In an attempt to temporarily get away from the things he love, Glenn Cravens finds someone and something he'd eventually fall in love with; a girl named Evan and video game tournaments. While neither get in the way of each other, Glenn shows his love for organizing tournaments while trying to win Evan's heart. But not everything goes well for Glenn, and he must find a way to deal with the problems that rise out of the tournaments, and out of his friendship with Evan. The story chronicles the two-year journey of how the Monterey Bay Thunder tournament series came together, through good and bad. Step into a different side of video game tournaments and get a glance into the biggest tournament series in the Monterey Bay.
If good things come to those who wait, then I’m pretty fortunate. My original plan was to write the story of Monterey Bay Thunder after the fourth tournament. But it seems as if good stories always have a cliffhanger. As you’ll soon read, there was no way I could end the story after the fourth tournament. I logged onto my computer after the sixth tournament and started typing. I didn’t think it would last long, but writing out my story became contagious. Five minutes here, 10 minutes there. At times, I wrote for a couple hours straight reflecting on what happened. It hurt to look back at some parts of the tournament series; I don’t think anyone wants to talk about the negative side of their past, even if it is supposed to relieve them of their demons.
The Monterey Bay Thunder tournament series was good to me and bad to me. It was my escape from life when I needed to find time to be somewhere other than the rut I put myself through. I’m sure the tournament series was an escape for some of the competitors. I think of what would have happened if Monterey Bay Thunder never came together. Maybe I’m still doing the same thing I am today, which is absolutely nothing. Maybe I’m living a false hope, that I’m waiting for something good to happen instead of trying to make something good happen.
As I continued to write during the summer, I started spreading word that I was writing about the tournament series. I expected some of the people I have put in the story to express their anger against me, that they didn‘t want to be put in the book because of fear that I‘d write something bad about them. I didn’t hear a word of such. All I heard was encouragement and anxiety; they wanted to read what I wrote about them.
And so, I present “Monterey Bay Thunder.” Video games only know winning and losing; they‘re programmed to give you a winner and a loser when the game is over. Does love only know winning and losing? I think that’s the one question that I encountered when writing the story. I don’t know if love knows only winning and losing. There are times when you feel like a sure-fire winner, and there are times when you are down in the dumps, feeling like you lost everything. We all go through good and bad times when it comes to love. It just so happened that love and video games coincided with each other for a span of 23 months. It’s time to step into my world.