After months of intense competition, the Kinect Sports Rivals World Championship concluded with all the drama and spectacle you’d expect from a live public finale at Comic-Con. Organised by Microsoft and supported by Rare, the Championship offered some exceptional prizes for digital athletes who could prove themselves the best in the world, both in the qualification stages and on a physical stage in front of a buzzing Saturday night Comic-Con audience.
Adam and Darren were Rare’s men on the ground, helping out the Xbox team, spending time with the 11 finalists (from eight different countries) and live tweeting from the Championship showdown. Now that it’s all over, here’s Adam with a first-hand perspective on the whole thing!
Comic-Con is massive. And by massive we mean a heaving great spectacle of popular culture plastered across San Diego for four sweltering days. Regardless of your interests, there will be something here to sate your appetite. Ranging from the most niche comic books through to Hollywood’s billion-dollar franchises, Comic-Con serves to remove any fandom battle lines and unite the attendees in a celebration of their beloved IPs.
As ever, Xbox had a huge presence at the show – painting the town green with a stand in the main convention centre and the dedicated Xbox Lounge at the adjacent Hyatt Manchester hotel. Given the scale of Comic-Con, it seemed only fitting that Kinect Sports Rivals should go big and match the event’s epic scale by hosting our World Championship final in front of the cosplay hordes.
Having arrived in San Diego late on Tuesday night, we headed down to the Xbox Lounge early on Wednesday morning to ensure the Kinect Sports Rivals booth was up and running for the event’s opening on Thursday. Having made a textbook British error of walking from the hotel to the Lounge, we arrived with a crispy pink hue and found ourselves sporting a gorgeous shade of sunburn for the remainder of the event. It did however complement our Xbox branded T-shirts perfectly. Swings and roundabouts.
Stationed next to Dance Central, we had everything up and running by late afternoon and following a quick pit stop at the hotel we were back in the evening for final preparations ahead of the public opening. Thanks to our Marketing team, we were given passes to attend the Comic-Con preview evening in the main convention centre and rapidly found ourselves submerged in a sea of cosplay, jumbotrons, giveaways galore and more film props than you could wave a sonic screwdriver at.
Thursday saw the Xbox Lounge open to a flurry of activity, with queues forming well before the doors opened as people sought out exclusive giveaways from our friends at Halo, Sunset Overdrive and The Awesomes, and the opportunity to play the likes of Forza Horizon 2, Fable Legends and Evolve. With the Kinect Sports Rivals booth busy all day, we had the opportunity to meet some amazing people and saw players returning multiple times to try and beat their previous best times or scores.
As well as manning the booth, we also spent a couple of hours meeting our World Championship finalists at a local bowling alley where the rivalries were stoked over bowling and pizza. They had flown in the night before from around the world – although any vestige of jetlag had to be put aside as they headed off to the convention centre with their passes to see the Comic-Con sights. We hot-footed it straight back to the Lounge to continue with demos all day before the lounge was closed to the public and the VIP/Press Event ran into the small hours of the morning. And sleep.
Friday was another full-on day in the Lounge, with exclusive appearances from cast members of Game of Thrones/True Blood and even more people wanting to get some quality face time with Kinect Sports Rivals. And then it was Saturday…
Months in the planning, the KSR World Championship final had arrived and our area in the Lounge was doubled in size to accommodate the knockout rounds – with huge flags announcing the competition, a recreation of the island’s beach to play on and screens updating the finalists’ scores, progress and elimination. With camera crews there all day and an amazing MC giving a running commentary, we drew a massive crowd throughout the day as our 11 finalists were gradually whittled down to just two. Given their skills and the intense competition on show, we ended up over an hour late getting to the final as each and every win was fought with such passion and determination.
Transitioning over to the main stage, the rest of the Lounge was shut down so that the entire focus could be on the KSR final. All the seating was taken, and the size of the crowd meant that it was standing room only as Germany’s Lucktose and Australia’s AlexVlas battled it out in a best of five competition across Bowling, Climbing and Wake Racing. With a partisan crowd getting behind the finalists, the win eventually went to Germany’s Lucktose in a 5-1 thriller – taking home $10,000 (comedy-sized cheque? Of course!), the holiday of a lifetime and bragging rights for ever more.
Closing the event on Sunday with another day of public play, Comic-Con was a blast. Thanks to everyone who came by to meet us and to our amazing finalists whose love for and dedication to the game sent us home smiling. Next time we might even cosplay… you have been warned!
We also got David, our KSR World Champion under his gamertag of Lucktose, to give us a few words on how it all went from his point of view. Take it away David!
What was your favourite part of the experience?
My favourite part was the whole trip. It was really awesome that I became good friends with some of the finalists and their +1s. We explored Comic-Con and San Diego together. It was so awesome to be the first time in America hanging out with two Canadian brothers, an Englishman and his fiancee and a really cool guy from New York City. Thank you all again for this great experience. It wouldn’t have been the same without you Kevin Weiler, Brad Weiler, Michael Griffiths, Emma Watkins and Edward Vasquez.
Did you think you could win?
Of course, I was gunning for the Championship win and I was well prepared, but after we got our first opponents and the rest of our bracket, I felt a bit nervous about the rivals I would have to beat for the World Champion title. It was a shame that I had to play against Kevin Weiler aka AestheticaL in the first round because he became one of the really good friends that I made in the qualification round and even more on the San Diego trip.
After I had beaten AestheticaL in a thrilling match of good friends, I knew that I had to play against FusedDaelin in the next round and I also knew that he was the best in the world at qualification stage.
So I have to say that I thought I could win but after we got our tournament brackets, I knew it would be really tough and difficult for me to take the title.
What was the most difficult match?
The most difficult match for me was the semi-final against FusedDaelin because he was in a 3:1 lead after four of nine matches. Besides the pressure that I didn’t have any more space for mistakes, I had to deal with the fact that I was way behind FusedDaelin and that he had beaten me in Bowling by far. The only reason why I won against him was because I had changed the strategy in the second Bowling match and he couldn’t handle it that I had a huge comeback after I had won this match!
Last but not least, the Championship victory was one of the most breathtaking moments in my entire life so far and it was also one of my favourite parts of the experience.
What will you spend your prize money on?
I think one of the first things will be video games! But I have no idea what ‘Big Things’ I will spend my money on. I don’t know right now because the thrill of becoming a World Champion was the most important reason for me to compete in this Championship.
Have you chosen your prize holiday yet?
I chose the trip to Bora Bora. It was not a hard decision because I think it’s the best location by far!
Thanks to Amara and all at Marketing; Milan, Kimberley and all at NCompass; and of course our 11 World Championship contenders.