200 BYOC spots open

Away from the sponsors' booths, in the big hall on one side of the convention area, lies the massive open area where the BYOC event-goers went and jacked-in their rigs, laptops and anything that needed plugging in. Out of the 200 spots, I think only about 30 of them were empty, so that is a great turn-out for a first-ever event by Newegg. It was a visual feast, only about 20-30 of the PC's were heavily modded and still looked good. It was hard to find an original design though. Some had water-cooled systems that were combined with unique lighting. Others were just monstrous, while yet others were just plain bland. I think there is a part of Lanfest 2K4 where you can win if your case was the best ‘mod’.

Just ... Sick

Is that a modded window?

Hey I have this case! But this one has sweet lighting

Basically, the tournament works like this: you sign up yourself (or your team) for one or three of the game events, then you are put into brackets (which aren't really shown to anyone). Then, you wait, until your name (or team name) is called, then you are moved into the Tournament room, where you play on the Newegg-built machines for prizes. So, much of the time, the gamers just hang out in the BYOC room, and chat, and have random battles with each other on the LAN servers.

I suppose the empty drive bays are for ventilation?

FarCry loaded on a BYOC machine

UMM pilot gets heavy with his 'stick in the BYOC area

I met up with Undefined Madmen, or UMM, whom I covered in the GamersOpen Offical BF1942 International Championships last year. They remembered me from the previous engagement, and were friendly as I asked them questions about the event. Eventually, I followed them into the tournament room when they were called up, and I watched them compete their first BF1942 match.

The hang-out camo tent