Cody Crow scanned the room and glazed over the competition.

There were some players in the room.

A nice kid named Malik was playing well and was hitting plenty of notes during warm ups. Another youngster a few chairs over named Carter was solid with his instrument as well.

But it wasn’t spring band camp that Cody was worried about winning a spot in, but the second Guitar Hero Championships held last week at the Edgefield County Library. The competition, which utilizes popular gaming units to develop sharp hand-eye coordination and an appreciation for all different types of music, drew 11 competitors who were drawn into brackets.

Each player was matched up with another. Two head-to-head losses earned you a ticket out of the front row and into the crowd of spectators in the back.

The event was sponsored by the Friends of the Edgefield County Public Library. The gaming equipment was loaned to the library by the ABBE Regional Library System. Current library information finds that 77-percent of libraries across the nation support some level of gaming, whether that be in an electronic format such as Guitar Hero or just regular checkers.

Cody drew an inexperienced player in round one and easily moved to the next round, as did his stiffest competition. He then met and dispatched Malik in a spirited match. Meanwhile, Coby Chrisco and Carter Harding were also moving through the ranks. Coby had defeated Carter in the opening round, but Harding stormed back with two straight wins.

Meanwhile, Cody and Coby remained unbeaten through to the semifinals where Carter handed Coby his first loss. Then, in a back-and-forth contest, Carter finally bowed out after falling short of Cody to set up the championship match between Crow and Chrisco.

Coby, staring at elimination following his loss to Harding, played with urgency and gave Cody his first loss of the tournament and set up a winner-take-all third match.

But with the biggest notes of the tournament flying by it was Cody Crow who played just a bit better down the stretch as he raised his hand in victory to claim the title.

All three of the boys received gift bags and gift certificates to McDonald’s.