City Hunter CoD:BO LAN Write-up

City Hunter's Call of Duty: Black Ops LAN event

Proudly Sponsored by MSI Computers


Hey Guys, Presto here...
This is just a short write-up I'm doing for the City Hunter LAN I went to on the weekend. It was exciting to finally put some faces to names and great to catch up with some of my old friends, some I had never even met in person before the weekend!


After getting a lift into the city, my mate and I walked aimlessly around Sydney's CBD for a couple of hours trying to find the venue, even though we had parked within a few minutes of it. We ended up doing a complete lap around the center of Sydney until we finally found the little City Hunter shop on the corner of Sussex Street, in China Town.

Whilst finally walking up the stairs I could sense the tension building in the air as the competitors were preparing for their first grand final. The anticipation I felt knowing that I could finally play Black Ops, lag free, was almost unbearable with each step I climbed. I had finally reached the VIP room, after being kindly welcomed by the sincere staff at City Hunter and was also greeted by the wonderful MSI Computer representatives - who generously let me get my hands on lots of free goodies including an awesome laptop bag !

After I showed up, the competitors had just finished their first set of qualifier matches with the 10 top players moving on to the 1st Grand final of the day, ready to fight for their chance at the one of the five great MSI N465GTX Graphics cards kindly donated by the remarkable folks down at MSI computers.

Pictured: MSI Girl (left), David Tiong from MSI Computers (middle) Ryan "Izequel" Smith (right)

Ryan "Izequel" Smith took out the first grand final, getting his hands on the first MSI N465GTX Graphics Card. Izequel fought hard for this prize and was neck and neck with at least another 3 player's but Izequel held on right until the nail biting end. After this intense first final the pressure was on again when all of the other players were given another crack at winning the cards.

After a short break everyone was back on their computers and the pressure was on again to perform well and secure their position in the next grand final. And another set of skilled players had a chance at winning one of MSI's incredible cards.

Due to some, time issues... instead of having 3 grand finals, Chris and the other guys at City Hunter came up with the ingenious idea that the top 2 players of the next grand final would win the remaining two cards.

Pictured: Chris "Stace" Stacey (left), Achala "Spachala" Mataraaratchi (right)

The two player's lucky that won the remaining two cards were Stace and Spachala. Both players were neck and neck throughout the whole competition but Stace just pulled away in the dying seconds of the final match. It was an intense match to watch, and most of the footage can be seen in the Youtube video I uploaded.

For more information on both Stace and Spachala, you can read my interviews with these two players here:

Stace - http://www.cybergamer.com.au/article/1529/An-interview-with-fray-Stace/

Spachala - http://www.cybergamer.com.au/article/1538/Interview-with-Spachala/

I would sincerely like to congratulate to the 3 prize winners Ryan "Izequel" Smith, Chris "Stace" Stacey and Achala "Spachala" Mataraaratchi. You all played extremely well and completely deserved the Graphic Cards that MSI so kindly donated.


Pictured: Achala "Spachala" Mataraaratchi (left), Chris "Stace" Stacey (middle), Ryan "Izequel" Smith (left)

I would especially like to give a special thanks to the following people:

Spachala for lending me his video camera today, which I used for making the City Hunter YouTube video

Jake for driving me into the city and walking around the city with me for 2 hours to find the place and also taking some photos.

Grumpy for helping me out with ideas throughout the day, and also helping with photo's

Chris and the staff from City Hunter, for running such an awesome competition.

David Tiong from MSI for sponsoring the LAN, and putting up the awesome N465GTX Graphics Cards.

And of course the MSI ladies that came down for photos with the guys

Until next time,
Presto.


Hey guys, I also made a small YouTube video for the event, please check it out here:


My original plan for the video was to involve interviews with players from the event, and layer it on top of them playing but due to time restrictions and assignments due, i was unable to integrate the interviews.

Please leave some [CnC]!
Sincerely,
Lachlan "Presto" Prestridge