LPANE Nor'Easter 2005 LAN Party

Nor'easter 2005, like many big storms, ended up with a bang and some collateral damage.  The winners of a few of the larger prizes, including HotHardware's own custom rig, were asked (read: persuaded) to seal the deal...permanently.  These lucky souls gutted their former setups and were handed a 30-pound sledgehammer.  As the spotlights shined down, each of them took hefty swings at their former machines until all that was left were twisted strips of steel and smashed silicon.  It almost brought a tear to our eyes to see our winner's AMD K6-2 300/Voodoo 5 system turned to slag; a piece of history gone by.  Marco was especially distraught to see that Voodoo 5 get hammered.  Some loyal HH readers may remember that Marco got his start in this business working at Voodoo3.Net...

Overall, Nor'Easter 2005 was a qualified success.  The final tally came out to 340 players, and while some may have walked away without winning any prizes, it appeared that everyone had a great time making friends in, and outside, of the virtual world.

Dave, Brian, Rob & Marco

We here at HotHardware were also pleased to meet and greet some new readers as well as a few regular forum members and fans.  We're really looking forward to the next Nor'Easter event, which we hear will happen much sooner than expected.  If you're in the area and would like to participate, bookmark the LPANE home page and check it out frequently.  They'll have more information posted there.  It's a great way to spend a weekend, and if all goes to plan, we'll be there again with plenty of prizes and swag in tow.

Before we bring our LPANE Nor'Easter coverage to a close, we want to give a big "THANK YOU" to all of the folks that made this event possible, and we'd especially like to thank all of the companies that generously provided the hardware and swag that we gave away to the lucky attendees.  Intel, Corsair, Abit, DFI, and ATI - Thank You.