I’ve caught a couple matches on DirecTV’s channel 101.
Basically it’s professional gamers, competing in a team format in a variety of different games (and platforms).
Specifically I’ve seen 2 five-event matches where both consisted of:
CounterStrike
5 players against another 5 players. 18 games in a row makes a set, with one team on offense for half the set. Each game awards one point to the winning team.
Dead or Alive
DOA is actually 2 Sets. one is a men’s division and another is a women’s division. So 2 men play until one wins 5 games. then 2 woman play for the same. Each win is worth a point to your team, so even if you lose 5-4, you didn’t lose much ground.
FIFA
Another one on one game. Every goal is worth a point to your team.
Project Gotham Racing
Driving game that is played two on two. Points are awarded thusly: 5 for 1st, 3 for 2nd, 1 for 3rd, and 0 for 4th.
The “athletes” are all young kids (late teens - mid 20s, although I think I saw a preview that included an elderly woman) and the teams are based on locations from around the globe. I saw Carolina vs Seoul and Berlin vs Mexico City. Each team has a “coach” who’s job may be more important during training than in the event because I only see them yelling, “YEAH!” or “GO!”
Right now the show is doing a decent job of highlighting the teams and the individual players with back-stories, but once I get used to the players, that’s gonna get annoying. Even with that said, I have to watch this on TiVo. (That way I can Fast-Forward through the boring bits) I feel like the teams have been given instructions on how to act during the match by some TV-producer. They are unconvincingly enthusiastic at times. But of course you can’t have gaming without the obligatory hot-chick starting each match by wearing skimpy clothing and yelling “GO!” at everyone.
So anyone else watching or interested but didn’t know it was going on? Apparently it’s going on in LA through the end of the week…