By Shad Cox THE FINAL MATCH: Ethan Neff (left) and Ian Swaby battle it out during the final round of the Linton Friends of the Library's Guitar Hero Contest which was held in conjunction with the Linton Music Fest. In the end, Swaby conquered Neff and went home the Guitar Hero Expert. [Order this photo]

Swaby, a sophomore at Linton-Stockton High School, proved his strumming techniques to be on fire after landing the title of Guitar Hero Expert during a contest in conjunction with the Linton Music Festival.

The MusicFest Hero/Guitar Hero Tournament was the brainchild of the Linton Friends of the Library.

But little did the Friends of the Library know that its contest would be such a hit.

The two-day contest was a magnet for gamers and spectators of all ages.

And Swaby just happened to be one of them.

"A bunch of kids at school wanted to know if I was going to be in it," he explained.

But he didn't expect the contest to draw so much hype.

"I didn't expect that many kids (to be in the contest)," he added.

Among the gamer crowd, the first-time contest was the reason to be at the Linton Music Fest

"I felt the only competition would be my friend, Nathan Lancaster. We played the semi-finals against each other and I just barely beat him."

After all, Swaby has two years of Guitar Hero play under his belt.

"I just play and practice," he said, noting that he has already outplayed two of the game's guitar controllers.

"I broke two. They went out. I had one that went out in three months and one I had a year," he explained.

When it came to playing the final round on stage, Swaby was more than ready.

"I wasn't nervous. I thought it was cool to get up on stage. I was surprised that many people would be watching," he said.

Swaby was banking on playing DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames."

"I can do it and I was hoping to do that in the end," he said, adding "Through the Fire and Flames" is notorious for being difficult to master on Guitar Hero.

But that's not how the final round went down.

Instead, Swaby and Ethan Neff battled it out playing Muse's "Knights of Cydonia."

During the final round, Swaby's game got off to a slow start but made a quick comeback.

"I was pretty excited about it. I felt pretty confident," Swaby said, adding he was in the lead during most of the song.

As the overall winner, he walked away with a $50 Wal-Mart gift card, a PlayStation 2 stand as well as other PS2 accessories.

When he's not gaming, Swaby spends time behind a real drum set.

"I play drums for real and a little bit of guitar," he said. "I just dabble (in guitar)."

He also listens to lots of music.

"Metal, rock, everything but rap and country," he added.

Guitar Hero has introduced him to a world of music that includes everything from The Rolling Stones, Ozzy Osbourne and Pat Benatar to Tenacious D and PROTOTYPE.

"It's good for all ages. There's everything from '60s to '80s rock to current metal," he said.

The game's also different every time you play it, he added.

So, will Swaby try to uphold his top spot as Guitar Hero Expert during next year's fest?

"I'm really hoping to. I'm looking forward to it," he said.

Swaby is the son of Jon and Beth Swaby of rural Linton.

And Guitar Heroes run in the Swaby family.

After all, it was his sister, Erinn, who brought home the Guitar Hero Contest medium title.

* Ryan Littlejohn was the winner of the contest's hard category.