In my experience, most video game-loving kids have had the thought, "It would be awesome to play video games in a movie theater." Super League Gaming is making that a reality for a lot of Minecraft players, and if they're skilled enough they might also walk away with some scholarship money.
Early registration for the six-week league (which will run you a not-cheap $80, though parents can watch for free) closes on October 1, and four Dallas-Fort Worth area theaters (three Cinemarks and one iPic) are participating. You need to bring your own laptop with a copy of Minecraft installed, and games are played in teams of four to seven. You can either form a team yourself or Super League will place you in one. Players also receive a free jersey.
The Super League FAQ says that all ages are welcome, but "most participating children are around 6-18 years old." They also want to make sure you know that aside from being a good way to socialize with like-minded people, Minecraft can be educationally enriching.
Minecraft isn't typically a competitive game (at its core, it's more of a digital sand box where players build and explore together), but they will put teams against each other in "Mayhem" (a free-for-all, player vs. player arena), "Build" (a cooperative building session with a different theme, like "treehouses" every week) and a custom map, called Crystal Crater, that focuses on "resource survival competition." Players will be competing in the after-school games to "climb the national leaderboard and vie for the coveted national championship trophy, $10,000 scholarship and the title of Super League: Minecraft National Champion," a press release for the event says.
Players will spend most of their time looking at their own laptop screen, but an aerial view of the action during the match will be shown on the movie theater screen, sort of like a Jumbotron at a more traditional sporting event.
If this all sounds ambitious, Super League has already tested the waters. This summer they held a summer league event (which they say drew more than 10,000 people across the U.S.) at various theaters across the nation, including the Cinemark Legacy in Plano. At that event, YouTube Minecraft celeb and Texas native ParkerGames was in attendance.
The participating D-FW theaters (and their kick-off dates) are:
Cinemark 14 (Denton) -- October 7
Cinemark in the Alliance Town Center (Fort Worth) -- October 7 Cinemark Legacy 24 (Plano) -- October 7 iPic Theaters (Fairview) -- October 6You can learn more and sign up at Super League's website.
