Super League Gaming brings Minecraft to Redwood City movie theater

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- In Redwood City on Tuesday, kids lined up at a movie theater armed with their laptops. They're online gamers who hardly ever get to do battle face-to-face. It's the latest chapter in the story of what's now the world's most popular video game -- Minecraft.

The movie theater is supposed to be a quiet place, a place where you put away your electronics and try not to distract other people. But all that was before Super League Gaming.

"Super League Gaming is the world's first in-theater video game league," said Super League Gaming President Brett Morris.

After launching a week earlier in Southern California, they've taken the show on the road. The first stop -- Silicon Valley.

"As soon as the kids walk in the door and they see a bunch of other likeminded gamers, they become a new person," Morris said.

They weren't there to play just any game. They gathered to play Minecraft, a game that's become a phenomenon.

"It's available on everything," said GameSpot.com Senor Editor Justin Haywald. "Minecraft is on every console, it's on your mobile device, it's on your PC."

It's easy to catch onto and it's best played with others.

"You can have friends in Japan and Korea and Africa that you're literally playing with every day," Haywald said.

With a game so big it practically has its own language, an event like this isn't just for the

kids. It was also a great learning experience for mom and dad.

"It's their favorite game the love to play," said father Blair Ford. "It's the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning and the last thing they do before they go to bed if we let them."

Ford has a few things to learn from his 6-year-old son Charlie.

"One time he tried to build something that I wanted, but then he sort of messed up," Charlie said.

But, some parents become experts.

"Like soccer where you have the soccer mom and the soccer dad, now we have the Minecraft mom and them Minecraft dad," said one official.

And like soccer, Super League Gaming will form teams and have a tournament this fall.