Isaiah is in Seattle this week but not at an event for work. He's there on vacation watching 16 teams, each with five players, play a computer game. It's called DotA (Defense of the Ancients), and in the gaming world, it must be pretty popular. I say that only because over 17,000 people are there watching along with Isaiah, each having paid $100 for a ticket, more if they had to scalp one (Isaiah was online the second tickets went on sale but was still unsuccessful and wound up scalping one for $150). The prize pool for this competition is $18,000,000. Yes, you read that right. Count those zeros. It's true.
Poor Seth, who could not afford a ticket (or airfare to Seattle, or a hotel) is stuck here at home, glued to his computer, watching a live stream of the competition, texting back and forth with Isaiah. He believes that because he started playing the game at a young age, with years still to improve, one day he will be good enough to play in this international competition and win all that money. I'm skeptical, but hey, a boy can dream.
At the start, I sort of teased Isaiah for spending a week of his vacation time, not to mention a truckload of cash, to fly to Seattle and watch other people play a computer game. But then someone reminded me: “You and Shulamith spent that much to fly to Vegas for a weekend to watch Celine Dion sing for an hour and a half.” Indeed we did. It was worth every penny, and we'll likely do it again one day.
Entertainment is that subjective. What some find appealing, others don't. Seth just told me that at this very moment, 250,000 people are watching the live stream of the DotA competition. That's just crazy! But I'm glad he can watch since he can't be there. Reports from Isaiah are that it's the "best week ever!"
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