Welcome to Brisbane’s Mana Bar – the video game/bar experience that had all of Australia buzzing with excitement in March this year.

Within the space of four months, the Mana Bar in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley has gone from one success to the next. Maybe it could be the enthusiastic trivia evenings with Zero Punctuation personality Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, or monthly “Pocket Music” events with local music talents including DOT.AY and VGX, or just a lazy cosplay competition to give away free stuff. Whatever the formula, this venue has surpassed expectations, developed a local following of gaming enthusiasts and newbies alike, and reinvigorated the Brisbane gaming community.

And now it is Sydney and Melbourne’s turn.

In an interview with Delimiter’s Jenna Pitcher, Guy Blomberg (Mana Bar owner) broke the news to still the plethora of pleas for Mana’s success to travel along Australia’s eastern coastline.

“After only four months of being open, I can confirm that we will be expanding and opening up Mana Bars in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as internationally”, Blomberg commented today, with the planned licensing to expand the franchise not only to Sydney and Melbourne, but also internationally.

Will Yahtzee be flying between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne for various trivia evenings? Will the additional bars mean that Team Destructoid‘s chances of winning more trivia evenings are significantly increased (There is already a Team DToid Prime to cater for the numbers…)? Will we see more dazzling displays of bar tending?

Possibly. But what is certain is this:  thanks to the dedication of four lads, their bar, and their Brisbane patrons, the rest of Australia (and possibly the world) will be able to reap the rewards of this social experiment.

You can thank us later.

RainbowSleeve from GamingAngels (right), with Team Destructoid members Victor and Stacia