2upGamers 8th Lap debriefing

More than eighty gamers managed to break themselves away from the 2,000m metre butterfly shotput jump – or whatever was happening at the Olympics – on Friday night, and get themselves over to Ikamva in Parow, Cape Town, for the monthly 2upGamers event, proving once again that video games are way better than other, less important so-called “games”.

Also, I bet they don’t have snack-sized spicy chicken subs and cheap beer at the freestyle heavyweight hurdles.

Mmmm, snack-sized spicy chicken sub.

Due to convenient timing, this month’s event also doubled-up as the Cape Town Nintendo 3DS XL launch, and Nintendo South Africa’s Mandy Meredith was in the pit to hand out some prizes and host a Mario Kart competition.

I’m not quite sure who won what in the end and whether or not any Blue Shells were involved, but when I looked there were a lot of people hunched over 3DSes with grim determination.

Mario Kart is serious business. One lucky 3DS owner also walked out with a Friends of Design course voucher simply for owning a 3DS. Brand validation, baby.

The 3DS XL. Because bigger is always better.

Next up, Gareth “G8nda1f” De Bruyn and Marlon “Vecta” Sasman got up to introduce Gecosports, a new gaming venue and competitive and casual gaming initiative in Claremont’s Stadium-On-Main.

In between their sixteen 26-inch JVC TVs, four Xbox 360s, four PlayStation 3s, a 4 MB MWEB Business ADSL line, and one 12-inch Slash Guitar Hero figurine, the guys are looking to be the next (first?) big thing in local console LAN hosting as well as providing opportunities for gamers to get their provincial colours and even represent South Africa in international eSports.

I’ve arranged to have the two of them captured and removed to a secret, secure location for further interrogation so watch this space, but in the meantime, go over to their shop and visit them. They have coffee with plastic lids and everything.

“We have coffee with plastic lids and everything.”

Charl Bosman then took his turn to talk about GameBuddies, a sort of social network for – you guessed it, smartypants! – gamers. The big idea to is make a space for gamers to show their game faces, meet other gamers, talk about games, and even sell and swap games. Pretty much everything except actually play games, so basically, it’s like an online LAN party.

Regional Rick Astley lookalike finalist (maybe), Charl Bosman.

2upGamers is, of course, also all about charity, and this month’s supported people-in-need-of-things was the long-running Blisters for Bread school feeding program. Get it? “Long-running”. Although I suppose it’s technically more like long-walking, but that’s not a real idiom.

Representing the charity on the night was the PSFA‘s Janine Tilley and Good Hope FM DJ Sean O.

DJs never look the way you expect them to.

The Peninsula School Feeding Association has been around since forever, and makes lunches every day for more than 23,000 under-privileged kids around the Western Cape province at a cost of just R1.90 per child. That’s like the price of a Fizz-Pop, but with the miracle magic of charity, it’s able to buy real food.

You don’t even have to slog it to help out – you can simply pay up the R35 registration fee for the 26 August Blisters for Bread event, and not turn up at all. Nobody will know, and your cash will still feed a hungry child.

The next 2upGamers is happening on the first Friday of September. Follow the team on Twitter and Facebook, or keep an eyeball on the official 2upGamers website for more info. Until then, here’s our regular photo-dump from Friday and if you spot yourself, remember, I spotted you first.