Ben Sweeney posing with a Master Chief statue in Hollywood
Ben Sweeney received the call of a gamer’s life during his commute home from work a few days ago. The message came from Johnathan “Gabe” Gabriel, alter ego of Penny Arcade artist Mike Krahulik, to ask if he would accept the responsibility of being a Penny Arcade Expo East 2011 Omeganaut.
“The number showed up as a private number and at first I didn’t want to answer it, since I assumed it was work calling me,” he explained. He threw caution to the wind and answered the phone. After the voice on the other line confirmed he was indeed speaking to Ben, he revealed himself as Gabe.
“Right then I knew they were calling to ask me to be an Omeganaught and I wanted to yell out ‘Yes!’ before he could even ask,” he said. “I thought about saying I would only do it if I could wear a dick wolf T-shirt, but I just played the rest of the call very normally.” Ben credits bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Schuylkill Express for saving his life at that moment. “Luckily, I was only going about 10 mph on I-95 or I may have ran into someone!”
“Right after I got the call, I called everyone that is going with me to PAX,” he said. His, wife, brother and three of his friends that were already planning to attend with him. With PAX traveling posse informed, he tackled telling his parents, Explaining what PAX is and the Omegathon event.
The Omegathon, started at PAX Prime in 2004, is a biannual tournament set at PAX where randomly selected expo attendees compete to claim the title of Omegathon Champion and collect the grand prize. Past prizes have included cars, trips and cash.
In light of the recent task he has been selected for, Ben has adhered to a rigid training program. “I start each day with the breakfast of champions, Blueberry Muffin Tops, to get my day started in the right direction,” he explained. “In the evening I sit down at my Xbox and select the game I’m going to practice each night.
He has put aside his current gaming favorites, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood in order to focus on the games he thinks he may face during the tournament. “After doing a little research on past events, I noticed that Rock Band was pretty much in every year. Because of this I have been working on my keyboard, drumming and guitar skills,” he said. Ben has also been putting hours of practice into Lady Gaga’s Poker Face on Dance Central, because he believes it will be one of the games this year.
His training has been hampered a bit by his wife’s recent surgery. “I am trying to tend to her every need, but it is hard when I am getting shot at in the other room,” he said.
Ben’s 22 years of dedicated gaming, dating back to his ColecoVision, could pay off big by the end of PAX; the grand prize for the Omegathon is a choice of $3000 or a trip to Germany. He has already started thinking about it in hopes that all his hard work pays off. “If I win, I will go with the money over the trip,” he said. “The money can come in handy for the many different bills I have in my life. If I visited Germany I would want to actually visit the country, and not just go to Gamescon.”
He plans to document his progress through the Omegathon using his Twitter account, @sweeneyben.
2 Comments