“… The Entry Fee for the Tournament is $20.00 USD for the Qualification Round of the Tournament. Canadian residents are not required to pay an Entry Fee in order to enter. Instead, Canadian residents may enter by submitting a 250 word typewritten essay comparing tournament video gaming in Canada to tournament video gaming in the United States on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper …”
Comparing tournament video gaming between Canada and the United States is somewhat difficult seeing as I don’t live in either country, but I assume that most Canadians don’t live in the US either, so maybe in comparison I don’t have that much of a handicap.
The main difference is that it’s fucking cold in Canada and this can cause your fingers to freeze up, even drop off if you’re not careful. Entrants from Florida would have a real advantage, and lets not even talk about Las Vegas. We also have to wear big wooly mitts to cover our ears which means that you can’t hear a fucking thing your team-mate is saying. Also they look really stupid which hurts your chances with the hawt chicks. My own ear-muffs are bright red, as I am sponsored by a local car-washing company, so I have to wear their shit. I bet players in the US don’t have to stoop to such levels just to enter a video game competition.
People in Canada are very poor, which is why we write essays to enter stuff like this instead of paying a months wages to do so. It’s lucky that our government protects us in such matters. Being poor, our computers are not of the latest high-tech standards which can be somewhat of a handicap when playing arena pvp. Sometimes you can find that the match is over before you have even left the loading page due to lag. So please let me win.
April 30, 2010 at 11:03 am
Thats an interesting requirement for entry. Perhaps they chose this path to encourage more players outside of the US to enter since free is always better then paying. Unless, you enjoy paying for sex.
April 30, 2010 at 5:45 pm
*Laughs* I enjoyed this immensely. Thank you.
To answer Snieh, it’s the result of our old anti-gambling laws. Basically sweepstakes and contests are considered gambling if you pay money to enter. There are now exceptions when it comes to (most) lotteries and casinos though.
May 1, 2010 at 6:46 am
Another example of the way our country based laws can’t cope with the internet.
A while ago Adam you wrote about the Bruce Everiss case, an English blogger being sued in Australia for writing a series of allegedly damaging statements about online gaming company Evony.
Jarome is physically in Canada and therefore bound by his (her ?) country’s laws, however, I assume if he travelled to the US, say Las Vegas, he would be perfectly at liberty to gamble and not be bound by the Canadian laws ?
In this case Jarome is “virtually” travelling to the US by way of the internet and yet he (or Blizzard) are bound by Canadian land based laws.
It’s a nonsense, in the same way the Bruce Everiss case is a nonesense brought about because land based laws can’t cope with the emerging internet world.
May 1, 2010 at 6:53 am
That’s a very good point, I hadn’t really considered that as I was just taking the piss for the most part. We need a world internet body and laws. It will require a benevolant dictator, and I think I would be perfect for the position.
May 1, 2010 at 3:06 pm
I’ve already got myself in mind for that post and sod the benevolance, I’ll just tell everyone how it’s going to be and they do it
Keep taking the piss, it’s what makes the post amusing to read.