The U.S Army is getting into competitive gaming with over 8 bases competing in a Street Fighter 5 tournament. This 'first of its kind' tournament is set to be live streamed and allows any active-duty service members to compete.
Beginning on the 28th of July 2018 the tournaments will be held at Fort Bliss, Fort Gordon, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Fort Wainwright, Fort Riley, U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys, U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria, and Fort Knox.
The tournaments will be a standard double-elimination bracket where the winner of each individual tournament will earn a spot in PAX West which is held in Seattle. An official statement from the army read:
“The competition will develop Soldiers’ outlook and overall fitness using current technology”
This is already in line with what we already know, some military technologies are controlled using gaming peripherals. Specifically unmanned operations that require precision and accuracy.
“Soldiers train for the competition by improving hand-eye coordination, mental focus and reaction time. These skills help improve a Soldier’s overall readiness to help with normal job duties.”
The later statement suggests the army is beginning to recognise the eSports industry as something that could be extremely useful, especially when focus and reaction times come into play. The tournament may be used as a way to try to train core concepts that are necessary within certain sectors of the army.
Let’s just hope for more character variety than Guile and Cammy.
The tournament is being sponsored by MGM Resorts and USAA. More information is available here.
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