They may be young, physically unfit, and have poor social skills, but they know how to play video games. The Raging Rainbows are a group of 4 kids who ranked the highest in a series of America?s Army challenges that took place from March 17 through April 25. By winning the single elimination tournament, they got a chance to compete against a team of active soldiers in a 6 game showdown for $7500.
The contest was put on by Ultimate Arena, the leading online skill based tournament site where gamers can create their own tournaments for cash prizes. Founded by Dennis ?Thresh? Fong, world champion professional gamer for Quake, Quake 2, and Doom 2, Ultimate Arena provides a fun and safe environment where gamers can meet, play, talk trash, and give feedback on a secure network of state of the art game servers.
Team Stryker, a group of active Army soldiers, took on these 4 civilians on the Ultimate Arena network. Despite the server hanging on the first trial, the two teams eventually squared off in a winner take all best out of six games. For familiars of America?s Army, the level played was Weapons Cache, and the teams switched sides after every match.
Even though the Raging Rainbows lost two team mates due to technical difficulties after the first few rounds, they still managed to defeat Team Stryker in the fifth round of the competition. Each game was vicious and action packed, leaving little room for error. But in the world of gaming, the man with twitch reflexes is king, and these kids certainly proved that. And for their efforts, they are now $7500 richer, and I doubt their parents will be complaining about them playing video games too much anymore.
