growing community hub.
WACO, Texas — It started with a singular idea.
“The original idea was to be a gaming community,” remarked Nexus Gaming owner and founder Zach Krizan.
A place where Central Texans can spend hours surrounded by like-minded enthusiastic gamers, Nexus Gaming at 1603 Washington Ave. in Waco houses over a dozen PCs, a stage for major tournaments, three themed rooms, a trading card game (TCG) shop and a restaurant called Save Point.
Nexus Gaming, which recently completed six months of renovations, is becoming a popular spot within the community by tapping into a niche market through a familiar membership structure and a new eSports league.
“[Memberships are] gonna be equivalent to a gym membership and that’s gonna let you use any of the Arcon PCs or equipment. It’s unlimited all month so most players that play here daily have a membership. They pay $30 once a month and then they come in and scan every day and just jump on,” Krizan explained.
Krizan stated a collaboration with Waco Sports Club – an entity that organizes various sports leagues intended to mix socialization with competition for adults in Central Texas – advanced the creation of the first Marvel Rivals league in the area. Nexus Gaming launched their Marvel Rivals league on Saturday, Jan. 18 with 40 registered participants.
“We’re starting season one right now and we’re about to start signups for season two,” Krizan said.
However, Waco Sports Club isn’t the only partner on Nexus Gaming’s itinerary. Arcon, another partner, sponsors and provides all gaming computers used inside Nexus Gaming.
Arcon owner Eric Martin oversees PC efficiency. He spoke with 6 News on Wednesday.
“Here at Nexus they have a bunch of social leagues that they like to run and, also tournaments and we supply their PCs for them and we make sure their tournaments run smooth and without any issue,” Martin said.
Ensuring that computers run at their best is critical as the store hopes to grow its community and social leagues.
The latter came after Nexus Gaming leaders joined a recreational soccer league.
“We got beat really bad every single game, but we still just had a ton of fun and we thought, you know, it might as well try and do something like that for gaming because I mean it’s, it is kind of the same like a local sports league and just like a local gaming league it just it made sense in our head,” Arcon partner Tristan Pritchard recalled.
In addition to the gaming opportunities, members can utilize private rooms for an immersive experience. There is a Dungeons & Dragons office space, a zombie apocalypse bunker and an all-things-Nintendo room that can be rented out.
Avid TCG players can find a home in Nexus’ facility as well. Offering a designated TCG area spanning 3,000 square feet, people flood in for tournaments.
“We’ve had tournaments that range upwards to 100 people,” employee Andrew Anderson said.
“We’ll do weekly tournaments for [Magic the Gathering] Commander [format] every Friday at 7 p.m. It’s $7 for a sign-up if you ever want to come out and try it out. We also do trade-ins, so if people have older cars they’ve been sitting on for a while or stuff they don’t really play with anymore, they can bring them in and we’ll offer them cash for their cards at a competitive rate,” Anderson continued.
Whether you’re looking to try out the newest game or play a round with your favorite squad, Nexus Gaming founder Zach Krizan hopes Central Texans have a unique and memorable experience.
“We want trading card games and video games and eSports to have a community that can blend together and just be a safe haven for players and have a restaurant that’s gaming them too for everyone just to hang out as long as they can and to meet new people and socialize.”
