Speed runners, indie games and Otronicon: the January events to put on your calendar.

A month full of video game events will start early as speed runs, student workshops and gaming tournaments come to Central Florida. It starts tonight when independent video game community Indienomicon kicks off its 2020 schedule with a monthly meetup.

The schedule will then keep video game fans busy this month. Here’s a rundown of 3 big events coming this month, followed by a list of other events to keep on your radar.  

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RIT wins Hearthstone college title at Full Sail

A team from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York took home the fall title in the collegiate championships of Hearthstone, a tournament held at Full Sail University earlier this month.

The online digital collectible card game from Blizzard Entertainment has grown in popularity and drew the top four teams to Winter Park.

In Hearthstone, players build a deck of digital cards that are based in the popular World of Warcraft universe.

Players and teams use cards from their constructed decks to battle those of their opponents, with specific traits of the characters in the card determining who comes out on top.

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Full Sail to host Hearthstone college title meet

The college championship of Blizzard’s esports competition of Hearthstone is coming to The Fortress.

Full Sail University and Blizzard officials announced Friday that the school’s dedicated competitive gaming venue would host the event in Saturday, Dec. 14.

The finals will be played on the newly released Descent of Dragons expansion, which launches Tuesday.

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Mutineers’ Call of Duty roster features most-recent world champion

The Florida Mutineers will have some decorated firepower for the upcoming season of the Call of Duty World League.

Preston “Prestinni” Sanderson, who has earned $1.4 million in Call of Duty World League prize money since July, will lead a squad that also includes a two-time Halo world champion and three Call of Duty veterans.

The team will be led by coach Ricky “Atura” Lugo and general manager Tom “OGRE2” Ryan, who himself has been called the best Halo player of all time.

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Magic Gaming delivers game kiosks to sick children at Arnold Palmer Hospital

The Orlando Magic’s esports team delivered special gaming kiosks to sick children at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children this week.

Magic Gaming head coach Jonah Edwards and small forward Brandon “ ToXsiK” Raudenbush distributed four GO Karts, which are built by Michigan-based Gamers Outreach.

“It’s always fun to go spend time with them and put a smile on their face and take their mind off of everything they’re going through,” Raudenbush said. “I fell in love with playing games at a young age, so it’s cool to give back and make them happy.”

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Mario, Mega Man and Zelda speed-runners coming to Orlando for charity

On your marks, get set, play Super Mario Bros. 3!

For the first time, a speed-run event will come to Orlando in January, with highly skilled players looking to finish games like Mega Man 7, Battle Toads, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and, yes, Super Mario 3 as quickly as they can.

Awesome Games Done Quick is a weeklong video game marathon that raises money for various charities.

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In Orlando, Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion says fatality flap a surprise because they didn’t expect a hit

It was a pretty tight fit for Daniel Pesina.

He was playing the role of Scorpion in the legendary Mortal Kombat video game.

However, at this point, the game didn’t have the massive budget that it does today.

So Pesina had to squeeze into a child’s size costume that would become the iconic yellow garb of the undead ninja warrior.

“We bought the largest kids size because it was $10 to $15 less than the adult size,” Pesina told an audience at Free Play Florida on Saturday as part of a discussion about the game.

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