As football players duke it out in the Swamp on Saturday, gamers of a different sort will battle in the air-conditioned Reitz Union Ballroom.
Gators will rumble and melee, but not in helmets. With controllers squeezed between their palms, hundreds of video-game fanatics will fill the Rietz Grand Ballroom for GatorLAN, Florida’s largest free gaming event.
With an arts-and-crafts-corner and more than 11 gaming tournaments, about 800 people are expected to attend, said Ed Fonseca, former president of Gator Gaming and a UF alumnus.
In the past, the ballroom has been filled with students staring intently at their games.
The event, hosted by Gator Gaming, UF’s official video-gaming group, will last from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., said UF telecommunications senior Charlene McGhee, 21, who is also the event’s project manager.
Alani Ilori, the advertising director for Gator Gaming, said the scheduling for Saturday’s GatorLAN was unexpected. The group booked the room last year, and it happened to be Homecoming.
Despite that, she said football games aren’t for everyone. And for the rest, there’s GatorLAN.
UF electrical engineering junior Julian Mendoza has been attending GatorLANs for the past two years.
"It’s a whole ecosystem in and of itself," the 20-year-old said. "We pretty much inhabit the Reitz Union."
As the marching band leads the Gators, Mendoza will pluck the theme songs of his favorite video games.
"You’re gonna remember something at that event for sure," he said.
Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo
