At 6 on a Monday evening the patrons in the dining area of Café 210 West, 210 W. College Ave., are sparse. But in the back room of the establishment, unbeknownst to most people in town, video game enthusiasts are preparing to kick off Monday Night Football a few hours early, as the weekly Madden NFL 2004 tournament is about to begin.
Are you ready for some football?
Kyle Slaton (junior-agriculture) sure is. He's in charge of setting up and running the tournament every Monday night at Café. His duties include hooking up Playstation 2s to a small and big-screen TV and explaining the rules to players.
While he hands out cards that players fill out for raffle and statistical purposes, Slaton breaks it down for participants. Games are played at a length of two minute quarters, with the computer skill level set at All Madden. Seeding into a direct elimination table is done randomly by choosing the cards from a hat.
All that said and done, competition ensues. The stakes are nothing to sniff at either, with the winner receiving his choice of four games by Electronic Arts. The remaining three are split between the runner-up and raffle winners.
T-shirts and beer cozies are distributed liberally throughout.
First-time competitor Nitun Ahir (senior-biotechnology and bioengineering) heard about the tournament from a buddy who used to play last year.
He said he's not that great at the game but thought it would be fun to try his hand against other players.
"It's something different," he said.
In spite of his modest talk, Ahir led his first-round opponent 21-0 with four interceptions at halftime of their game, playing as the Denver Broncos.
He eventually made it to the final round, though he conceded defeat to Anurag Vij (senior-finance) and his Minnesota Vikings after trailing 28-0 in the third quarter.
Vij took his victory in stride.
"I've won before," he shrugged.
Along with the Madden tournament, which runs all semester as a companion to the real Monday Night Football, competition and involvement extends to other games as well. Thursdays feature NBA Live 2004 at the Moxie lounge in West Halls. The FIFA 2004 tournament sponsors an IM soccer team as part of its promotion.
And coming soon, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 and NHL 2004.
If you're looking for who's in charge of all this, the guy you need to talk to is Namjou Kim (junior-marketing). Kim is a Penn State student and intern for A.D.D. Marketing, which organizes these kinds of promotional events for Electronic Arts.
Over the summer, the company flew Kim out to San Francisco, where he and representatives for other big sports schools, including Syracuse University, Boston College and Michigan State University, went through a training seminar.
Now Kim says his job is to market EA Sports on campus.
He is responsible for making connections around town and arranging facilities for use in holding the gaming events.
"Pretty much I'm just giving away free stuff," Kim said of his gig.
Kim stressed that participation in these events is free, and encourages students to come out to have a good time.
