NVIDIA hosted a sellout 300 person BYOC LAN party in San Francisco on Tuesday. Attendees signed up eagerly in anticipation of tournaments, raffles, contests, a free copy of EA's Battlefield 2, and of course, the launch of NVIDIA's next generation GPU - the GeForce 7800 GTX. Gamers worldwide made the trek to historic Fort Mason on San Francisco's waterfront, waiting in line for hours in the early morning light - a long day ahead of them, packed with tournaments, contests, raffles, and over $40,000 in prizes from NVIDIA and its partners!


UT CarBall Tournament
Once the 300 members of the BYOC had settled into their respective seats, it was time to frag! Attendees started things off with a "UT Carball" tournament (an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod - think soccer with vehicles and a large ball). Competition was fierce, and the crowd sounded much like one witnessing a World Cup match, as spectators followed every cliffhanger moment.


Battlefield 2 Tournament
One of the best reasons to attend GeForce LAN was the fact that all BYOC attendees received a free copy of Battlefield 2, one of the year's most widely-anticipated games. As soon as they walked in the door, gamers installed and fired up their fresh copies of the game, in anticipation of the 64-player matches about to begin. Three rounds and 7 action-filled games later, the tournament had produced a wining team, and 3 MVP players (MVP's were determined by their top 3 ranking in each round - first place netted 3 points, second netted 2 points, and third netted 1 point for each round - MVP's were determined by their total MVP points).


Graphics Card Shuffleboard
In between tournaments, NVIDIA entertained gamers with a very unique kind of shuffleboard - using NVIDIA graphics cards - don't worry - they were non-functioning engineering samples! The single elimination tournament attracted most of the 300 attendees, and produced some very close matches - the final match required 3 tosses due to questionable line crossing by one of the two finalists.


Case Mod Competition
Several gamers entered their machines into the NVIDIA "Mad Mod" Case Competition at GeForce LAN. The competition was broken down into 4 categories: Best Cable Management, Best Silent Solution, Best Original Case, and Best of Show. Competition was fierce, especially in the Best Original Case and Best of Show categories - the celebrity judges took a long time deciding the final victors, and rightfully so. The winners in each category were unveiled on stage during the launch presentation that evening, in front of over 700 guests. Each victor took home a GeForce 7800 GTX to use in their next case mod adventure!

Best Cable Management

Best Silent Solution

Best Original Case

Best of Show

Sorriest PC
With the them of Case Modding very prevalent at GeForce LAN, it made sense to take it to another level. NVIDIA teamed up with XFX and their "Extreme PC Garage" team to find the BYOC attendee with the worst PC on site. During the launch competition, NVIDA and XFX called the PC's owner up on stage, and gave him a brand new, completely custom PC, loaded with the best hardware, including a GeForce 7800 GTX graphics card from XFX! While we feel a little bad for the winner's previous PC, we don't feel THAT bad!


NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX: Available...NOW!
With an unprecedented twist, attendees were able to log on to Newegg, Zip Zoom Fly and Tiger Direct to purchase graphics cards featuring NVIDIA's next generation GPU - on the spot! Gamers lined up to get their orders in at the NVIDIA internet kiosks, immediately following the launch presentation.


Raffle Madness!!
After the powerful GeForce 7800 GTX launch presentation, gamers were treated to two raffles, rife with prizes from NVIDIA's industry partners. Hundreds of attendees walked away with prizes from AMD, DFI, Coolermaster, Antec, Danger Den, Crucial Technology, Razer, Logitech, Hitachi, Western Digital, and XFX!



Thank You!
We'd like to thank all the gamers who attended the second GeForce LAN in San Francisco - without them, GeForce LAN wouldn't be what it is.



NVIDIA thanks its industry partner sponsors who helped create the enormous prize chest for the tournaments, contests and raffles - please be sure to visit their websites and see what's new!


NVIDIA would also like to give a huge thanks to PDXLAN for producing the LAN party, and managing the tournaments and contests - be sure to check out PDXLAN 5 in Portland this August 11-14 (get your seat before it's gone!).



Don't miss the next GeForce LAN - be sure to check back with NVIDIA frequently: