An estimated crowd of over 4,000 attended the 4th annual GigaZone Gaming Championship on Saturday, November 2 at the Sanford Center George W. Neilson Convention Center. The event featured free gaming, numerous gaming tournaments, virtual reality, door prizes, and more.
This one of a kind regional gaming event showcases Paul Bunyan Communications’ IT and web development team which custom built and integrated much of the online technology and leverages the speed of the GigaZone one of the largest rural all-fiber optic Gigabit networks in the country. The entire event was run off a single residential GigaZone Internet connection.
Hunter Branson of Duluth won the 4th annual GigaZone Gaming Championship Main Stage Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournament and the top prize of $500. Elsa Overland of Grand Rapids made it from the losers bracket all the way back to the grand final to secure second place and $400. A total of 64 of northern Minnesota’s best Super Smash Bros Ultimate players competed on the main stadium stage in the GigaZone Championship Arena.
2019 GigaZone Gaming Champtionship Official Results
In addition to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Touranment, there was several other open tournaments including Fortnite, Mario Kart 8, Madden 20, and Overwatch 3v3, plus high score competitions in Beat Saber Virtual Reality, Ms Pac-Man, Galaga, and Donkey Kong. There was also two Magic the Gathering Booster Drafts, Admission was free and lots of door prizes including an Xbox One X with $75 Game Stop gift certificate won by Nicholas Krotzer of Akeley and a Occulus Qwest Virtual Reality system won by Kent Wolback of Bemidji.
“It has been incredible to see the attendance grow exponentially the past couple of years! There is a large gaming community in our area and the GigaZone Gaming Championship not only showcases some of the region’s best gamers but it gives everyone a chance to get in on the action! It was awesome to see so many people from right here and all over come together!” said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager
.“Our cooperative continues to expand one of the largest rural fiber gigabit networks in the country and that brings many advantages to our members. The GigaZone provides extreme speed and low latency which are critical for the best online gaming experience and the GigaZone Gaming Championship showcases just that,” added Leo Anderson, Paul Bunyan Communications Technology Experience Manager.
“This event has garnered national attention. There is no other gaming event like it anywhere I’ve seen. It’s unique to our area and we are very proud of our team for making it happen. We’re already looking forward to next year!” added Brian Bissonette, Paul Bunyan Communications Marketing Supervisor.
This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes the talents of many local partners including NLFX, Accidently Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center as well support from several regional and national partners.
For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship visit www.gigazonegaming.com