QuakeCon

QuakeCon

The Official QuakeCon logo
Genre computer gaming
Location Dallas, Texas
Country United States
First held 1996
Last held Present
Organizer id Software
Filing status Corporate
Official website http://www.quakecon.org

QuakeCon is a bring-your-own-computer (BYOC) computer gaming event with a competitive tournament held every year in Dallas, Texas, USA. The event, which is named after id Software's game Quake, sees thousands of gamers from all over the world attend every year to celebrate the company's gaming dynasty. It is North America's largest LAN party, the largest free LAN party in the world, and usually runs over a period of four days.

Now more than a multiplayer gaming event, QuakeCon is also a venue to showcase the newest games and hardware being developed by companies involved with id Software including booths selling clothing, computer peripherals, and software.

To be able to keep QuakeCon a free LAN party, it is highly dependent on volunteer work. These volunteers, often described as the crew, cover most aspects of the organization of the party. For this QuakeCon has gained a reputation as "Woodstock of gaming", and a week of "peace, love, and rockets!".

Contents

Origin

QuakeCon originally grew out of a group of people on the EFnet IRC network, in channel #quake. As various regular visitors to the channel began expressing a desire to meet and game together in person, Jim Elson, a.k.a. "H2H", a gamer from the Dallas, Texas area with ties to the local Dallas-area gaming community, and Wikipedia editor Yossarian Holmberg, a.k.a "yossman", a computer consultant from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, came up with the idea of assembling at a hotel. The original event name was actually '#quakecon', named after the IRC channel, though this quickly evolved into just 'QuakeCon'. Mr. Elson organized the bulk of the event for the first two years, until the number of people attending each year demanded a more organized approach. Volunteers grouped into teams to assist in the setup, troubleshooting, and tear down of the event's equipment and network.

Past events

1996

The first event, in August 1996, was held at the Best Western hotel in Garland, Texas, a mile or two away from the id Software company offices. Starting with just 30 people, by the end of the weekend the number of people had grown to 100, as news of the gathering began to spread on Internet chat networks. The Best Western has since been replaced by a La Quinta Inn.

Attendees who had brought their computers along to the event set up a small, impromptu network, in one of the hotel meeting rooms, playing mostly Quake I and Doom, testing deathmatching skills. A small tournament was held, with winners taking home T-Shirts as prizes.

The highlight of this first gathering came on the eve of the last day, when the entire id Software team showed up at the event in a surprise and most-welcome visit, stopping by to chat with the participants. John Carmack, lead programmer for Doom/Quake, participated in a 30–45 min. group chat with attendees on the porch of the hotel. Some ideas discussed during that chat eventually made it into Quake's future public releases. This "Carmack's Talk" has now grown into a yearly keynote speech.

Quake 1v1

Doom 2 1v1

Reference: http://web.archive.org/web/20000816025343/www.quakecon.org/about.html

1997

QuakeCon 1997 brought an estimated 650 attendees to the Holiday Inn in Plano, Texas. It was covered by numerous Internet and broadcast media outlets, and was sponsored in part by id Software and Activision.

Quake World 1v1

1998

QuakeCon 1998 was held in conjunction with the Cyberathlete Professional League. Due to poor planning and the lack of people who had helped make the first two events a success, QuakeCon 1998 is regarded by many as being only partially a QuakeCon event. However, it was instrumental in motivating a group of people to start planning QuakeCon 1999 early.

Quake 2 1v1

1999

QuakeCon 1999 was the first event in which id Software played a major role in the organization. Recognizing that major sponsors were needed, David Miller a.k.a. "Wino" & Paul Horoky a.k.a "devilseye", both original QuakeCon 1996 people, contacted id Software and convinced them to become the main sponsor, and to help out with finding more sponsors. Together with Anna Kang (then id Software employee, now John Carmack's wife) and a team of volunteers, Mr. Miller & Mr. Horoky set out to build QuakeCon 1999, which became the template for later years.

First ever Quake 3 tournament

2000

QuakeCon 2000

Quake 3 1v1

2001

QuakeCon 2001

Quake 3 1v1

2002

QuakeCon 2002

Quake 3 1v1

Return To Castle Wolfenstein

2003

QuakeCon 2003

Quake 3 1v1

Quake 3 CTF

Return To Castle Wolfenstein

2004

QuakeCon 2004

Quake 3 1v1

Quake 3 CTF

Doom 3 1v1

2005

QuakeCon 2005

Doom 3 1v1

Ms. QuakeCon Quake 3 1v1

Quake 2 Retro Tournament

Enemy Territory

Alienware Performance Challenge

Dual GPU - 1st Place
  • Unknown

2006

QuakeCon 2006

Quake 4 1v1

Quake 4 2v2 Team Deathmatch

Enemy Territory 5v5

Nvidia Quickdraw Winners

2007

QuakeCon 2007

1st ever Quad Damage 1v1 Tournament

1st Ever Enemy Territory:Quake Wars 6v6 Championship

2008

QuakeCon 2008

Intel Quake Live 1v1 Championship

Intel Quake Live Capture The Flag Championship

The Activision Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Team Championships (PC)

The Activision Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Team Championships (Xbox 360)

2009

QuakeCon 2009

Intel Quake Live Masters Championship

Intel Quake Live Open Championship

Quake Live Capture the Flag Championship

2010

QuakeCon 2010

Intel Quake Live Masters Championship

Intel Quake Live Open Championship

Quake Live Capture the Flag Championship

2011

QuakeCon 2011

Intel Quake Live Duel Invitational Masters

Intel Quake Live TDM Invitational Masters

Intel/Bethesda Brink Open Championship

Statistics

For QuakeCon 2004, the following was current:

Community

The QuakeCon community primarily organizes itself online, through IRC and the official and un-official forums. The main channel for everything related to the event is #quakecon on GameSurge.

As of July 2011, the QuakeCon Forums are no longer accessible. the official Bethesda Quakecon Forums were introduced. Also, at the same time an additional community run forums were launched, www.qconforums.org which are owned and operated by the community separate from Bethesda.

Sponsors

QuakeCon is primarily paid for by id Software in conjunction with the sponsorship of leading technology companies. Often companies will forego a large monetary sponsorship and will instead elect to lend equipment to the event as a promotional measure.

Past sponsors of the event include Activision, nVidia, AMD, Aspyr, ASUS, Ventrilo, Apple, ATI Technologies, Alienware, Ageia, 1UP Network, FragArcade, Intel, D-Link, Logitech, Linksys, Spike TV, Newegg.com and Lucent Technologies.

Controversy

During QuakeCon 2011 several headsets were stolen from BYOC attendees. Unlike QuakeCon 2010 small items were not inventoried by the QuakeCon Registration Staff and only monitors, computers, and game systems were tagged. Theft has never been a big issue with QuakeCon until then.

External links

Games
People
Game engines
Machinima
Mods
Quake
Quake II
Quake III
Quake 4
Professional players
Technology
Related
  • Book:Quake series
  • Category:Quake
Major video game trade shows and conventions around the world
North America
South America
Europe
Eurogamer Expo • Gamescom • Paris Games Week
Asia
Australia
EB Expo
Defunct
Related