I have wondered for a long time if something like this next idea I am about to present could be viable. There are many great video gamers around the world but I often ask myself "Who is the greatest video gamer?". Of course, you could just say that whoever wins the world championship of any given game is the greatest video gamer but that is only for one game. If you had to compete in multiple world championships, you would have a better understanding of who the greatest video gamer is. I guess what I am suggesting is to have an "Olympic" style of video game competition, where each video gamer has to compete against each other in several video games. Could this be even possible since there is so many video games that people are competing in right now? Probably not, since it would be almost impossible to play so many different video games that has a competition element to it. But maybe there is a way to do this ...
One video game company that I always follow is Blizzard Entertainment. They make a lot of great video games and I have been playing their games for a very long time. I always try to go to BlizzCon, which is Blizzard's celebration/convention. Recently, with the additions of a few games in the past several years (like Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm and Overwatch) to the 3 older franchises (Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo), Blizzard has now 6 different games for gamers to choose from. Of those 6, 5 of those games are definitely playable for e-sports in mind (with Diablo being the only exception). With those 6 video games, could Blizzard actually make a competition that would answer the question "Who is the best video gamer?"? I think I may have found a way to do this.
In my Blizzard All-Star format, I would pick the best 12 video gamers. The first game that I would choose to do is Overwatch, since it has a perfect 6v6 makeup. The winning team would move on to the next round while the losing team has 2 players voted or removed from competition. Now left with 10 players, the next game I would suggest to do is Heroes of the Storm (it is the best 5v5 game). Teams would be scrambled up again so that players aren't always on the same team. The winners move on, the losing team (once again) loses 2 players. With 8 players left, the players would compete in Diablo 3 (probably a type of 4v4 format). I don't know if Diablo 3 is the best game for players to compete in but with the additions of challenge rifts, it may become viable (if not, they could decide to make a competition that is fairly easy such as "First team to kill the Skeleton King on storymode" or something). Again, the winning team moves on, the losing team has 2 players knocked out. With 6 players left, the video gamers would move onto World of Warcraft. It might be possible to do some 3v3 PvP but there might be gear issues with this (since players would come from different regions). Again, something more simpler might be better (such as speed running from Ironforge to Menethil Harbor as a lvl 1 gnome). Winning team moves on, losing team loses 2 players again. With four players left, StarCraft 2 would be the next game. Players could compete in some kind of 2v2 PvP format. Winning team moves onto the final game: Hearthstone. With the last 2 remaining players, the format should be some kind of brawl instead of using the traditional "bring your own deck" type of format. I think this would be better since not all players in the All-Star challenge will be experts in Hearthstone (and would not have all the cards to build a competing deck).
Overall, I think this is the best way of determining who is the best video gamer. You have many different types of games in this format (first person shooter, moba, action, mmo, real time strategy and a card game). The voting system to kick out the losers probably isn't the greatest (maybe something like a RNG system might be better). I also like this format since even if you are the best at a certain game, it won't give you much of an advantage (well maybe except for StarCraft and Hearthstone). Even if you are the best at a certain game, it won't necessarily mean that your team will win. I think the list of the 12 video gamers that would compete in this might be difficult to determine since I really don't know anybody that plays all 6 of these games at a very high level. I would have the community pick the people they would like to see most (or think who would do the best in this format) from each game (people such as Kripp, Rhykker, Artosis, Day9, TradeChat, etc). If I would ever be chosen to participate in a tournament such as this, I would probably spend my time practicing games like Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft since I play those games the least. A tournament such as this might be too much for BlizzCon because all of the other games (well except for Diablo) are going to have some kind of e-sports tournament for their games at BlizzCon. It might be a better idea to do it at some other convention (such as GamesCon over in Europe). Although this e-sport style of tournament probably won't be happening for a long time, I look forward to the day that it does happen since it will answer the question "Who is the best video gamer".
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Sunday, May 7, 2017
My Juno Reactor Live Experience Part 1 (Fuji Rock Festival '07)
In this blog, I want to review my Juno Reactor Live show experience. I have been to 4 Juno Reactor live shows (2 of which were of Ben's DJ show here in Vancouver). The first 2 shows that I went to were of my most favourite live experiences ever. There is nothing like a Juno Reactor live show where all band members are present. The first 2 shows are what I mostly want to cover in this blog post. If you would like to know what happened in the shows in Vancouver, there is already a blog post that covers that experience. You can view it here: http://junoreactors.blogspot.ca/2016/06/juno-reactor-live-show-vancouver-jun-04.html
My first Juno Reactor live show happened at the Fuji Rock festival in Japan on July 29, 2007. I really wanted to go to a Juno Reactor show since I hadn't experienced it yet so I decided that I would try to do anything to attend a show live. My only options were to wait until Juno Reactor would come close to me (in Vancouver or somewhere pretty close) or make a trip to somewhere far away. When I first heard Juno Reactor was going to the Fuji Rock festival in Japan, I was a bit hesitant of going but after getting help from friends in Japan, I decided that I would try to make that trip to Japan and see a Juno Reactor show for the first time. I managed to message Ben to say that I would be coming to Japan to meet his band and that I would like to meet him. Ben wrote me back and told me to contact his Japan manager when I arrived at Fuji Rock (more on this later).
The Fuji Rock Festival takes place at the Naeba Ski resort in Japan, which is in the northwest part of Japan, pretty close to Nagano. It is a 3 day festival, I only went to one day of the Fuji Rock festival so my ticket to get in was cheaper. There are many bands that were performing there, bands like the Chemical Brothers and the Beastie Boys were also performing at the same event (unfortunately I didn't get to see either one). My friend and I took a bus from Osaka to the Fuji Rock festival, which took about 8 hours to get there. We got there about 9am in the morning and had a little bit of time before any of the bands started playing. There were many areas as to where the music were playing. The big main stage was at the Green stage and there were also several other stages. The festival began at about 11am and we saw Soil &"Pimp" Sessions and Fermin Murugurza. Both were pretty entertaining to watch. Later on in the day, we saw a little bit of Mika and Joss Stone. We also ate some pretty delicious food there. We tried to contact Ben's manager but we couldn't get a hold of him. We also visited other areas of the venue and bought some souvenirs (I bought the Audio/Visual Juno Reactor DVD there). I asked if the festival was selling the new Juno Reactor album (the Gods and Monsters album) but it wasn't out yet.
Juno Reactor was the last performance on the White Stage so we went a little bit earlier to see if we could move up in the crowd to see Juno Reactor up close. The band that was playing before Juno Reactor was the Vooredoms. It was a pretty amazing performance, they had a huge guitar-like instrument. The crowd was very rowdy for the Vooredoms show but fortunately for us, most of the crowd left after the Vooredoms show ended (probably to see the Chemical Brothers). We got to the front of the crowd and right in the middle of the stage too. I had a great view of watching Juno Reactor perform and it really blew my mind how awesome they were. I don't think I can really put into words just how amazing Juno Reactor's show was. Juno's band consisted of Ben, Taz Alexander (vocals), Greg Ellis (drums), Sugizo (guitar), Ghetto Priest (vocals) and the Amapondos (South African percussion). I think this lineup really represents the true version of Juno Reactor that I really love (this is also the same lineup that played at the San Francisco show a year later). The track list was the following (I've lost track a bit but I think it is mostly correct): Conquistador 1, Conquistador 2, Biot Messiah, Giant, War Dogs, Insects, Komet, City of the Sinful, Hotaka, Mutant Message, God Is God, Hulelam, Pistolero, Angels of Men, Masters of the Universe (encore). I think this was the first time Sugizo was playing with Juno Reactor, he did a wonderful job even though it was his first show. I had great time watching Greg on the drums and Taz did an incredible performance with her vocals. I wish I got a better view of Mabi but that problem was fixed a year later. I managed to view some footage of that day. You can see it here:
There's something about Juno Reactor's music that instantly gets you dancing to their music. It is the just the right combination of instrument playing, high quality vocals and electronic mixing that makes Juno Reactor the best band (in my opinion). I tried a final time to get Juno's attention but unfortunately I didn't get to meet the band. A couple days later, I got a phone call from Ben saying that his manager had lost his cell phone at Fuji Rock and he was apologetic about it. It was kinda weird because I was staying at my cousin's house and they didn't know that the phone call was for me (my cousins were like there is someone talking English on the phone!?!?). I got to talk with Ben for a few minutes (that was cool). In the end, I really had a great time going to Japan and watching a Juno Reactor show for the first time. I couldn't believe that I was actually watching a Juno Reactor show with so many people (and I think everyone there had a great time also). My friend didn't know any Juno Reactor songs but she also liked their show a lot. Stay tuned for my next blog which will cover the San Francisco show a year later.
My first Juno Reactor live show happened at the Fuji Rock festival in Japan on July 29, 2007. I really wanted to go to a Juno Reactor show since I hadn't experienced it yet so I decided that I would try to do anything to attend a show live. My only options were to wait until Juno Reactor would come close to me (in Vancouver or somewhere pretty close) or make a trip to somewhere far away. When I first heard Juno Reactor was going to the Fuji Rock festival in Japan, I was a bit hesitant of going but after getting help from friends in Japan, I decided that I would try to make that trip to Japan and see a Juno Reactor show for the first time. I managed to message Ben to say that I would be coming to Japan to meet his band and that I would like to meet him. Ben wrote me back and told me to contact his Japan manager when I arrived at Fuji Rock (more on this later).
The Fuji Rock Festival takes place at the Naeba Ski resort in Japan, which is in the northwest part of Japan, pretty close to Nagano. It is a 3 day festival, I only went to one day of the Fuji Rock festival so my ticket to get in was cheaper. There are many bands that were performing there, bands like the Chemical Brothers and the Beastie Boys were also performing at the same event (unfortunately I didn't get to see either one). My friend and I took a bus from Osaka to the Fuji Rock festival, which took about 8 hours to get there. We got there about 9am in the morning and had a little bit of time before any of the bands started playing. There were many areas as to where the music were playing. The big main stage was at the Green stage and there were also several other stages. The festival began at about 11am and we saw Soil &"Pimp" Sessions and Fermin Murugurza. Both were pretty entertaining to watch. Later on in the day, we saw a little bit of Mika and Joss Stone. We also ate some pretty delicious food there. We tried to contact Ben's manager but we couldn't get a hold of him. We also visited other areas of the venue and bought some souvenirs (I bought the Audio/Visual Juno Reactor DVD there). I asked if the festival was selling the new Juno Reactor album (the Gods and Monsters album) but it wasn't out yet.
Juno Reactor was the last performance on the White Stage so we went a little bit earlier to see if we could move up in the crowd to see Juno Reactor up close. The band that was playing before Juno Reactor was the Vooredoms. It was a pretty amazing performance, they had a huge guitar-like instrument. The crowd was very rowdy for the Vooredoms show but fortunately for us, most of the crowd left after the Vooredoms show ended (probably to see the Chemical Brothers). We got to the front of the crowd and right in the middle of the stage too. I had a great view of watching Juno Reactor perform and it really blew my mind how awesome they were. I don't think I can really put into words just how amazing Juno Reactor's show was. Juno's band consisted of Ben, Taz Alexander (vocals), Greg Ellis (drums), Sugizo (guitar), Ghetto Priest (vocals) and the Amapondos (South African percussion). I think this lineup really represents the true version of Juno Reactor that I really love (this is also the same lineup that played at the San Francisco show a year later). The track list was the following (I've lost track a bit but I think it is mostly correct): Conquistador 1, Conquistador 2, Biot Messiah, Giant, War Dogs, Insects, Komet, City of the Sinful, Hotaka, Mutant Message, God Is God, Hulelam, Pistolero, Angels of Men, Masters of the Universe (encore). I think this was the first time Sugizo was playing with Juno Reactor, he did a wonderful job even though it was his first show. I had great time watching Greg on the drums and Taz did an incredible performance with her vocals. I wish I got a better view of Mabi but that problem was fixed a year later. I managed to view some footage of that day. You can see it here:
There's something about Juno Reactor's music that instantly gets you dancing to their music. It is the just the right combination of instrument playing, high quality vocals and electronic mixing that makes Juno Reactor the best band (in my opinion). I tried a final time to get Juno's attention but unfortunately I didn't get to meet the band. A couple days later, I got a phone call from Ben saying that his manager had lost his cell phone at Fuji Rock and he was apologetic about it. It was kinda weird because I was staying at my cousin's house and they didn't know that the phone call was for me (my cousins were like there is someone talking English on the phone!?!?). I got to talk with Ben for a few minutes (that was cool). In the end, I really had a great time going to Japan and watching a Juno Reactor show for the first time. I couldn't believe that I was actually watching a Juno Reactor show with so many people (and I think everyone there had a great time also). My friend didn't know any Juno Reactor songs but she also liked their show a lot. Stay tuned for my next blog which will cover the San Francisco show a year later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)