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Katowice25012 Posts
Team Liquid means a lot to me. For many years I have cherished the idea of dudes competing in video games, starting when I was 12 and found the world of Tribes leagues (which only had audio casts because broadband was still a rarity). I have spent a lot of my free time following that keeping up with leagues and learning about the kinds of crazy competitions tried and failed. Its a hilariously large part of who I am, few things get me pumped up like reading about some dudes locked in eternal combat through a video screen. Team Liquid has continuously fed my passion for years far better than any other place on the internet, and for my 5000th post it only makes sense to share one of the more entertaining stories I've run across.
BEFORE ESPORTS
America's National Team
When digging around for info on the Nintendo World Championships (an event for which I am now the proud owner of a signed poster), I got curious about earlier events. Sometimes the sentiment around here that competitive gaming is a relatively new phenomenon irks me a bit, so here is the story of something briefly mentioned in one of my favorite documentaries, Chasing Ghosts.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/kspcR.jpg) Look at that logo, so...8 bit.
-p4NDemik
That's right, The U.S. National Video Game Team. Badass. You can infer from the poster they were traveling to the White House, presumably challenging everyone in their path. The vision for this likely involved going on all sorts of wacky adventures in themed clothing, challenging roaming gangs in their quest. Maybe while discovering true love like Fred Savage. Perhaps engaging in a few practice montages, ultimately culminating in a colossal battle against the ultimate arcade terror - the Japanese. Supposedly they had to mint more coins after the advent of Space Invaders, so surely they were viewed as quite the formidable foe.
That turned out to be sort of true -- they did travel the country in a bus playing people in arcades. Unfortunately, the Japanese Embassy didn't really get it and there was never any kind of official match. The project lasted for several years though, despite sounding like a bizarre fever dream.
This is their story.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1TXpd.jpg) Ben Gold (far left) was a serious badass at 17. Now he has kids and is a pushover.
The USNVGT (nice acronym!) was the ultimate realization in a line of ideas from Walter Day. You might recognize him as the lovable, eccentric game referee from King of Kong, Frag, and Chasing Ghosts. He also started Twin Galaxies, the arcade competition world's Team Liquid. Despite being 60 years old he has a passion for competitive gaming that rivals even our most devout. I like to imagine this is who Nazgul becomes in 30 years.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hErLL.gif) Poster says 1982, cool. The tournament was held January 1983.
An entrepreneur who thought video game players could become sports stars, he was constantly looking for ways to promote. That's Incredible! contacted Walter about doing a special on games after a successful show featuring Ms Pac-Man (aside: this is probably the first real multi-region gaming event ever). After pitching the idea several times, he eventually turned the event into the Video Game World Championships held in January 1983. The format is smart: compete in 5 games then normalize and add totals, with the 3 top finishers moving on to a filmed TV event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO3ctKcI8Kg
ESPORTS
Later that year, Walter was approached about rounding up players for The Electronic Circus. In a field full of unbelievable events, ill-placed money grabs, and poorly thought out concepts, this thing is one of the most unreal stories I've come across.
Someone decided it would be a good idea to run a huge, traveling show that centered around arcade machines. They would hire a team of players to demonstrate the games, entertaining visitors with their skill and competing for high scores against each other and challengers. They were promised up to $3,000 per week in salary plus "endorsement deals". The grand vision involved a tour of 200 cities in 40 weeks. Exactly how they intended of averaging less than a day and a half in each location is anyone's guess. The man who originally gave the pitch is remembered for saying it may take us five years to get video gaming as popular as tennis, but we're going to work toward that. 5 years! You couldn't scream ESPORTS louder if you were shouting it from a mountaintop with a megaphone.
Shockingly, it lasted exactly 5 days before being shut down. The expenses were absurdly high, it was promoted poorly and no one came for their inaugural week in Boston. In a pleasant turn of event the players were actually paid for the days they worked (contracts which had been reduced to $1,500 a week). As near as I can tell this is the first instance of contracted play, it included some kind of morality clauses that forbid the players from "performing unjust acts".
The inspiration for the team started with the LIFE photo session and became an obsession by the time That's Incredible was aired. But the spark that set me in motion was The Electronic Circus.
-Walter Day
Day's idea was to keep the main focus but cut the flab, he was determined to succeed where the Electronic Circus men had failed. They would tour the country, visiting arcades and challenging all comers, setting high scores and gaining the respect and admiration of women and sponsors (his words).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/w1d5K.jpg) The master tournament series went through a few name changes.
At the same time Twin Galaxies was running a tournament called the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament, essentially a way to gather up high scores for the Guinness World Record book. The plan was to take this newly formed team and drive to each city the event would be held in, 8 total, to talk to the media and do demonstrations. Typical promotional stuff to spark interest.
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/5ZpqS.jpg) I started with a simple concept. I just made T-shirts. Six of them; six red and white shirts, each with the last name of a player emblazoned on the back and the Ottumwa logo on the front. The back of my shirt said 'Day' of course. Billy Mitchell, Steve Harris, Tim McVey, Jay Kim and Ben Gold each got shirts, too. I paid $60 for them, all the money I had. This was my first investment in the team.
Innocent enough start. That part where he says it was the last of his cash is interesting but we're not here to judge. They began in August of 1983, loading up a rented bus with nine arcade machines hooked up to a generator. They played games in the bus and brought mattresses to sleep there at night, though occasionally they slept in the homes of friends of their cause. They were basically road hustlers but with video games.
Driving across Ohio in daylight, with our U.S. National Video Game Team emblems flapping, was a great high. Everybody saw us, kids pointed, cars honked, girls waved. We were gods.
 Paradise doesn't last forever. They ran into problems with the bus and it completely broke down on their way to Minnesota. They briefly used a school bus but the kids hated that, so they ended up switching to roaming around in a rental car. The stops sound like they mostly went as planned, the kids weren't great with media but learned how to handle the press along the way. Disappointingly this video is the only one that has found its way to youtube.
The end of their trip had them visiting Nintendo and Sega factories, talking about games with them and playing some prototypes. Their trip ended with them hightailing it out of the Sega factory right as the employees were being told they had been sold to Bally/Midway and were being shut down. A fitting end? They went their separate ways, scattered across the country until the next season.
They never were able to crack the Japanese Embassy, though they successfully challenged the country of Italy in a confusing situation where they never actually met face to face and played. Apparently there was some kind of rivalry at least.
In the following years Walter went off to do whatever it is Walter does (think up increasingly offbeat promotion ideas hopefully). Steve Harris, one of the original six members, assumed control of the team and oversaw their activities until its death. Around the same time he also formed Electronic Gaming Monthly, the magazine that kept the team in print journalism for several years and probably did a better job of introducing them to the right audience than any other outfit.
Exactly how and why the team descended into nothingness isn't anything I have been able to clearly piece together. Most of the members were reluctant to accept console gaming, not believing they challenged a player's skills enough to matter. Pretty sure that makes the skill argument literally the oldest on in the book.
As arcades waned in popularity through the last 80s and Nintendo plowed the way for a new generation of home systems it seems their relevance must have simply disappeared. Unable to fetch sponsorship directly from game companies, their goal at the start, they really had no purpose when arcades began to shrink. That is pure speculation though, I really have no idea. The period between the mid 80s and mid 90s is largely dark to history. The only thing for sure is that 1986 was the last year they added new members.
 Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here, now that we are facing ESPORTS growth in the west. Maybe. It is, at the very least, a good reminder of how fragile these scenes are. All of these men dreamed of making video games their career and none of them were able to do it, all becoming the boring kinds of middle aged men their teenage selves hated and feared.
 
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Man, I loved all the old video game tourneys and everything Twin Galaxies has done.
Great blog! 
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Wow kinda a cool B.E. (before E-SPORTS) look, a very nice, interesting read. I also believe that this shouldn't be in blogs.
Edit: changed almost to also (I'm blaming auto-correct on that one.)
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So rare, a game with high-scores! I miss the times where people fought to beat each other points D:
I think what I miss the most is the feeling of consequence, where if I die, the game ends.
I just played bioshock and it was by far the most discouraging part of the game for me.
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Canada5565 Posts
Well-written, insightful, and informative. Such a good read.
On July 26 2011 15:19 DroneAllDay wrote:
I almost believe that this shouldn't be in blogs.
Agreed!
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United States13896 Posts
Sick you finally released it! Great read!
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Canada5155 Posts
Sobering thoughts at the end there. Nice article 
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Wow, Didn't realize that's why Steve Harris started EGM, very informative and interesting read.
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Australia7069 Posts
really good read. my only question is why isn't this spotlighted :O
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Awesome read, really interesting to see all the old game events
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awsome read before I sleep. Well written I remember watching that donkey kong movie about walter day and stuff a while ago too. Nice 5000 post.
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This should be a Final Edit a News piece if nothing else the best post I've seen on team liquid in the year I've been here.
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Before there was ESPORTS there was Day... 8. Amazing.
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People need to watch the King of Kong documentary. It's all about early pro-gaming, and a really entertaining story of one man who always comes in second... its not yellow :O
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Great read!
Is it just me or was the coverage of that tournament pretty good? They kinda lost the tension at the end but for a first shot at ESPORTS it could have been worse ^^
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United States4796 Posts
To the way right of that first picture... isn't that Billy Mitchell?
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Nice 5000th post! Though these particular events are past my time, it reminds me of how long I could seemingly keep myself occupied with 1$ in an arcade. Platformers and Pinball are where it certainly started for me.
EDIT: After reading this I think that after the Up and Down matches this morning, I am going to stream the greatest unknown NES game ever created. Prepare to be blown away.
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Pretty sure the dude on the right was on MTV True Life: I'm a Gamer, with Fatality etc.
found it:
+ Show Spoiler +
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This is the FUTURE...oh wait the PAST OF E-SPORTS!
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Really interesting, a good read
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Great read. The very last sentence was a bit harsh though as the article didn't focus on what it is exactly that they ended up doing. I wouldn't bet against them still being avid gamers, albeit amateurs.
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Amazing. I'm almost speechless.
I do want to point out that during the video I was an old women in the crowd of people, she looked lost. I don't think she knew what the hell was going on. Lol.
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Nice but when are you going to eat that shirt?
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Nooo don't shatter all the TL memebers' dreams :<
Other than that it was a really fun article ^^
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Those arcade games were actually pretty challenging when I was a kid. x-x
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The King of Kong himself
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Fantastic work here. This is journalism
Even more important is the fact that Walter Day is still at it. That man has so much passion that sometimes people look at him and think he's crazy. I can relate, and I look up to him as an "icon" because he continues to fight the good fight. And even when people say, "Walter, you can't accomplish that" - he just continues to fight forward.
Unfortunately Walter hasn't seen as much success as I think he should. The recent Video Games Hall of Fame event in 2010 was quite bad, and as a result, funding was/is non-existent for a 2011 event, and the chances that we actually see the VGHoF is probably slim to none. Let's hope he can drum up the support he needs to continue his vision, because he too wants to recognize all the players, individuals, companies, etc who have made competitive video gaming a reality.
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5/5
heyoka hwaiting
great post eventhoug i didnt experience any of this its great to see how e-sports grew up with people like you pushing it further and further
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5/5
Wow, amazing research and writing. A great enjoy to read, thank you! :D
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Netherlands1245 Posts
Exactly how and why the team descended into nothingness isn't anything I have been able to clearly piece together. Most of the members were reluctant to accept console gaming, not believing they challenged a player's skills enough to matter. Pretty sure that makes the skill argument literally the oldest on in the book.
This is awesome, I like how people never change.
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It would be cool to get an interview with Walter Day about current E-sports. He could probably relate to games like street fighter or other good competitive arcade games.
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I knew most of this, but haven't seen it articulated this well. Nice write-up.
I've met Walter on a few occasions and can vouch for him being one of the most passionate and friendly guys I've ever met.
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On Wikipedia it says the US National Team accepted members in 1994 and 2005? :/
Wait holy crap there is a lot of history here: Todd Rogers the first ever paid programer? Played a game for over 85 hours... thanks for the blog
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On July 26 2011 15:04 heyoka wrote:
All of these men dreamed of making video games their career and none of them were able to do it, all becoming the boring kinds of middle aged men their teenage selves hated and feared.
Omg, how terrifying.  I felt so happy reading that article, until the very last line!
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Awesome 5k post and really wild links....really wild o_O
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First of all nice write-up
However I am puzzled about the following "now that we are facing ESPORTS growth in the west". eSports as we call it is growing since 1996 in the west. I did an unpublished german article about the mainly german history of eSport, here just some highlights: I stated there the 30.10.1996 as a possible birthdate of eSports in Germany (founding of the clan ocrana). If you think about it, that in 1997 the price money of a Doom 2 tournament was John Carmacks Ferrari, Schroet Kommando was founded, the CPL and DeCL (predecessor of the ESL) started, that was already amazing. In 1998 Clanbase, 1999 Netzstatt (NGL). In 2000 we had the first german Counter-Strike champion with mTw. The World Cyber Games kicked off as well and in 2001 there was a german stop of the CPL. 2002 Intel started sponsoring the ESL, especially the intel Friday Night Games and mousesports won a bronze medal in the WCG Counter-Strike. 2003 GameSports was established as a german coverage site. 2004 there where some tries to establish eSports magazines and that led to the eGames in 2006. Furthermore in 2004 there was a shoot out on the chinese wall and 2005 the big CPL World Tour and the SEC, the WEG, EsBL, the ACON tournaments. 2006 the WSVG with the amazing finals in New York, 2007 CGS. And suddenly in 2008 eSports was in a crisis and it survived, Germany got a new news-site with fragster and new tournaments came with the Dreamhack, Kode5, Blizzcon and so on.
Now with Starcraft 2 and the possibility to stream on your own, it is growing furthermore and the last time at the CeBIT was quite nice with that much people. But after being part of the scene for over ten years soon to be fifteen ... eSports is not that fragile and had already many many flops (remember that AMD tournament in 2005, something X-Games, the downfall of CPL, the sudden stop of WSVG or the amazing downfall of CGS). You are right we have to remember the past, but I think we just need to look couple of years back
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Nice read, reminds me of a Documentary i watched: The King of Kong - it centers around one guy who tries to beat the Donkey Kong high score of Billy Mitchell and also sheds a light on the surrounding scene.
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this satisfied my cravings for history and nerd stuffs. Nice read!
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this is awesome, hot_bid should be proud.
not so awesome though, the logo looked like a swastika at a first quick glance
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Wow, that was a very cool read. Great 5000th post, thanks Heyoka!
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Katowice25012 Posts
On July 26 2011 19:09 xtfftc wrote:
Great read. The very last sentence was a bit harsh though as the article didn't focus on what it is exactly that they ended up doing. I wouldn't bet against them still being avid gamers, albeit amateurs.
Most of these guys have been on documentaries over the years, its a mixed bag. A lot of them look on the past fondly but don't have much interest in current games, I get the feeling the majority of them feel like games lost something once gaming culture stopped revolving around arcades. At least a few of them are still avid gamers of course, I think Steve Harris is probably still hanging around the industry.
On July 26 2011 23:22 P00RKID wrote:
It would be cool to get an interview with Walter Day about current E-sports. He could probably relate to games like street fighter or other good competitive arcade games.
Talking to Walter would be pretty interesting. I've spoken to a few people involved with competitive arcade scores and have been really turned off by their world, a lot of them view competition as man vs machine and don't give any credibility to fights that are man vs man. Its really weird, a lot of them refuse to give any legitimacy to what we do here at TL (despite us being a far larger community). Maybe I've spoken to the wrong people though, I suspect Walter specifically is super passionate about the same things we are.
On July 26 2011 23:38 ProxyKnoxy wrote:On Wikipedia it says the US National Team accepted members in 1994 and 2005? :/ Wait holy crap there is a lot of history here: Todd Rogers the first ever paid programer? Played a game for over 85 hours... thanks for the blog
I'm not clear on what the deal is with that wiki page, it has gone through a few major revisions and the source links died when TG redesigned the site. I assumed those members were kind of an honorary thing as the team certainly didn't exist as an entity by 2005. Todd Rogers is a pretty cool story though that guy is a beast, serious bonjwa of his era. He beat a machine that was designed to play an atari 2600 game perfectly.
On July 27 2011 01:22 t0bs3n wrote:First of all nice write-up However I am puzzled about the following "now that we are facing ESPORTS growth in the west".
Yeah it has existed before but now that streaming is so easy it is growing considerably faster and reaching a far wider audience than any of those examples.
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FuDDx
United States5008 Posts
Love this thank you!!!
Give 5 stars everyone!!! or more
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lol did anybody notice how
A: All three dudes looked totally like stereotypical nerds and
B: Most of the people in the crowd were old people XD
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5/5 easily. Really interesting read.
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This thread just reminds me how badly I want an arcade to spring up here, or for a bar to just dump a whole bunch of machines in their place
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Extremely interesting read. But does anyone feel a little depressed or find the arcade scene back then a little bizarre? I'm feeling a bit depressed now because hell, maybe this is how we look when we worship E-Sports so religiously.
That MTV Life video did not help either =( Maybe I'm only having these thoughts because E-Sports as a whole isn't exactly mainstream yet.
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I like how in the video the announcers use the real names of the enemies in the video games. And the kisses on the cheeks at end were a good touch.
I think it's strange how especially back in the day people were supposed to be impressed based on how many points someone achieved in a game. The numbers are arbitrary, varying so much game to game.
Regardless, this is an awesome blog! Informative and well-written. Thanks for sharing.
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Damn, casted from replays >.> They were killing eSports before eSports. Good blog :D
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a tasteful read sir :D
thanks for this!
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I can't believe they had something like this for arcade games, when they are giving live commentary of what's going on it sounds so hilarious, especially on centipede "the spiders got him again, they have to against dragon flies, spiders, bees, and of course the centipede" lol, look how far gaming has come. :D
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I wonder why none of them ever tried playing StarCraft when it came out. I would at least expected SOME of them to keep up their passion....
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EPT
