The Community EditionWATERLOO GAMING LOUNGE BRINGS HIGH-POWERED PLAY TO UPTOWN
On the second floor of 1 King St. N., lit by multicoloured RGB strips, over a dozen high-end gaming PCs whir to life, each loaded with over 70 games. The Waterloo Gaming Lounge has become a hub for community and competition since it opened in October 2025. Fitting right into the middle of uptown Waterloo’s nightlife, the space provides a unique experience for folks looking for something to do during a night out or space for teams to practice their skills together.
Tony Shiff, owner of the space, is a veteran of the video game development industry but does not consider himself a core PC gamer. His inspiration to open the Waterloo Gaming Lounge instead comes from observing current social gaming habits in his own home.
“My son is [a gamer], and the idea started because I saw him in the basement a lot of the time gaming with a whole group of friends. And I was like, why don’t you ever get together? He said, ‘I have my PC and they have their PC, where are we going to meet each other?’” Shiff said.
Modern PC gaming at a high level requires expensive and bulky hardware. If someone is even able to afford a powerful rig, disassembling their whole setup and transporting it to a friend’s home is far from convenient. The Waterloo Gaming Lounge instead charges an hourly rate to access their top-of-the-line machines and an inviting, if sometimes chaotic, gaming environment.
“PC gaming is often a solitary experience, and I wanted to do something that made it more social,” Shiff said.
Some of the most popular games the Waterloo Gaming Lounge offers are Valorant, a first-person hero shooter; League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game; and Counterstrike 2, a traditional first-person shooter. While these titles take up a lot of the playtime for gamers, Shiff was particularly encouraged by the impact offering less popular games has had on customers.
“There is a whole community of people who play Counterstrike 1.6, a 25-year-old game. They were going to Hamilton before we opened because that was the closest place,” Shiff said.
The Counterstrike 1.6 community at the Waterloo Gaming Lounge highlights the unique experience the space provides. One team of five gamers sets up in one room, another in the room next door.
No headsets, just two teams calling out strategies and laughing together. They turn to pat each other on the back after a big win and run into the next room to playfully tease their opponents after a defeat.
“They’re weekly regulars. It’s like a modern bowling league,” Shiff said.
Directly across from the Counterstrike 1.6 crew sits another group of players grinding through ranked matches of League of Legends, a game that rewards consistent communication between players. Although League of Legends does not require the latest high-end graphic cards or other equipment to run, groups make the effort to get together to play the game in person.
For Ian Zhang, a University of Waterloo student ranked platinum in League of Legends, Shiff’s goal of building a social gaming space resonates.
“It’s more fun to play with other people physically together. As a kid, you’re on the couch playing with your friends on a console, and as you get older, it’s hard to do that. So, it’s just a nice place to get together with friends,” Zhang said.
Waterloo Gaming Lounge is also hosting a series of tournaments for their most popular games. Previous tournaments have been held in Valorant, League of Legends and Counterstrike 2. All have been free to play and come with a gift card prize for the winners. While these events were well attended, Shiff was particularly happy to see the success of bringing together smaller gaming communities.
“One of the most interesting tournaments for me was DOTA 2, which is not a big community in Canada…as it is in Europe and Asia,” Shiff said.
Making gaming accessible and communal for everyone has become a guiding principle of the Waterloo Gaming Lounge. Players can log in to their own accounts for each game to rank up and maintain use of items or characters they may have. The lounge also provides a limited number of house accounts for new players to use, depending on the game. Gamers of all skill levels and group sizes are welcome.
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