Everyone who went to i55 im pretty sure (of those who were playing)

back up your important stuff, you can never be too safe

Best way I found was to take out your GPU, heat sync, or anything like that that is not the most stable and that protrudes. Next is pack the inside of the case with something more or less solid to make sure things dont move around too much. Then just throw that in a box and put it on the plane. The bigger issue i found was moving the monitor around, that shits a pain in the ass if you have limited space.

Do we know how they did this? Did they have to do something special?

I have never traveled by plane, but when I went to lan's I always took my clothes and wrapped my desktop in clothes and put it in a suitcase.

Depending on how big your pc is, try to keep that along with your monitor in a suitcase, especially if you've ever seen how those baggage handlers can be sometimes...

To the best of my knowledge none of the top i55 players brought their own PCs. The only person I'm aware of who brought his own PC was Smirre. Everyone else received on-site PC rentals even some players from the UK.

When I flew to GXL with my pc i put all of my parts in electrostatic bags (except the mobo, i just left that screwed on) and then put them in styrofoam packing. I also put my PC case in a large luggage case. I broke the shit outta my monitor though, It could have used more padding.

Bassically make sure you'd be comfortable dropping your pc down a flight of stairs and you should be good to go.

I think Sidestep took his PC apart and just reassembled it once he got there, I think you can take most of it in a carry on and you could even forego taking a case and yolo it.

Which LAN? :P also I've flown with sensitive hardware before and have used pelican cases to do so. Only thing to watch out for (of course) is that gpu due to it being a heavy item on a thin strip connected to the motherboard. Like others have said, take out that gpu!

GXL