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Big Buck HD: Virtual hunters come to Minneapolis for video game championship [Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.](Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 25--The big deer hunting seasons in Wisconsin and Minnesota are weeks away, but this weekend, guns are set to be blazing -- at virtual deer -- as Minneapolis hosts the world championship of Big Buck HD. That's a video game. Competitors from around the country -- and a few from overseas -- were slated to pump plastic shotguns at video screens in pursuit of $67,000 in prizes Friday and Saturday at the Pourhouse night club and event venue. Big Buck HD is the most recent version of the Big Buck Hunter family of games, which burst on the bar scene more than a decade ago and developed cultish popularity among urban hipsters in places like New York's East Village neighborhood -- not exactly the deer hunting capital of America. But deer hunters from the Upper Midwest can rest easy. The epicenter of the Big Buck universe isn't Manhattan, or Chicago's Wicker Park, which hosted last year's championship, but New Richmond, Wis., some 35 miles east of St. Paul. New Richmond, estimated population 8,610, boasts three of the top 10 Big Buck players in the country, including Trevor Gartner, the 2013 champion and top money winner of this year's battery of small money tournaments. What Charlotte, N.C., is to NASCAR, New Richmond is to Big Buck. "It's big here in town," said Gartner, 28, an emergency nurse at Westfields Hospital in New Richmond. "There are six to eight bars in town with the game, so we get a lot of practice. " Gartner's entourage, which goes by the team name 'Sconnie Snipers, practices most often at Gibby's Lanes, a bowling alley and pizza joint that holds a decidedly different place in America's nightlife spectrum than the Pourhouse. Six team members qualified for the world championship, including his brother Bradley, 24, of Mankato, Minn. And yes, Trevor Gartner is a "real" deer hunter, although he said he's not sure the disciplines overlap much. "If you trap shoot, that helps your reflexes for Big Buck, but you really don't have to be a deer hunter to get good at the game," he said last week before the championship began. "Sitting in a tree stand all day in the cold doesn't have any real similarities." To stay sharp, Gartner said he tries to practice almost every day. $30,000 in quarters? Games aren't free of course. It's $1 to play a standard game but can cost several dollars more to have your score entered into a bevy of tournaments being staged at any given time. (Games are connected via the Internet.) Gartner estimates that over the years he's paid "probably between $30,000 and $40,000." And how much has he won? "Hang on, I have to do some math ... between $60,000 and $70,000," he said, noting that he's sponsored by Busch Light. Last year's world championship, which is sponsored by Glen Ellyn, Ill.-based game developer Play Mechanix, netted him $15,000, which he used to renovate his basement with a bar, sports memorabilia and an actual Big Buck Game. (It's an older version of the game, not entirely suitable for championship practice.) "Yeah, it's supplemented our income, but it's 'fun money.' That's what my wife and I call it." So yes, his wife, Mandy, is OK with his habit. Actually, more than OK. Mandy Gartner is ranked in the top 10 in the women's division. She'll be competing for a $5,000 prize, her fourth attempt. The couple met at nursing school. It was on their second date that they played Big Buck together, said Trevor Gartner, who goes by "Trev" in the Big Buck scene. "The only reason I get to play as much as I do is because of my wife," he said. Wisconsin's gun deer season, when Gartner hunts, begins Nov. 22. So while the video game event comes perilously close to his annual rite -- he's been hunting since he was 11 or 12 -- he said there's no conflict. "But it is bow season, and a lot of my good friends are serious bow hunters," he said. "Those guys aren't coming to cheer for us because they're bow hunting, so the timing does hurt our crowd support." If there were a conflict, which would Gartner choose? "I'd go to the world championship. There's money, and it's not so cold." Dave Orrick can be reached at 651-228-5512. Follow him at twitter.com/OutdoorsNow. VIDEO GAME VS. REALITY Some aspects of Big Buck HD are similar to hunting. Others aren't. Here are some key differences. Reality: Sit in a tree all day bundled in blaze orange sipping warm coffee. Video game: Sweat in a T-shirt in a bar swilling cold beer. Reality: Fire one well-placed shot to kill the deer quickly. Video game: Fire as many shots as possible, hope one hits. Reality: It's unethical to take long shots or shoot at running deer. Video game: It's stupid not to take the longest shots possible; more points. Reality: Where legal, shooting a doe is acceptable. Video game: Shoot a doe, game over. ___ (c)2014 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at www.twincities.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |