ET Reborn: POV

Hi everybody! In this journal I would like to give you my point of view from the LAN event. I will give you information about the start, time and the end of the event.



As most of you heard it was Sebhes idea to host the LAN. After he had several chats with big names in ET he came to me to help host this LAN. Of course we had 0 experience with hosting a LAN event. So we would ask several guys to give us some pointers on how to host it. We ended up with a list of aspects that you need to have when hosting a LAN.

The location we chose was Wzzrd. The reason for this was because all other ET LAN's were hosted there, so the owners and players would be familiar with the ET format. Wzzrd had a new owner since last event, but he was very relaxed and helpful towards us. Big thanks to him!

The second big aspect you need for a LAN are the PC's and monitors. I looked for several rental companies, but none of these would have a gaming PC or monitor (144hz :(). Gaming is not big enough for companies to rent PC to make a return of investment. That is why we were forced to go with 60 Hz. I think in the end it wasn't a big problem for anyone on the LAN.

The last two thing that were a big aspect of the LAN was the server and any media/promotional material Big thanks to Ronner and v4ux13 for arranging all this!

Sebhes and I would talk on a daily basis since january to even talk about some of the smallest things of the LAN. So you could say it was very time consuming every day but seeing the succes of this LAN you could say it was worth it!



First LAN day was Thursday. In the night we would have to set up all the PC's and monitors, make sure all the PC's have ET installed on them and get the server to work. When arriving there was only toxic sitting at the bar drinking beer. Later more players would follow to have a look at the LAN centre. At around 20:00 Sebhes finally arrived (he is very, very punctual :d) so we could start setting things up. Shoutout to Sherclock and Shaman for helping getting all material in their right places! I can't remember the exact amount of time we needed to set everything up, but I think it was after midnight. After this we would get to the appartments and get ready for the first LAN gaming day.

We arrived early in the morning as the 3on3 tournament would take place that day. As the players started walking into the LAN centre and started setting up, delay was almost inevitable. There were two main issues why there was a delay already. One thing is that players took a long time setting up as the PC's that we had were not optimal for their prefered settings and the other thing is that there were several technical issues. The technical issues were mostly related to the graphics card of the PC which was integrated with the motherboard. So that is why basically most players had to play with some disfunction during their ET games. Including outlAw andd Insane who could see enemies through supply main gate wall when the enemies would walk against the wall. This is an ET bug that I had too once in the past. Typical for them to have it, haha.

We would start of the ET 3on3 tournament with 2 hours delay. Already then I know the tournament would have to be played until midnight, which it did. Wzzrd wanted to close the café 02:00, so we would need to make haste if we wanted the 3on3 format to have finished. After almost all of the games had been played and the last rounds of the playoffs would start there was several issues with Matias PC. It would take 1:30 hour to get the right settings, but the PC wouldn't allow it. That is why alternative settings were needed. Luckily we managed to finish all the games just before 02:00!

Congratulations to the winning teams of the 3on3 tournament:
credibilis - €480
team-visual - €240
Queens - €120

The second day of the LAN was to start the next day. The first day of the 6on6 tournament. Players were arriving early in the morning already to set up. Now again, there was more than an hour delay. After some time Sebhes and I would tell teams that in a specific amount of time we would force start the match. Which of course some players did not like, but had to be done because set up time took too long and we wanted to catch up with the schedule.

What I noticed is that day is that the setup took most of the time. The games itself didn't take as long so we would catch up with the schedule which was very nice! This was also the first time that some of us would go to the supermarket. The first day I only had 1 hamburger which isn't really a lot. Turned out that I didn't eat a lot throughout the weekend. Like Bloodje who had been drinking beer from the early start of the morning till midnight. Testi said that he had to force some food into him.

In the first day we saw some very spectacular games. Luckily now again we managed to end all the games before 02:00!

This was also the night I was drinking because it would be the last night of the LAN. Some guys were getting pretty wasted so they threw up after the event (not looking at you arma and jeewee). Not as wasted as vanQ though on the last day. I think he is really hungover now or I can add him to my guys-who-threw-up-on-LAN-list.

Last day of LAN was upon us. I had a total of 12-14 hours of sleep during the 3 nights, which is not really a lot. I need at least 8 hours sleep a day or I'm going to be shit. So on the last day in the afternoon I slept for like one hour at the LAN centre and had a pill against headache. After several hours I was starting to feel better. Thanks to Sebhes for doing the adminning alone then xD.

During playoffs everything went quite smooth. People knew how to set up their PC's and get started. So we only had a very little delay early on. Which was good! Later on though the delay was only getting bigger as most of the teams only picked either supply or goldrush. Some of these matches would go 2-2 so it would mean there was a decider. Team-Visual only picked adlernest beating some of the high tier teams on it. outlAw can make himself a video of his docruns. The team has proven themselves to be very skilled on the LAN. I can honestly say they were the biggest surprise of the LAN. Congratulations!

As the evening was approaching there wasn't really much more to do as the last teams were already set up and could just finish their games. I was however unable to watch the grand final as I had to go home otherwise I would need to sleep under a bridge somewhere.

During that evening it got so cozy with cat in a hat and erAse.et that vanQ was really wasted walking /\/\/\/\/\ across the room and tipping beer all over. Good fun though.

So that night I got home and thanks a lot to the guys who packed the last things!

Congratulations to all the winning 6on6 teams:
Rockit
Team-Visual
KOMMRANLAN



So now of course the LAN is over. And some of the old players like idle.ee can go back in their ET tombe.

What is next?
We got asked a lot if there will be another ET LAN. Of course we do not mind hosting it again if there is enough teams again interested. This time we will be able to cover all the costs of the event. Which is really great.

Thanks a lot to everyone who made this LAN what it is. Also big thanks to MerlinatoR for all the casting he has done this weekend. Most have been one hell of a weekend casting 14+ hours a day.

Photo's/Video's:
If anyone still has photo's or video's of the LAN you can either send them to me or post them on our Facebook page. I'd like to get as much media as possible so people know how the LAN looked like. Shaman and Rayzed took a lot of photo's of the LAN, so they will follow on the Facebook page later!

Of course a lot more happened on the LAN, but I don't want to be writing a book about it. For any other questions about the LAN you can post them here and I will reply to you.

See you all next year!