Difference in Opinion

It is no secret that the site died out for a few weeks. Fortunately we weren’t just sitting on our rumps watching paint dry but were actually at a gaming event down in Melbourne, FL. Memorial Day weekend marked one of Tied the Leader’s annual events. I say “event” because we used to refer to them as LANs (and still do some), but to me they have grown well beyond that cage. Yes, there is LANing involved but that is just the shell of a nice M&M full of all kinds of chocolaty goodness.

I went down early and stayed late. It seems like I don’t get enough time off work so when I do take a break, I want to enjoy it to it’s full extent. The weekend was a nice blend of Halo 3, Rock Band, swimming in the pool, being on the beach, and raising money for charity. Very little sleep was involved, but it would only cut into the other things to do. Behind the gaming playing the TTL events have another purpuse. For the last 3 events we have donated all profits we have to our charity, the Tied the Leader Foundation. For the last 2 events, there have been auctions to help raise more money while providing attendees and those online with a chance to get great prizes. With each event comes a new milestone. The first donation we made was $500 which was our Florida event last year plus all the money we raised from merchandise and various donation. Chicago 2007 raised $500 by itself which was the most we had ever raised from a single event. Florida 2008 (just a few weeks ago) tripled Chicago raising $1500.

When all the pieces of the puzzle come together we have a gaming event that raises lots of money for combat-wounded was veterans. There seems to be no downside: gaming, friends, charity, vacation. It was well worth the extra time off work. I may be a bit biased since I am one of 7 founders of Tied the Leader, but I would offer anyone who attended and didn’t enjoy themselves a million dollars (of monopoly money) and a puzzled look.

There were around 40 people in attendance, all of the best caliber. Difference in Opinion had three of their staff there: myself, our news editor UtopiaUnknown, and our sketch artist ChubbyHands. Below is a nice little list of links to gaming sites and personal sites of some of those in attendance.

Tied the Leader Blog - Podtacular - I Am Stuicide - The Jackle’s Den - Living Vegan