- LAN

Atmosphere, Cheap Food thats Actually Expensive and Beer. Welcome to Lan.

Thats right, the time has come to talk about the LAN experience. I would say around 60 percent of the tek9 community has attended these magical events and I really would recommend them to any gamer, whether they are an xbox noob or a professional PC gamer. For those of you that have attended a lan with a community clan, or something of that nature, you will know just how much more fun lan can be if you don’t go purely to win. Back in ’08 at I35 was my first experience of the LAN Clan phenomenon, and it really pulled me in. Me being the young one that I was (something my clan never let me forget), I had to let my parents meet my would be team mates, to make sure they weren't going to take me round back and do things only catholic priests dream of. Suffice it to say, they passed the test and my parents begrudgingly left me behind for the weekend, my first weekend that was truly unsupervised. I loved it.

What I’m trying to get at here is that not everyone goes to lan to win, although everyone always wants it too happen. For at least 70% of the lower skilled teams, clans and organizations, they go to have fun and to have new experiences. It’s getting to a stage for me where I would like to go to lan with a clan again, although I doubt it will happen anytime soon. I went, I laughed, I played, I had a few drinks and I came back with a grin the size of Stuw0ws ego. If you compare this too my next event with element at i37, where we placed a disappointing 9th-12th, I went, I had a good time but I was also slightly bitter afterwards as my dreams of winning the event were smattered into pieces.

Every time I go back to an I-series I think of my first, and dream of those days, but I will never get them back, the moment has passed and all I have is my memories. If you are one of these teams that go to lan with high hopes and fail, you really need to think about what you want from gaming. Do you want to have a good time, just let your hair down and do what you want, or do you want to compete for eSports fame and recognition? I gave this a great deal of thought after my first lan, so, after much deliberation I left my clan, and now a year on I’m in Epsilon, a moderately respected team, that, with help from various sponsors, helps me and my team attend events. But I do miss that lower skilled clan, they were truly a lot of fun to play with.

Now we have the teams that go to lan events, I would hope, to win, but they know deep down that realistically they won’t. So then, what do they go for I hear you say, well they go for experience and to prove themselves offline, so that hopefully they can advance forwards. It really is important if you are part of one of these teams that you keep attending, keep the same players so you can benefit from stability and you will progress further and further, and who knows? A year from now, you could be in the next Dignitas line-up, who knows eh? You mustn’t forget you are one of the main components that make up the pillars of this community, without you lans would be pathetic, there would be around 6 matches an event, and it would always be the same teams. From my perspective, I go to see the lesser known teams play,  because in my eyes, there is nothing more exciting that causing or seeing an upset. Just remember to play for the moment, to play for fun and most of all, just keep playing.