Intel Masters games tourney is 'shambles'
Gamers chime in with their thoughts
Intel's sponsorship of a games tournament at London's Science Museum last Saturday ended in farce and frustration for participants and spectators alike.
From the start the Intel Masters championship was beset with delays and technical cockups. A Reg reader who attended the tournament described it as a "total shambles", a summary shared by contributors to this thread on the game forum, Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
Forum member v3n0m writes: "Everything was badly organized. According to what I heard the Science museum just let the IM guys to put all the show up at 06.00 of the same day or something like that. That doesn't explain the bad function of the PCs but it explains the delays."
"The delays got worst with the PCs overheating and games not being able to being played. That resulted on Intel having to change the format of the games to a knockout tournament. That resulted on people only playing one game after having waited for like 10 hours."
Ten hours? Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but the problems were real enough as documented by Z (another forum member).
"[I] Got to the science museum at around 8am. After sitting about for five hours with no information from staff, they told us that the tournament would be single-elimination and we would be playing 4K in the first round," he writes.
"Disappointment turned into farce as, after sneaking into the gaming area because security guards refused us entry, technicians and other 'organisers' pressured and pushed us to start the game as soon as possible.
"After graphics card problems, sound problems, config problems, PCs crashing problems, servers disconnecting problems, punkbuster-kicking-entire-teams problems, I tried to join my team for the first match of the Intel Masters... only to be told 'The Server is Full'.
"For me, unless you had a chance to play for one of the largest prizes, it really wasn't worth going to this tournament," he concludes.
Some people reported they enjoyed the opportunity to meet up with friends and see the Science Museum, but for most the day was a washout.
You can read their rants on the event via a listing on the numerous threads on the tournament on the Return to Castle Wolfenstein forum.