Pittsburgh LAN Coalition

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh LAN Coalition, Inc. ("Pittco") will unleash upon the world its latest energetic computer and console video gaming LAN party, IRON STORM XII on March 4-6, 2011 at the Castle Shannon Firehall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The doors will open at 8 p.m. March 4 for 200 gamers to hang out with other gamers and compete in tournaments, including Pittco Roulette–a fast-paced multi-game event spanning the duration of the entire event.

“We aim to create a gaming atmosphere incomparable to any experience at home or anywhere else in the city, state, or region,” said Nik “saberwolf” Parenti, Pittco’s executive manager and IRON STORM XII event chairperson.

Computer gaming tournaments include buy-in tournaments in Counter-Strike: Source and the soon-to-be-released Call of Duty: Black Ops. The winners of these tournaments will take the entire amount for themselves. Other computer gaming tournaments include Quake 3, StarCraft 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2 scavenge mode, and Heroes of Newerth.

Our ever-growing console audience will engage in combat in tournaments of Super Street Fighter 4 as well as the soon-to-be-released Halo: Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Mac OS X gamers are more than welcome to attend, too, as Pittco Roulette includes many Steam games available for the platform, and StarCraft 2 also has a Mac version.

Our community partners cantstopthis, Dead4Cheap, ThinkComputers, FITES, Recoil LAN, and The GXL will be providing servers, consoles, prizes, and our gigabit Ethernet backbone network.

There will also be an array of other, non-gaming tournaments involving feats of strength, speed, and hilarity. Musical Chairs is a stand-out tradition at every Pittco event!

We also plan to hold a 50/50 raffle and have numerous door prizes from our various sponsors. Sponsors will be announced as they join, but past sponsors include Alienware, ATI, ASUS, TrendNET, Cooler Master, Bigfoot Networks Killer NIC, NYKO, OCZ, Patriot, Mushkin, and more. A full list of past sponsors is available on Pittco’s web site.

“We’ve been experimenting with our format and we’ve learned a lot about how to throw exciting, entertaining, and engaging LAN parties,” said Colin “Rhettigan” Dean, president of Pittco. “This is our most important event ever, and we won’t stop until it’s the largest event we’ve ever had.”

For more information on sponsoring or advertising with Pittco, contact Colin “Rhettigan” Dean, president of Pittco, or Nik “saberwolf” Parenti, executive manager. Also, Pittco’s new Community Manager, Joshua “SovietKitsch” Bialek is the point of contact for teams and individual gamers alike.

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

Gamers already enjoying IRON STORM PURE

Pittco’s latest event, IRON STORM PURE, is underway–RIGHT NOW–at Castle Shannon Fire Hall in Castle Shannon, PA.

More than 75 gamers are already here, exceeding our expectations for this new and experimental format for our summer event. Don’t worry, there still are some seats available if you’re reading this and are not already at the event. The walk-in price is $40, and we might drop it lower as the night goes on.

The LAN started a little, well, purer, than we’d liked. We had some Internet problems at first, but thanks to our expert, MacGyver-like network staff, we’ve got a connection available so that gamers can enjoy Steam, Battle.net, and other services which require Internet for authentication and login.

Only IRON STORM PURE attendees can score this limited-edition, 72 of a kind keychain pen. Pittco thanks rushIMPRINT for giving us a great deal to offer this unique item to the Pittco faithful. This item is of significant value due to its rarity and usefulness only the future can dictate. Attendees acquiring one are urged to hold onto it, they’ll never know when it might come in handy.

Limited-edition, 72 of a kind keychain pen

We have now opened registration for Iron Storm PURE!

If you’re out of the loop, Iron Storm PURE will be a new format of event for the Pittsburgh LAN Coalition. It will be smaller in maximum size and looser in tournaments, but super high on group gaming and having fun. A part of the PURE format is that there will not be any announced tournaments ahead of time other than the Counter-Strike event. Instead, attendees will select the games to be played and the style of match, much like LAN parties were in the early days of multiplayer video gaming. Count on ludicrous and full game servers, which will be provided by Pittco. Local gaming groups Can’t Stop This and Co-op Volcano, as well as computer hardware review web site ThinkComputers will also provide servers.

For Iron Storm PURE, we’re using Eventbrite, an event ticketing solution. It’s a trial run using its service, so please bear with us if there are any problems registering.

So, to register, visit Pittsburgh LAN Coalition’s IRON STORM PURE LAN Party at Eventbrite or use the widget below!

PITTSBURGH– Pittsburgh LAN Coalition, Inc. (”Pittco”) plans to hold its thirteenth event, IRON STORM PURE, on August 21 and 22 at the Castle Shannon Firehall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittco is opening the doors for 128 gamers for 24 hours of non-stop gaming, competition, camaraderie, and fun.

Pittco attracts gamers from throughout the greater Pittsburgh area, and even into Canada. There are 128 seats available, and registration will be open shortly.

“We are trying a new format with Iron Storm Pure, known internally as Pittco Pure,” said Colin Dean, president of Pittco. “Many of our attendees to Iron Storm 10 and Iron Storm 11 stated that they liked the smaller size of IS9 and 11. So, we are reducing the number of seats available in order to espouse a more close-knit atmosphere than larger events, such as Iron Storm 8 and 10, have had.”

Regardless of the number of attendees, Pittco promises to have the PC and console gaming action devoted attendees love.

Prepaying for the day-long event costs $30, and the walk-in door price is $40. Teams of 5 wishing to register together can purchase group seats at $25 per seat. Pittco recommends prepaying for the event not only because of the cheaper price, but because choice seating is available to those who registered beforehand.

Iron Storm Pure will be held at the Castle Shannon Volunteer Fire Department located at 3600 Library Road Castle Shannon, PA 15234. This is the same location where Pittco’s events have been held since 2005.

In continuing support for the competitive community, there will be one Counter-Strike 1.6 tournament with a required $80 per team buy-in. This buy-in will be placed into the prize pot for enticing cash payouts. This buy-in is subject to change depending on the amount of registered teams.

In the past Left 4 Dead (2), UT3, Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike 1.6, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Battlefield 2, Day of Defeat, Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare, Street Fighter 4, Super Smash Brothers Melee, World of Warcraft, WarCraft III, StarCraft, and more have been played. If there is a popular game that a gamer desires to play, odds are that that gamer will find someone at Iron Storm who wants to play it with them.

Organized matches for small prizes and bragging rights will be announced when registration opens, as there are many pending game releases. StarCraft fans can rest assured that StarCraft 2 will bea high-demand game played at Iron Storm Pure.

For console gamers attending the event, Pittco will have a designated console section where gamers can hook up their consoles to play system-link capable games.

Mac gamers are also welcome and encouraged to participate. With the recent release of Steam for Mac, Pittco anticipates a larger Mac gamer crowd than at previous events.

A part of the PURE format is that there will not be any announced tournaments ahead of time other than the Counter-Strike event. Instead, attendees will select the games to be played and the style of match, much like LAN parties were in the early days of multiplayer video gaming. Count on ludicrous and full game servers, which will be provided by Pittco. Local gaming groups Can’t Stop This and Co-op Volcano, as well as computer hardware review web site ThinkComputers will also provide servers.

In addition to our organized matches, Pittco will be hosting many other things to do at the event, including Pittco’s heralded “Ice Head Competition”, held at the end of every LAN party. The goal of the Ice Head Competition is to see who can hold their breath the longest, upside down, in ice cold water. Ice Head, Karaoke and Extreme Musical Chairs are just a few tournaments that Pittco is planning to organize throughout the event.

The Pittco staff is positive that having some of the latest games mixed in with old fan favorites will draw a bigger crowd to the event, as well as win over many new sponsors for prizes. Iron Storm Pure will also help prepare gamers and staff for the regular-format spring event, which will hopefully be larger than ever!

For more information, contact Colin Dean, president of Pittco, or Nik Parenti, executive manager.

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

H.R. 5990, the “Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act”, was recently introduced by Rep. Jim Matheson [D-UT]. The bill would do the following:

• Mandate for all video games the display of an age-based content rating determined by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB)
• Direct the Federal Trade Commission to require that all video game retailers display information about the ESRB rating system
• Prohibit the sale of ESRB-rated “Adults Only” games to minors
• Prohibit the sale of ESRB-rated “Mature” games to minors under 17 years of age
• Declares a violation of the any of above to be an “Unfair or Deceptive Act or Practice” and establishes a $5,000 civil fine for each violation

If you disagree with this legislation, and I’ll bet that most Pittco attendees would, please write to your Congressman, urging him or her to argue and vote against it. If you need inspiration for a letter, read the one which Colin Dean wrote to Congressman Altmire to urge him to vote against H.R. 5990.

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.