NIC - March 1-2, 2002 - Review - Pictures
It was a dark and stormy night.  No, wait...  Um, that's Snoopy.  Well, it did rain most of the time, but that's neither here nor there.  How did it go again?  Let's see...

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times...  No, that's Charles Dickens.  Grr... this is harder than it looks.

It was a great time.  Yeah, that's it!  Great!  "Man, you shoulda been there!"-type fun.  I had a blast, and since I'm the one writing this, that's what matters.

Enough rambling-details, please.  First, pictures can be found here.

The NIC team started setting up about 4 PM on Friday.  Thanks go out immediately (well, okay, a month late) to LoLL Vesper and ={POWR}=Dead_Eddie for helping to run the power and network cables and other general set up stuff.  Everything was ready for the six o'clock opening.  Indeed, there were no network or power problems at all, and only one minor server problem came to my attention--because it happened in the middle of my CS tourney (of course).

LoLL Vesper gets a few more kudos for bringing his PS2 to the party.  That shared time with FreeBeak's Dreamcast on the big screen projector.  Despite the many hours of practice the NIC team put in, Bad Mojo declined to show up to get his come-uppance in Soul Calibur.  Pity.

The first organized event of the party was the unofficial Return to Castle Wolfenstien tournament.  Since I was out feeding my face and nobody provided me with the details for the write up, all I can say about it is that some people won, some other people lost, and everybody had fun... or they seemed to have fun at least, and kept their grumbling to themselves.  The jury is still out on RtCW's future status, however.  Other games of interest may bump it from organized play.  We'll just have to see what happens.

After the RtCW tourney was the long, dark tea-time of the soul (yes, yes, I know--that's Douglas Adams) known as free-play time.  That's when sane individuals get some sleep and others play games all night.

The 4v4 Counter-Strike tournament promptly started late a little after 9:30 Saturday morning.  There were four teams competing for the top spot.  Team We Suck! ( [CCGA]Umpa, [HTO]SueZQ, RaGe, & CurDog ) proved themselves prophetic.  Team ={POWR}= ( ={POWR}=Dead_Eddie, ={POWR}=fah-q, Greaser, & Snorkel ) did a little bit better.  Team ]PC[ ( ]PC[Skarface, H3 Mr.Gravy, ]PC[Orion, & ]PC[Thundastick ) took second place.  The last team standing, Team SMURF ( Sec.8.Canada#5, Z-Billa, [CQBO]MrBunnykiller, & [CQBO]DrunkenAssassins ), were crowned the CS champions.

The CS tourney also proved that, despite planning, things can still go wrong.  We made sure to have a tie-breaker established in case there was, well, a tie.  What could go wrong?  If the teams were tied after each had been T & CT, there would be a five-minute cs_deagle5 round to determine the winner.  Unfortunately, the server hiccupped when it was reset, and suddenly one of the ladders in the map didn't work.  Thus, two rounds of tie-breaking were necessary to send the whaaaambulance away.  I can't wait to find out what will happen next time.

Next came the 4v4 Quake III Capture The Flag tournament.  Thankfully, it went smoothly, and team H3 ( H3 WyldFyre, H3 FreakOnALeash, H3 Mr.Gravy, & H3 InBetweener ) emerged victorious. There were three also-played teams: Love Rockets ( RaGe, CurDog, Lobotomy, & [CCGA]Umpa ), SMURF ( Sec.8.Canada#5, Z-Billa, [CQBO]DrunkenAssassins, & [CQBO]MrBunnyKiller ), and Team JIZ ( EoD zero, ]PC[P1ck, ]PC[Skarface, & ]PC[Orion ).

The final organized event of the party was the 3v3 Unreal Tournament Domination tourney.  My team, NIC ( Greaser, FreeBeak, & scope.creep ), managed to come from behind to lose twice... thus being the first team eliminated.  The second place team, RCS ( RaGe, CurDog, & [HTO]SueZQ ), put up a great fight before losing in the end to team LUV ( LoLL Vesper, [CCGA]Umpa, & Lobotomy ).  The low turnout for this tournament was rather disappointing, especially considering how close all of the games were and how much fun it was.  On the up side, at least I got to play in a tourney.

Once the tournaments were safely finished, it was time for the awards ceremony.  The winning teams, SMURF in CS, H3 in Q3 CTF, and LUV in UT Domination, received our accolades and some spiffy gold medals.  Then it was time for the door prizes.  In order, here are the winners and the prize selected by each:

1. ={POWR}=Dead_Eddie - SeriousSam 2
2. H3 FreakOnALeash - Alienware Mousepad
3. ={POWR}=fah-q - GearGrip Monitor Tote
4. Barricuda - PC Tote
5. [CCGA]Umpa - Alienware Mousepad
6. EoD zero - Alienware Visor
7. ]PC[Skarface - Alienware Mousepad
8. ]PC[Orion - Mushkin Shirt
9. ]PC[P1ck - Alienware Visor
10. [CQBO]DrunkenAssassins - Thermaltake Memory Cooler
11. Sec.8.Canada#5 - Mushkin Shirt
12. H3 Mr.Gravy - Thermaltake Volcano CPU cooler
13. H3 Wyldfyre - Thermaltake Crystal Orb BGA Cooler
14. [CQBO]MrBunnyKiller - Mushkin Shirt
15. RaGe - Vintage Game
16. LoLL (L3)Vesper - Vintage Game
17. H3 INBetweener - Vintage Game
18. Z-Billa - WickedGL 3D Drivers
19. CurDog - Vintage Game
20. ]PC[Thundastick - Endust for Electronics
21. [HTO]SueZQ - Endust for Electronics

Event Pictures are here.

After the awards ceremony, it was again free-play time.  Several people started packing up to leave, but a big draw was a Quake III Free For All that was mad fun.  Some folks started lobbying for more CS, but that never came together due to the Q3 fun.

The NIC team would like to thank [CCGA]Umpa, [HTO]SueZQ, and Sec.8.Canada#5 for helping with the cleanup.  Special thanks go out to all of the young l337 h4X0rs who attempted to teach us old farts l337-speak.  Dude, you got pwned!

After all was said and done, it was indeed a great time.  Fourty-one hours of no-sleep has never been more fun!  It "r0x0red"!

If anything is wrong, consider the fact that it took me a month to write this.  After you've thought about what that means, and you still think that you want me to change something, feel free to send me an email.  I may eventually get to it.

scope.creep

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Actually, I've already edited this mess, so you most likely missed your chance.  Feel free to try though, if you want.
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