Where we started.
We started The Gamers Hub in April 2021 as a vendor in a local shop where we rented out a small section of their store. During that time as a small vendor, we managed to get a great group together for weekly MTG tournaments and started growing our business. I still had a day job then, so my work weeks were easily 90+ hours; it was an absolutely brutal schedule, and I would 100% not recommend it. Many nights while working at the shop, I almost fell asleep in my chair! Eventually, both the shop we rented from and our own business expanded. I could leave my job since we developed from a small space to a larger one and then expanded again in late 2023!
So, we were in this small space.
Then this one.
Then, back to this one.
Sometimes, things don't work out.
Unfortunately, things don’t always work out, and after some rough months and some inventory discrepancy issues between the store we rented from, we were wrongfully evicted with no notice on February 2nd, 2024, with the expectation we would be out by February 4th, 2024. That was all the time we were given. All the time we had to pack our inventory, our fixtures, and our business. It was a crazy weekend. We sent an SOS on our Discord to inform our community of what happened. The amount of love and support we got was unbelievable. We are so thankful you guys were there to help.
Moving out to the new location?
We had already been looking for a new spot as things had been getting more intense as the months went by, but we wanted to do the right thing and give notice before leaving. We had a new location lined up, but it unfortunately fell through. We were back to square one: no location, no money, and hardly any good inventory. We searched for a new location to open back up as soon as March, but that would not be an attainable goal. Amanda had found a new job that she seems to enjoy, so I'm really happy for her. I took the loss of our business pretty hard. I had found a job I truly loved, and it was taken from me at someone else's whim. We decided to aim for a reopening in August. I would look for a remote job that I would do early in the day in our home office or at the shop, assuming we had an office there. In the meantime, we needed some income. I started working for a service called Instacart since I've had an account with them since 2019, so I was able to start work immediately. I have worked such long hours the last few months but remained optimistic. We had our agent look for a new location, and eventually, found the perfect spot. I toured it, and it seemed promising, but I would not get my hopes up this time since those hopes had been dashed the last time.
A New Era
Things would finally start to look good! We eventually heard back from our new landlord. We signed a lease and had an opening date set, sort of. It is way ahead of our initial plans for August, as it will be this June! As of writing this, it is May 22nd. We get our keys tomorrow afternoon, and it will be Amanda's first time in the building since I was the one who toured it while she had to work. I am beyond excited to start this journey again. We will be running all the events we had before from cEDH, Smash Tournaments, to Yugioh events, One Piece, Digimon, Pokemon and many more! Next week, we will begin finalizing the move-in plans and notify everyone on our Discord. I am excited to see what the future holds, and I hope to see all of you during our tournaments, just like before. I want to thank you all for the love and support—especially those of you who helped us move out in February.
Thank you!
