Guitar Heroes rock out

The heroes came from all over Bloomington, braving the cold of the second official day of the winter season. They congregated in the back room of Bear's Place, a room most well-known for Comedy Caravan performances. But that night, it was the battleground for the "Guitar Hero 3" tournament.\nEvent organizer Dan Coleman said he created the tournament because he heard people boasting about their "Guitar Hero 3" skills everywhere he went. He wanted to give people like those a chance to put their money where their mouths are. \nContestants entered the tournament by paying $5 and picking what division they wanted to rock in: beginner, medium, hard, or expert. Contestants' names were then put into a pitcher and drawn randomly. Two players competed at a time on a song also selected randomly by Coleman. The player with the most points at the end of the song, which are based on the accuracy and deftness of hitting the notes, moved to the next round. The winner of the division took the money accumulated by the contestants. \nAfter the Play Station 2s were hooked up to the giant projection screen and players calibrated the whammy bars to get some last-minute practice, the tournament began. The beginner and hard divisions went first, followed by the medium then expert. \nCompetition heated up in the expert division as Bloomington residents Sara Pierpont and Matt Wissig performed "Take This Life," a song that, as the guitar hero screen stated, was "made famous by" Swedish death metal group In Flames. The contestants smashed the technicolor buttons on the guitar necks and tugged at the whammy sticks with chaotic precision. On screen, the green, red, yellow, blue and orange notes flew down at dizzying speeds. \nThe characters on stage in the video game fantastically and stylishly wailed the chords (with Wissig's character inexplicably levitating and floating around at one point) in stark contrast to the stiff, mechanical motions of their human controllers. Wissig even sat on a chair while he played, more closely resembling B.B. King in his latter days than Slash from the "Guitar Hero 3" television commercial.\nThe match between Pierpont and Wissig was close, and the audience cheered and jeered at the two contestants, as spectators would in any intense competition. \n"Chicks rule!" one bar goer shouted. \n"Only pussies play sitting down!" yelled another, sipping on a hipster-approved $1.50 bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon. \nWissig was undaunted by the jeer, but stood up anyway. He went on to win this battle by 60,000 points due to his button-tapping agility and advanced to the championship round. The 23-year-old then went up against Joel Echelbarger to perform the Aerosmith truck-driver jam "Same Old Song and Dance." Wissig ultimately won the final round and the $30 grand prize. \nAfter winning the expert-division tournament, Wissig hung around with some buddies and shared his "Guitar Hero 3" insights, most notably about how playing drums for his band Ponyboy is a crucial part of his success in "Guitar Hero 3".\n"Drummers do good because they are used to rhythm. Strumming is like the high hats -- it's all about the timing."\nWissig converses more with his friends as the conversation drifts further from the topic of Guitar Hero 3. Although he is Bloomington's expert-division "Guitar Hero 3" champion, the game is seemingly not a center part of his life. \n"It's kind of dorky, but I'll take what I can get. When the students come back, I'll have more competition." \nThe next "Guitar Hero 3" tournament will be held Jan. 30 at Bear's Place.