Lights, Camera, Action
Thursday morning saw the gates to the kingdom open wide, and gamers jostling for position to take a look at the tournament area and what the event sponsors had on offer. The first thing that greeted these eager souls was a pumped up Intel stand showcasing the new Core 2 Duo, along with a host of Mr Dell’s lovely XPS Inspiron gaming laptops, which isn’t really surprising given that Dell are also one of the major sponsors of the WSVG.
In terms of visual impact the Intel stand in 2005 was more impressive, with a large main stage and huge screen to watch the tournament games on and the Centrino Lounge where people could just chill out and check their mail. For 2006 the emphasis had obviously changed, with less money spent on song and dance and more focus on what people are actually there for, playing and learning. There were more mini stands on the booth, allowing people to come and play a variety of games on a number of different types of systems. Regular mini competitions and prize giveaways meant the crowd could immerse themselves in playing without having to walk further than 30 yards from the main event entrance.
In terms of other stands on offer and things for people to do most of it was related to playing or entering competitions. Fatal1ty and has various partners were constantly hosting small events on their stand and giving aware bits and pieces, the Dell stand was hardly noticeable but the fact that almost everything was using Dell machines pretty much made up for it. The ATI stand was disappointing, as there wasn’t really much to do - although next door you could wrestle with a joypad if you wanted some Halo 2 or ATI-powered Xbox 360 goodness on the Xbox stand.
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