Declaring a champion

From simple library competitions to full blown tournaments, defining a champion for a video game has become muddled in the mass of tournaments available to gamers.

Both gamers and companies, such as GameStop and Nintendo, can invest a great deal of time and money into a tournament.

“The [tournament] I went to in New Jersey was international, and people from Europe and Japan flew in,” said Bassem Hanna, a pre-med psychology senior. “There was about 400 attendees total.”

The winner of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl – a popular Wii game – tournament was Japanese and won $3,600, Hanna said.

Even though Bassem tied for 49 for the tournament, he is ranked third nationally for the character Wario on the Smashboards, a website that helps organize Super Smash Bros. tournaments and ranks gamers that play them.

According to the Smashboards rule page, The top five players for each character on Smashboards is determined by the ratio of competition wins and losses which each have a corresponding point value based on the type of competition.

Aside from Smashboards, other organizations declare their own champion.

In 2008, hours before Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, GameStop hosted their own tournament to crown the Smash victor as an event that would go on with their midnight launch of the game, a press release provided by GameStop stated.

That same year, Nintendo organized an official Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament as well. According to the corresponding rule webpages, the Nintendo and GameStop competition had different rules, prizes and ultimately different winners.

Regardless of who is officially the champion, both the company hosting the tournament and the participants benefit from the event.

“It’s an effective way to get people to sample a product and also get them into the store,” James Ivory, an associate professor who studies the effects of games and other interactive media on society at Virginia Tech said.  

In addition to in-store sales for companies like GameStop, Ivory noted that organizations that have sponsors, such as Major League Gaming who is sponsored by companies like Dr. Pepper and NOS, receive money from the advertising.

For the gamers who compete in tournaments, they can be a way to earn money, if you win, and provide for a place to make new friends Hanna said.

The opportunities for gamers to meet new people and earn money are growing as more companies like the Cyberathlete Professional League and Major League Gaming continue to grow, but add to the confusion as to who is really at the top of the charts.

Ivory speculates that as video game tournaments continue to rise in popularity, they could one day unite into one league like professional football did years ago once it reached a high enough level of popularity.

“In South Korea, their video game champions are just as popular as their sports stars,” Ivory said. “It might be unusual, but 60 years ago football players wouldn’t have been seen as stars either.”