There are hundreds of video games players in my town. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t spot someone sporting some gaming clothing or walk by a group of people talking about a new sequel that was released. In fact finding someone who has never gripped a controller would prove a greater challenge then picking out a gamer in a crowd of strangers. A new resident in town has been trying to take advantage of the gamers by hosting local gaming tournaments. With so many gamers to tap, you would figure a tournament would be an unabashed success but the results have shown themselves to be a fair bit different. Reload Tournaments picked the recent release of Street Fighter 4 to make their first steps in the local gaming community and despite hanging posters all around town and the game as well as the tournament itself being featured in the newspaper, they had a poor tournament of less the 20 people. Considering the top prize was $100 and a Street Fighter Xbox 360 controller with an entry fee of only $15, The sponsor probably didn’t even rebound the cost of its prizes.
Despite his first attempt being less then successful, he has decided to relocate the tournament to a local coffee house which provided its projector screen and seating to make the tournament cheaper to run. Out of a morbid curiosity, I find myself watching the tournament from the sidelines to see if today would be a brighter day for Reload Tournaments; but nearly half an hour after the tournament was supposed to begin, a voice came over the speaker saying they need three more players and the crowd looked around to see if anyone else would wander over to the sign up table. Finally the tournament began and the players stepped up for the battle. The house was packed and despite most of the people being not there to play, all eyeballs were focused on the screen. The crowd cheered loudly as each punch landed and every winner stepped down from the stage a bit greater then a moment before. While there were players who were there simply for the chance to game in public, a fight between Ken and Ryu showed that serious Street Fighter players had shown up with each player pulling out every move and tactic and with the winner just barely taking the day.
The number of people who turned out to see the competition was more then expected and their cheers rivaled the sound of the game coming from the speakers, but with too few people actually willing to play the game the tournament couldn’t hardly be considered a success. No matter how excited the fans are, you can’t have a game without the players.
