INFINITEQUE

INTRODUCING NEXUS GAMING LEAGUE

Competition.
Technology.
Community.

This summer, Empowering the Culture will introduce the public to NEXUS Gaming League, a community-centered competitive gaming experience designed to bring people together through play, skill development, and Games Culture.

NEXUS Gaming League is more than a tournament.

It's a space where players can challenge themselves, connect with others, and experience competition as part of a larger culture built on community, creativity, and shared experiences.

Throughout Empowering the Culture, attendees will have the opportunity to compete in four featured titles:

🎮 Week 1 — Street Fighter 6
📅 July 8

🎮 Week 2 — TEKKEN 8
📅 July 15

🎮 Week 3 — Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
📅 July 22

🎮 Week 4 — 2XKO
📅 July 29

All tournaments take place from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM at Atlas Cinemas at Shaker Square as part of Empowering the Culture.

🏅 Medals awarded to top competitors
🎟️ Free event registration
🤝 Community-centered competition
🎮 Open to both experienced and emerging players

Tournament operations are led by Cleveland fighting game community veteran John "Wingedzero" Tate, II, who is helping to ensure a welcoming, organized, technically sound, and professionally run experience for all participants.

Whether you're a longtime competitor, a casual player, or someone looking to experience Games Culture in a new way, NEXUS Gaming League is designed to create opportunities for connection, growth, and community through play.

Learn more and register:
www.infiniteque.com/etc-2026

Where can Games Culture take you?

For many people, Games Culture becomes more than a hobby.

It becomes a pathway.
A pathway to careers.
Technology.
Entrepreneurship.
Content creation.
Community leadership.
And lifelong learning.

Week 4 of Empowering the Culture explores the future of gaming and the opportunities emerging across Games Culture today.

Featuring:
• Tristan Wheeler
• Jarryd Huntley
• Al Len Dennis / GovPancakes
• Robert Gatewood

Together we'll discuss career pathways, emerging opportunities, technology, entrepreneurship, and the future of Games Culture.

📅 July 29, 2026
📍 Atlas Cinemas at Shaker Square
⏰ 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Free Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765

Games are often discussed in terms of entertainment.

But what about wellness?
What about relationships?
What about emotional regulation, resilience, empathy, and personal growth?

Week 3 of Empowering the Culture explores the human side of Games Culture and the ways gaming experiences can influence our wellbeing, our communities, and the way we relate to one another.

Featuring:
• Tristan Wheeler
• Dr. William C. Washington of Washington Wellness Institute, LLC

Together we'll discuss wellness, humanity, community, and the role Games Culture can play in helping people grow, connect, and thrive.

📅 July 22, 2026
📍 Atlas Cinemas at Shaker Square
⏰ 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Free Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765

Games have always inspired creativity.

They've inspired music.
Art.
Storytelling.
Filmmaking.
Content creation.
Community events.
And entirely new forms of self-expression.

Week 2 of Empowering the Culture explores the many ways Games Culture fuels creativity and helps people share their voices with the world.

Through conversation, storytelling, and community engagement, we'll examine how gaming experiences become creative experiences—and how those experiences continue to shape culture today.

Featuring:
• Tristan Wheeler
• Ishmell Oneal / Prince Ish
• Darrell Newsom / Rell E Rell Productions

Together we'll explore creativity, expression, music, storytelling, and the many ways Games Culture inspires people to create.

📅 July 15, 2026
📍 Atlas Cinemas at Shaker Square
⏰ 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Free Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765

This summer, Empowering the Culture begins at the beginning.

Before esports.
Before livestreams.
Before online multiplayer.

There were arcades.
Living rooms.
Basements.
School cafeterias.
Libraries.
Community centers.

And most importantly, there were people.

Week 1 explores the origins of Games Culture and the communities that helped shape it.

Through stories, conversation, reflection, and shared experiences, we'll examine how games have connected people across generations and how those experiences continue to influence our lives today.

Featuring conversations with:

• Tristan Wheeler
• James Talley III
• Terrence Myhand
• Robert Gatewood

Together we'll explore the memories, communities, and cultural moments that helped build Games Culture in Cleveland and beyond.

📅 July 8, 2026
📍 Atlas Cinemas at Shaker Square
⏰ 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Free Registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765

MEET THE TEAM

Today we're introducing Melanie Gloerfelt Townsend, People & Culture Lead for Empowering the Culture.

Melanie is a communications strategist, organizer, and Games Culture advocate whose work helps ensure that people remain at the center of the experience.

As People & Culture Lead, she supports workforce development, marketing, internal communication, volunteer coordination, recruitment, and community engagement efforts across Empowering the Culture.

One of the most important questions behind any community experience is simple:

How do people feel when they arrive?

Throughout the planning and development of Empowering the Culture, Melanie has helped ensure that attendees, volunteers, speakers, partners, and team members all feel welcomed, connected, and valued.

What makes Melanie's perspective especially unique is her journey into Games Culture itself.

A self-described "no-screen parent turned Games Culture believer," she brings a grounded perspective on how play, gaming communities, and shared experiences can strengthen civic engagement, empathy, learning, and human connection.

Her work alongside Robert Gatewood and the Games Culture Association has helped explore how Games Culture can be used as a tool for education, community building, and meaningful public engagement.

Because while Games Culture may begin with games, it ultimately becomes something much larger.

It's about people.
The friendships we build.
The communities we join.
The experiences we share.
And the spaces where those connections can happen.

Community doesn't happen by accident.

It happens when people intentionally create space for others to belong.

That commitment is reflected throughout Melanie's work and leadership, and we're grateful to have her helping shape Empowering the Culture.

Join us July 8–August 12 for a six-week Games Culture Experience.

Learn more:
www.infiniteque.com/etc-2026

Registration is free:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765

MEET THE TEAM

Today we're introducing Daniel Gonzalez, a member of the Empowering the Culture leadership team and one of the people helping transform vision into reality behind the scenes.

Community experiences don't happen on ideas alone.

They require planning.
Coordination.
Partnerships.
Problem-solving.
And a team of people willing to put in the work necessary to bring those ideas to life.

Throughout the development of Empowering the Culture, Dan has helped support planning, operations, logistics, and organizational efforts that have contributed to the growth of the project from an idea into a community-centered experience.

One of the goals of Empowering the Culture is to create intentional spaces where people can connect through gaming, storytelling, creativity, mentorship, and community.

Creating those spaces requires more than what happens on stage.

It requires people working behind the scenes to help build the foundation that makes meaningful experiences possible.

Dan's contributions reflect that commitment.

His support throughout the planning and development process has helped strengthen the structure, organization, and long-term vision behind Empowering the Culture and the broader work of INFINITEQUE.

As we continue building toward July 8, we're grateful for the leadership, collaboration, and support he has provided along the way.

Join us July 8–August 12 for a six-week Games Culture Experience.

Learn more:
www.infiniteque.com/etc-2026

Registration is free:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765

MEET THE TEAM

Today we're introducing Al Len Dennis, better known throughout Games Culture communities as GovPancakes, featured guest speaker and event partner for Empowering the Culture.

Allen is one of Cleveland's most consistent and recognizable livestream creators, building community through Twitch, Discord, competitive gaming, content creation, conventions, and online events for years.

Known for playing an incredibly diverse range of games across genres, platforms, and styles, Allen has developed a reputation for helping people discover new experiences, new communities, and new ways to engage with Games Culture.

As a longtime member of the Fighting Game Community, tournament organizer, content creator, and entrepreneur, Allen brings a unique perspective to Empowering the Culture. His work extends beyond gaming alone, regularly incorporating food reviews, community conversations, live reactions, and other content that reflects the many ways people connect through shared interests online.

One of the ideas at the heart of Empowering the Culture is that Games Culture is bigger than any single game.

It's about the people we meet.
The communities we join.
The experiences we share.
And the spaces we create together.
Allen's work reflects that philosophy.

Throughout his career, he has helped cultivate community both online and in-person, including leadership roles in developing Games Culture spaces throughout Cleveland. His contributions include helping build collegiate gaming communities and supporting one of the region's largest public anime communities, which called Cleveland Public Library's downtown branch home for more than a decade.

Whether hosting tournaments, livestreaming, creating content, attending conventions, or building online communities through Discord and Twitch, Allen consistently demonstrates how Games Culture can bring people together.

Throughout Empowering the Culture, Allen will help explore how gaming, content creation, entrepreneurship, competition, and community continue to create new opportunities for connection, creativity, and growth.

Join us July 8–August 12 for a six-week Games Culture Experience.

Learn more:
www.infiniteque.com/etc-2026

Registration is free:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765

MEET THE TEAM

For those familiar with Cleveland's Games Culture community and INFINITEQUE's work over the years, it probably comes as no surprise that a tournament is part of Empowering the Culture.

Today we're excited to introduce John Tate, II / "Wingedzero," Tournament Organizer for the NEXUS Gaming League activation at Empowering the Culture.

John is one of Cleveland's most accomplished competitive gamers and a longtime member of the local Fighting Game Community. As a competitor, community leader, livestreamer, and technology professional, he brings a unique combination of tournament operations expertise, technical knowledge, and community leadership to the experience.

Throughout Empowering the Culture, John will help lead the NEXUS Gaming League tournament experience, creating opportunities for players to compete, connect, and engage with Games Culture in meaningful ways.

But his role extends beyond simply running a tournament.

One of the guiding ideas behind NEXUS Gaming League is that competition, technology, and community all belong together.

Competition challenges us to grow.

Technology creates new opportunities to learn and connect.

Community gives those experiences meaning.

John's work throughout Cleveland's gaming community reflects that philosophy, helping create spaces where players can challenge themselves, build relationships, develop skills, and experience Games Culture at its best.

This summer, he'll help ensure that NEXUS Gaming League reflects the same values that guide Empowering the Culture: connection, creativity, mentorship, community, and play.

Join us July 8–August 12 for a six-week Games Culture Experience.

Learn more:
www.infiniteque.com/etc-2026

Registration is free:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1989777733765