There are many reasons to look forward to QuakeCon every year, whether its the BYOC gaming, the exhibition hall, the handful of booth babes among a myriad of computer geeks or the prospect of an endless stream of free energy drinks. But the biggest reasons may be prize money and bragging rights in the QuakeCon tournament competitions.

While many of those who come to QuakeCon are playing in the BYOC, others still are playing at the highest competitive level. With $120,000 in prize money distributed to dozens of competitors playing four different games, QuakeCon offers some of the most money competitive gamers can win in the U.S..

With Quake Live making its public debut, Intel put up $10,000 for the 1v1 tournament and another $15,000 in the 4v4 Capture the Flag tournament. On the 1v1 side, Cypher from Team Razer took first place along with $5,000. Zero4 from SK Gaming, Griffin and Rapha rounded out the top four. On the CTF side, Zero4 found even more success with team "Billymazedaze," which took home $8,000. The other teams in the top three were "Rage" and "In It For the Money."

Team H20 celebrates on stage with Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead (right) after QuakeCon's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars tournament.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has been out for the PC for about 10 months now, and while the competitive scene is certainly lacking, teams will come out of the woodwork when money is on the line. European team "Mamut," the same lineup who won the Quake Wars tourney last year, made it two in a row and took home $8,000. Team "Kompanion" and "H2O," regarded as the best American team in the game, took second and third respectively. Quake Wars for the Xbox 360 also had a tournament, with the "Green Team" taking first and $5,000; "Cwell Fellas," "Skullriders," and "Bouncing Blinking Blue Balls" took second through fourth.

The two other events giving out cash prizes were the $10,000 Alienware Quickdraw Challenge and a small Guitar Hero III tourney. The Quickdraw Challenge would take two random contestants out of the crowd and pit them against one another in Quake Live, giving out $1,000 to each winner. The Guitar Hero tourney had $3,000 in prize money, giving trophies and cash to the champions of the one on one and two on two events. The biggest single event at QuakeCon this year was probably the Corvette giveaway sponsored by Ventrilo. The Corvette drawing had only 250 entrants, and winner Daniel Gozick got one of the last three tickets given out during a T-shirt giveaway.

With Rage due to be released before the next years event, and Quake Live going strong even before its wide release, QuakeCon 2009 already looks like it will have some exciting tournaments to keep an eye on.

Join our discussion on this topic