Bar Fights, for the uninitiated, was an event set up by Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez some years ago. The premise involved a series of grudge and exhibition matches. Pride was put on the line and fans roared as they watched their favorite player completely body another player. Bar Fights took a break in 2009 after its second outing. But last Sunday, December 11, Bar Fights returned and better than ever.
The online stream was run by Team Spooky. It had a few issues in beginning, and they had to restart several times. This is unfortunate, as I would have thought they’d have tested the venue before then. As it happens though, Spooky was only able to get to LA the day before (instead of a week before as he usually does). So I can forgive that. They also had everything fixed and ready to go by the time the real matches started. The lag itself was kept to a minimum and by the time the second grudge match started (Fanatiq vs. Clockw0rk) everything was running smoothly.
James Chen and Ultradavid were on hand for commentary, something they provided in spades. The duo cast as well as they did in much bigger events like EVO. They helped raise the hype and helped everyone follow what was going on during the match.
There were a few presentational missteps though. The first (and easily smallest) gripe is that someone clearly didn’t know their overlays. There were several times where we (the viewers watching the online stream) would get shuffled through several different screens before they finally settled on which one was the correct one. Like I said it’s a small gripe, but it’s makes things confusing at times as to what’s going on.
My bigger problem was the fact that Gootecks - who was MC’ing the event - was not mic’d to the stream what so ever. We could barely hear what he was saying and the casting duo was of no help because they were too busy listening to what Gootecks was talking about. This was especially annoying as he was trying to interview the players before their matches about what was on the line and why they were there in the first place.
As I said before, Bar Fights is mostly about grudge matches. People calling each other out and stepping up to defend their pride. In fact, more than half the matches they had planned were between people who had called one or the other out. Some of this calling out was even done at the show, which became a match of its own. It made for an exciting environment with every match bringing you to the edge of your seat.
Overall, Bar Fights was a really fun event to watch with some amazing players giving us amazing matches. It settled a few bets and doused a few haters. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that I can’t wait for the next round of Bar Fights.
