A week ago at the time of this writing, we were within hours of LanOC v14.0 coming to end, though things certainly showed no signs of winding down. We were right in the middle of two tournaments with plenty of spectators watching over shoulders, attendees and staff alike roaming the floor to take a final look at the case show-off entries, and our network gear receiving no reprieve from the remainder of over 130 gamers in their title of choice. Before we revisit the final wrap-up of the event, let’s start back at the beginning of LanOC v14.0, which truly started the day before.

Written by: Adam

Photos by: Chad

I personally was not able to make it to the venue until early Friday evening. By that time the rest of the LanOC crew, as well as a few dedicated volunteers, had already clocked hours into the setup effort. The amount of effort our setup takes really speaks to the magnitude of the event, despite having seven years of experience we’ve grown each year, and there are always new things to consider. There is no shortage of help, however, which is something we appreciate greatly. To put it into perspective, it has become tradition for those involved in setup to take a dinner break at Fricker’s just down the road from our building. We had such a large group that they were unable to seat us, even as it was approaching ten o’clock. Luckily we were able to find several tables at a Mexican establish across from the main LanOC office.

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We had quite a crowd at the early bird raffle that Saturday morning. Many of us were still a bit sleepy, and we lacked our resident shouting ice-breaker, CrazyBillyBob. Several others paid him appropriate justice when Wes pulled a hard drive from the prize table, a resounding STORAGE cry cutting the proverbial ribbon of v14.

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Worms: Reloaded was our first tournament, which is a title that is as much fun to watch as it is to play. Due to some network issues, the tournament was conducted in a hot-seat format, which may have inadvertently made it funner to watch. Competitors and onlookers alike stood behind the chair of the active player and were able to watch, and loath, his or her next move live.

Our staple Old School tournament was next on the agenda, and we had an amazing turnout of competitors. Administering this tournament was much less stressful this year, as Retro-Bit provided us two of their RetroDuo systems to play on, as well as a third system awarded to the winner. This year featured the Super Nintendo title Uniracers, a head-to-head racing game with a stunt mechanic that competitors ultimately had to master to progress in the bracket.

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Later that evening, the BYOT Team Fortress 2 as well as the random team League of Legends tournaments would take place. Thanks to the tireless effort of our network staff member Sideout, the network had stabilized and TF2 went on without issue, but Riot Games had filled our afternoon with tail-chasing trying to troubleshoot high ping times for participants that were in Summoner’s Rift, practicing for the upcoming tournaments. In the end, the majority of issues were caused by server problems at Riot’s datacenters. Not long before the random League of Legends tournament was slated to begin, the entire North American platform was taken offline for emergency maintenance.

In almost three years of playing League of Legends, I’ve never seen the servers go down in such a way. We met with those signed up for the tournament to discuss alternate options, and despite Kyler’s best efforts to convince everyone to play Counter-Strike in its place, Dota 2 was decided on by popular vote. Fortunately, the servers recovered just in time, and thanks to some quick optimization of the network gear from Sideout, the tournament went on with playable latency.

The only thing that remained for the day was the midnight raffle, which for many marked the end of the first day. Some departed to a bed at a hotel, friend’s or family’s , while others camped near their computers at the building. A few of the more seasoned LAN attendees brought inflatable mattresses or cots to doze in. Another portion of attendees laughed in the face of exhaustion as they continued to game into the night, behind the glow of their monitor or under the light of the poker table. The round tables we use for poker also served as the surface for several table-top gamers.

I was among those who left for the night. The smell of pancakes and sausage was like a welcome message as I entered Sunday morning, and undoubtedly it serves as an alarm clock for many who stay at the building. Twodavez helped us all start the day off right, with what has become known as LANcakes and sausage. After a raffle for dessert, we began preparation for the BYOT League of Legends and random teams Team Fortress 2 mentioned previously. Tear down eventually came as it always does, a process which goes extremely quick thanks to the help of everyone in attendance. It always seems like it goes by fast, and before I knew it we were unpacking the last of the equipment back at the LanOC office, talking about the event and already discussing ideas for the next event.

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I’ve chosen a few pictures throughout this article, but a full gallery can be found in the menu bar, Gallery option as well as our album on the LanOC Review Facebook page. We encourage everyone to tag themselves and anyone you know, as well as post up your favorites here on our forums.

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garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #34508 17 Mar 2014 23:17
Happy Monday everyone!!
Davey_Boy's Avatar
Davey_Boy replied the topic: #34523 21 Mar 2014 16:59
We got 3rd in BYOT: LoL but w/e lol not like it really matters that much. Just noticed haha Was fun as always guys!! Thanks again to the LanOC staff! You guys are amazing!
Lersar's Avatar
Lersar replied the topic: #34524 21 Mar 2014 22:18
Fix'd! I forgot we tracked the 3rd/4th place matches outside of the ALP; as far as it is concerned whoever played their game last in the main bracket was third :D

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