Our annual Expo is XCL’s way of getting members together in one place for a long weekend of gaming, socializing and letting everyone put a face to the voice that we hear on our headsets. Our second annual Expo went down in Toronto on the Canada Day long weekend with over 20 members taking part. Attendees began arriving Thursday to start setting up the four Xbox consoles and connecting them all for System Link play. Add in a high definition projector, a 120” screen and surround sound setup for each console and things were fully underway by Friday afternoon.

XCL EXPO 2005 REPORT : TORONTO

You can also read the Report on Trixie’s Xbox.com Community Spotlight

 

A few of the guys in between games.

 

Naturally, the big favorite was Halo 2 and its tremendous multiplayer game modes. While Halo2 dominated in terms of play time, we found time to spin all of our favorite games over the course of the weekend including:

• Halo 2 : We had massive games of XCL-created versions of Super Slayer and Tower of Power. On top of that, there were some epic capture the flag and oddball rounds that proved why Bungie is still the king of the multiplayer game.
• Ghost Recon 2 : A big hit in the large system link games and its pace was a nice change from the manic carnage that can happen in Halo 2.
• TimeSplitters: Future Perfect : A bit of a sleeper title that many XCL’ers passed over at release, it was met with good reception which turned into over a couple of hours of large 16-player matches. Besdies, monkeys always make games better.
• ESPN NHL 2K5 : What would a CANADIAN gaming expo be without a little hockey. The action on the ice was fast and furious as XCL’ers battled it out for the title of ultimate puck head.
• Fight Night Round 2 : Another sleeper title not many attendees had seen before. This game impressed pretty much everyone that we’re even talking about creating our own XCL “Fight Club” for those that have now picked the game up. Amazing graphics, easy and responsive controls. This game is an amazing party game and always had a big crowd of onlookers. Plenty of wicked bouts went on all weekend in between large 16 player games.
• FIFA 2005 : This game amazed a lot of people, especially on the big screen and in high-def. Of course there were several national squad matches between XCL’ers of varying nationalities.
• Many, many other games : XCL’ers also found the time to check out other games they might not have had a chance to play yet like Conker, Forza MotorSport, Midtown Madness, FIFA2005, Fight Night 2 (this one particularily impressed a LOT of XCL’ers and we had some terrific bouts), Wrestlemania 21 (including a monumental 45 minute Hell In A Cell match between two attendees) and, heck, even SmashTV! from the Midway Arcade Treasures compilation! Several guys, including myself, went home from the Expo wanting game “X” or “Y” after being able to give it a spin.

 

This was a common scene during the weekend.

 
The “XCL effect”

Outside of gaming, people found time to do other things including a trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame and a group dinner at the Outback Steakhouse on Friday night. That was a ton of fun and the first chance for some XCL’ers to experience the “Bloomin’ Onion” and “Aussie Cheese Fries”. The mornings seemed to be a free for all as far as the games played, as those keen enough to wake up at 8 a.m. or a few who slept in the actual conference room, geared up and tried out some of what seemed like 100’s of Xbox games that had been brought by attendees. We even had some hotel staff swing by begging for a round or two of Halo 2. We let them play but then proceeded to whoop them.

 

The XCLE2005 “Crew”. From L to R: Three Fifty Z, DylanH, Silk, Apache00, KrossRoad, Night Chicken, Jaken Bear, Wolfsburg, DrJMac, NinjaRay, BrewGuy, The Giant Squid, Kunzendorff, newslipknotgood, Easymacaddict, ZChara, BradofCanada.

 

The afternoons were when the big 16 player matches started happening. Some of these games were truly epic. You get 16 gamers together in one room with huge screens, booming sound, and 4 xbox’s and the sky really is the limit. It is so much more fun when you can actually yell over to the person who just sniped you for the 7th time in a row. Many laughs were had during these big games, and these turned out to be just one of many highlights from the weekend. XCL and Xbox live are all about community, and playing in a posh hotel conference room with 16 of your friends only served to solidify this. Gaming continued well on into the evening, with our hardcore members turning in as late as 3 or 4 am. Now that’s dedication!

Looking forward to Edmonton ‘06

The 2005 Expo was a terrific success and one hell of a good time. Big time thanks has to go out to Nick at IOGC.net who donated a ton of prizes that we gave out in a draw as well as vintage gaming tshirts for all those that attended the Expo! XCLE 2006 comes to Edmonton June 29th – July 2nd in 2006. We hope to make it bigger and better each and every year. Mark it on your calendars!

Some more shots from XCLE 2005

 

Zchara, DrJmac, NinjaRay, and Silk in action

 

 

“What?? No moonwalk button???” One of our intrepid admins (and a big part of the organizational end of XCLE2005) Night Chicken seemingly can’t get over Halo2’s lack of a “moonwalk” button.

 

 

XCL’s resident fourth Trailer Park Boy, Jaken Bear, hard at work during th Expo. This is the man that makes the site look as it does and brings design ideas to light with his coding brilliance.

 

 

BrewGuy (XCL’s resident musical talent and gentle giant) lets one of XCL’s “Young Guns” (KrossRoad) know that Halo2 stats really don’t matter so much in real life! Actually, this was BrewGuy and KrossRoad finishing off a monumental WM21 match in real life that had to be abandoned due to pressure to get back to Halo2. (Disclaimer: No XCL’ers were harmed in this photo!)

 

 

We’re not exclusively Canadian either. Here’s one of our “import” members Silk from the US showing that he loves Canada (and our beer!). Jaken Bear also had to explain to him what a “timmies double double” was.

 

 

An unidentified XCL’er ponders his next move whilst reflecting on all of the good times he had at XCLE 2005.