Gamers Unite for 9th Annual Georgia Tech Gamefest

Gamers will come to campus from across Atlanta this weekend for Gamefest, a semesterly event hosted by Tech’s eSports club.

From first-person shooter to real-time strategy games, the two-day festival of video game tournaments will bring around 800 people to spend the weekend gaming. The event began in 2006 as a gathering of just a handful of people.

“It’s a group of diverse people who all share a passion for gaming, both electronic and analog,” said Henry Mei, president of eSports.

The eSports group is split into two divisions — one for manning the logistics of Gamefest, and the other for competitive gaming teams.

“We provide support to our teams and act as an entity to help them spend more time gaming and less time navigating finances, entry fees, or gear,” Mei said.  

At Gamefest, tournament layout for each game depends on the number of people participating. For some games, such as League of Legends and Dota 2, the tournaments will be double-elimination. Others use single elimination or best-of-three. Team advancement is determined by bracket win or loss, and ties are broken by game scores.

The event will take place in the Klaus Advanced Computing Building from Saturday at 10 a.m. to Sunday at 9 p.m. Gamers will compete for numerous prizes, most of which are games or gaming equipment. Entry to play is $15, but spectating is free. Learn more or sign up at www.gtgamefest.com.