Level Up!

If you missed EVO, then you mist out, plain and simple. I got my roomate and my girlfriend to sit in on the action with me, and while watching the Soul Calibur 4 finals, a game that NONE of us really like, the three of us got hype. And if you were watching the numbers on the stream, the audience was in there too.
It was like the number of viewers doubled each day. As I tuned in, Friday there were only like 3-4k viewers. Friday night, that number broke 6k. Yesterday morning, it broke 10k before SF4 was even started. By the finals, that number more than doubled. Over 23,000 viewers were eyeballing that GREAT SF4 championship final match, on top of the estimated 4,000 people there watching live. That’s just short of 30,000 people watching you play. Talk about pressure.

Needless to say, it’s getting BIG. Kinda makes you wonder just how many people saw the games, and wanted to get in on the action, or pick up something new to learn. Its no coincidence that EVO was chosen to unveil (again) the second run of the MadCatz tournament edition sticks. This time it’ll have brand new art all over the fine-tuned goodness. Also, watching Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion on console in motion for the first time was quite awesome too.

The massive hype generated by such a huge event, in my opinion, set a huge milestone for the fighting game community. I’m absolutely sure that the combination of superhuman gameplay, and stellar (though sometimes the complete other end of the spectrum) commentary made inspiration for fighter-fans, and even some people outside the community to pick up the sticks and try a new game. Watching the event was akin to watching a title fight, the fans got so hectic, and it was just SO exciting to watch, whether you liked the game being played, or not.

For those of you who mist out, or are feeling inspired to see some of the action, you can grab some HD quality content from IGN insider, and catch up on the events that played out, though there’s nothing quite like being there, or watching it live.

Keep your eyes on the prize gamers, Level Up! will return later in the week with another installment of The EXP Boost, until then, game on!