sinewav
CAGiversary!
Inspired by CAGcast 100 and living near San Jose I had the opportuniy to check out my old local GameStop which was just renovated into the GameStop Tournament Center and just had their inagural Madden 08 tournament this weekend. First of all I have to say without a doubt it's easily the most presentable GameStop I've ever seen hands down. It's also a huge jump from the cave it resembled before its facelift. From the wall to wall kiosks to the fancy lighting to the flashy tournament stage they obviously tried their best to make this GameStop not look like your average GameStop. Rest assured though this is still a store with capitalism at its heart although the stage makes an immediate impression as soon as you walk in.
The tournament area itself is part stage/part kiosk with a total capacity of 24 stations and 4 giant flat screens for the spectators. On one side of the stage are the brackets where competitors sign up and everyone can track the tournament's progress. Madden 08 for the 360 was used and 30+ players competed 1 on 1 for the grand prize of a $1000 GameStop shopping spree. And yes the competition was open to anyone so basically whoever was there first and wanted to compete got in. Of course winning would be another matter entirely...
In speaking to the official moderator/judge of the tournament Jaysen the level of competition was fairly high and and in the beginning it was a total pwnage fest with very under qualified players getting hammered by the hard core players in the first couple of rounds. By the 3rd round things got serious with the trash talk at an all time high and the threat of fisticuffs between competitors very imminent. Of course with $1000 on the table only for first place most people would be on edge as well. Fortunately things stayed relatively civil throughout and the final two rounds were pretty intense as players were calling plays in the blink of an eye and game scores stayed pretty low. Interestingly enough the final two ended up being 2 brothers in their late teens/early 20's competing against each other for the grand prize, a very happy home for them this day presuming they get along.
In the end it was a fairly enjoyable tournament which definitely brought local gamers together and while viewing the whole tournament (4+ hours) was only possible for the biggest Madden fans, it was definitely a good sign of things to come. I asked Jaysen why this GameStop was chosen to get the first tournament center and his reply was simply that they were the largest GameStop near a Metropolitan city (4000 sq ft), that's it. I asked about future tournaments and a manager their said they are planning a Guitar Hero III tournament next month with a Halo 3 tournament to follow soon after, eventually hoping to have 2+ weekend tournaments every month. Guitar Hero III and Halo 3 are probably going to attract much more attention than Madden so I'll definitely be looking forward to those, though to compete I will probably need some brass cojones and/or liquor.
Attached is a picture of me in front of the GameStop in San Jose which unfortunately did not permit me to take indoor photos due to those darn company policies but I imagine it won't be hard to find a photo or two of the inside from the press.
CheapyD also forwarded me a link to another blog that somehow managed to get inside pics (I'm just a mere mortal), check out the inside below:
http://gameqablog.com/2007/12/gamestop-tournament-center.html
I hope you enjoyed my report and if you have any questions or comments let me know. Thanks and Happy Holidays CheapyD & CAG!
sinewav
Update - 12/20/2007
I forgot to mention that all the competitors in the Madden 08 tournament got a custom 360 Madden faceplate just for signing up, not the best prize but still a pretty sweet extra just for playing, so they may do this or other types of schwag for their future tournaments. -HS
The tournament area itself is part stage/part kiosk with a total capacity of 24 stations and 4 giant flat screens for the spectators. On one side of the stage are the brackets where competitors sign up and everyone can track the tournament's progress. Madden 08 for the 360 was used and 30+ players competed 1 on 1 for the grand prize of a $1000 GameStop shopping spree. And yes the competition was open to anyone so basically whoever was there first and wanted to compete got in. Of course winning would be another matter entirely...
In speaking to the official moderator/judge of the tournament Jaysen the level of competition was fairly high and and in the beginning it was a total pwnage fest with very under qualified players getting hammered by the hard core players in the first couple of rounds. By the 3rd round things got serious with the trash talk at an all time high and the threat of fisticuffs between competitors very imminent. Of course with $1000 on the table only for first place most people would be on edge as well. Fortunately things stayed relatively civil throughout and the final two rounds were pretty intense as players were calling plays in the blink of an eye and game scores stayed pretty low. Interestingly enough the final two ended up being 2 brothers in their late teens/early 20's competing against each other for the grand prize, a very happy home for them this day presuming they get along.
In the end it was a fairly enjoyable tournament which definitely brought local gamers together and while viewing the whole tournament (4+ hours) was only possible for the biggest Madden fans, it was definitely a good sign of things to come. I asked Jaysen why this GameStop was chosen to get the first tournament center and his reply was simply that they were the largest GameStop near a Metropolitan city (4000 sq ft), that's it. I asked about future tournaments and a manager their said they are planning a Guitar Hero III tournament next month with a Halo 3 tournament to follow soon after, eventually hoping to have 2+ weekend tournaments every month. Guitar Hero III and Halo 3 are probably going to attract much more attention than Madden so I'll definitely be looking forward to those, though to compete I will probably need some brass cojones and/or liquor.
Attached is a picture of me in front of the GameStop in San Jose which unfortunately did not permit me to take indoor photos due to those darn company policies but I imagine it won't be hard to find a photo or two of the inside from the press.
CheapyD also forwarded me a link to another blog that somehow managed to get inside pics (I'm just a mere mortal), check out the inside below:
http://gameqablog.com/2007/12/gamestop-tournament-center.html
I hope you enjoyed my report and if you have any questions or comments let me know. Thanks and Happy Holidays CheapyD & CAG!
sinewav
Update - 12/20/2007
I forgot to mention that all the competitors in the Madden 08 tournament got a custom 360 Madden faceplate just for signing up, not the best prize but still a pretty sweet extra just for playing, so they may do this or other types of schwag for their future tournaments. -HS