Video gamers readying for Super League
Video gamers are signing up to play “Minecraft” at two area movie theaters that are to serve as stops on a 28-city tour of the world’s first in-theater video gaming league — Super League Gaming. “Minecraft” enthusiasts are already signing up individually and in teams to experience the game projected onto the big screens of the movie theaters. Super League Gaming’s summer tour launched June 15 in Los Angeles, and will be held Aug. 24-25 at two locations in Houston: Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24, 3839 Weslayan St., and Houston Marq’E Stadium 23, 7620 Interstate 10.
Video gamers are signing up to play “Minecraft” at two area movie theaters that are to serve as stops on a 28-city tour of the world’s first in-theater video gaming league — Super League Gaming.
“Minecraft” enthusiasts are already signing up individually and in teams to experience the game projected onto the big screens of the movie theaters.
Super League Gaming’s summer tour launched June 15 in Los Angeles, and will be held Aug. 24-25 at two locations in Houston: Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium 24, 3839 Weslayan St., and Houston Marq’E Stadium 23, 7620 Interstate 10.
Gamers will compete for league championship titles during the two 80-minute sessions of “Minecraft.”
In the computer game, players dig and build using various 3D blocks within a digital world of changing terrains and habitats.
Gamers will play firstperson on their own laptops.
The league utilizes the computer game’s open source software to merge all players onto a single screen, creating what the league is promising to be a new experience for group gameplay.
Spring resident Matthew Varela, 11, signed up to play in the Aug. 24 session at Edwards Greenway Palace. His father, 37-year-old Adrian Varela, will be playing alongside him. Matthew has played the game for “two or three years,” he said, but his father has only played it a couple of times.
“I tried showing him,” Matthew said. “He plays video games, too, but not too often.”
Matthew called “Minecraft” a “virtual sandbox” where players can do anything their imagination inspires them to do, including create mini-games of survival.
“It is going to be on a big screen so I can see what I am actually doing,” said Matthew, who learned about Super League Gaming’s summer tour watching online videos of players demonstrating the game.
According to Super League Gaming, “Minecraft” has more than 100 million downloads and is one of the most downloaded computer games on the market.
YouTube celebrity gamers such as Jordan Maron, known as CaptainSparklez, have helped to publicize the game and Super League Gaming’s tour.
He appeared at Super League Gaming’s launch in Los Angeles.
Maron’s YouTube channel primarily consists of videos of him playing “Minecraft.” He has more than 8.6 million subscribers watching his videos.
Matthew said it “would really be a cool thing” if he gets to meet some Texas “Minecraft” YouTubers during his Houston session.
Until the Houston sessions of the tour, Matthew said he will continue watching online demonstrations and practicing playing the game at home.
Registration for the two Houston sessions is $20 per single-day session. Seats are limited. Admission can be purchased at www.superleague.com.
The two Houston theaters are among 80 that have hosted or have sessions scheduled for the remainder of the summer tour. Super League Gaming’s last tour stops are Aug. 26 in Dallas and San Antonio.
Super League Gaming was created in 2014 by three men who were looking to create an organized gaming league for their children.
“There are all kinds of leagues out there, but there’s still a vast group of gamers who don’t have any way of organizing themselves into recreational teams,” said John Miller, who co-founded the league with Brett Morris and David Steigelfest in Santa Monica, California, in a news release.
The nationwide tour, however, is just an introduction to the Super League Gaming.
This fall, the league is starting six-week afterschool sessions, which will include Houston area movie theaters.