The country’s climate might be playing a rather truant game with its citizens but this did not deter a couple of hundred people from braving the heat wave in New Delhi and gather at the DLF Mall in Saket to immerse themselves in the spectacular show of virtual guns, bullets and cars for three straight days. As we entered the premises, we were greeted by a bunch of over enthusiastic gamers who were on their way to the bathroom after a long hard match of Counter-Strike. Sheepishly, they pointed us towards the BYOC venue where we were to witness one of the largest LAN parties in India.
The gaming event was organized in a Delhi mall. There was plenty of room and space for both the organizers and LAN party to spread their wings and dedicate themselves to their respective activities. Thus the area was divided into two sections, one where the sponsors had placed their stalls displaying their wares and the other section was built exclusively for gamers, their mammoth rigs and their quest to achieve victory.
Since the BYOC was a 72-hour affair, the first day saw the launch of a laptop that was exclusively crafted for gaming by MSI, who were one of the primary sponsors of the event. The company had also flown down Fnatic’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s team to play a few bouts of multiplayer mayhem with a few selected participants of the show.
These matches were organized on the basis of a team member of Fnatic playing a round of Counter Strike with a member of the audience. This free for all tourney was also carried forward onto the second day. The final day saw the winners of the CoD 4 tourney battle it out with the members from Fnatic at a podium that was situated at the far end of the event. Unlike most BYOCs that were organized in the past, this event was teaming with light. Gone were the days when gamers used to hunch like gargoyles over a computer screen followed up by a sharp volley of commands during Counter-Strike and Infinity Ward’s uber shooter Modern Warfare.
In addition to the BYOC, the sponsors were also running other bouts of completion on the show floor. An elite gaming cafe titled ‘Federation of Gamers’ were running a Tekken tourney on the PlayStation 3, which was also a part of the set of challenges at the competition.
The other interesting piece of information comes in the form of gamers from the opposite sex also participating in the event. These were no booth babes or emanates that have usually been a part of such events. These girl gamers were the real deal and were switching between games such as the recently released ‘Split-second’ and ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’ and playing toe to toe with their male counterparts.
One of the booths that also seemed to be getting a considerable amount of attention was the BenQ’s, which was running the rage of Kratos in its full brutal glory and it looked beautiful. The BYOC event looked like a huge success and both parties seemed to be satisfied with the proceedings. We hope that the next gaming event is bigger in scale and has more in store for gamers in India and is perhaps not restricted to one single region, Delhi.