While esports hotels are hugely popular in China—offering gamers high-end PCs for day-long sessions—one such hotel recently fell victim to a brazen theft.
According to a Reddit post by user Zestyclose-Salad-290, video footage from the hotel owner revealed several gaming PCs missing their central processors and graphics cards. The thieves had come prepared with tools to remove Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPUs and GeForce RTX 5070 GPUs from three or four rigs. They also stole some Logitech keyboards but left other components behind.
The hotel owner shared in the video, “Oh my god, the guys who checked in a few days ago just left. I messaged them on WeChat asking if they’d broken anything, only to find they’d blocked me. Right then, I knew something was wrong.” He rushed upstairs to find the equipment gone.
The clean removal suggests the thieves knew exactly what they were after and how to take it without damaging the hardware. Given the expensive components involved, it appears this was a planned robbery, not a random act.
In the U.S., a Ryzen 7 9800X3D costs around $450 and a GeForce RTX 5070 roughly $610. Multiply by four stolen rigs, and the hotel lost over $4,200 in hardware alone. The owner will likely have to invest in security cages or other protective measures to prevent future incidents.
While minor thefts like towels or toiletries are common in hotels worldwide, stealing high-end PC parts is a costly and unusual crime. This incident highlights the challenges esports hotels face in protecting valuable gaming equipment from determined thieves.
