Laser tag, esports (think Fortnite) lounge Next Level coming to Knoxville Center Mall

Tyler Whetstone | Knoxville

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On a drizzly night last week there appeared to be more mall walkers completing their laps around Knoxville Center Mall’s darkened corridors than shoppers. The hollowing of the retail hub for northeast Knoxville has been well-documented and swift.

A local businessman is hoping to change that with a laser tag and esports venue.

Next Level Knoxville

Dustin Wyrick, former owner of Escape Game Knoxville, is in the middle of renovating the former 40,000-square-foot Gold’s Gym building inside the mall and transforming it into an attraction called Next Level Knoxville.

Plans for the space call for an entire level of the two-floor former gym to be dedicated to an esports lounge and two party rooms. The lower level will have laser tag and archery tag, a dodgeball-like game using a toy bow-and-arrow.

“This is kind of one of those type things where this will be a destination … when you leave your house, you’re planning on coming here, not planning on going to the mall and stopping by here,” Wyrick said as he gave USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee a tour of the space.

Next Level Knoxville’s target audience is age 12-40 and Wyrick said he hopes to get crowds of people for either their laser tag or their gaming tournaments, which will include "Fortnite," "FIFA" and "Call of Duty," among others. He said the building has already been equipped with fiber internet.

“Instead of playing online with your friends, you can play side by side with them on fiber internet … it gives you almost no lag,” Wyrick said.

Enter the arena of E-Sports Go behind-the-scenes at the Call of Duty World Championships in Anaheim, California.

Users will be charged per game of laser tag and per hour for esport games, and packaged deals are available, according to the Next Level Knoxville website.

Wyrick hopes to be open for business before Knox County Schools let out for winter break on Dec. 21. Hours have not yet been set in stone, he said.

Patrick King, spokesman for mall owner Knoxville Partners, could not be reached for comment.

Business sense

Wyrick owned a similar setup with Battlefield Knoxville, a laser tag and gaming business in West Knoxville’s Market Place Shopping Center for a few years. He said the business, which closed in 2013, was more of a “test run.”

He opened Escape Game Knoxville later that year, in the fall of 2013.

“It was fun,” he said. “We designed our own puzzles, recreated our own props. Half of the team is here. A lot of it came from playing video games, (watching) cartoons and National Treasure-type movies and heist movies, stuff like that.”

But, he said, he sold the business this summer because the escape game world had become crowded with competition. He fell back on old dreams, hoping to create a space for the gaming community because of the lack of options in Knoxville.

“You’ve got Token Game Tavern, but they’re an arcade bar, which is quite a bit different,” he said. “There’s not anything (like this).

“Esports has really, really taken off," he continued. “Knoxville actually has a good gaming community, it’s just that nobody is really doing anything with it."

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