Video game tourney right on money

Mark Snyder

Mark Snyder

The Grind

From the beginning of the planning, finding a location in Ann Arbor for the spitting grass and grinding blocks of a college football game wasn't going to be easy.

The swarm of players would be enough to contend with, let alone the promotion and marketing that would need to go into the event. But on a campus world-renowned for its gigantic football stadium, the location had to be perfect.

The proprietors of the game found the spot they desired and made the announcement: If you could handle college football, the Union's Pendleton Room was the place to be last Sunday.

Fortunately for the preservationists of the grand old building, all the roughhousing was contained inside eight television screens during the first round of the EA Sports Sony PlayStation College Football '99 national tournament.

For the first time, the computer wizards who brought us such memorable interfaces as Contra and Blades of Steel put their minds to good use and capitalized on a collegiate phenomenon - the video game.

Though video games were originally created as a diversion to reduce arcade games into a home-size entertainment unit for seven year-olds, the power of the PlayStation currently dominates the 18-22 demographic on college campuses everywhere.

Walk through the hall of any dorm on our campus in the evening and you'll hear screams, grunts, groans and yells - and that's before the late-night fraternity hazing. (No letters please. In my pledge class, the winner of a game of NHL '96 on Genesis was a hell of a lot more important than who was the pledge president.)

We are the first generation to have grown up in the arcade age and it seems that every five years we've had another toy.

Recall the days where Atari's Pong was the rage?

Remember the media blitz for Super Mario 2?

How about when Genesis made John Madden more of a computer name than a football coach?

These were the defining moments of our life and video games were at the center.

After a hard night of celebrating Michigan's real football victory on Saturday, 40 eager combatants dragged themselves out of bed and into the Union at 3 p.m., eager to test themselves against the best college football players at the University not on Lloyd Carr's leash.

The grand prize? A free trip to California. For the runners-up? Free copies of the game. Not a bad opportunity when they would have spent the afternoon doing the same thing at home.

"I saw it posted in the Union," said eventual champion Sumit Javeri.

The 32-competitor playoff tournament began after the 3-5:30 p.m. play-in round concluded but the media blitz one might expect never really materialized.

Javeri said the candidate pool, derived from Internet registration and the ever-effective "Union signs," left a lot to be desired.

"We play in our hall - Wenley United," said the New York City native. "It's actually stiffer competition in my hall."

Nevertheless, Javeri rolled through the five-game tournament, finishing off his final opponent just before the clock struck 9:30 p.m. After emerging from the pack, Javeri was more than pleased by his achievement.

"I'm glad to represent Michigan," he said. "I hope I get to face Ohio State."

Tournament organizers said that may be a distinct possibility. When Javeri is flown out to the EA Sports headquarters in Silicon Valley for the regionals in early December, he'll square off against the best of the Midwest (i.e. the winners from the other schools EA has visited.)

Business School student Dave Stempler, an EA Sports intern last summer, helped organize the event on campus even though it was new to campus.

"People could see it happening," he said. "It's a chance to play and (these players) were good."

While the bulk of Stempler's job was to test products and discover flaws, Javeri thinks he has the game and its cover boy, Charles Woodson, beat on a bomb.

"You can lob the ball up and catch it every time," Javeri said in a whisper, as if revealing classified information. "It's a good game, but there's money plays" to win.

I can hear it now: Random Michigan quarterback drops back, throws a lob pass to Tai Streets ... Money.

Talk about realistic ...

- Mark Snyder can be reached via e-mail

at msnyder@umich.edu.

11-12-98