I've been talking a lot lately about just how huge the Canadian video game industry has become in Canada over the last couple of years. Literally it's been an explosion of activity from coast-to-coast. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the AMP Your Game National Gaming Tour, put on by PepsiCo Canada. The massive cross-Canada gaming tour began last year with the "Search For the Pro" -- a massive Halo 3 tournament with the winning player given a spot on Canada's #1 ranked pro team, North of 49.
This year the AMP ENERGY commissioned a new Canadian poll conducted by Angus Reid Strategies which studied the gaming habits of 1,001 adult Canadians. They found that 31% of Canadians play music video games such as Rock Band. Among 18 to 34 year olds, that number skyrockets to 61%. I was quite surprised by that statistic, but when I think about it nearly every 20-and-30-something person I know has played Rock Band or Guitar Hero at some point in their life. Rhythm action games have become so ubiquitous you now regularly see them being played on television shows such as South Park, One Tree Hill, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Rock Band is so popular the music franchise has even spawned a reality tv show which aired on VH1 last year. And heck, let's not forget that it's impossible to walk into a Future Shop store without seeing several shelves (or in some cases, huge displays) stacked with Rock Band bundles.
These insights drove AMP ENERGY's decision to bring the popularity of social gaming to 39 university and colleges across Canada between February 23 and April 23 where they auditioned talent gamers in a national Rock Band contest -- the AMP ENERGY $100,000 Rock Off. The way it worked was four-player bands (comprised of lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals) auditioned at their university or college for one of 40 semi-finalist positions. The semi-final performance videos were posted on on the AMP ENERGY Facebook Page where bands solicited online votes from fellow university students, faculty, friends and family. The top four bands moved on to the Rock Off! finale which took place this past Saturday, June 20th at the Yonge-Dundas Square downtown Toronto.
Fortunately, I was there to take in all the excitement.
The event began at 6:00pm sharp with the AMP ENERGY tent open for gaming and lounging about. It was inclement weather for most of the day so I was more than happy to oblige and venture under the tent. Inside there was a main stage where volunteers could go up and impress the crowd (or make a fool of themselves) with their Rock Band skill. I was at the event with NextGen Player's newest contributor, Alice. We went up and played Panic Attack by Dream Theatre. It's one of the hardest songs in Rock Band so I played on medium bass. Yes, I know, I took it easy. Really though, it's near impossible to play on hard or expert, I swear!
After the tent experience, Alice and I had the rare opportunity to interview all the college bands prior to their big performance. I was the camera guy and Alice did the interviews. Fortunately I've uploaded them all to YouTube, so have a look.
First up is Meta Casa representing the University of Winnipeg. The band members include:
Adam Brown, 18, Winnipeg, MB
Remi Moore, 19, Lockport, MB
Brad Kimball, 18, St. Andrews, MB
Landon Phelps, 19, Lockport, MB
Meta Casa Interview:
Alex Inch, 21, Burlington, ON
Billy Laidler, 21, Port Moody, BC
Jackson Gair, 22, Kilworthy, ON
Mark Kingston, 20, Oakville, ON
Jason Chehade, 19, Calgary, AB
Matt Kurceba, 18, Calgary, AB
Brett Sieben, 19, Calgary, AB
Mark Hickaway, 18, Calgary, AB
Tactical Hands Interview:
The last band is GSpot Boyz and they represent York University. The band members are:
Malik Diaz, 19, Burlington, ON
Ramsey Aburaneh, 19, Cambridge, ON
Brandon Rowe, 20, Hamilton, ON
Ryan Rowe, 19, Hamilton, ON
GSpot Boyz Interview:
After all the interviews were done, we had roughly half an hour or so to tour the grounds and check out more of the sights. There was a cordoned 19+ section where people were relaxing and enjoying a drink or two, a bunch of booths with event sponsors such as the NXNE Festival, and a huge main stage where the finalist performances would take place.
In order to secure a front row positioning, Alice and I decide to head to the main stage and wait for the first act to come on at 7:30pm. The performances which ran in this order: (1) Meta Casa, (2) Chemical Toilet, (3) Tactical Hands, and (4) GSpot Boyz. The winners were selected based on a combination of best performance (70%) and game score (30%). One very interesting feature of the concert is that it was the first ever live-streamed event on Facebook. Fans watching the Rock Off! concert live via the Facebook video stream were able to cast votes and were combined with the judges evaluation to determine the overall performance score. Very cool use of technology.
So you get a sense of what took place that night, here is a video I took of the winning band -- GSpot Boyz from York University.
GSpot Boyz Rock Off Performance:
