One point was the difference between first and second place at the Nov. 15 Guitar Hero Tournament at the Oxford Public Library, and in the final between eighth-grader Bobby Carr and twelfth-grader Jon Kuntze, it all came down to one song.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird?. The two played this classic rock radio station regular–famous for its long guitar solo at the end of the song–on expert level.
‘This is one of the most difficult songs on the Guitar Hero 2 game, if not the most difficult,? said Alissa LeMerise, who works in Teen Services at the library and organized the tournament.
She added: ‘Throughout the final round, there was no clear-cut winner, as there typically is when two players go head-to-head in a pro faceoff. The game went back and forth right up to the very end of the song, making for a very exciting, edge-of-the-seat experience for participants and spectators alike.?
In the final, Kuntze edged out Carr by the slimmest of margins: 403,313-403,312.
For their efforts, both received an inflatable guitar toy and a Best Buy gift certificate. The third, fourth and fifth runners-up also received inflatable guitars.
LeMerise added she was impressed by the sportsmanship shown as each performance was applauded.
‘The most important thing was everyone had a really good time’from the teens playing to the parents and siblings watching,? she said. ‘That, I feel, is the true measure of how successful a program is.?
The event was part of National Gaming Day, a national event at the library that encourages patrons to interact with a diverse group of people and to share their expertise to develop new strategies for gaming and learning.