With the morning sun burning bright upon the Liberty of Press’ Square, the second day of CERF, the annual event that attracts both large companies from Romania, but also from abroad, begins, in all its glory, that is, packed full of contests, games, music, booth babes and so very much more.

With just a few minutes before the opening, the staff, including myself, entered the complex to find out more about the contests and events organized today, which, yes, were our main attraction today.

Contests, events and prizes

Like the first day of CERF, only a few companies organized competitions, mostly because of lack of visitors. As always, these contests are held every day during the period of CERF, also, every participant, that does not get the chance to win something, can participate again, in a different day.

The first one of these contests that we got information on is hosted by IT Direct. The contest, is hosted daily and consists of fishing a memory stick from an aquarium with tropical fishes and coral. Now this might seem a bit easy, considering the pole has a magnet instead of a hook, but there is a catch. There are about 10 of these sticks in there, but only two or three are awarding, the others are just rusted and will only get you a cord to hang your mobile.

Also, IT Direct will host a demonstration regarding overclocking a processor over 4GHz or more, using liquid nitrogen, but this event is scheduled Saturday, around 3 o’clock, depending on the number of visitors. More info on this subject will be available probably Sunday.

The next company in our list is Ultra Pro, who is hosting contests everyday with prizes that will make anyone want to compete. The contests are held at 13:45, 14:30, 15:05 and the final is at 16:00. Now, anyone can compete, but only the good reach the finals and only the best go home with the goodies.

Like the first day, our team has competed yet once again, but this time, we reached the finals, where we lost on the edge, but this will not stop us from participating until we finally win something. In addition, Ultra Pro is also hosting a raffle this Sunday.

Vodafone, one of the biggest mobile communications provider, also hosted a contest. This one consisted on a mobile Formula 1 racing game, the one with the lowest time wins. The prize was two tickets to the next Formula 1 race.

Level, an important Romanian gaming magazine, is hosting contests on a variety of games, like Unreal Tournament, Quake 4, Need for Speed Most Wanted. Today, fourth of May, Level hosted a Tekken video game contest; the rules were simple, four people, one versus one.

Next off is the largest cable TV and Internet provider, RDS&RCS, who are also hosting a raffle. There are 3 daily extractions, followed by the big raffle. Those lucky enough can leave with computer accessories, but one will leave with a computer and a free subscription to the Internet through fiber optics.

Another company in our list is Click Net, who hosted a Counter Strike contest against TEG, The Elder Gods. Any team of two who could win 5 out of 12 rounds can leave with a bag of gifts, but that’s a bit hard, seeing as TEG is the best Romanian CS team. Nonetheless, there were some winners today, the prizes consisting of two caps and a wristwatch.

Right next to Click Net, Cosmote was hosting its own contest. Anyone who got into the specially arranged cabin, had to imitate someone or do something silly to make the others laugh. The main purpose for this was to find talented people to star on MTV. Also, the participants won a 5$ Cosmote prepaid card, each.

Day 2 Terminal Remarks

As we left the compound, we could only think of what we will do the next day, of what contests will they be and more importantly, of the horrible back and feet aching we got from the Counter Strike contest at Ultra Pro. It would have been a lot better if they provided the participants with some chairs as well. Also, we were trying to re-accommodate ourselves to the low volume noise, because after 5 hours of high volume music, we could not hear that well.

"Tomorrow is another day, therefore another chance to bring home some goodies for my computer". That is what all young people who come to this event probably would think before going home; apparently we thought as well.