The initial known gaming competition occurred on 19 October 1972 at Stanford University for the game Spacewar.[15] Stanford students were asked for an "Intergalactic spacewar olympics" whose grand award was a year's subscription for Rolling Natural stone, with Bruce Baumgart winning the five-man-free-for-all tournament and Tovar and Robert E. Maas winning the Team Competition.[16] THE AREA Invaders Championship presented by Atari in 1980 was the initial large scale gaming competition, appealing to more than 10,000 individuals across the United States, establishing competitive video games as a mainstream hobby.[17] In the summer of 1980, Walter Day founded a high rating record keeping business called Twin Galaxies.[18] The business went on to help promote video games and publicize its information through publications including the Guinness Publication of World Details, and in 1983 it created the U.S. National GAMING Team. The team was involved in contests, such as operatin...