Club Arnage

I want to share some interesting and good news about my son Patrick Evans.

For years, Patrick has played video games online with people from all over
the world.  He recently participated in two competition events, one state
wide event in Austin, Texas and a U.S. regional in Houston, Texas.  He did very well in
both events considering the thousands of people competing including
professional gamers.

He has been contacted by Major League Gaming from New York who is the
company behind several of the online gaming competition events in the US and
abroad and MTV regarding a contest for the "Best College Gamer".  Patrick is
now considered as one of the top 5 college gamers in North America.  MTV did
a video taped interview with Patrick at his college this past Thursday and
Friday for an upcoming news special on the hottest new entertainment
segment, on line gaming.  It is projected to be as important as music, TV,
movies, etc., and is a 10 billion dollar industry now according to CNN.   My
son in law, a graduate student at Un. of Houston saw the taped interview
with him yesterday on MTVU, a MTV service beamed to 700 colleges and
universities in the US and Canada.

He has been selected to go to New York and compete with four others for the
"Best College Gamer".  The game competition will be broadcast on the
Jumbotron TV screen in Times Square and on MTV, Thursday April 21 at 4:00PM
central time. If he does well enough to win, he would get a contract with
Major League Gaming as a professional gamer to represent them in marketing
and promotional competition events around the country.  Even if he doesn't
win the event, there are possibilities for other things to happen because of
the contacts with the company and MTV.

Who knows where this will go, but Patrick is very excited about this and I
am very happy for him.  I will keep you posted on how this plays out. Just
to make the MTV interview as a contender for the championship is really
exciting and a big deal for him.  Patrick's email address is
patrickevans83@hotmail.com    if you want to drop him a line for
encouragement.  Thanks for your support of him.

This morning MTVU.com has posted a vote for your favorite college gamer
page.  Please go to the following webpage and vote for Patrick Evans.

http://www.mtvu.com/contests/best_gamer_on_campus/2005/
Thanks again.
John

Vote cast...

Curious that when you have voted it gives you the chance to vote again...so I did.

Good luck to Patrick...  :)

Well spotted Smokie!!

I've thrown a couple of votes behind Patrick as well!!

Hmm, I'm not entirely sure I should vote for someone in what seems to be a Ferrarri Cap, but what the hell? Good Luck young 'un.
 :D

Bill


(ps yes I did it twice too, but I am also worried in case double voting cancels the first vote)

 ???

(ps yes I did it twice too, but I am also worried in case double voting cancels the first vote)

 ???

Incase Perdu is right I voted 3 times ::)
The Fix is in Now.
Canada Phil

Vote cast too.  I'm assuming Patrick doesn't get out much!

Voted John.
Good luck to Patrick.

Just voted. Good luck.

Voted, good luck.

Vote done, good luck.

Jem

Just threw in my three votes as well.

Wishing him all the best. And make sure that if he wins and earns a fortune, he knows where all these extra votes came from  ::) ;D

Three votes from me.
Good luck  :D

Thanks a bunch folks, I really appreciate your helping the boy out.  I want to get him off my payroll and on somebody else's.  And this may be the way to do it.  The winner gets a professional gamer contract with Major League Gaming but there could be other opportunities as well.  Patrick's passion is gaming so if this works out he can follow his dreams.  There are lots of folks who hate their jobs and do them just to provide for their families and how sad that is.  I love to see folks who love what they do, it just lightens the spirit and makes life better.  Thanks again to all of you who have voted and those of you who haven't, please reconsider.  
John

Just voted.
Reminds me of a cartoon in Mad magazine. Has the parents looking at their son playing a video game. In their minds they imagine a paper with job adverts for "nintedo players wanted £50,000" ::)

Rhino, You are absolutely right about the parents looking for job adverts for their gamer.  I told him years ago that he was wasting so much time with these games, and that he would wind up living in a cardboard box on the side of the road if he didn't start doing something productive with his life.  Now, it's in your face dad.  Boy, how little did I know.  Anyway,here is a website that explains the competition.  This is a bigger deal that I had even imagined.

http://wire.ign.com/articles/594/594491p1.html?fromint=1

If you haven't voted, please do.  The site to vote is on my first posting above.  Thanks and looks like I have a lot of debt to pay when I see you guys at Le Mans.....

Done best of luck

My son, Patrick called late last night and said he had been eliminated in the second round.  Out of all the games he has played, he had played that particular game only four to five hours in the past.  It was just a bad "luck of draw" to get that particular game.  Ironically, the remaining three guys will be playing a game today that Patrick knows well and plays at a very competitive level, but they don't know how to play it.  So last night, he was coaching all three on how to play the game that they will be competing on today.  He was disappointed, but said he was having a blast.
Now for the good news, Thanks to all of you, Patrick received the highest number of votes, over 15,000!!!!!!  He wanted us to tell everyone a big THANK YOU.  He couldn't believe so many people cared about him in this competition. The judges said that they were blown away on how many more votes he received compared to the others.   I believe he won the "Mr. Congenialtiy Contest" part of this event and that makes me very proud of him.
Again, I want to thank you for spending your time to help Patrick in this quest.  This has been a highlight in his life to be selected and participate at this level.
See you guys in June!!!!!!!

Commiserations to Patrick :(,  but hey, over 15000 votes, excellent  ;D

Is it an annual competition?
Can he enter again next year?

He is scheduled to graduate (and find a real job) at the end of summer.  I don't know about an annual event but it was open only to college and university students.  Maybe other opportunities will open up from this.  It certainly was good exposure and I would think lots of folks in the gaming industry are looking for good talent.

 
Hi John, congratulations to the lad!
I hope he finds some decent talent once he goes on the game. I'd love to accompany him, but personal circumstances would preclude me giving absolutely 100%.

Way to go, Patrick!

Hi John Congrats to Patrick He will have been noticed.
Race Fans make great friends.
Canada Phil
see you in France

Follow Up

On the website below is the entire set of interviews with each of the 5 Best Gamer on Campus finalists plus excerpts of the competition itself.  It does take a high speed connection for these videos.  Scroll down to close to the bottom of the page for Patricks interview.
I had promised each of you to keep you up to date on any information that had come from this.  You and others who voted for him helped him get the most votes, over 15,000 and allowed him an automatic advance to the 2nd round.  Unfortunately, the game they played was not one he had not played more than a couple of hours in his life and he was eliminated.  Even more unfortunate is the round 3 game, Splinter Cell is one Patrick is very good at and he actually was coaching the 3 left on how to play it.  He did say he had a great time in NY and really appreciated your support.
Thanks again
John

http://www.mtvu.com/contests/best_gamer_on_campus/2005/