NVIDIA GAME24 Global Gaming Event Coverage - eBash Indianapolis

Introduction

NVIDIA put a lot of effort into making sure gamers all over the world had a front row seat for the Maxwell GPU launch. Dubbed the first 24 hour live stream celebration of PC gaming, GAME24 wasn't just a bunch of gamers watching a broadcast grade presentation over the internet (but there was that too).

NVIDIA held open events in Los Angeles, Shanghai, Stockholm, London, Chicago, Mission Veijo and Indianapolis.

NVIDIA co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang started the 24-hour celebration of PC gaming off from Los Angeles, California with a keynote address. In the address, Jen-Huang discusses several topics and then introduces Maxwell. You can watch the video above.

Zac and I live close to Indianapolis, Indiana and attended GAME24 at eBash on the Northeast side of the city. During the keynote address, the crowd hung on every word, patiently waiting for Maxwell details.

The crowd steadily increased throughout the night. This is the main room at eBash. eBash is located in the old Ovation audio and video flagship store in Castleton.

Not only did eBash get the building, but it also had some of the home theater equipment. The upscale theater chairs and large projector screens made the perfect environment for viewing the broadcast that included tournaments in popular games.

Gamers from all over the world took part in the online tournament.

You didn't have to be a pro gamer to take part in the gaming festivities.

TweakTown setup in the main gaming room between the tournament area and the massive server closet. We fielded questions from gamers and showed them some of the newest PC technology.

GAME24 & Final Thoughts

GAME24

NVIDIA staff flew in for the GAME24 event and brought goodies. Everyone walked away with t-shirts, posters, NVIDIA themed mouse pads, and prizes were drawn for over the course of the night.

The local tournament winners will all receive GTX 980 video cards. Since the GTX 980 was just announced that night, the winners will have to wait for their winnings to arrive in the mail. NVIDIA did have one Maxwell card on hand that went with the grand prize.

The grand prize was a complete custom Maingear PC with all the bells and whistles.

Towards the end of the night, Zach Johnson, owner of eBash, drew tickets to give away thousands of dollars in prizes.

TweakTown brought SSDs and power supplies to give away.

This lucky guy walked away with a new Maingear PC and EVGA GeForce GTX 980 GPU.

After the long keynote, gaming and prize collection, the only thing left to do before calling it a night was to eat.

Final Thoughts

Zac and I had a blast at GAME24 and it reinvigorated our love for gaming. NVIDIA managed to pull off local gaming festivities and tie them all together with a global feel. For most of the event, you could feel the buzz from the energy bouncing off the walls. eBash was a great host and the facility was perfect for this event.

If there was anything I'd like to see NVIDIA or the local host do differently is make the event 24 hours at each local location. Going into the event, I actually thought it was a 24 hour event and packed accordingly.

Once home (and unpacked), I was able to watch features, interviews and activities from other events on Twitch. It would be impossible for NVIDIA to fly game developers to each location, so this was a really good way to get the information out.

Hopefully this isn't a one and done event and NVIDIA does this on a regular basis, maybe once a year.