Oh MAN, the first ever Streamer Showdown with VirtualSportsNW was AMAZING! I wanted to write this review two days ago, but my day job has got me pretty busy before the holiday break. C’est la vie.
Note: I’m not going to talk about who won until the spoiler section below. Feel free to read on before watching, or skip to the spoiler section if you just want the details (but you should TOTALLY watch the event, it was epic!).
I’m a long winded bastard, so if you’re looking for a TL;DR, head to the spoiler section.
So, the evening started out at about 7pm. Well, it was actually closer to 7:10pm because traffic was a DISASTER between Redmond and Tukwilla. Ugh. Anyway, BizSnes was already there, and we sat down at the bar and had a chat for a bit while Justin (the MC of this event) got things ready. Once the setup was ready to go, we sat down and the cameras started rolling just before 7:30pm.
The showdown consisted of 3 events. Here’s the basic rundown;
– Nidhogg: 3 matches of 3 rounds each. For each match, best of three rounds wins the point, for a possible 3 points.
– Trials Fusion: Same as above. 6 total points possible so far.
– Laser tag: 4 rounds, 1 point for each. We were playing with a group of pro players, so a round was won based on the player’s (either BizSnes or myself) individual point total. If either player wins all 4 rounds, 3 ADDITIONAL points are awarded to that player.
So, all told, if you completely biff the first 2 events, but dominate Laser Tag, you can still win, 7 to 6. Of course, you could also sweep and win 13 to 0, heheh.
I’ll talk about the events in the spoiler section, but right now I’d like to talk about the experience itself. BizSnes is a natural streamer. He has a background in improv comedy with (if I remember correctly) proper schooling in the performing arts. He is, and has, an amazing personality, and the event was an exercise in banter and witty repartee. Each match against him was super fun and properly challenging. I mean, it’s true that I’m a creative streamer on Twitch, but I’m no slouch in the gaming department, and I think I was able to hold my own against someone I consider to be an extremely seasoned gamer.
Justin was great too. I think he did an amazing job as not only the announcer, but the host and the producer of the stream. He was able to play off of our musings at the same level, so it was a really well rounded conversation the whole time.
The only bit of the event that I wasn’t super excited about (within the context of viewer experience) was the Laser Tag section. It was super fun, and SUPER challenging, but the view to the end user was a Night Trap like affair, and I don’t think it was easy to follow who was where. Streaming from the gun-mounted cameras would have been a better experience (especially if they did a video-game split screen setup). To Justin’s credit, he set up the scores on the bottom, so even if you couldn’t decipher the action, you could tell who was winning at any given time within a specific round.
Also, I’m super happy that we scored the Laser Tag section like we did (individual player score, rather than team score). We didn’t have a lot of control over our respective teams, so a team score wouldn’t have represented the Streamers skill or abilities or etc. If we’d used team score, it would have been a shutout, one Streamer would have won pretty much by default (and basically at random), and I don’t think it would have been as much fun at the end. Again, good call on Justin’s end, and a testament to his planning ability for the event.
Overall, I had a great time, I’m super happy that I got to be in the first showdown, and I highly recommend that many more people partake, especially those who frequent the Seattle Community Meetup (sponsored by Twitch).
Also, shoutouts to VirtualSportsNW; The Laser tag setup is pretty hardcore (high quality changeable layout, great tech and equipment, active community of players, great refs/techs/moderators), they have a lot of great stuff upcoming (VR/Vive arcade anyone?), and they’re EXTREMELY awesome for hosing the meetups for the Twitch group each month. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend playing them a visit!
Check out the videos here:
– Nighogg and Trials Fusion
– Laser Tag
– Evening wrap up (this does include some game play, so I highly recommend checking it out!)