Playing videos games could win you prizes at Section 9 Café in Fargo, North Dakota. On Sept. 17, Section 9 is hosting a pinball tournament and on the following Saturday a CS: GO 5v5 tournament where you can compete and win a prize if you are that good.

Section 9 is a family owned Cyber Café, run by Kenneth Sanford and his three sons, Sean, Rob, and Stephen Sanford. The café has been open for almost nine years and continues to see customers every day. Stephen Sanford was able to discuss the tournament and overall atmosphere of Section 9.

Their business depends on the day, just like any other business, so do not be discouraged if you do not see many people in their store because the day before it could have been packed with people. Sanford explained this by saying, “Our business model is a little bit strange with it being half convenience store half LAN center; some days we see 40-50 people, other days we hardly see five.”

Section 9 offers many different ways of gaming, from old school to modern. They mainly focus on gaming computers, but they still have a selection of four pinball machines such as, The Simpsons, Super Mario, South Park and Star Wars. Customers are able to see all systems available on the Section 9 Café website. There are some games that the player must own themselves to play.

“We offer classic gaming such as Super Nintendo, Playstation 1 and 2, Xbox 360, Wii U and Nintendo 64,” Sanford explained. “We currently have one virtual reality station, which I would like to see more of that in here in the future because multiplayer in VR seems incredible. There are two Xbox Ones and two Playstation 4’s (Relatively small library for these in house as they are considered a secondary option here, we mainly focus on PC gaming).”

Sanford explained the general process of going to Section 9 by saying, “When someone first comes to Section 9, they are offered the choice to create their own login account through ggLeap which is our time tracking/rewards program software. With that they will be awarded digital coins while they are logged on and also through their performance through certain games such as: League of Legends (ranked mode only), DOTA2 and Smite. With these coins that the players accumulate they can turn them in for prizes such as snacks, drinks, game time hours, some Steam game codes and more.”

There are many different hourly options, passes and daily deals on gaming hours. “Our prices vary. We offer a few different game pass packages such as a 28-Day Pass ($99.99), Day Pass ($14.99), 2-Hour Pass ($5.99) and a 4-Hour Pass ($9.99) which will expire at the end of the term,” Sanford said.

He continued to explain how customers can buy in bulk, “We also offer single hours and some bulk buy hour packages. The beauty of the hours over the passes is that the hours will remain on your account until you actually are logged onto one of our PCs or gaming consoles.”

Now, back to the tournaments coming up, Sanford explained the format and rules of the two tournaments that are happening in the next couple of weeks.

“The pinball tournament is going to run in a 2 Strike Format where the players will be randomly grouped on one machine. Their scores each game will be compared and whoever has the lowest score in that grouping will be given a strike. Once a player has two strikes they will be out of the competition. This event does have a $10 buy-in, and each game costs $1 for three balls.”

Now you’re probably wondering what the prize is for this tournament. There are prizes for first, second and third place. “The prize pool for pinball will be 100 percent of the entry fee pool distributed as 60 percent for 1st, 30 percent for 2nd and 10 percent of the pool for 3rd place. Everyone that plays in this competition will be receiving one hour of standard game time at Section 9,” Sanford said.

On Sept. 23, the CS: GO 5v5 tournament takes place, to which the “format” of the tournament is not decided until the day of. This all depends on how many teams are signed up for the competition. For this competition the prizes are different: “1st Place wins CS: GO snapback hats for each player and $20 Steam Wallet cash per player; 2nd Place wins CS: GO icon splatter coffee mugs and $10 Steam Wallet Cash and 3rd place will receive free tournament entry vouchers for any future PC tournament event.”

There is a venue fee for most tournaments they host, which is $9.99 plus tax. Between the two competitions coming up, the CS: GO 5v5 tournament will most likely be longer, so if you are planning to enter also prepare for a long day.

Whether you’re a college student, six-year-old or even an 82-year-old, Section 9 Café is a place for anyone to game.

More information on events coming up throughout the year and about Section 9 Café can be found on their website section9cafe.com or on their Facebook page.