Winners of the US Case Modding Championship at Quakecon 2018

Every year when we start talking about Quakecon I get excited because of the folks in the BYOC (bring your own computer) that haul in their labors of love to enter them into the US Case Modding Championship at Quakecon (rules and sponsors). These guys and gals work hard and long hours to get their cases completed before the event. Some years, they’ve had to finish their mods in the BYOC. And every year I am truly impressed and amazed with the caliber of mods that are entered and every year, the mods keep getting better and better. The level of competition this year was really intense. There were so many fantastic mods in all the categories. Judging this was not an easy task and in some cases a single point separated the top contenders in their respective categories. These competitors keep upping their game a notch every year and we love it!

The winners of the case mod contest were given $1000’s of dollars prizes from our great friends (see listing in article) PLUS cash prizing supplied by SAPPHIRE/Modders Inc. $500 for first place, $300 for second and $200 for third place.

The modding contest has three categories: Bethesda/ID, Scratch Built, and Case Mod. Here is how to compete in each category.

Classic Case Mod: Consists of any mod that is built from an existing retail PC Case.

Scratch-Build Mod: Consists of any mod built from anything other than a retail PC Case.

id/Bethesda Themed Mod: Consists of any mod style (classic or scratch) themed about id Software/Bethesda or any of their games.

Classic Case Mods

3rd Place – Rob Wilson – RemTech
Rob’s case started out as a Cooler Master HAF XB and turned into a piece of Remnant technology from the Mass Effect universe. The case features custom acrylic panels that have been painted to allow the green light to shine through. 

2nd Place – Nick Ray – Magical Girl
Nick started out with a Corsair Graphite 780T. The Magical Girl mod features a paint job that is near flawless. Nick chose a satin finish rather than a high gloss finish. Small accents adorn both the outside and inside of the case.

1st Place – Cameron Behzadpour – ЯЩИK
Cameron’s case features a custom front panel with CNC engraved Russian labels. Up top, the panel features Mil-Spec USB ports and a pair of Nixie Tubes that display the temperature in real time. The number pad is actually functional and is how the user would access the PC. Enter the code wrong three times and you’ll be resetting the PC. At the bottom of the case the analog gauge displays the CPU utilization in real time.

Scratch Built Case Mods

3rd Place – Dave Cathey – Deep Blue
Deep Blue features aluminum fins that Dave cut on his CNC. The case gets its name from the deep blue polished wood grain veneer panels. These veneer panels are featured throughout the case.

2nd Place – Danielle Brubidge – Frank Lloyd Wrong
Frank Lloyd Wrong was built using African Mahogany. The stained glass work was all done by Danielle. Every inch of cable that could be hidden was tucked inside the center spine of the case. The case also features a swing out monitor on the other side of the case.

1st Place – Joshua Judy
This case features a full aluminum chassis and is fully portable. All the bends were done by Joshua. On the flip side of the case, a full 24″ LCD monitor is present. One of the most impressive features of this case was the mount and hinge for the monitor. The hinge allows the monitor to flip up and back so the LCD screen is protected during travel.

id/Bethesda Themed Case Mods

3rd Place – Ezekial Hicks – F.N.E.S
F.N.E.S comes to us by the way of Fallout. Ezekial took a real NES case and chopped it up to fit not only a PC but also a full blown GTX 1060 inside. In to get everything to fit, he had to extend the height of the NES case. Air vents were cut into the top of the case to help keep things cool.

2nd Place – Travis Blanton – Almost Heaven
Almost heaven is a rough and tumble gaming pc mostly assembled out of scrap found around the vaults in West Virginia. The electrical panel on the front houses all the switches for the PC. The fans have been exposed by the way of a Dremel and pair of pliers.

1st Place – Brandon McCarthy – Whoop
Whoop features a lot of wood and acrylic work. Wood covers were made to fit over all the fittings on the water cooling gear. The acrylic distribution panels were made by chemically welding two sheets together one of which had the pockets cut out. This eliminates any need for gaskets. There is one panel on the front of the case and one panel at the top.

This year’s competition was tough to judge and at this level of competition small details can make a big difference in where you place. There was a tie this year and the result simply came down to small details.

A huge thank you goes out to all of our awesome sponsors! Please support them!

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From all of us here at Modders-Inc, we want to thank all of our competitors. You guys keep upping the game every year. We like it when the competition is tough to judge.

See you guys next year!!!