Gamers, Party People Come Together for Lanbash in Kendall

Long gone are the days when we would play kickball outside anticipating the ice cream truck's eerily familiar music. Those were replaced by days of huddling over our Nintendo trying to rescue the princess (Peach or Zelda, your choice). At least roaming pedophiles had a harder time snatching us up. Today, us older "kids" plug into our Xbox Live or Playstation Network accounts in anticipation of icing some fresh noobs.

The College of Business & Technology has found a way to combine the antisocial aspect of gaming with the über social pastime of playing outside with your friends by throwing Lanbash -- the college's interactive video gaming tournament.

But what exactly is a Lanbash? "A Lanbash is like an online video game

tournament, but it's live and various players and group teams can play

against each other in person. During the Lanbash, we have food, coffee,

energy drinks, live music, and lots of cool prizes and giveaways,"

explains Veronica Villegas, CBT's international relations director.

Prizes include an Xbox 360 Kinect and gift cards.

Villegas continues, "Every time, we get an even bigger turnout, and this

will be our fourth one in less than a year. In our first Lanbash, we had

about 35 attendees and today we have 200 registered players, but we

anticipate about 250 will attend with guests, family members, sponsor

guests, and so on."

The games played are chosen according to three factors: popularity/critical acclaim, following, and competitive playability.

What about girls? Daniel Saavedra, the social media and events

coordinator at CBT says, "There are female soldiers in our military as

well there are female gamers. Why should they be excluded from the

game?" Indeed.

Miami) and admission is free. Visit cbtlanparty.com.

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