2upGamers 3rd Encounter debriefing

On Friday 20 January 2012, more than one hundred Cape Town gamers donned their stillsuits in 80 degree heat, left the safety of their subterranean cave dwellings, and rode ornithopters and giant sandworms to Bree Street in the CBD to attend the 2upGamers 3rd Encounter event.

There were no trials by combat, but there was a lot of beer which is a whole lot better than reclaimed water, because that’s mostly pee when you work out the numbers. Good thing I’m not the Kwisatz Haderach.

As usual (by the third time around, things become “usual”), the 2upGamers gang had organised a bonafide Big Thing^TM, with representatives from Takealot and EA representin’, and special-featuring EA Asia Pacific, Japan, and South Africa community manager Brad “Pidgeo” Pidgeon. Also loads of free games and stuff, obviously. It was kind of like being on Oprah, but with way better prizes.

I managed to isolate and threaten Brad with a slice of meaty pizza a bit later in the evening, and demanded to know what EA was doing about bringing in some local dedicated servers for console games like Battlefield 3. He wasn’t able to commit to anything, obviously, but it’s apparently something EA is definitely looking into. Stay tuned for more on that, as it happens.

Brad Pidgeon has also promised to send inflatable Omni-Blades for the next 2upGamers event in March. Inflatable Omni-Blades are serious business.

These lucky buggers each won a Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's Edition from Takealot (that's rep Andrew Royal on the left there). :<

This is Jason. As his Twitter followers well know, Jason wins everything. This time, he won a Nintendo mug because he was wearing a t-shirt he'd won previously. It's like a self-sustaining winning ecology.