Swarms of battle-weary gaming enthusiasts left the Pacific Events center yesterday, as the largest gaming event in New Zealand closed its doors and began what was no doubt a gruelling clean-up.

Gameplanet was on site to see the finals, as Team Sidewinder cleaned up the majority of the awards and earned their tickets to Cologne for the World Cyber Games later this year. Newtype took out the CS Source finals in what was a stunning defeat of Boneshot, and sila managed to dominate in the Call of Duty 4 tournament.

Even Gameplanet got in on the action, as our editor Dan Cheer won the PC World modding competition!

Despite the obvious fatigue, most competitors were quick to show their appreciation of a well prepared and smoothly run event. Anthony and Susan Baikie and the entire xLAN crew have well and truly earned a break. It was easy to see that a huge amount of effort had gone into organising such a massive gathering, and it was great to see such a world-class, professional event here in New Zealand.

We are currently in the process of stitching together video footage from the event, and hope to get this to you shortly. In the meantime, check out the collection of photos taken over the weekend below.

Winners

New Zealand World Cyber Games 2008 team:

  • Feroz ‘evolution’ Brouwer (Team Sidewinder)
  • Bruce ‘infidel’ Lodge (Team Sidewinder)
  • Nick ‘ninjanick’ Shaw (Team Sidewinder)
  • Byron ‘simcore’ McLean (Team Sidewinder)
  • Ryan ‘toonz’ Campion (Team Sidewinder)
  • Hamish ‘kowi’ Parker
  • Connagh ‘IZeRo” Heath (Team Sidewinder Flowen)
  • Kurtis ‘KurtiZ’ Papple (Team Sidewinder Flowen)
  • Ozz ‘Proddd’ Buitendyk (Team Sidewinder Flowen)
  • Ben ‘Zeth’ Price (Team Sidewinder Flowen)
  • Pejmon ‘Pablo’ Barzandeh
  • Lorance ‘Escobar’ Taylor (MidCity Procision)
  • Jeremy ‘jerm_nz’ Macdonald (MidCity Procision)
  • Slava ‘slavOuchka’ Sheynin (MidCity Procision)
  • Nick ‘Veteran-in-Love’ Catley (MidCity Procision)
  • David ‘Wytaliba’ Ashwell (MidCity Procision)
  • Patrick ‘ssj2vegrick’ Cullinan
  • Mason ‘massi4h’ Maddox
  • Austin ‘wugga’ Sedgwick

PC World Case Modding Competition
Best Mod: Daniel Cheer
Craziest: Karlo Dunatov
Best Engineered: Matthew Foot

Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360)
1st: Mason "massi4h" Maddox
2nd: Thomas "DarkJyn" Clarke
3rd: Owain "Welshman" Metcalfe

Virtua Fighter 5 (Xbox 360)
1st: Austin "wugga" Sedgwick
2nd: Mark "Markuchi" Payne
3rd: Paul "DogcowNZ"

Halo 3 (Xbox 360)
1st: TSW.Flowen
- Connagh "IZeRo" Heath
- Kurtis "KurtiZ" Papple
- Ozz "Proddd" Buitendyk
- Ben "Zeth" Price

2nd: DM
- James "DangerMouse" Blakely
- Haydyn "Doberman" Papple
- Clayton "TheKlunk" Franks
- William "william101" Slingsby

3rd: Warbound
- James "KaYoS-Nz" Walker
- Simon "RumbleSIM" Maiava
- Sinapati "SAMOAN_NINGA" pili
- Anthony "Unbeliever" Maiava

Counter-Strike 1.6 (PC)
1st: TSW
- feroz "evolution" brouwer
- Bruce "infidel" Lodge
- Nick "ninjanick" Shaw
- Byron "simcore" McLean
- Ryan "toonz" Campion

2nd: divine gaming
- Melvin "GANMAN" Gan
- SCOTT "Krisis" MANNING
- Stefan "NuNuc" Mengwasser
- Nathan "rapturE" Holden
- Varun "varunnz" Mallavarapu

3rd: etu
- Steven "aChilleus" Lorth
- Tom "Maximus" Lorth
- Matthew "MoG" O'Grady
- Sufyan "sufyaN" Khan
- Ahmed "vanadium" Salem

WarCraft III: Frozen Throne (PC)
1st: Hamish "kowi" Parker
2nd: Chase "FiZiX" Barnes
3rd: Jason "Snoop" McCartney

DOTA - All Stars (PC)
1st: Midcity Procision
- Lorance "Escobar" Taylor
- Jeremy "jerm_nz" Macdonald
- Slava "slavOuchka" Sheynin
- Nick "Veteran-in-Love" Catley
- David "Wytaliba" Ashwell

2nd: Midcity Passion For Fashion
- Greg "bubble_man" Farr
- Scott "CriticalStrike" Riddell
- Jared "FiSh_SlApPahHh" Farr
- Karol "l0lek" Ruszkiewicz
- Rohan "The_Mexican" Khanna

3rd: Midcity Mmm I Dunno...
- Declan "Declan" McEntegart
- Patrick "AzureAssassin" Wan
- Chris "rOmance" Katte
- Kieran "Roquefire" Mcentegart
- Andrew "Xilo" Jackson

FIFA 2008 (PC)
1st: Pejmon "Pablo" Barzandeh
2nd: Shahn "Fobski" Harris
3rd: Alex "Daman88" Lam

Need for Speed Pro-Street (PC)
1st: Patrick "ssj2vegrick" Cullinan
2nd: Carl "EVO_X" Sulzberger
3rd: Jason "Dingardo" Biddick

Act and Dress Like a Rockstar Guitar Hero 3 (Xbox 360)
1st: Lag
2nd: Mexican Wedding Duo
3rd: Ball Sac

Call of Duty 4 (PC)
1st: sila
- Ben "elemunk" Hooper
- Glen "marine" Hart
- Kris "skippy" Empson
- Vin "soop" Elliott
- Remo "Switch" Grand

2nd: Team Uprising
- Chris "ball" Millington
- James "cnble" Fallwell
- Christopher "dryoken" Dobrovic
- Thomas "IceAgeComing" Satherley
- Rob "robbingtoN" Fallwell

3rd: TSW Alpha
- Matt "Cripple" Edwards
- William "Hydraulix" Yip
- Sebastian "sebseb" Paz
- Rob "Snake_Daddy" Mclean
- Dan "TheTick" Weinstock

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (PC)
1st: Tony "TrIg" Fraser
2nd: James "pwnstick" Fraser
3rd: Alex "Terrorblade" Benner

Food Eating Competition
1st: Bok Choi
2nd: Mig NZ
3rd: Scribble

Freeware Gaming Marathon (PC)
1st: Darshan "Tide" Naidoo
2nd: Jason "Dingardo" Biddick
3rd: Darryl "Phoenix" Adams

Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360)
1st: William "william101" Slingsby
2nd: Austin "wugga" Sedgwick
3rd: Mark "Markuchi" Payne

SpamTin Memorial Counter-Strike: Source (PC)
1st: Newtype
- James "Atvar" Kerr
- Andrei "grudg3" Mahalean
- Khaled "hellscraper" Salem
- Wesley "meat" Booth
- Joshua "supertech" Skelton

2nd: boneshot
- Marcus "AO" McCall
- Sam "equinoxx" Johnson
- Sam "hylight" Green
- Daniel "ind1go" Palmer
- craig "shs" perkins

3rd: Abilita.sz
- Atta "CrAzyArabE" Elayyan
- Craig "deston" Wendt
- Clive "Kassi" OShea
- Rob "xcite" Parker
- Brendon "yawt" Chin

Team Fortress 2 (PC)
1st: TSW.YSW
- Anthony "antwa" Lee
- Ben "Azmodan" Taylor
- Nicholas "G-nome" Burfield
- Michael "gore2" Tsang
- Reese "Gutzie" Jones
- Jono "sF" Chen

2nd: Two Poor Monkies :<
- Joe "Det0r" Cursons
- Greg "Escher" Pienaar
- Tim "jntr" Morris
- William "Miseria" Harrop
- Dave "Twinsen" Reid
- Brett "wug_" Cross

3rd: break your FACE!
- Anthony "ant" Mclauchlan
- Ashley "blinkassassin" Lim
- Grant "ChrisWarner" Steane
- Greg "gregwong" Wong
- Drew "shootmyself" Reid
- Tim "wizzy" Newman

Congratulations to the worthy winners, and here's looking forward to xLAN 2009!