California video championships
a resounding success
In the wake of the vid o world
championship fiasco of th pr vious
month , M arianne and D avid
Davidson might have thought it
easier to ca ne I their C alifornia
"Video Games Stat e Championship"
playoffs and wait till the heat had died
down . But Mariann and David are
not the kind of folk s who se k the
easy way out of anything and th ir
energy and courage is vident in the
scope of their business.
Following th ir pre pt that
operators " mu t be orne more
public r lati ons cons ious to su rvive
the fast -buck artists' threat to the
industry," the Davidsons embarked
on the bigg st tournament endeavor
ever attempt d by an ind pend nt
operato r .
The Re c r ation St ati o n state
championship involved more than
two million games played in a mar..,el-
ously successful tournament - not a
complaint was registered through
two and a half months of competition
at 200 locations which culminated in
the championship fin als December
19 at the Ramada Inn in Culver City.
There, amidst prize fight -like tension ,
Jeff Davis handled a Defender for
214,750 point s within a five minute
time limit for the unco nt es ted
California vid o hampionship. An
audience of several hundred cheered
the fifteen -year -old, and many more
who had bee n in and out of the com -
petition area that day read later of
the youngst er ' victory.
The tournament 's early round s
were played at each participating
Recreation Station location . For
eight w eks play r s battled to gain
one of the two weekly playoff posi -
tions. Then , on Saturday of the ninth
week , those eighteen playoff ontes -
tants gathered at the loca tion to vie
for a local championship and a bid to
the regional playoffs.
' Although all the final statistics are
not in ," offered Dave Davidson " th is
tournament has already alleviated
some myths about having video
games in the stores . It is generally
believed that the games will keep
clients in th e stores longer , but this
showed that the games can actually
bring people in . Some stores showed
a 100% increase in game recei pts."
12
Store owners and follow r of th
tournam nt al o learn d that ther is
no age limi tation in resp t to the
p ople who njoy playing the videos .
The tournam nt was o pen to all ag s
in hope of showing that the gam s
provide family fun.
Th majority of Rec reation St ation
lo ations are St op N G o conv -
ni nc mark t in California and
Arizona and all th stor s b nefitt ed
in sales and adv rtising from the pro-
mo tion .
On D c mb r 12, 200 in -store
winn r s of " sta te finalist " b It
buck! s am to six division play-
offs . E h of thos players was
allow d
fiv -minut time limit
gam s,
best of which was
r co rded as their s mi -final effort.
Wh n the play-o ff winners w re
determined , thos regio nal champs
headed to the fi nals competi tion in
Cu lver City to compete for $10 ,000
in prizes .
" All th pri z s had been bought
and paid for b for the contest was
even started ," com ment ed D avidson
as a comparison to the previous
month's Chicago fiasco [Pla y Met r,
January 1 and Februarv 1 articles] .
Those prizes included a W illiams
Defender as first prize , a Honda
ATC 110 off-road cycle as second
prize, an ATC 70 as third, a G .E. 19"
color TV for a fourth place finish, a
Panasoni AM/ FM casse tt e stereo
sy tern for fifth , and a sixth pia e
pri z of a H itachi st reo AM/ FM
a et te.
The video to be used in th finals
was not annou n ed until all final s
ontestants had b en decided . Th n
W illiams ' Defe nd r , Pla y Met r
" Vid eo of th Y ear ," was announ ed
as th game upon which the finalists
would comp te.
" W e chose the Defender because
of its diversity and sophistication .
Winning on the game takes agi lity. It
is not merely a matter of memori zi ng
a set of patt rns ," not d Davidson .
Th championship finals were hi -
lighted by th
pre nee of two
Sou th ern C alifornia ce lebriti es .
Charli e Tuna, Lo s Angeles' KH IT
the pro-
dis jock y help d erne
ce d ings and twelve yea r -old
M athew Labar! adx of Little Hous
on th Prairie hallenged media and
on t sl ant s to beat him on a M issile
Command . " The Tuna " left the
rowd laughing and Mathew quit the
Missile Command undefeat ed .
Wh n the exci tement died down
and th crowd s filtered out of the
comp tit ian rea , six proud young
men had regis! r ed impressive five -
minut e point totals on the Defender.
Aft r Davis' first place finish came
Damon Pac kard in second with
198,900 points, Brian Franklin took
third with a scor e of 192,225 , Fred
Smith was fourth with 181 ,150
point , Brian S lfridg was fifth at
176 ,675 , and David R dmond si xth
with 172 ,875 .
The fac t that the competition went
off without a hitch would have been
success enough for Rec reation
Station 's 1981 state video champion -
ships, but the tournament did much
more than simply avoid the kind of
embarrassments that scarred the
industry reputation last N ovember in
Chicago .
" W wanted to improve the image
of vid os in the state ," says Dave
Davidson. " W e wanted to show that
th games ar good family fun ."
The Davidson 's efforts could not
have been more timely, nor more
courageous . They risked some
$60 ,000 up front on the contest.
(W ith over two million plays attri-
buted to the contest, their risk was
greatly rewarded .)
Th reward s will be lorthcoming
throughout th y ar. The public rela -
tion b n fit from the success ful
tournam nt will do much to improve
t h im g of vid o in a sta te which is
und rt king ffort s to revamp ordi -
n n s gov rning th number of
rna hin s all owed in any one loca tion
have b n forthcoming . There are
still th e connot ations of the evils of
the old industry hanging on here,
even though they aren't spoken .
But the Davidsons believe their
state c hampionship tournament has
h lped wip away some of the pre -
judie agai nst th coin games and
that their approac h to improving the
indu try image i esp cially signifi -
ant in light of the fac t that it was
a com plished by a si ngle indepen -
d nt operator .
•
PLAY METE R, April 1, 1982