Saying the Icrontic Expo starts June 24 and ends June 28 is an innocent lie. Many Icrontic regulars arrive early, and the international travelers typically stay late. For me, Expo is a 3+ week endeavor that leaves behind the deliriously tired, sputtering nutcase that’s writing this post.

After 6 years, it feels like we almost know what we’re doing.  Never ever has the setup gone so smoothly, the tournaments gone so well, and the balance of activities been so sublime.

Eric Ryder spent many weekends preparing Icrontic HQ, adding a huge amount of electrical and network infrastructure over last year’s already significant setup. Quinton Healy diagrammed and refined a new table layout to allow more people to fit in the same amount of space (and more comfortably). When the tent arrived, the tables and cables fell into place like clockwork thanks to their outstanding planning. Sixty computers, and zero circuits tripped in the tent. Wow.

Andrew Conrad and Bryan Miller ran the Left 4 Dead, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Team Fortress 2 tournaments, all of which were spectacular successes. They stayed cool under pressure, and resolved some bugs we ran into early on in TF2. People are still talking about how great that event turned out.

Greg Jones, Bobby Miller, and Jimmy Jennings spent huge spans of their free time putting together the Icrontic Year In Review video, which everyone watched Thursday night. It captured images and video from all the Icrontic events since last year’s LAN. It was a real treat to see it all compiled in one place.

CB Droege organized some very successful boardgaming in the Icrontic HQ garage; the tables were almost never empty. He also organized the Chinese auction, which turned out really well and seemed to be much preferred over past methods of door prize distribution. And, he pulled together the trip to Henry the Hatter. He and Rob Updegrove also ran the annual and much anticipated Duct Tape Challenge with great success.

Ben Bastin organized, judged, and supplied both the draft cards and prizes for Icrontic’s first-ever Magic: The Gathering tournament, which was immensely generous of him; it went perfectly. Rob Hallock organized a fitness question-and-answer session that was well-attended.

Those eleven people were really central to the success of the event and definitely made it the best event we’ve ever done. I sincerely thank you all.

Outside of Icrontic, our friends Matt Popp and Rob Delaurier rescued us from a failed air conditioner at the start of the Expo. Gallons of sweat were saved by their immediate intervention. MJA Graphics (Rob’s printing company) also provided us with the attendee badges (and they’re also where we get our business cards printed).

There were many more personal contributions by our members. Jackie DiOrio spent hours and hours baking some fantastic steak & ale pies for our Tuesday dinner which we devoured appropriately. Sarah Wagner made me a delicious strawberry pie for my birthday (which several others enjoyed as well) and made an airport run for us. Eli Robbins and Anne Baynes let us borrow their car for a whole day after one of ours broke down, and brought me beer from my home state of Pennsylvania. Ryder made many airport trips; Matt Jancaitis, Brian Novak, and Greg made trips as well. Rob Updegrove, Ryder, Eli, and others helped repair parts of Brian’s car, and Ryder plugged a hole in my tire. Several of you bought me dinner, which was very much appreciated. A huge thanks to all of you.

Evan Hanusa pretty much rocks in general, and then he went and organized donations for some pretty amazing gifts for Brian and I. Honestly, I don’t remember ever being so dumbfounded and humbled. You are all amazing.

You were all outstanding house guests, patient, and cooperative. Even when tournaments ran too long, everyone stayed committed to them and finished every round. The messes were modest, the house came through intact, and everyone pitched in where needed. A true class act every step of the way. Thank you all for coming, and I hope I see you all again in 2010, if not sooner.