Twisting down the mechanical caverns of Descent 3
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Chris Bond, 35, of San Jose, California drove out of Las Vegas last Sunday $50,000 richer without having gambled a single cent. Bond was the winner of Interplay's 1999 Descent 3 Tournament, a gathering of some of the world's best Descent players vying for the biggest cash award ever offered in a computer gaming competition.
The event was held August 27th and 28th at Caesar's Palace in a pair of convention rooms tucked away from the lights and noise of the slot machines and blackjack tables. LAN's sprawled across tables in the middle of each room. Interplay roped one room off for the official competition, while Case's Ladder used the other for informal games of Kingpin, Command and Conquer 2, and a beta of Unreal Tournament, among other games. Case's Ladder is an online ranking service that maintains leagues of players for several different games.
Makes you see red, doesn't it?
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The first day of the event involved smaller preliminary matches pitting individual players against each one in 1 vs. 1 matches and team games in 2 vs. 2 matches. The actual $50,000 tournament, which took place on August 28th, was open to anyone who showed up for registration. Those who registered were winnowed down to eight finalists, who were pooled with another eight finalists: four from Interplay's online tournaments, which have been ongoing since July, and four from the event's sponsors. Gateway, Electronics Boutique, and Babbages held their own competitions. 3dfx had a random drawing among the people who had been eliminated in the final stage of Interplay's online competition, effectively offering one of them a second chance.
Dealing death for big dollars
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On Saturday evening, this 'Sweet Sixteen' was divided into four groups, each of which played a twenty-five minute deathmatch. The games were played on the first Anarchy level, Apparition, and players were allowed to use their own controllers if they wished. The winner of each match went to the final game to decide the ultimate winner. The runners up in the final game were Scott Butters, 19, of Iowa City, Iowa with 35 points; Brian English, 16, of Orida, California with 36 points; and Anthony Galica, 20, of San Jose, California with 38 points. Mr. Bond pulled ahead in the last two minutes of the final game, winning with 41 points.
Among the almost 250 registrants, there were only two women. Contestants included players from a wide range of locations in the U.S., as well as Taiwan, Sweden, Mexico, and Canada.
by Tom Chick
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