Starcraft 2 Showdown At Full Sail Spotlighted By Red Bull eSports Series

“This is eSports” is a weekly series by Red Bull that spotlights and highlights some of the action happening in the eSports scene, specifically tailing Blizzard's highly lauded real-time strategy game, Starcraft 2. Former top-gun of eSports, Dave “Walshy” Walsh, interviews some of the players and sets up a narrative for the action that went down at Full Sail University.

The video is streamlined to contain just over five minutes of recapping what went down on day two of the competition leading up to finalizing a winner who will head to Red Bull's Battle Ground in New York City. The weekly series rolls out profiles of the competitors as “Walshy” interviews various members of the Starcraft community who happen to be participating in the tournament.

For anyone who isn't a diehard RTS fan, it's probably exceptionally difficult to get excited or enthralled about the prospect of someone you don't know or have no knowledge of competing with extreme intensity to win money at a game you may or may not have any interest in whatsoever, but they seem to be trying real hard to win over the favor of the community regardless.

The thing is, Red Bull seems to be trying to get a foothold in the eSports gaming community as it births new faces and names that some players – be they casual or hardcore – can eventually come to know and recognize before the big corps get involved. Walsh spends a little time talking to guys like SeleCT and Illusion as gamers can finally start putting tournament handles to faces, recognizing who's who in the eSports scene. Whether or not eSports will ever bridge outside of the fringe sectors of internet popularity and into the casual arena remains to be seen, but Red Bull is smart to try to get involved and get recognized as a strong supporter of the scene.

I can't say that the videos have effaced my blasé perception on RTS games, but slowly and surely the videos are creeping towards bringing gamers closer and closer toward the Battle Ground bout that seems as if it may be exciting no matter how you feel about the game(s) being played.

I'm a little shocked that Red Bull has so much invested into Starcraft 2, though, when it seems like a lot of other companies seem to be throwing their promotional weight around in the MOBA scene (even though technically they're more like multiplayer role-playing tower-attack games). League of Legends and DotA 2 are the hot kids on the block but Red Bull seems intent on sticking with Starcraft 2 for now. I do wonder if maybe that will change next year (assuming the MOBA fad doesn't fade) and if Red Bull will branch outside the RTS promotional ring to richer and more fertile pastures?

You can learn more about Red Bull's eSport campaign by visiting the official website.