CCGA - November 2004 Review

Vivendi Universal Games Day at Carolina ARMAGEDDON!!!

The November Carolina ARMAGEDDON! was a first for us in many,many ways! This was the first LAN that had a major sponsor, Vivendi Universal Games. You might recall that they sponsored our July LAN with copies of Ground Control II, a Ground Control II Tournament and also gave away HL2 t-shirts. Well, they definitely topped that this LAN with 40 copies of different games!

We also had another first as this is the first LAN that fell right after Thanksgiving.

On with the show. The CCGA Crew showed up at their usual setup time of 7:00 (yawn) a.m. Setup went very quickly as we had really completed most of the work the day before. Doors opened at 9:00 a.m. and most of the fraggers were in and setup by 10:00, with a few of the TOGA guys trudging in a bit later. What was up first? A giveaway. Another first for us. We gave away 8 copies of Men of Valor that VU Games gave us, as well as 8 copies of Empire Earth Gold they had provided. Free stuff right at the beginning of the lan!

That set the tone for the entire LAN party. We gave away prizes not only at the end of the party, as per usual, but all through the day. Just about every two hours people were getting games handed to them. Copies of Delta Force BlackHawk Down, Warcraft BattleChest and Tribes: Vengeance were given out to unsuspecting and very surprised gamers. You never knew when Spectrallight was going to tap you on the shoulder and drop a game in your hands!

Trust me ...people were very happy to get these games! See the proof in all its digital glory!

The first tournament we held was a Free-for-All featuring Men of Valor. About half of the fraggers joined in the mass mayhem that is Men of Valor Deathmatch. If you haven't played Men of Valor yet, purple/pink smoke is something to run from, not to. I, and several helpless others found out the hard way. BTW, when you play this game, check the rooftops too. There's always some nut up there with a sniper rifle. (You know who you are Garibaldi!).

The Ultimate Survivor of the Men of Valor tournament was Ralph [SxY]DObiWanK Aviles. He took home his very first trophy from Carolina ARMAGEDDON!

The Empire Earth Tournament introduced, or re-introduced players to the fun of raising your civilization up out of the mud to a space faring race. Empire Earth 2 is slated to be released early next year and I for one am looking forward to it.

The Empire Earth Tournament ran for almost 5 hours total, counting the time all the players put into it. The final match was between [CCGA]Spectere and Glockenrock. It was a very good round that took almost an hour to complete, with Dan "Glockenrock" Glockenrock winning over the CCGA's own Spectere.

The Fraggers Choice Tournament was another first for the CCGA. We have never done a voting system before to determine a tournament, but it worked very well. Umpa did a brilliant job getting our forums ported to the lan party intranet website. Players could then log on the forums there, vote, and see what game was in the lead right away. The votes went for Starwars Battlefront at first, but Battlefield Vietnam won out in the end.

We had almost six full teams playing in the BFV tourney. I say almost because one team played a man short, just to brag that they played in the tournament, despite the odds.

The BFV tourney was played on two of the TDA groups custom maps. We've used TDA maps before and they are always very fun, and very tight. The pace is fast and the action furious. Thanks go out to them for all their map making abilities.

The final round went to a pickup team, that was made up from the dregs of society. Really, would you just look at them? The team leader wouldn't even face the camera!

All kidding aside , these guys are a great bunch, and had a blast playing in the tournament. They won over the TOGA team, to grab the trophies and all the glory. Left to right, (not counting Vesper in the lower left) FlashAM, Glockenrock, way2ez4u, and NuclearWinter.

After the tournaments were over, everyone sat back down to play whatever came to mind. We saw quite a lot of Tribes: Vengeance being played, in fact, many players said they'd like to see a Tribes Tournament in the future. The game play looked great, back to the style of the original Tribes.

We also saw a good deal of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. At least four players started playing it early on and kept at it all day. It looks sweet and I for one have asked Mrs. Clause for a copy this Xmas.

Of course, we had more stuff to give away a 7:00 pm. ATI provided a bunch of shirts, and lots of little goodies like stickers, pens and even ATI tattoos. Nvidia didn't fall down on us either. They sent some shirts and logo fan guards. Antech sent us several neon fans, and sound dampening kits for power supplies.

Not to be forgotten, our newest sponsor Creative Labs sent us over fifteen shirts with their newest catchphrase, "I wouldn't be caught with onboard audio" printed on them. Thanks to Creative for coming on as a sponsor, we hope they'll return in January. Bawls also chipped in a 12 pack of Guarana Goodness and a tote bag.

I'm not going to list the winners by name, or this review will be twice as long as it already is, but check out the photos and you'll see who they are.

After the Award Ceremony, everyone hunkered down for some more games till 10:00 pm. Soldier of Fortune II made its appearance of course, but this time ran in competition with Tribes: Vengeance and Warhammer.

At the very end of it was the bitter end prizes. These are held out till the very last of the party, as a reward to those who hang with the CCGA Crew all day long.

One bitter end prize was a certificate for free admission to the next Carolina ARMAGEDDON! in January. Slideby managed to nab this. The best prize of all was a copy of Windows Server 2003 (25 user). Not sure of the exact price, but I hear it runs in excess of 2K. [CCGA]Vinny provided this on behalf of the crew. The grand winner was [TOGA]Porksmuggler!

Many, many,many thanks to everyone that came to Carolina ARMAGEDDON! on a Thanksgiving Day weekend. We had a blast, and finished out the year with a bang.

The CCGA Crew especially wants to thank our many sponsors, that have given us so much over the years. Most especially we would like to personally take Ryan and Vivendi Games! 40 games and over 15 t-shirts just this LAN alone. Thanks for all your support!!!

That's a wrap on the November 2004 Carolina ARMAGEDDON! and the close of our fourth year of LAN parties. On to 2005 and another great year.

Don't forget January brings our overnight Carolina ARMAGEDDON! and more gaming goodness.

Carolina ARMAGEDDON!!! Are you ready???