Written on the 2nd October:
This is going to be one in a series of lan “reports” I’ll be making for the coming few weeks. September-October seems to be a busy time for LANs where many have them scheduled on the following week from another, or even scheduled on the same day.
LPC (also known as Lan Party Central) is a lan held in Goodwood at the Goodwood Community Centre. 40 people registered for this event on the website (which is something I would like to see the Valhalla website have). LPC suffered from scheduling problems, due to two other LANs and a Nintendo WiFi party also, not to mention the AFL Grand Final on the same day (which Port lost horribly in HAHAHAHAHAHA). Attendance was sub-standard with a layout for around 60 people but only no more than 35 seats filled. The event ran from 10am-11pm with Devastator and I taking out the tournament with no less than a one hundred point lead. I also won the RANDOM door prize.
This LAN party is ran by Michael, Matt, Jamage (Jamie?) and others (whom I’ve forgotten the names of).
The competitions were:
- Flatout 2
- Warcraft 3 (DotA) cancelled to due lack of interest (aside: hahaha ahem)
- Call of Duty 2
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- Quake 3
Unlike a certain other LAN (read: Ragnarok) there was actually a timetable which was strictly kept to throughout the whole day.
Flatout 2 was ill-configured on my PC, with the incorrect settings for the Xbox 360 controller so I was unable to go forward for the first match (all were derby), unable to change out of first in the second, and was finally to participate in the third match, only to come 5th.
The next competition was held much later in the day, at around 6pm. I arrived back from picking up a CD-drive from my house, only to find the competition had begun with only two other competitors. The map was Carentan (personal favourite) and I quickly assumed second position the leaderboard (thanks to my cheersquad for the morale boosting) only to be denied first position by a hacker known as kizmit (who apparently has 400 hours on xfire and therefore has no life). Kizmit took out the competition with 31 frags to my 22 (to my recollection). When I joined I was 12 frags away from kizmit, so it was an alright effort.
Since Devastator attended the lan with no computer (not realising I was going), I let him use mine to play the Quake 3 match after which LINKhe complained about using my mouseLINK. Devastator reached the fraglimit of 50 before BigWilly who only trailed by 2 points.
Then there was the Unreal Tournament 2004 competition. Devastator played again, taking a rather clear lead (80 something points at the end of the match THERES A PIC SOMEWHERE) and only needed to win the competition by 25 points in order to claim first place on the leaderboard.
For our efforts we received: AMD Backpack AMD Vest 5 x AMD Stressballs (one of which my Mum’s dog has now destroyed) AMD screwdriver (which I have now destroyed) Miami Vice PSP Movie (I think I’m missing something from this list)
There was also an Xbox 360 with Halo 3 on it, two (or three) gamecubes with Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart: Double Dash on them (I placed 8th in Double Dash, a personal best) and a Wii on which the Wario: Smooth Moves competition was held on. I placed 1st in the mini-games only to have all my ropes cut and therefore be out of the game. There was a huge interest in the console with almost continuous Super Smash Brothers going (in which I did not stand a chance). I cannot wait for Super Smash Brothers for the Wii to come out and even though I am not a “Nintendo Fan Boy”, I love the way this game plays.
The LAN wasn’t as good as I was expecting. I was expecting much more participation in the computer gaming side, something similar to the interest in the consoles. With the Call of Duty 2 competition only attracting three players (two of which were sniper whores, guess who) it seems that this is dying at LAN parties. Counter-Strike: Source received about 8 players, which is still less than what I would usually like to play with it. LPC needs more people to attend, and maybe I just went on a bad time, but it wasn’t really up to my standard of lanning and the only reason I am going next time is to see if it does improve. If it does, then it might become another regular LAN that I attend.
5/10
The next LAN party I will be attending is Valhalla, which is on the 6th/7th October held at St. Clair Recreation Centre, Woodville. I will have photos up for this report later.