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feature :: gamerthon 2008

Gamerthon 2008

Starks gives delivers in-depth coverage of the Gamerthon 2008 event held in Melbourne

Introduction | The Final Stats | Interview with Michael Corona | Conclusion

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It’s an amazing thing to have a dream fulfilled. It’s an even more awesome thing to have the expectations of that dream exceeded. For the first time in the history of Australian competitive gaming, we had live, internet-televised coverage of a 7 day event that stretched across from Counter Strike to Call of Duty to Halo.

The reason I say it’s the fulfilment of a dream is because for the 4 years I’ve been involved in competitive gaming within Australia, I’ve never seen tournaments given the focus they deserve. Nor, in my opinion, have they been conducted with the professionalism shown by Anything Interactive with Gamerthon.

I really don’t think that people understand the scope of what this means, as I feel it is essentially the first big step into bringing gaming closer to the level held internationally; The level countries like Korea, the United States and China currently benchmark.


Docko from sqL H3


Without dribbling on too much, let me give you the run-down of what the week entailed:
  • Live streaming, coverage and commentary on tournaments that were not only recognised globally as competitive, but of the very highest quality.
  • Full media set up, sponsorship and journalistic coverage from multiple websites and companies.
  • Off site locations conducting pool play and preliminaries, which has led to the best teams facing off for the right to win cash and prizes – As well as bragging rights – for a national competition.
  • The correct mix of competitive and casual play, with the public being welcomed to join in and play off in the Guitar Hero III competition that had a prize worth of $5000.



Johny Nitro from GHIII


I believe the quote that correctly sums up the event was made by Michael ‘Corona’ ??? when he stated that Gamerthon was a ‘Celebration of gaming at a competitive and casual level’; A feat that was supported and complimented by the Game On festival ACMI were running concurrently.

The involvement of multiple organisations and websites, ranging from Altech, TekTime.com.au, Virtual Arena, Pub Gamer, United Gamers, Yamaha, Razor and of course ACMI has shown that the community was required to come together not only to pull this off, but to really show what Australian competitive gaming can potentially be.

I can understand that people will read this and go ‘Starks is off his nut’, but it really excites me to see the next big steps being made by the Australian community into the wide world of competitive gaming. Events like these simply reaffirm to me the viability and success that can be achieved, as well as the fact that if you give something to the gamers that spend hours honing their skills, we’ll see the fruits of it in a few years time when a Counter Strike, Call of Duty or Halo team (Or potentially that of another game which is introduced into the mix) can legitimately claim to be not only the best in the world, but back it up in competition.

Because, after all, that is what it is all about.


Boomser from CGS Sydney Underground CS Source team





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