Competitive gaming is growing in popularity around the globe and locals, Noah and Brittany Godin are hoping their new store, Allegiant Gaming, which opened in October 2019, will help bring together Katy’s E-sports community.

“Growing the community is very important to us,” Brittany said. “We’re sponsoring a couple of local players. Noah would really like to have our own E-sports team.”

The store is a mixed bag of services and merchandise that wraps together into a package that serves the videogaming community, said Mike Jiang, the company’s social media consultant. J

The store offers a wide variety of hardware and gaming accessories including custom gaming PCs, mice, chairs, cameras, green screens – used to create custom backgrounds when streaming gameplay online – and audio equipment, Noah said. Shirts, GFuel energy drinks and other gaming paraphernalia are also included in the store’s product line.

There is also a lot of focus on providing services to the videogaming community, Noah said. Those services are focused on helping gamers enjoy their hobby and get better at it while having an opportunity to socialize, he said.

Noah and the team provide consultations to gamers to help set up their gaming rig – the computer, software and other accessories needed to game competitively, Jiang said.

“The services are customizable,” Brittany said. “[We] build custom-built PCs. [Gamers] can bring the parts and we’ll build it for them, or they can tell us what they’re doing and we’ll order it all and build it for them.”

The store also lets players try out different equipment they have in stock, Noah said. A selection of gaming chairs, computers, mice and other accessories are available to try out. A full streaming setup is also available for customers to explore.

Alternately – customers can also just come in and pay $5 an hour to rent time on one of the store’s gaming computers, Noah said.

The idea for the store came about last year when Noah was looking through a catalog of audio-video equipment Brittany – a photographer by trade – had received, Noah said. He was looking at the catalog and realized there wasn’t a store that was geared toward his favorite hobby and developing E-sports – which uses equipment like that found in the catalog – in the area.

“Where is the place I can sit down in a chair and try it out? Where can I try streaming equipment? Getting everybody under one roof – I just thought it was a fantastic idea and that’s kind of how we ended up with this,” Noah said.

Brittany said the idea took quite a bit of effort to develop. The couple had to set up a business plan, find a location, figure out what products and services would be offered and how to promote themselves. Starting a new business was somewhat daunting, she said, especially given the challenges that new businesses face.

“My biggest hesitation was – all these retail stores are going out of business and you want to open up a retail store,” Brittany said.

In the end, though, Noah was able to network with his connections in the gaming community and bring in brands the couple could trust to help provide momentum, Brittany said. GFuel, Vertigear, DS Racers and others were on board and excited to promote what they saw as a unique opportunity for the gaming community, she said.

After a lot of work though, the couple feels the store is coming together. A Jan. 11, 2020 gaming tournament had the shop full of about 40 regulars and newcomers, Noah said. The tournament offered opportunities for competitors to play a variety of fighting games like “Dragon Ball FighterZ,” “Tekken 7,” and “Street Fighter 5,” Noah said.

Having events that serve the community is important, Noah and Brittany said. It builds a place where gamers like Jiang – who streams under the name Iamchunklolss – to come together and interact with one another, they said.

“People have this feeling that gamers just hide behind a computer all day and never come out of their room,” Brittany said. “But, humans are social beings and we can find friends that enjoy the same things that we do – that’s what everybody’s looking for.”