Photos
Quakecon 2009
August 13-16, 2009, Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, Grapevine, Texas, USA
Thanks
Click on the thumbnails below to view the photos
March 6, 2009: Counting down to the start of registration for QuakeCon 2009
Ic3-IX was number 414 to register
Nine minutes later, Ryly was number 1190 to register
The next morning, these statistics from registration were posted
August 13, 2009: Passing Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World on the way to QuakeCon 2009
… A store so large, it has a street named after it
The Gaylord Texan, next right
The Con site is to the left, the hotel spreads out to the right
This must be the right place!
We got to the exhibit space and saw nobody in line at registration and thought "Yes! No waiting!"
Turns out there was a problem and we were shown to the BYOC pre-registration waiting line :-(
The BYOC waiting list line wasn't too long … yet
Ryly whiles away the time playing Word Warp on her iPhone
Rounding the last turn in the line, heading down the home stretch to the door
We're almost at the door with these people are still behind us
The BYOC waiting list line has grown a bit in the last two hours
This will be our "home" for the next four days
Ic3-IX's computer is set up and ready for some Quake Live
… And he's off to frag
Ryly enjoys the new Quake Live client for Mac OS X
Longcat is looooooooooooooong!
An interview being conducted on the row next to us
Ventrillo was giving away a Kona blue 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe
The car had a supercharged 5.4 liter V-8 that produced 540 horsepower and 510 ft-lb of torque … w00f!
A Craftsman Truck Series Toyota on display
Sponsored by Ventrillo
Ryly ventured into this crowd to grab some swag … She came out with a T-shirt
Quakelive.tv was broadcasting BYOC Tournaments and King of the Hill events
The QuakeCon 2009 tournament area with computers were provided by Alienware
CTF action in the tournament area
The QuakeCon tournaments were broadcast in QuadV.com and djWHEAT.tv
djWHEAT provides frag-by-frag and commentary for the Quake Live Masters match between k1llsen vs. chance
Some of the production crew in the background that make the broadcast magic happen
Rapha and others watch the match between k1llsen and chance
AMD/ATI was filming an overclocking demonstration … Just add liquid nitrogen and crank the voltage
Your PC doesn't need an expensive case …
… Some wire baskets work just fine
Gamers … Powered by Bawls
Liquid cooled PC
Nice paint job on this case
A 15-disk array with room for another shelf of 15 disks
PC with a case made of Legos
Double-wide case
A 5-disk array mounted inside the case
The Stormbringer PC
Grabbing some shut-eye in the BYOC
Super Mario Bros. blocks
2009 was the largest QuakeCon ever but there were still a few empty seats in the BYOC
Acrylic cases seem to be making a comeback this year
There were a number of clans and clubs with banners in the BYOC
Yar!
We got a chuckle from this wallpaper
A wallpaper commemorating the first QuakeCon in 1996
A very neat and tidy liquid-cooled PC
Even the SLI video is liquid cooled
When designing cooling for your PC, be sure to consider the human element
Using an LED fan can provide some ambient lighting as well as some local air conditioning
His and hers Mr. and Ms. Pac-man cases
Pikachu is ready for QuakeCon
More empty seats in the BYOC
This custom machine can play a bazillion different arcade games
Some seats were informally reserved but never seemed to have been claimed
The Barbequer PC returns to QuakeCon
A surplus ammo carrier repurposed as a PC case
The business end of the ammo carrier PC
This PC was given away during the finals party at QuakeCon 2007
If there is an age requirement to join this clan, Ic3-IX probably qualifies
The Geezer definitely has a nice PC
This PC has been to QuakeCon before
This PC was displayed in the nVidia Lounge area of the BYOC
We're not sure how this tied together but the mod was called "Project Away Team"
Another case mod on display in the nVidia Lounge area of the BYOC
A Galaga case mod built from wooden blocks … The front
… And the back
A Craftsman tool chest case mod
This suitcase mod has the PC in the base and the LCD monitor mounted in the lid
A very simple acrylic case
Indeed!
We have to give a fellow Aggie some props … Wh00p!
We've heard that people start to look like their dogs but do PCs start to look like their owners?
Another water-cooled rig
A nice mini-PC case
He's not sleeping … He's just resting his eyes
Pizza, breakfast of gamers
It looks like optical drive repairs are underway on this acrylic-cased PC
The six story Bawls tower in beautiful Grapevine, Texas
More liquid cooling
This acrylic cased PC was entered in the case modding contest
Another acrylic cased PC
The internal lighting of the acrylic cases photographs well in the dark BYOC
Another mini-PC case
This custom cased PC is small and lightweight
It looks pretty good in the dark too
We like the gauge on this PC
This huge monitor was at the end of our row
Case mod using a plastic milk crate
We like the hinged and lockable acrylic cover too
Another case with a flame paint job
The green glow under the case really tied into the green flames
Playing Quake Live on a netbook … About a constant 38 FPS
Plz keep this area clean
Each gamer was allocated 3 feet of table space in the BYOC … In some places, things got a bit tight
Another Danger Den acrylic case
This one has liquid cooling
The beer micro-keg PC
Another liquid-cooled PC with blue LED lighting
The CPU was liquid cooled but the GPU was not
This guy is ready for a long night of gaming
The paint theme on the case extends to the monitor and the mouse pad
This BYOC clan banner is for Team 1337
Taking a break from Quake Live
Even more liquid cooling
Liquid cooling the CPU and the GPU
A surplus gas mask gives this case a unique look
Even in the dark, the look is very unique
Another excellent flame paint job on this case
This case has a very intricate cutout design
Obviously a d0g lover
This seems to have almost everything you need for some MAME gaming
It looks like this PC can handle some serious overclocking
Another view of the same PC
A very spartan case design
A lot of time went into building this beautiful walnut case
Another acrylic case with cold cathode tube lighting
That's colored aquarium gravel at the bottom of the case
Interestingly, this case appears to have liquid cooling but the CPU also has a Zalman CNPS9700 cooler
Todd Hollenshead kicked off the Quake Live Grand Finals event on Saturday night
Marty Stratton also said a few words
The last two teams in the CTF Championship wait off-stage while Todd introduces the broadcast team
The QuakeCon Girls for 2009
Team fnatic (l1nkje, stermy, Spart1e, fox, and deus) finished third in the CTF Championship and collected $4000
Team Who Run It (eisenkreuz, icel0re, pyro, and kgb) finished second and collected $6000
Team Evil Geniuses (DaHanG, clampOK, id_, and Viju) won the CTF finals 2-0 and collected $12,000
In the Quake Live Open Tournament, Cliffy finished third, HardUp finished second, and Flysher won the $1500 first prize
Todd and Marty kill some time by tossing swag to the crowd
The swag included copies of Wolfenstein for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 … The game, at the time, had not been publically released yet
The Quake Live Masters Tournament was a best of five match with Spart1e taking the first map (Trinity) 5-4
The second map (Campground Redux) also went to Spart1e 9-8 although both players made comebacks to take the lead during the game
Rapha won the third map (Vertical Vengeance) 12-9 to stay alive in the finals
Rapha completely dominated on the fourth map (Lost World) 17-1 to tie the match at two games each
Rapha won the fifth map (The House of Decay) 9-3 to win one of the most exciting QuakeCon Duel finals ever, three maps to two
Cypher finished third in the Quake Live Masters Tournament and collected $4000
Spart1e collected $7500 for his second place finish
Rapha was crowned the QuakeCon 2009 Masters Champion amid wild cheers and collected $14,000 for his efforts
The three winners from the QuakeCon 2009 Masters Championship
Of course, you cannot bring a PC to QuakeCon and not play in the BYOC
Despite a city-wide power spike and a DDOS attack, pings were generally single digit all weekend
It seemed like there were more Quake Live players and servers last year
But we never had a problem finding a FFA, CA, or CTF game to join
id also created an InstaCTF server type especially for QuakeCon 2009
This was one of our last games … Nice ping :-)
Quake Live keeps track of each players stats during play
A feature that returned to Quake Live just in time for QuakeCon 2009 was the leader board which ranked players based on performance
In the Atrium of the Gaylord Texan, a 1/24 scale model railroad and town was set up
At night, the ferris wheel was lit
There were several trains running a separate circuits
This guy was cleaning the tracks with a long-handled duster