Look out, Madison. The gamers are taking over your
classrooms.

Much like the high-profile games of “Starcraft II” that are
broadcast in South Korea, the UW “Starcraft II” club is bringing its love of
the game to the whole campus with a public presentation of the final round of its in-club tournament in the Humanities building this Thursday.

For the uninitiated, “Starcraft II” is a video game for PC
and Mac about three different races that are at war with each other: The
Protoss, the Terran and the Zerg. Players choose between these races to play
as at the start of each game and then proceed to build up an economy by
gathering resources at their home bases before creating an army to try and beat
their opponents. Games tend to last an average of 20 minutes and can be
structured around any number of strategies involving the construction of units
and the timing of these attacks.

Michael “Aechmil” Crump will be facing off against Chan “VaiOZ”
Park in a Terran versus Terran best of seven match for first place, while
ZiXiao “Llamma” Chen will play be playing against Jake “FGiSignals” Voorhees in
a best of five Protoss verus Protoss match for third place. These four battled
through a gauntlet of 40 other players over the three-week tournament, held in
place of their unfortunate exclusion from the CSL last semester, to reach these
final matches, and the club members are eager to watch these final matches reach
their respective conclusions.

For those that are interested but do not know the first
thing about “Starcraft II,” the games will have live commentary by Alex Wyler
and Matt Schmidt. They are both prominent members of the club as former and
current heads of the organization, respectively, as well as high caliber
“Starcraft” players, and they will help to clarify the nuances of the game to
the audience as the action unfolds.

“Our goal is to promote both casual gaming and competitive
E-sports in a college setting,” said David Xu, the club’s marketing chair. “It
is an opportunity to us, not just to gather as enthusiasts, but to allow other
non-players to enjoy the game and see what we’re about.” He hopes that the
public showmatches will help to draw in new members to the club, along with
possible sponsors to help increase the size and depth of future tournaments.

This format of commentary and “best out of five/seven”
competition is standard for the “Starcraft II” professional scene in
competitions from South Korea to North America in tournament settings such as
the “Global ‘Starcraft II’ League” and Major League Gaming.

“It gives the players a chance to experience something
similar to what we watch in professional competitions,” Xu said. Though,
regretfully, the club was not able to justify the amount of pyrotechnics that
the professional gamers at the GSL enjoy, so it is not a one-to-one simulation.

If this public showing goes well the club hopes to do more
public games in the future, perhaps even this semester. Xu sets the bar at a
tournament showing in the soon to be opened Union South, though it all depends
on the size of the crowds this week. Solo and team matches are all a
possibility.

The competition begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 24 in Humanities
room 2650 with “Llamma” Chen versus “FGiSignals” Voorhees for third place,
followed by the grand finals matches. Anyone with any level of interest in
“Starcraft II” is encouraged to attend.