The Incredible Connection MSSA 2009 National LAN Championships took place over the weekend of the 14th – 16th August.

The competition was fierce, with 150 gamers competing across 8 different games! Including the ever popular COD4, DotA, Fifa 09, Guitar Hero World Tour and even some golden oldies, Quake 3 and Starcraft.

This event was the first large event that Incredible Connection was directly involved in, and we managed to bring Verbatim to the party bringing on board some prizes to the party in addition to the honour of winning Provincial and National Colours!

The games started early on the Saturday Morning with competitors setting up their rigs from 8 am. For anyone that plays computer games, that is very, very early.

Northcliff High School Hall - Gamers setting up for a day of competition!

Northcliff High School was the generous host for this event, and managed to field a fair number of competitors and managing to bring home a few medals as well!

The event wasn’t just another LAN. With gamers coming to compete and only compete. Like any other sporting game, players brought their equipment got warmed up and ready to play!

The Championships even seen The Verge, coming to cover the event and it was televised on Monday 24th August on Channel 123 ( Vuzu) on DSTV. 

Verbatim Stand - Incredible Connection MSSA LAN Champs

In addition to the gamers, the PC’s the competitions, and all the prizes, both Incredible Connection and Verbatim even had some goodies on display for the gamers to had some hands on time with! The Verbatim stand included a wide variety of products from the usual Verbatim Optical and Flash storage to their new peripherals, including mouse, speakers and headsets!

And to top it all off, Incredible Connection and Acer even brought some of the famous Predators to the event! The machines are nothing short of gaming powerhouses with some of the fastest hardware available to gaming enthusiasts! Playing games like Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, Need for Speed Undercover and Read Alert 3, gamers got to enjoy a variety of games on the machines!

Gamers enjoying the power of the Acer Predator

As the day went on, we had a fair number of ups and downs, teams winning, players being beaten, excitement, screaming, shouting and just about every emotion under the sun.

The MSSA caters for all categories of competitor, from the Premier or overall winners to University, High School and even female awards. Each category is recognised and rewarded for their efforts. However for the Verbatim Prizes there could be only one.

The overall winner of each game would walk away with the goodies as well as Colours from the MSSA. The full list of winners can be found here on the MSSA website.

The weekend was a success and Incredible Connection looks forward to the next event with MSSA, and hopefully getting some more coverage for computer gamers across the country!

Trevor "qu1k_sh0t" Henry awarding Mitchell Vermeulen his medal and certificate