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You'll see plenty of junk food and Mountain Dew at the Salt Palace for the second day of the GEEX expo. Gamers say they need all the sugar and caffeine they can get to keep playing. But just how intense do these tournaments get?
It is day two of the Gaming and Electronics Expo (GEEX) at the Salt Palace, and some of these gamers have been playing for several hours nonstop.
I asked Media One events director Marie Bowcut, "Have you had to say, ‘Come on, you've had enough,' like the bartender saying, ‘We're cutting you off, pal?'" She said, "I think that's going to be more on Saturday."
Their main tournaments, also known as their LAN party, will last for 54 hours, and Bowcut says they're ready for anyone who plans to stay the entire time.
"We have a room down the hall. You can bring your sleeping bag, and when you get tired at 4:00 in the morning, you can take a break for a couple hours," she said.
I had trouble believing anyone would actually try and stay for the entire 54-hour LAN party, but that's until I asked some Orem teens how long they were staying.
One said, "The whole LAN, all 54 hours." Almost in disbelief, I had to ask again, "You're going to stay here for the entire 54 hours?" He said, "That's right."
When I asked another as to why, he looked at me and said, "Why? This is 54 hours of game. You can't get that uninterrupted goodness at home."
Another said, "The way I figure it, it's like we're basically working because the end result is going to be a cash payout."
That last teen may have a good point. The winning team of their specific tournament gets $2,500 worth of prizes, and other LAN tournaments pay out $6,000.
"It's not as involved as it is in Korea, where, actually, the broadcasters and players are like super all-stars, where they get stopped on the streets for autographs and pictures and stuff like that," said shoutcaster Alex Nguyen, who also goes by the alias Vansilli.
Nguyen will be one of the more vocal people at the tournaments. As the shoutcaster, he basically does the play-by-play. He's traveled all over the world for tournaments like this, and he says players don't have a problem playing for more than two days.
"Once you're at a competitive level, you always have this adrenaline that pushes you to play the game," Nguyen said.
A recent report says Utah has the highest percentage of game consoles per household, and event organizers say that's why they brought the expo here.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
