Tickets for 2upGamers Second Wave event in Cape Town were snapped up so quickly you may have missed out on the opportunity to meet up with gamers from around the city. Over 90 gamers, almost double that of the debut event, headed to the venue located in the heart of the city, with some eager gamers arriving as early as one hour before the event opened.

Glen kicked off the event by welcoming everyone and introducing the hardworking 2upGamers team. Next up were the hosts of the event, Friends of Design, who gave away two part time courses to two lucky attendees. Exciting news is that Friends of Design will offer both full and part time courses in Game Design from next year, the first of its kind in South Africa.

Wayne and I took to the stage next and quickly had the audience looking under their chairs for hidden prizes. Whilst sceptical at first, once the first winner came forth many began searching in earnest and ten lucky winners walked away with El33tonline T-shirts as well as PS3 and Xbox 360 games. We also had awesome Kalahari vouchers to hand out to members of the gaming crowd, along with Super Mario Land 3D mugs and 3DS cases for the Nintendo fans among us.

We awarded a special prize to inaugural ‘El33t P33p of the Month’ Jason for his show of support by wearing our El33tonline ‘Cog’ T-shirt on the night. Bronwin was our second special prize winner for the fan video which he and his brother Brendon made to encourage people to “Join El33tonline now” and which was a great hit on the night.

It was great to meet up with other El33tonline readers, some of whom we had met at rAge, and others who we met for the first time and are looking forward to seeing on El33tonline soon. We also enjoyed exchanging a few war stories with our Gears of War 3 online buddies…we’ll see you all on the battleground tomorrow!

Apex was next with a presentation that revealed their jam-packed line-up for Quarter 1 of 2012. Trine 2, Catherine and Torchlight 2 were the crowd favourites, but you can read the full line-up over here to find out what this distributor has in store for you next year. Thanks to Quinton and Alexia for their support, for spoiling us with goodie bags and for providing the evening’s entertainment with Grease and Blackwater on Kinect.

The 2upGamers team kept us well hydrated with a supply of Monster Energy drinks and fuelled our energy reserves with a mountain of delicious pizza. And just as well too, because lots of energy was being burnt between the dance-offs in Grease and taking cover in Blackwater. Members of the Cape Town Showdown team were also on hand to give out expert advice about fighting games, and give gamers the chance to test out some excellent looking fightsticks. Check out this short video that FullMetal MDK took of Bro October and FoFoZA heating up the dancefloor.

Thank you to 2upGamers for pulling the event together and to Friends of Design for the venue. We’d also like to thank our amazing sponsors Kalahari, Megarom and PlayStation South Africa for their continued support of the gaming community. Most of all a huge thank you to the Cape Town community who came out to support the event and made us Durban folks feel very welcome.

Be sure to follow 2upGamers on Twitter or Facebook to keep up to date on the Third Encounter event which will be taking place on the 20th of January. It will be bigger and better with two international speakers already confirmed, while 2upGamers have not yet revealed the one guest we do know that Brad Pidgeon, the Social Media and Community Lead for EA Asia Pacific, Japan & South Africa, will be a guest for the evening’s activities.

See what everyone had to say on Twitter about 2upGamers Second Wave - general consensus was that it was “Awesmazing.”

Images courtesy of Friends of Design.