Some people like to watch football, hockey, golf, or basketball. I dont like traditional sports; they just never appealed to me. I do however watch a sport. I watch professional Starcraft2. A videogame. They play huge tournaments for prizes of over $100,000 and sometimes up to millions of dollars. This is a huge pastime throughout the world, and has become much more widely known thanks to the prize support of big sponsors like Stride Gum, RedBull, Dr. Pepper, and several financial investors.
Watching the games is free, and widely available through the internet, generally best watched through http://twitch.tv, a popular streaming service. There are always games available to watch and a massive, and vocal community of spectators, and players.
Watching SC2 is much like watching a typical sport such as football. You have 2 individual players that are using strategies theyve been practicing for hours, sometimes 8-10 hours a day, along with tons of experience and knowledge. The idea is to build an army of units, and destroy the enemy base or make it so that they arent able to continue producing any army of their own; very similar to chess. After a few hours of watching youll have a great grasp on the units commonly used, what they do, and what to expect from certain players.
The sport has grown into a state which is now drawing people to bars to watch together, just like a group of guys would go and see a UFC event or a football game. A laptop is set up to the TVs in the bar via HDMI and the game is then viewed in exactly the same manner. The matches are commentated on as well, bringing an identical experience to those that are used to traditional sports.
My vision is to bring this experience out of the bar, and into the Cigar Lounge. I spend a few evenings a week with my friends at the local Cigar Lounge, taking turns playing Black Ops 2 and watching others play Skyrim. We discuss gaming, technology, cigars, and sports. Its a short hop to bridge the gap over to watching Starcraft2 events such as the GSL, MLG, and IGN Pro League in the Cigar Lounge.
This type of event would be mutually beneficial to both Lounge owners, and the Starcraft community. Lounge owners would have a new group of potential customers, and the Starcraft viewer numbers would become even larger. Another beneficial aspect of CigarCraft instead of Barcraft being that, unlike alcohol, cigars do not make you drunk, or extra rowdy. This brings a level of sophistication to the event, which makes it more readily acceptable to those that may not otherwise ever be exposed to watching Starcraft2, and never know they enjoy it.
If you have questions or comments youd like to reach me with, please feel free to reach out on Twitter as its the easiest and fastest way to reach me: @eG_Acefisher1 and watch r/starcraft on Reddit for updates on times and event info on the upcoming CigarCraft events Im planning.
For more information on Starcraft2 take a look at http://teamliquid.net, http://mlgpro.com, and http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft
Watching the games is free, and widely available through the internet, generally best watched through http://twitch.tv, a popular streaming service. There are always games available to watch and a massive, and vocal community of spectators, and players.
Watching SC2 is much like watching a typical sport such as football. You have 2 individual players that are using strategies theyve been practicing for hours, sometimes 8-10 hours a day, along with tons of experience and knowledge. The idea is to build an army of units, and destroy the enemy base or make it so that they arent able to continue producing any army of their own; very similar to chess. After a few hours of watching youll have a great grasp on the units commonly used, what they do, and what to expect from certain players.
The sport has grown into a state which is now drawing people to bars to watch together, just like a group of guys would go and see a UFC event or a football game. A laptop is set up to the TVs in the bar via HDMI and the game is then viewed in exactly the same manner. The matches are commentated on as well, bringing an identical experience to those that are used to traditional sports.
My vision is to bring this experience out of the bar, and into the Cigar Lounge. I spend a few evenings a week with my friends at the local Cigar Lounge, taking turns playing Black Ops 2 and watching others play Skyrim. We discuss gaming, technology, cigars, and sports. Its a short hop to bridge the gap over to watching Starcraft2 events such as the GSL, MLG, and IGN Pro League in the Cigar Lounge.
This type of event would be mutually beneficial to both Lounge owners, and the Starcraft community. Lounge owners would have a new group of potential customers, and the Starcraft viewer numbers would become even larger. Another beneficial aspect of CigarCraft instead of Barcraft being that, unlike alcohol, cigars do not make you drunk, or extra rowdy. This brings a level of sophistication to the event, which makes it more readily acceptable to those that may not otherwise ever be exposed to watching Starcraft2, and never know they enjoy it.
If you have questions or comments youd like to reach me with, please feel free to reach out on Twitter as its the easiest and fastest way to reach me: @eG_Acefisher1 and watch r/starcraft on Reddit for updates on times and event info on the upcoming CigarCraft events Im planning.
For more information on Starcraft2 take a look at http://teamliquid.net, http://mlgpro.com, and http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft