A couple of years ago a saw an amazing video about a disabled gamer that uses his tongue and cheek to play Super Street Fighter 4 on a competitive level. Here is the video:
I haven’t followed competitive/professional gaming much, but I love that it is continuing to grow. I think it’s much healthier than a lot of the sports that are currently out there…
…, and it is relatively cheap and easy to broadcast.
So I watched Major League Gaming’s (MLG’s) DotA2 tournament from Columbus, Ohio over the weekend, and I found it fascinating. Having never played DotA, I didn’t know any of the moves, abilities, or characters, but I am familiar enough with the genre of the game to understand approximately what is going on.
I remember thinking during the competition that this must be how it feels when someone who knows nothing about American Football, rugby, or cricket watches the sport. They can tell by the announcers and the crowd when something exciting is happening, but they don’t quite follow everything that is going on. If the announcers are good, they might even get a hint of what actually transpired, and over time they might learn the game. In this instance, the announcers did an outstanding job of hyping up the event and getting the crowd involved.
There isn’t much else to say about it other than I will likely watch future events, and would love to see more games entered into this type of event. A small group of us is considering starting a Blood Bowl League on Steam this spring. If we do, I’ll post the results in the sidebar here.