Every Olympics, journalists debate whether or not certain competitions, like ballroom dancing or synchronized swimming, actually constitute a sport. But what about the World Series of Video Games, during which "cyber-athletes" from around the globe gather together to wage virtual war with a controller, computer mouse or wee plastic guitar?
This past weekend was the first in which the WSVG landed in Canada when a couple hundred professional gamers - yes, go ahead and tell your mom it is too a "profession" - did battle at the annual Fan Expo in front of hundreds of geek-minded spectators (though nowhere close to the 100,000 who showed up for a WSVG event in China last spring) for a total purse of $75,000 US.
While the three-day event featured mainstays like first-person shooter Quake IV and online role-playing game World of Warcraft, it also included the more mainstream crowd-pleaser Guitar Hero II.
Swedish gamer Toxjq took the Quake title with Barrie, ON’s Gellehsak notching the highest Canuck spot at 9th. Meanwhile, Canada’s much-vaunted Team Evil Geniuses, who regularly clean-up in domestic meets, placed third in World of Warcraft.
Over on Guitar Hero, the open competition included a seven-year-old wowing the crowd by playing Reverend Horton Heat’s Psychobilly Freak Out on expert while another gamer blew through Foo Fighter‘s Monkey Wrench totally blindfolded.
But the official GHII contest was won by Minnesota native Nikolai “Kov” Shish, who claimed the title for the second time this year with a lighting quick performance of Bang Camaro‘s Push Push (Lady Lightning) that defeated arch-rival Alex MFL’s Sweet Child O’ Mine when the judges deemed the song a little too easy (sorry, Slash).
While many may still question whether or not moving your fingers real quick equals an actual sport, despite the competitive fervor that surrounds these meets or the fact that millions of Asians are cyber-game spectators, at the very least these pro gamers could feel like real jocks when compared to all the cosplay-types parading around the convention centre in their Final Fantasy outfits.