This past weekend 125 of you joined us for another great LanOC event and the rest of you probably wish you had. If you don't wish you had then you are wrong, just plain wrong.
The 32 hour lan extravaganza actually started the night before when we had a record number of kind souls show up to help set up the network, power, staff, and prize area. Some obviously helped more than others…ahem, Winkis. With most of the setup finished in record time we headed off to dinner at Frickers and returned shortly after for a bit more setup. After the venue was ready for the masses that were set to arrive the next day, we all headed home for some much needed shut eye.
The next day things started fast and furious. With the new streamlined registration process gamers were able to get in the door quicker and get to fragging faster. It soon became obvious however that there were some network issues and the staff got to work fighting the good fight to get the rest of us back to what we know and love, and that’s killing each other.
After a brief delay, the early bird raffle started and we got to see all the amazing stuff that the sponsors sent. With all of the stuff in the tables up front, it seemed as if the tables were beginning to bow. The sponsors are always amazing to LanOC, but this time they really outdid themselves. Every single gamer (who was present when their name was called) won a prize and received a swag bag. There was even stuff left over at the end to keep handing out. Of course the biggest prize, a brand new GTX 660 video card was given away first, and not only did Wes not choose my name, he chose the person I rode with. This was particularly awesome because I got to hear about 500 times how he won a video card and he continually asked me if I won one too. RAAAAAAAAAAAGE.
For the rest of the evening staff continued to struggle with the network and get things back on track. There were some inevitable delays in tournaments and some obviously frustrated gamers, but the cure for that was simple. NBA Jam. A record 60 something people signed up for the old school tournament. Maybe it was because the network was having issues, or maybe it was because they heard I was playing and wanted a shot at me, but regardless it was amazing. The first round was incredibly fun with a large crowd of onlookers and many oohs and aahs following the incredible action on the glorious 16 bit graphics of the Super Nintendo.
Towards the end of the first night Renegade discovered that a large part of our network issue was due to packet loss. The loss rate was abnormally high, and the reason for it was outside of the internal network, it was an issue on the part of Time Warner. Depending on where the packets were coming from and heading, pings were insanely high as well as high rates of packet loss. With all of the issues we had, and all of the stress that it caused, it is vital to note that Sideout was awesome and worked incredibly hard through the night to the best of his abilities to get the network working properly.
Throughout the event there was plenty to drink and eat. Bawls and Red Bull both sponsored the event with plenty of energy drinks to keep us awake. A couple of the folks from down south were kind enough to do a pulled pork luncheon. At $5 a plate you were able to get a pulled pork sandwich, your choice of cole slaw or potato salad and a couple handfuls of chips. This was a nice option to have as it was incredibly convenient and wasn’t an option at previous LanOC events. Late Saturday night we put together a pizza order from the same place as last time, and twelve 18 inch pizzas were ordered to feed hordes of hungry gamers.
After the midnight raffle, a large number of folks decided to take off to try to beat the oncoming snowpocalypse. Even with those departures we still had over 100 gamers hooked up to the network on Sunday morning. Those who remained still woke up to the familiar smells of twodavez pancake and sausage breakfast. Twodavez didn’t show up, but in JJ Sky and HaleyM stepped up and said “The show must go on.” Another $5 got you two sausage patties and all you can eat pancakes.
Sometime on Sunday we had our annual case mod contest and got to see some pretty cool and unique case mods from a few different people.
On Sunday the network was way more reliable and the gaming was even better. Due to prior issues, two of the tournaments had to be run at the same time, but we were still able to play all of the games we had expected to. The rest of Sunday was spent kicking back, playing some different games in free play and laugh at Wes for falling asleep in the shower. A few more people left early to beat the storm, but a lot decided to stay. In fact, even with impending doom, 60 people still stayed to help with clean up. This is even more impressive when I follow it with the fact that only 20 of those remaining 60 were still in the raffle. This means that 40 people decided to brave the weather just to help make the life of the volunteers on staff just a bit easier. Those who left early missed out on their prizes…ahem, Winkis.
After the final cleanup and raffle, the remaining gamers said their goodbyes and filed out of the Council on Aging building. If any of them were like me they immediately started looking forward to the next event in September, or even meeting up with some of the same folks down at Nexus in May. I personally want to thank everyone who came out to make the event special, every staff member who volunteered their time and effort with only their only reward being the ability to sit near me, and lastly each and everyone one of the sponsors. Without every person from each of these groups LanOC would not be the event that it has been in the past and continues to be. In an age where LAN parties are dying, it is awesome to see so many people, from so many different areas and walks of life come together for 32 hours of pwning, gaming, and friends.
