The World Series of Video Games (WSVG) made its stop in Dallas for 4 days of gaming competition on July 5-8, 2007. World of Warcraft, Fight Night: Round 3, Quake 4, Gears of War and Guitar Hero 2 were played by individuals and teams, with the top spots earning anywhere from three to ten thousand dollars.

Numerous sponsors, including XFX, Intel and the CompUSA also had booths setup to show off their latest wares, give away t-shirts and interact with the community. A whole convention hall was setup for bring-your-own-computer LAN gaming, where anyone and everyone could bring their system from home to play lag-free with people from the DFW area.

The goal of the WSVG is to "professionalize gaming, to grow it as a lifestyle event, and attract the general public as well as hardcore gamers," says Rick Stark, Marketing Director for the WSVG. By attracting the general public, the WSVG and other gaming leagues hope to attract advertisers and sponsors that can turn video game competitions from something done by a group of friends on a weekend to a worldwide competition that finds the best players of our generation.

No longer just a hobby enjoyed by young people, video games have become a serious business, generating over 7 Billion dollars in revenue last year. The current market for displaying the abilities of gamers is wide open, which explains why so many of these tournaments can be successful even though they have little history. The WSVG is only in its second season, and already is amassing hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. It has also partnered with CBS to broadcast the highlights of the WSVG tournaments in each city. The Dallas event will be broadcast on August 19th.

The Gaylord Texan Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas was turned into a video game fantasy, with stages and bleachers setup to showcase the top players from the around the country. There were exhibitors showing off new hardware, colleges recruiting potential students, and lots of free stuff being handed to everyone.

With loud music and bright lights swirling around the room, video game events always aim to feel like a party. And there were all different sorts of activities to participate in. For the anti-social, you could bring your own computer and partake in a large LAN party, where games can be played with no lag. The rock stars among us were performing on a stage, and the World of Warcraft fans could sit on the bleachers and watch the battles of Horde vs. Alliance play out on big screens.

Every game gathered crowds during the competitions, but one game stood out from the rest. With a large stage and celebrity judges, Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360 was by far the loudest and most exciting of all the tournaments.

Guitar Hero tournaments typically follow a simple scoring comparison. For example, during last year's Midnight Gaming Championship each contestant played the same song to determine the initial tournament order. Then the tournament follows a single-elimination model where contestants played a song of their choosing and then played their opponents song, and the player with the highest total score wins. The WSVG competition was much different.

The scoring of the Guitar Hero 2 tournament followed what was being called an "American Idol" style of scoring. There were three celebrity judges, and each gave a score from one to ten. One judge focused on difficulty (of the song and the performance), one focused on accuracy, and one focused on style. Each contestant performed a song of their choice on Expert, and then the judges gave their assessment and showed their score. Appealing to the crowd was critical, as simply performing well might earn you a high accuracy score, but without the style points, you would be eliminated fairly quickly.

"I really felt at home here because finally there was a competition where you could rock out and get points for that," says Freddie Wong, after he won the Guitar Hero 2 competition. "Judging it based on style, not just score, it's so cool," agreed Tommy Tallarico, one of the celebrity judges.

But Guitar Hero 2 was far from the only game competition going on inside the cavernous convention center. The WSVG tried out a Gears of War tournament at the Dallas event, but some of the competitors were less-than-impressed with the location. "Here we're kinda thrown in the back behind Fight Round 3," said vVv Takedown, one of the members of the winning team. "Gears of War doesn't stand out as much here as it does with MLG," speaking of the "Major League Gaming" video game league.

The vVv team's manager, known as LordJerith, was quick to point out that "WSVG has been a very accommodating event for us," citing that they do care about the gamers. With Gears of War being a fairly new game that WSVG is using, they still have to work out the kinks in the presentation of it during the event. "If WSVG keeps it on the circuit, It's going to be really exciting to watch," said Sarillo, one of the members of the second place team No Name Noobs.

Any good competition brings out celebrities, whether it be to a playoff basketball game, or a video game tournament. With video game tournaments, the celebrities are less well known, but even they have their fans.

Kelly Law-Yone, known to her fans as TipperQueen, has appeared around the country at various Guitar Hero competitions, but even she was suprised with what she saw at WSVG Dallas. A group of 4 guys all came to the event with "I (heart) TipperQueen" written on their shirts. Only a couple of the guys were from the area, some traveled hours to come to this event and show their support.

A lot of work is being done to create celebrities that will draw more people into the tournaments, and get people involved. Video Games are a huge industry, but are hardly represented at all in television programming. One of the things that's needed to grow the visibility of video games is to have celebrities. I asked Rick Stark about contestants like Freddie Wong, who have an obvious stage presence. "He's got that persona... That's the kind of guy that people can build a fan base around, and build the show around," said Stark.

Eventually it all has to end though. Most of the contestants are still in school, either college or high school, and will be returning home before heading onto the next event. As more tournaments pop-up, and groups like the WSVG expand their touring line-up, there will be more money available to be won, and more full time players competing.

For more pictures, visit our WSVG Dallas 2007 gallery, and be sure to watch for highlights of the event on CBS on August 19th.

Related Links:
Realm Media interviews vVv Vision, 1st place finishers in the Gears of War tournament at WSVG Dallas
Realm Media interviews No Name Noobs, 2nd place finishers in the Gears of War tournament at WSVG Dallas