Even before retro arcades like Pins Mechanical and Abari made their debuts in Charlotte, our city had a rich history of players coming together to embrace gaming with the larger community. In the 2010s, organizations like Koyobi, Set Play, Potions & Pixels and PVP Hub operated & collaborated, bringing a variety of fighting game tournaments along with exhibitions of newer titles for those who couldn’t afford the $60 and up pricing on day one.
To this day, P&P and PVP Hub are still set up at venues in the city, bringing Charlotte’s community together to experience titles past and present, including independent games made by local teams and solo developers. Their work continues to extend the legacies of those who came from a golden area of gatherings, stretching from Concord to Belmont, UNCC to Central Piedmont Community College, and sets the stage for newer organizations to thrive, bringing about a similar energy.
Curiously, two of the newest organizations staking their own claims come directly from the LGBTQ+ community. While Charlotte Gaymers Network has been around since late 2020, the organization itself is still relatively new in terms of years in operation. The newest of all, Gaming Lounge CLT, comes from the mind of Noel Mills, both a casual gamer and collector that looks to bring group experiences to the Queen City’s general public.
As of mid-2025, CGN took flight under new management, as Will Jeffcoat-McLeod took the helm as executive director earlier in June, giving CGN a new vision for its future.
McLeod has less than two years of being a part of CGN. His initial inspiration for joining the organization comes from a sunny day during Charlotte Pride in 2023.
“I saw the Charlotte Gaymers Network float during the Pride parade and thought right then, “Oh, that’s kind of a cool thing,” McLeod recounted to Qnotes. “A friend of a mutual friend of mine and my husband invited me to their Discord, and that’s where I got familiar with everyone.”
“Within three weeks, I had signed up for the Patreon and started going to the Insider Bash house parties. By December, I had signed up to become a Discord moderator, because something that I wanted to do was to give back to the community.”
McLeod also mentioned that at the time he and his husband hadn’t heard of any gaming organizations over the border in their hometown of Columbia, S.C., so coming up to volunteer with the organization occasionally became a special event. From volunteer to online moderator, and then on to assistant director of operations, as positions opened and time was poured into the organization, McLeod redoubled his time in different roles. And now, as we see in the present, McLeod has taken on the lead position in the non-profit.
With the turning of leadership, McLeod is also attempting to focus on a bit of clean-up left to him by the last director. During the five years that CGN has been around, Jonny Saldana made many connections near the beginning, allowing the organization to lift off at a quick pace, but in the process, there were also many relationships that were damaged, particularly in the long-held gaming scene of the city.
Inside and out, McLeod is looking for a way to change the script and be open to the issues that exist. “I’m here to listen,” he says.
“I want to see what our community as a whole needs, and not just the LGBTQ one, but also the gaming community,” McLeod explained. “I want us to be inclusive to everyone, because our motto is ‘Welcome Home.’”
“I’ve had a few people tell me that they don’t feel welcome, not because of Jonny, but just in general. And that is something that I strive to [do] – make our people feel they are welcome at our events, at any of our events.”
While the new director did hint he had productions in the works, McLeod said that his main focus for the moment was to stabilize the organization and get used to the role. McLeod has also told Qnotes that all who have something to share should contact him at CGN’s future events or on the organization’s Discord.
Like many of those who came before him, Noel Mills was a regular at arcade venues in Charlotte, as well as some of the gaming events that occasionally popped up. However, it was his visits to South Charlotte’s Sidelines and conversations with owner Kevin Cooper that brought the idea of his own traveling game setups to life.
“One of our conversations eventually led into him wanting to start a gaming bar, which I offered to help him kick that off by just bringing my games every Thursday since I was already there,” Mills recounted. “And when he would eventually start this bar, [I reasoned that] its name would already be associated with games, and it’s already been inside a bar.”
After some time solely at Sidelines, Mills had already seen its potential to bring people out with the prototype Gaming Lounge outgrowing its previous home. From Super Abari to Chasers, Divine Barrel to 7th Street Market, the project became a weekly practice for Mills, bringing out the games to public spaces around Charlotte. “…at that point, I decided to make it an organization,” Mills said
The Gaming Lounge, depending on the night and place, adds up to a curated selection of titles and systems, all varying on console generations and what Mills thinks the crowd will enjoy most on a night. The secret to his success? Listening to the people already enjoying what he is doing.
“I try to bring games that people played when they were growing up, or games that the parents have played. Particularly when I’m at places like [Super] Abari, I get a lot of parents playing games they played when they were kids [and] with their kids, showing them some of the little secrets. Or if I’m at Sidelines, I’ll get a lot of the older crowd hovering around the NES or Super Nintendo games that they grew up with,” Mills explained to Qnotes. “The whole goal is to let people relive their childhood.”
When asked where he finds everything that plays a part in his setups, Mills said that everything comes from local retro shops in the region. Whether hitting the Grid on Wilkinson Blvd., or heading out to Gamer’s Alley in Gastonia, whatever funds Mills has goes right back into the ecosystem that makes his team’s efforts possible.
In a post-COVID world, where the pandemic disrupted much of the previous ideas of coming out into group settings, people like McLeod and Mills, among others in the city, face an uphill battle in their pursuits to continue where other organizations left off. There is also the current and next generation of gamers that never got the chance to enjoy third spaces like arcades or a world where an internet connection doesn’t make gathering in front of a television necessary.
By bringing the close social ties back to video games, while the process will likely be long, both organizations endeavor in a worthwhile effort of connecting people to one another.