The Pittsburgh LAN Coalition

Copenhagen, Denmark - April 9th, 2008 — SteelSeries, a leading manufacturer of innovative professional gaming gear announces today the partnership together with Begrip Gaming, an internationally recognised multi-gaming organisation based in Karlskrona, Sweden.

Begrip was founded by Vasili ‘Individ’ Richardsson and Patric ‘HuZtler’ Olsson in November of 2000, with the main objective of becoming the strongest powerhouse in the world of online gaming. With world class and award winning Counter-Strike squads from Romania and Sweden (and formerly Russia), Begrip continue to keep their objectives on track well into the future.

With the new partnership, SteelSeries and Begrip will be affiliated throughout 2008, offering financial support and the full SteelSeries product line of headsets, keyboards, mice and mouse pads for the players but also the reputable tournaments that the Begrip website holds on a monthly basis. Begrip will furthermore contribute to improving SteelSeries products and development through feedback and unique input from the professional gamers themselves.

“Begrip Gaming is very happy about entering a partnership with SteelSeries as their wide range of innovative gaming products makes them a perfect main partner for our club. We are looking forward for a long term and rewarding cooperation”, states Vasili Richardsson, CEO of Begrip.

“SteelSeries are proud to be the new main sponsor of Begrip and we look forward to working together on many fronts within the gaming community”, says Louise Thomsen, Marketing Manager for SteelSeries. “Begrip is synonymous with finding the new and upcoming stars of the gaming scene and we look forward to supporting them in this role in the future.”

The Begrip team will sport SteelSeries gaming equipment at the upcoming ESWC Qualifiers in May, which is being held at Inferno Online in Stockholm.

About SteelSeries

SteelSeries is a leading manufacturer of gaming accessories, including headsets, keyboards mouse pads and mouse accessories. SteelSeries have been on the forefront of professional gaming gear since its inception in 2001, thanks to continued innovation and product development in cooperation with leading professional gamers. All SteelSeries products are developed in co-operation with professional gamers to ensure optimum performance and durability. SteelSeries supports the growth of electronic sports through aggressive sponsoring of teams and support of organisations, news sites, communities, tournaments and LAN-events all over the world.

For additional information, visit http://www.steelseries.com.

About Begrip Gaming

Begrip Gaming is an electronic sports corporation founded in 2000 that employs professional video game players currently based in Sweden, Romania, Russia, Germany and Austria. Begrip’s goals include marketing towards a global audience through its gaming entertainment channels and further expanding the organisation into new areas.

For more information please visit http://www.begrip-gaming.com.

A fairly new organization called the Video Game Voters Network has started a campaign in reaction to a coming Congressional vote which could affect video games. It could apparently criminalize the sale of violent/sexual video games to minors and levy a special tax to all video game-related sales. That’s just the start, too.

Fill in your address on this form, and a very well-written letter (in my unbiased opinion) will be dispatched to your appropriate Congressperson.

http://www.videogamevoters.org/takeaction/writecongress/

I changed the title of the letter to be Responsible Education, not Unconstitutional Regulation and I urge you to do the same to remind your Congressperson that the federal government has not been granted the right to regulate video games in any way.

There’s another, similar feature of the site which allows you to send the FTC report on the current video game rating system, a report which says that the system works effectively. Please take advantage of this form, too.

It took me less than 3 minutes to do both forms, and I’m sure our Congresspeople, especially Rep. Murphy and Rep. Altmire, would love to hear from members of Pittco, Pittsburgh’s largest video gaming group.

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.

Discuss this in the forums.

Greetings,

Iron Storm 8 is now only one week away! Here is your pre-event information you will need to know for the event.

Registration will be closing on Thursday, March 13 at 11:59PM. No payments will be accepted after this date at the Pre-Registration rate of $25. Anyone who hasn’t signed up or haven’t paid by this date and are coming to the event will have to pay $35 at the door. However, you are not guaranteed a seat, so make sure that you pre-register and pre-pay.

Date/Time:
Saturday March 15th - Sunday March 16th, 2008
2:00pm Saturday - 3:00pm Sunday

Location:
Castle Shannon Volunteer Fire Department
3600 Library Road
Castle Shannon, PA 15234

Official Tournaments:
- 5v5 Counter-Strike: Source
- 5v5 Call of Duty 4
- 5v5 Battlefield 2/142
- 2v2 or 3v3 Unreal Tournament 3 Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag
- 1v1 UT2004 DeathMatch

Console Tournaments:
- Halo 3
- Guitar Hero 3
- DDR
- Super Smash Brothers: Brawl

Also look forward to:
- Jackass Tournaments
- Console Gaming
- Prizes
- ROFL’s (Raffle’s)
- 3 Great prizes + Cash!
- And much more!

How to pay for the event:
1. Log into ALP
2. Go to the pay for the event
3. Go through PayPal
4. Click the return link after payment is done
5. WAIT for Bob K to verify payment and mark you as paid. (Within 24 hours)
6. Register your seat for the event

If you have any other questions regarding payments or seating please post your problem in the Registration Support Forum.

What to do before you get to the LAN:
- Go through the LAN party checklist for what to bring
- Bring a signed waiver form (Parent signature required if under 18)

As most of you know we will be having a 50/50 ROFL(Raffle) at the event. This event we have bumped it up a notch and added some real prizes to the ROFL that we think you will enjoy:

ROFL(Raffle)
- EVGA Superclocked GeForce 9600GT Video Card
- Acer 22″ 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
- G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 1000 RAM

Please be sure to check out our Sponsors for Iron Storm 8
• Alienware
• ATXPowerSupplies.com
• Bawls Guarana
• BDA Gamer
• Danger Den
• FSP Group USA
• Hyperglide
• Ideazon
• In Win
• Patriot Memory
• Razer
• Red Bull
• Steel Series
• Thermaltake
• Velocity Micro
• Vision Tek
• Vroom Foods

Expect a prize list to be posted before the event.

See you there!
The Pittco Staff
www.pittco.org

Hyperglide will be supplying some prizes for our tournaments at Iron Storm 8. Since its products are very specific, we need to know what kind of mice most of the gamers will have.

Please take a vote in the poll to help determine which Hyperglide products we will be having at the event. The Hyperglide poll is available in the forums.

Deadline for voting is Tuesday, 2/19 at 11:59pm.

For more info about Hyperglide products, visit www.hyperglide.net.

Discuss this in the forums.

Pittco has presence on a few social networks which members frequent. If you are active on another social network and would like to see Pittco have an official presence there, let us know!

Facebook

Pittco has a group and a fan page. There are two events (1, 2) for Iron Storm 8.

MySpace

Pittco has a MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/pittco.

Steam

Pittco has a group on the Steam Community at http://steamcommunity.com/groups/pittco.

The Pittsburgh LAN Coalition is pleased to announce that the registration for its next event, Iron Storm 8, is now OPEN! Here are the important details you need to know about the event:

Date: Saturday March 15th - Sunday March 16th, 2008

Time: 2:00pm Saturday - 3:00pm Sunday

Location:
Castle Shannon Volunteer Fire Department
3600 Library Road
Castle Shannon, PA 15234

Seats: 200

Registration cost:
Pre-pay: $25
At the door: $35

Registration Instructions:
1. Before you register, please read the FAQ, Information, and Rules Sheet, especially if you’ve not attended a LAN party previously.
2. Register an account on the ALP website (Make sure to provide all information)
3. After registering visit this web page and pay for your seat
4. You then will be able to select your seat after your payment has been confirmed. This should be within 24 hours. Seating is based on a first come first serve basis so register and pay as soon as possible to get your spot with your friends.
5. Prior to the event make sure that you have completed the waiver. Make sure that you have signed it and have a parent or guardian’s signature (if you’re under 18). You should bring the following the the event: the Completed Waiver as well as printouts of both the Pittco and Paypal confirmations.

Official Tournaments:

• 5v5 Counter-Strike: Source
• 5v5 Call of Duty 4
• 5v5 Battlefield 2/2142
• 2v2 or 3v3 Unreal Tournament 3 Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag
• 1v1 UT2004 DeathMatch

Console Tournaments:

• Halo 3
• Guitar Hero 3
• DDR
• Super Smash Brothers: Brawl

Also look forward to:

• Half-Life 2 DeathMatch
• Quake 3
• Warcraft 3: DOTA
• And many others!

As you can see, we’ve got some newer games lined up, as well as old favorites.

Also look forward to:

• Jackass Tournaments
• Console Gaming
• Prizes
• And much more!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PITTSBURGH– Pittsburgh LAN Coalition, Inc. (”Pittco“) unveiled today its new web site. The LAN party organizer whose events include seven large “Iron Storm” tournaments and one small “Pittco Lite” tournament redesigned the site in order to greater facilitate the use of the site as a tool for attendees, sponsors, and parents.

The site was redesigned by a team of Pittco staff members including Colin Dean, Jonathan Daniel, Sean Potter, Zack Zlotnik, and Patrick Cannon. They used WordPress, the premiere blogging software, and modified a theme originally produced by Srini G. In addition, the team also heavily modified Autonomous LAN Party, a LAN party management software.

Pittco will host its ninth event, Iron Storm 8, on March 15-16, 2008 at the Castle Shannon Firehall in the Castle Shannon suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 200 spots are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Gamers from throughout western Pennsylvania and the United States, and even internationally from Ontario, Canada.

For more information, contact Dan Wright, president of Pittco, or Sean Potter, IS8 organizer.

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 eight events and has received much attention in the LAN party community. Its web site is www.pittco.org.

Discuss this in the forums.