CCGA - November 2004 Review

October 7th Carolina ARMAGEDDON!

LAN Party Review

Charlotte, NC

by [CCGA]Meatshield

Wake up early in the morning…peek out the window… no rain? What's up with that?!?! A Carolina ARMAGEDDON! LAN party without rain? Hopefully this will be a sign of good things to come…

Came into the gaming area…tables already set out. Posters everywhere. Cables dropped. And the sound of servers and crew pc's humming. So far everything is going as planned.

9 am rolls around and pc's are being setup, and friends begin to catch up on life between the parties. F.E.A.R. multiplayer downloads, and BF2 patching taking place everywhere. Then the lights dimmed a bit…and then “He” walked in… Big “J”… Jitspoe.. in a classic Halloween outfit.

With only 5 minutes into HIS arrival, we already have over 10 game references…including the "Big J" being THE helicopter co-pilot. Too easy to see that one coming. But it had to be the "water to wine" comment by the refreshment area that might have even topped that. We can honestly say that this had to have been the "reverent" LAN to date. Nary a cussword to be heard, and people really taking the time to greet and chat with their fellow gamers. I guess that's what happens when "Jesus" appears at ARMAGEDDON!. (Google search should have fun with that line!)

We also had a verrry nice looking rendition of Alice from "Resident Evil". Nice work to Alice|Spawn for that outfit… We are still thankful that Flash didn't break out his tights…(shudder!) ;).

Sign-up are up for Unreal Tournament 5 vs. 5…or ..er.. 6 vs. 6 since we did have a few stragglers that didn't have a team. The first rounds of gaming had a few fraggers getting old school lessons in translocation. We haven't seen this game in a bit...so seeing your target disappear and then reappear next to your flag was a bit unnerving. After a few quick rounds... our winner is…the {eml} team (Eat My Lightening). The team consisted of 4 new players to Carolina ARMAGEDDON!, nomadicus, {T5K}sniper, el_sicario, and d3m0n. [CCGA]Lefty and [CCGA]Umpa filled in the team roster, guarding the flag for the dominating {eml} team.

d3m0, nomadicus, [CCGA]Lefty, [CCGA]Umpa, not pictured {T5K}sniper, el_sicario

After all the UT carnage.. we began to see quite a few getting into the F.E.A.R. multiplayer. Once everyone got their settings tweaked for the best performance, we had quite a few gamers involved in the team deathmatch gaming. I'm sure we will be seeing more of this game at future LANs… (ed note: F.E.A.R. Multiplayer will be a featured tournament at the Nov 11th Carolina ARMAGEDDON! VU Games is also a featured sponsor).

PRIZE TIME!!!... yep, thanks to our rockin' sponsors, we were able to give out prizes ALL DAY!... The first winners of a copy of Caesar 4 was slideby, and |RoC|Cero won the first copy of Joint Task Force. VU Games donated enough copies of both that we could give tme out through the day AND still have more for the award ceremony.

slideby and |RoC|Cero

We had a bit more F.E.A.R. freeplay… lunch… and then… another tournament?? NOO!.. Spiderman arrived!!! That's right!! We were graced by the webbed wonder himself. And who knew that Spidey was such an avid BF2 gamer?!? BTW, all the people that wore costumes decided to dress up for the rare October LAN we hold. Kudos to them!!! We really appreciate their inventiveness, and...bravery.

About an hour later, we gave away another copy of Joint Task Force, and also Caesar 4. The winners were:

[CCGA]Spectrallight and |RoC|Vesper.

That leads us into our next tournament… the BattleField 2 6-on-6, became a 7-on-7… 5 teams played during the event. The final winners in a decisive battle was the ECM team (East Coast Mafia). On below are the winners, in left to right order:

gymdawg, Digital, BRAWN, bluntrix, Ski098, Pafmei, and [CCGA]Umpa (not pictured)

…and right now, I'm sure your are asking yourself… what do the loosers do while the elite BF2'ers are gaming??? Soldier-of-Fortune 2 of course!! It's a very rare thing that we don't see at least 1 hour of SOF2 free-play. Maybe it's the simplistic gaming style? Maybe it's the ability to play at super high settings without killing your pc? Nope!..It's the knives!!!!! Nothing is as fun as running up on our enemy and tossing a few knifes at their head while being shot at by a grenade launcher..to win!!

MUCHO PRIZE TIME!... and awards ceremony…. All the tournament winners were awarded their trophies, as you've seen in the photos above. We also gave away the rest of the prizes about 7:00 pm.

Alienware provided a gaming mouse pad and a gaming mouse. Here's Mavolent with the gaming mouse.

Nvidia sent us some nice Battlefield 2142 Shirts (Bluntrix and Alice|Spawn took those home).

Creative, who always comes through as sponsors of our LAN, really upped the ante by providing us with some great Fatal1ty Gaming Mice. Here's NuclearWinter, BikeBoy, and nomadicus with their new toys.

The remaining copies of Caesar 4 went to TurboBMX, achilles181, ForestRaven, Pafmei, and Flash.

d3m0n, Whightking, Alice|Spawn, jitspoe (The Big J) and gymdawg each win a copy of Joint Task Force. (ed note: Joint Task Force will be a tournament at the Nov 11th Carolina ARMAGEDDON!).

Courtesy of Digital, Brawn took home a copy of "Auto Assualt", Ski098 and Skitzomike received "City of Villians"/"City of Heros". =lincoln131= and Dreadnought each received copies of "The Movies".

Friendly PC provided two USB memory sticks, in 256 and 512 mb flavors. Digital and Thanatos received those. Many thanks to Friendly PC, we hope to have them onboard as a full sponsor in the near future.

Maximum PC provided all those copies of magazines that greeted fraggers as they came in the door. In addition to the free magazines, they gave away 5 one year subscriptions to their great mag. The winners of those 1 year subscriptions are: [CCGA]Meatshield, GF, Spiderman aka Xavior, [CCGA]Umpa, and Bluntrix. Who knew Spidey reads Maximum PC. I guess web-heads can be tech-heads also!

|RoC|Sek, shown at parade rest, won a free admission to the November 11th Carolina ARMAGEDDON!.

Alienware also provided T-shirts. Digital (receiving a blessing) and NuclearWinter each received one (didn't get the blessing, he's hopeless).

Nukie also received a free entry to the next Digital Havoc LAN party.

The g2o staff provided a very nice case for us to give away as a Bitter End prize. Also a tub of Twizzlers. The prizes are given away at the very end of the LAN, to two fraggers who made it the entire day. WhightKing took home the Ultra case, and [CCGA]Lefty got the Twizzlers, which promptly were given to the entire LAN. g2o is in the planning stages of their own LAN, and the CCGA is proud to call them friends.

And to take us up to 10pm… we again see F.E.A.R. multiplayer… hmm… what do you think we might see at the next LAN ???? Be sure to sign-up and be there to find out!.. November 11 th .. get your seat reserved now!!!

Thanks to all that helped to make this party such a fun event!.. VU Games, G2O, Creative, Friendly PC, Nvidia, and Alienware to name a few….and to the most important element… YOU!... thanks as always for coming out to be part of the SouthEast's longest running LAN party …ever!!!!!

ARMAGEDDON is Coming...And we have his blessing!