When leaderboards aren’t enough, two OXM editors vie for the biggest prize of all: money. Join us as we gamble our way across Xbox Live!

We both knew this war was coming. For ages now, Dan has been my office nemesis — the Dwight to my Jim, the Eddie Brock to my Peter Parker. Every day our piles of game gear compete for room on our shared deskspace, while we compete like crazed maniacs every time a new multiplayer game comes in. Truth is, each of us needs to know: I’m better.

So when Dan trumpeted his TEMPORARY lead in Gamerscore to the whole world (see chart, page 92) — and those all-caps better not be edited out by a certain colleague! — that was it. It was on. Time for the ultimate showdown, to determine the superior gamer. And I knew just how to sweeten the stakes: we’d use a new online service, BringIt, to bet beautiful, precious cash on each of our games. We’d be battling for glory and money... the perfect competition!

The Warm Up

Before the soul-crushing could commence, we had to pick our battlegrounds. Which games? As it turns out, using BringIt made the selection process a lot easier: at press time, the service supports just 17 Xbox 360 titles. (See sidebar for more information on BringIt, including its legality.) Minimum deposit is $10, so Dan and I signed up and deposited $25 in our respective accounts. Now all we had to do was issue challenges to each other via BringIt.com’s messaging feature, and we were ready to go!

Round 1

Game: GEARS OF WAR 2 
Rules: Warzone on Gridlock, first to 5 wins, 1v1 with no bots 
Bet: $1 Favored: Corey 
Pre-game trash talk: “I don’t know what will be louder: Corey’s complaints about losing, or the sound of my chainsaw bayonet slicing him in two.” — Dan 

WINNER: COREY

Post-game analysis: Wow, does betting change the game — even when you’re betting a dollar! I went for broke on every round, scoring some of my best-ever kills with the shotgun ’cause I wanted to win so badly. It felt doubly good to win the match and the money...I actually jumped up and down!

Round 2 (FIGHT!)

Game: STREET FIGHTER IV 
Rules: Best of three matches, any characters allowed. No handicap.
Bet: $2 Favored: Dan 
Pre-game trash talk: “My fists have your blood on them.” — Corey

WINNER: DAN

Post-game analysis: Nooooooo...so close! Dan devastated me completely in the first match, made worse by my stupid choice of Chun Li: I could barely land a kick on Ken. As Blanka, I rallied like a champ in the second match, winning with spinning rolls and weasely electrical shocks. But Dan pulled off a narrow victory in match three, beating Blanka with Ryu down to a sliver of health. After winning the match, he deemed it a matter of pride, not money: he’d have been deeply depressed if I’d beaten him at “his game.” Since he went to see the recent Street Fighter travesty — er, movie — on day one, I guess he’s entitled to that.

Round 3

Game: ROCK BAND 2 
Rules: Tug of War, guitar on Hard, three songs chosen by mutual agreement 
Bet: $3 
Favored: Dan
Pre-game trash talk: “I know Corey copyedited the ‘OXM Guide to Fake Guitar’ feature last year — but did he notice that I wrote it?” — Dan

WINNER: DAN

Post-game analysis: Dan’s a real-life musician and he’s played more Rock Band than me; I knew I was screwed. I did come closer to him with each of the songs (“Man in the Box,” 97% to 89%; “You Oughta Know,” 98% to 92%; “YYZ,” 94% to 91% ); if we’d played 50 more, I might’ve beaten him! Grumpy from my loss (and still revved-up from playing Rush), I decided to monkey with the system a bit: I filled out a BringIt report saying that I won our Rock Band 2 match, not Dan. Because the site waits until the loser reports their loss (they wisely assume that someone wouldn’t lie about losing a match — only about winning one), I didn’t get a payout for my bogus claim of victory; instead, Dan reported his win and BringIt threw up a flag. Since our reports confl icted, the money riding on that match was frozen, and our case was referred to an administrator.

To their credit, BringIt’s customer service handled the dilemma pretty well: they promptly emailed Dan and I to note the dispute, and they asked us both for evidence that we’d won, such as a photograph of the screen. I was tempted to test them further by submitting a Photoshopped screenshot, but I figured my chances of fooling them were low, so I replied back that I had “accidentally” checked the wrong box and had actually lost the match. Problem solved; dignity semi-intact.

Round 4

Game: TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 08 
Rules: Stroke play, front 9 on Pebble Beach. Both playing as Tiger Woods. 
Bet: $5 Favored: Even 
Pre-game trash talk: “We both suck. This is gonna be a train wreck.” — Dan

WINNER: DAN

Post-game analysis: Holy hell, what a disaster! Epic chokefest. After three neck-and-neck holes, I began missing putts, shooting into sandtraps, and blasting balls past the hole and into the ocean. Could it get any worse? Even Dan was a bit demoralized, despite stomping me 43–60 (!): “Paul shoots entire games with lower scores than this. We both lost that one.” As small as our bet was (a mere $5), I couldn’t help wondering if the thought of losing more money — in addition to losing another game — was too much pressure? At this point I felt like a gambler who’s stormed through a casino, blowing money on all the different games, with no recent victories to keep hope alive. Should I give this up and try something easier…like Bingo? Yeesh!

Round 5

Game: BURNOUT PARADISE 
Rules: Road Rage online, first to 3 wins 
Bet: $10 Favored: Even 
Pre-game trash talk: “This is it, Dan — for the big money. Comeback trail!” 

WINNER: COREY

Post game: YES! Both of us love Burnout, so it was bound to be close, but I pulled out the victory in head-to-head Road Rage matches (though we both felt that standard Races were better suited to betting). Thank god I won: I couldn’t bear to lose most of my remaining money to Dan. (Road rage is right!) Best of all, my final Takedown was a high-speed spectacular…and from his Vision-cam mugshot, I could tell I caught Dan off-guard. Awesome!

Is Betting On Games Wrong? Two Players, Two Opinions

Corey: Call me greedy, but I can’t see anything wrong with wagering over a videogame competition. It doesn’t “corrupt” the game in any way: the bet is really between the two players, and the game’s just a mechanism. If you think that gambling on games tarnishes them, then you’re really saying that anything people bet on is tarnished, including poker, baseball, and football. Conversely, I don’t think videogames “corrupt” gambling in the way that, say, betting on a natural disaster does (i.e., it’s rude). Basically, if two people want to bet on a multiplayer game with clear terms and no coercion, they should have the right to do so.

Dan: Call me old-fashioned, but betting on games simply strikes me as…wrong. I know Corey believes betting makes everything better, but I think it shifts the focus from fun — which is arguably the game’s intent — to the fact that you HAVE to WIN or you LOSE something. I simply don’t enjoy a game as much if I think about what happens if I don’t do well. I do like playing poker, but I can enjoy poker even without money on the table. Playing a game, not winning, is what makes me happy, and while I certainly like to win, the only thing I really need to take away is the enjoyable experience of the game itself. And betting on videogames just messes up that…purity, for lack of a less melodramatic word. Keep your “bl” out of my “gaming.”

Afterthoughts

At the end of our five-game gauntlet, the final tally is Corey with $24, Dan with $20. Dan protests that he won three out of five showdowns, but we both know that’s a losing argument; this time, it’s money that matters.

We’re roughly where we were at the start, pride-wise, but it’s interesting to note that we both lost money in the end. Digging through the site’s FAQ, it notes: “BringIt charges a 10% service fee on the entry fee for each challenge you accept or enter. The minimum service fee BringIt takes from each player during a challenge is $0.50.” Note that’s from each player. We were placing measly $1 and $2 bets to begin with, so the house always won with its standard $1 rake. Lesson learned: Bet big or don’t bet through BringIt.

I started our matches a firm believer in betting on games — and despite my brush with bankruptcy and defeat, I’m still a fan of it. With more at stake, it heightens the highs and lowers the lows, and that’s the kind of intensity gamers feed on.

Dan found the gambling aspect distracting, but we agree our experience with BringIt was pretty positive. The service seems surprisingly well set up; its creators have clearly studied online-poker sites — and we get the sense it’s small but carefully monitored. I’ll be back, at least — with a reasonable bet, on a game I’m confident I can win!

BringIt Explained

WHAT IS IT? 
A website-based service whereby gamers compete in head-to-head challenges and multiplayer bracket-style tournaments, both with cash prizes. You don’t play your Xbox 360 games through BringIt in any way; Xbox Live is still your online host. The website simply acts as an independent third party that helps organize and officiate your betting on those games.

IS IT LEGAL? 
According to the website’s FAQ, “The games that are being played for cash prizes on BringIt are considered ‘Games of Skill’ and not games of chance, and are allowed by the law.” However, the site notes, nine states in the U.S. do not allow participation in skill-based videogame tournaments for cash prizes. If you live in Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, Tennessee, or Vermont, you can’t compete for cash prizes using BringIt.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO REGISTER? 
Minimum age is 18 and minimum deposit is $10. The site does allow you to sign up for free and to play with another BringIt member for free if you both agree to it…but why would you bother?

HOW DO MEMBERS BET? 
For one-on-one challenges, you can contact another BringIt member via the site’s messaging system; post open challenges on a messageboard; or even just chat up other members in the lobby. Multiplayer tournaments are scheduled frequently, so you can simply sign up to enter.

HOW ARE WINNERS AWARDED THEIR PRIZE? 
Once you and your opponent(s) have fi nished the match, the loser typically reports the results of the match on BringIt.com. (The assumption here is that someone isn’t going to lie about losing a match, since they won’t profi t by doing so.) Once that happens, the site deducts a small fee per match, and then pays the winner using the money both players put in the pot. In case of disputed match results (or if only the winner reports results), BringIt’s customer service steps in. The website accepts various evidence to settle disputes (photos/videos, audio recordings, emailed game results [as offered in Madden 09]), and claims to make every attempt to resolve contested matches.