The Cleveland Gaming Classic (CGC) began over 10 years ago with a handful of friends playing Tecmo Super Bowl in a Cleveland living room. 

We took the then, "Tecmo Cleveland", on the road to local barcades, breweries and bars where gamers would gather in regular Tecmo Cleveland meetups. Tecmo Cleveland then hosted its first public event at an American Legion Hall where over 50 players competed in the first Tecmo Cleveland sanctioned event. 

The following year, the legendary game NBA Jam was added to Tecmo Cleveland, evolving to Tecmo Jam Cleveland. This was also the first two-day event hosted by now Tecmo Jam Cleveland, where players competed in tournaments for Tecmo Super Bowl and NBA Jam. 

Tecmo Jam Cleveland later outgrew our venue yet again, moving to a 30,000 sq. ft. event center: Wagner's of Westlake. Here the event gained significant traction, adding a full onsite arcade, additional tournaments, vendors, special guests and becoming a full-fledged convention.

As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted events nationwide, CGC turned to an all-virtual event and marathon of gaming, interviews and more raising funds in support of United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Cleveland. 

Coming out of the pandemic, CGC returned to Wagner's of Westlake one final time, breaking all attendance records and outgrowing our space yet again. 

In 2021, we made the decision to move to the IX Center, taking the event to an entirely new level. In 2021 we utilized approximately 60,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space, again maxing out capacity and attendance. As a result, today CGC now utilizes over 250,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space in the IX Center. We are in our third year partnering with the IX Center, one of the premier exhibition facilities in the Midwest.