TipidPC OCnation Event, Exposing Pro-clocking to the masses

TipidPC recently held a competition dubbed OCNation: Overclocking for Every Juan where they sought to find the top overclocker in the local enthusiast scene. The event was held over 2 weekends, covering 2 legs held in SM South Mall and SM Manila. Finals were held in SM Manila and Back2Gaming was present to see who gets to glory in this momentous event.

OCnation aims to open up a peek into the enthusiast scene and expose the brands that they support and trust. Here’s a quote from their TipidPC Event Post:

OC Nation is a first in the local Overclocking scene where experts and newbies converge in learning, sharing and discussing anything about the art of Overclocking. It’s a 2 day 2 Leg gathering that includes seminars, product display and demo, raffle prizes and OC competitions- it’s the new Overclocking event that enthusiasts will look forward to.

Our Goal is not only to provide and expand the knowledge of PC enthusiasts but to open new markets to the brands that we believe in as well.

The event was heralded by an online qualifiers held throughout early March wherein TPC members compete to vie for 9 spots. The qualifiers is a battle of gains with from stock to OC runs of Wprime and 3Dmark 11. The following managed to secure their spot for the OCnation event:

Jomalmighty, regnevacs, ragbarok, alvinsison84, xXaladinXx, destiny123, gnarlkill042, drewmeister, sep025

At the event proper, we see sponsors and their booths showing off some of their gear. CoolerMaster was on-site and was nice enough to demo their new Trigger mechanical gaming keyboard for the crowd along with their Sentinel Advanced 2. There was also plenty of eye-candy with customized rigs making their way to floor but all are exclusively in CoolerMaster cases.

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Among the products on display are Kingston’s RAM offerings, too.

Going back to the event proper, the stage was prepped with 3 tables for the competitors with an open-bench chassis armed with an ECS P67H2-A2 motherboard with Kingston HyperX Genesis DDR3-1866 RAM topped with a PowerColor HD6990 dual-GPU and of course the processor to show their game on, we got Intel’s Core i7-2600K.

Here’s the setup the OC’ers played with during the battle:

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The stage OC competition was a scoring run for wPrime and 3Dmark 11. OC’ers battle to get top spot but in the end, it was regnevacs that took the crown and a hefty pile of swag and gear.

We feel that the event presents a milestone to the local overclocking and enthusiasts scene. The event was properly executed and there wasn’t a lack of thrills during the event. One thing we feel missing though is stage coverage and an active, passionate emcee to bring life and streamcast, if you will, the OC battle while it happened. Our experience of the event as the OC runs were being held was filled with nonsense chats and strolling around waiting for the competitors to have their scores validated. An emcee calling out what’s happening on stage and relaying them to the people would’ve generated a good crowd and created a larger buzz amongst those who came.

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Another thing worth noting is the lack of booth exhibitor participation. All throughout the day they would just sit there and do nothing acting bored out of their wits which completely turns off those who are taking a stroll around and curious. These passer-by could in turn be potential customers and the lack of interaction with the brands proves highly disappointing. They manage to redeem themselves with some giveaways though like those shirts, premium goodies and that golden USB was pretty sick. Those 2 lucky dudes that won the HAF932 (I think) and the Silencio 550 should really be smiling crazy right now.  Also the Dirt 3 and NBA 2k12 during the Finals was an OK gig but didn’t really offer much in terms of hyping up the crowd. They did manage to keep them around though.

Recalling how the OC battle took place, the booming music playing all throughout the battle isn’t likely to help either. Overclocking is a game of patience and concentration and we believe playing Pitbull or Rihanna on 70% volume while the competitors are up on stage doing their thing could prove distracting.

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All in all, its the core event that matters and that is the overclocking competition and that still came out nicely. It would’ve been better if there was another screen showcasing what’s happening on the stage along with an emcee casting it like we said especially on such occasions were scores were neck to neck to each other like gnarkill042 and sep025’s 3Dmark11 run on the March 24 battle. That moment was priceless. The little competitor webcam thing on the finals was a nice touch to see the OC’er up close during their run but something more high-res would’ve been highly appreciated. Still, we would like to extend our congratulations to TipidPC Events for such a wonderful event and we would love to see another one hopefully soon. As an enthusiast myself, my personal thanks goes out to you guys for getting the word out there.

Credits to Leo Bien Durana for these photos:

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