Some of the world's best athletes will land in Australia to compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But these competitors won't face off in any Olympic sport, they will play first-person shooters.
The global e-sports tour Intel Extreme Masters returns to Sydney in October, with hundreds of gamers competing for the $US250,000 ($A369,500) prize pool.
Its largest annual event takes place in Poland but mid-season competitions are held all over the world including Chengdu, Dubai and Dallas.
The competition has a powerful allure to the growing gaming community, reaching up to 1.1 million concurrent viewers across the globe.
More than 21,000 fans sold out Qudos Bank Arena when the competition last came to town in 2019.
This year, it will fill the Aware Super Theatre in Darling Harbour as part of SXSW Sydney.
Luke Lancaster, the festival's head of games, said the atmosphere would be electric.
"These are athletes on stage performing at the highest possible level," he told AAP.
"There is just something electric about live e-sports in a big arena at that scale."
Elite gamers will spend three days playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, a first-person shooter that runs at breakneck speed and averages about one million players a month.
Mr Lancaster encourages non-gamers to think about the tournament like regular sports.
"I'm not the biggest football fan, but I'll watch the World Cup," he said.
"I'm not a massive cricket fan, but I'll go to the SCG and have a few beers with friends and watch a game.
"When we look at something like IEM, it's the same vibe, it's a fun thing to go and watch and you don't need to understand the intricacies of it."
Mr Lancaster loves games.
"I love people who are passionate about games and I love seeing super high-level play, seeing fans and communities come together like that and being caught up in that sense of excitement and celebration."
SXSW Sydney will also feature an indie games showcase, which hopes to exhibit 150 of the best the Australian industry has to offer.
Examples include Hojo Studio's The Godfeather, where mafia pigeons with New York accents take vengeance against humans through a targeted pooping campaign.
Also on show will be Olivia Haines' Surf Club, which follows a woman in her early 20s who returns to her hometown to rekindle an old relationship.
"The output that comes from developers who are working in Australia is beyond world class," Mr Lancaster said.
"We have the rare privilege of working directly with people who are making these amazing, hilarious, fascinating games and giving them access to thousands of people who wouldn't be able to find their games otherwise."
