KALAMAZOO —

A group of Western students and other fans will be watching the big game at the bar this Sunday.

The game is Starcraft II, a real-time strategy video game where armies of humans and aliens battle for other worlds. A tournament of professional players, somewhere out on the internet, will be playing on the TVs of Old Burdick Bar & Grill’s Wings West on Sunday.

The event, dubbed “Barcraft,” is the first of its kind in Michigan, organizer John Paver said. The senior in business administration is the founder of WMU student organization Western TR1BE (or WTR1BE), the gamers backing the event.

“It’s like pretty much any other sport,” Paver said.

He loves hockey, and loves watching it in a bar full of Red Wings fans. Games like poker have their spectators.

If you go

Barcraft: "Starcraft II" tournament viewing

When:

4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16

Where:

Old Burdick's Wings West, 5076 Sports Drive

Cost:

free

Contact:

269-488-4500

On the web:

,

Read a Wall Street Journal story about Barcraft.

“Now people go to bars to watch poker,” he said. “And who watches — what is that one game, it’s like shuffleboard but on ice ...”

Curling — yes, people watch other people slide big rocks on the ice.

Some not into the game might wonder about the appeal of watching others play, but, “It’s the same thing as where people are passionate about an event or activity that’s competitive,” Paver said.

“Barcraft” has been spreading. In August, a Wall Street Journal story, “Geeks Beat Jocks as Bar Fight Breaks Out Over Control of the TV,” traced the “Starcraft” spectating from bars in Florida to Hawaii. The professional aspect started in South Korea, where two cable channels are devoted to “Starcraft” and other videogame tournaments.

Now there are pros in the U.S.

“It’s just like a job. They play about eight hours a day, and they’ll get paid to play,” Paver said.

“It’s kind of mind-boggling that you’re sitting there watching somebody else play a videogame,” he said. But pros have devoted their lives to Starcraft, and will fight fiercely for tournament winnings that can be in the thousands of dollars, he said.

The basics of play are “you build up your resources, make your army, and go attack the other person,” Paver said. The resulting battles are a little like football, if the Lions faced alien insectoids with plasma cannons.

“The way the game is designed, there’s a lot of action that goes on,” Paver said. Along with the fighting and explosions, there is the suspense of watching strategy play out. The Wall Street Journal story points out that part of the fun is in seeing what all players are up to — one may be carefully building defenses and resources, while the other is putting everything into one crazy massive surprise attack. Of course, the players don’t get the spectator’s views of other players.

Videogames have a reputation of being an isolating activity.