666号馆

Located on the fourth floor of the Jing'an Sports Centre at 428 Jiangning Road in Jing'an District, 666 Arena opened on 16 May 2017 after about half a year of soft operation. The venue covers roughly 2,100 square metres and was registered under a sports-hall licence rather than an internet-cafe licence, a deliberate choice that positioned it as a professional esports and entertainment venue rather than an upgraded net bar. Its first major event was the spring season of the League of Legends Secondary Pro League (LSPL) in early 2017; the venue later hosted the LSPL summer play-offs, and Team DAN's best-of-five promotion into the LPL took place there, a match that gave the arena a place in Chinese League of Legends history. The interior is organised into several zones. Zone A offers player experience rooms in transparent box-like pods equipped with tournament-grade PCs and peripherals; Zone C contains a cocoon-shaped VR space that explores combined VR and esports programming; the competition area has a professional stage, LED screens, lighting, projection and surround sound, with more than 2,000 square metres given over to visual production. The venue can handle small and mid-sized professional leagues and cup events, and also hosts concerts, product launches, corporate team-building and content shoots, supported by an in-house planning, directing and broadcast team. In September 2020 it was rated a Class C esports venue in Shanghai's first official venue grading. It is an early example of the city's shift from net-bar-style gaming rooms towards stand-alone esports spaces. The name itself comes from the '666' that viewers type into live chat to praise a spectacular play, a piece of gaming slang that the founders adopted for the venue.