One leg of the series, the Championship Gaming Invitational, took place on December 16th in Los Angeles. With $80,000 up for grabs, it seems cyberathletes are increasingly capable of leading a self-supporting career competing in tournaments. It remains unresolved, however, whether or not there is a fan base. 

What you’ll see in February on DirecTV channel 101 will have you believe there is. Though filmed before a live audience, the invitational was not “live” in the traditional sense. The filming took place over six grueling hours and several hundred takes for what will amount to a one-hour special. Nearly three hours passed before a single game was played because take after take was required for the various hosts to get their lines right.  

The audience was well juiced courtesy of Mountain Dew while prodded by caffeine-induced hosts for thunderstick-toting teens to “cheer louder!” at every opportunity. By the time the tournament began, the audience had shrunk by a third, and the number of annoyed parents sitting in the stands equaled the number of squealing teenagers.  

A defining moment took place backstage in the VIP lounge where three adults watched the taping on a plasma screen - one of them being the mother of a contestant, while the other two looked like they just came for the free drinks. Project Gotham Racing on Xbox 360 was still in the preliminary rounds, and as the host interviewed the winner of round 2, the mother said to her new acquaintances, “They work really hard at this, you know.” The other two looked at each other, then at the mother, and they all fell into laughter at the same time. 

The pressure, therefore, falls on the game developers. If professional tournaments have a future, they will thrive solely on the ability of the games to demonstrate indisputable talent.  

Other Observations 

• Boost Babes are nothing new to gaming, and the Invitational had its fair share. There was also a fair share of references to the fact that good gamers might, with a little hard work, even attract such beautiful women one day. Backstage in the competitors’ lounge, the separation between the Boost Babes and the cyberathletes looked like an eighth grade dance. Professional cyberathletes, it appears, don’t yet hold the same sex appeal to women as professional ‘physical’ athletes do.

• There were a good number of female competitors in attendance, however. I wondered: do boost babes work against the industry by turning off young females to compete?

• Overall the production was top notch, and the venue, Barker Hanger at the Santa Monica Airport, was perfect for the size of the audience. On television, the whole thing will look like it took place in a basketball arena, which isn’t far from the reality.

• It was obvious – from the VIP lounges, to the stages, and the bevy of plasma and LCD screens – that a lot of money went into the event. Someone clearly believes there is a big future in video game tournaments.

• I don’t know what the official size of the audience was, but I was amazed how many people were there at the beginning. I asked several of them why they came. The most common answer? To be on television. I’m still undecided whether or not that is good news for the tournament industry.

• Maybe the coolest part of the event took place backstage in the competitors’ lounge. H2i demonstrated a hand-eye testing computer program that many of the players used to warm up their hands and brains. The program tested 10 or so aspects of hand-eye speed and provided a rank and score to see how you stacked up. An accuracy percentage was also offered. It was interesting to see the amount one could improve attempting the test several times. It’s also a great example of the talent some gamers have. I scored 47% accuracy on my best attempt. I’d say the average competitor was in the low-80s.

Scott Goldberg