PITTSBURGH– Pittsburgh LAN Coalition, Inc. (”Pittco”) held its ninth event, Iron Storm 8, on March 15 and 16 at the Castle Shannon Firehall. More than 160 men and women attended the 24-hour event, including more than 150 gamers and 15 staff members.
Attendees competed in several PC and console video games tournaments and odd talent competitions. More than $2,000 worth of prizes donated by sponsors such as Warrendale-based DVDEmpire.com, ATXPowerSupplies.com, Bawls Guarana, In Win, Razer, Red Bull, Thermaltake, and VisionTek were given as prizes for tournaments in games such as Counter-Strike: Source, Unreal Tournament 2004, Halo 3, Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, and Battlefield 2. Local computer enthusiast web sites BIOSLEVEL.com and ThinkComputers.org sponsored dedicated servers for the event.
Pittco president Daniel “Danielson” Wright of Mount Lebanon was impressed with the turn-out and success of the event.
“We broke our long time goal of 150 attendees and our crazy tournaments and games lasted well into the wee hours of the morning,” Wright said. “I’m impressed with my staff for their hard work preparing for the party and their sacrifice to keep events flowing and energy up throughout the night.”
Iron Storm 8 was the first Pittco event which Mark “Dauphin” Slazinski of Grove City attended.
“It was nice to see a group of guys who were willing to not only excellent sportsmen, but who helped make sure everyone was able to connect and have a blast,” Slazinski said. “Plus, I will remember the random Radio Shack trip and food run with people I just met.”
“The network performance was solid and our power never went out,” Colin Dean, server manager and public relations engineer from Volant, said. “Our fiber Internet connection gave us access to speedy patch downloads and chat access so attendees could stay in touch with friends who were unable to come.”
Pittco’s Iron Storm events aren’t just gaming tournaments. Attendees competed in karaoke competitions and even musical chairs. One tournament revolved around a game, but had consequences: the winning team earned several four-packs of popular energy drinks, but the losing team earned a can of Mott’s Clamato Energia clam and tomato juice and had to chug it on the spot.
Some attendees discussed programming and general computing in addition to playing games. While many attendees are high school students, a large contingent is in college or has recently graduated. Fields vary from computer science and information systems to political science and psychology.
“Attendees hail Pittco for its events’ atmosphere, and Iron Storm 8 once again solidified this fact,” Wright said.
Planning is already underway for the next event, Iron Storm 9, which is to be held in August.
“We’ll be aiming to increase attendance and getting even more sponsors,” said Sean “Obsidian” Potter, event chair for Iron Storm 8 and the next event, Iron Storm 9.
For more information, visit Pittco’s website at www.pittco.org to contact Dan Wright, Sean Potter, or Colin Dean.
ABOUT PITTSBURGH LAN COALITION, INC.
Pittsburgh LAN Coalition, Inc. (”Pittco”) was founded in 2003 to organize the greater Pittsburgh LAN scene. The mission of Pittco is to provide a safe, entertaining, and competitive environment for video gamers of all ages. Since its inception, Pittco has held nine events and has received much attention in the LAN party community. Its web site is www.pittco.org.
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