RogueAgent
6th July 2004, 06:25 PM
TeamDamage LAN, July 4th, will definately go down in local history as one of the MONSTER LANs of all time.
As predicted we had a massive turnout, with an official count of 90 players. A boost of 22 players from the previous LAN and the largest LAN Wollongong has seen for over two and a half years !
What (unfortunately) wasnt predicted was all the problems we would encounter with such a large event ! I'd love to be able to tell you that everything went smoothly, but I'd be lying.
Problems began with a virus breakout early in the morning and with many attendees not packing the latest windows updates and virus protection, chaos ensued. At the same time, with 90 LANners - many of them bringing extra servers to run under the desk - the power drain was bigger than any we had experienced before. It took several scatterred power-outs and changes to the power distribution to sort that out. But if that wasnt enough, we were short on tables too as another group at the PCYC was having an open day down the hall and needed some of our tables.
All of these 3 problems combined at around 11am to cause the biggest calamity TeamDamage has seen since the infamous Love-Bug outbreak of 2001. For a while there I thought I was going to go insane......
Thankfully, instead of panicking, the community pulled together and we overcame the difficulties. Not long after lunch, everything settled down, people relaxed and the hard core gaming got underway.
The BattleField Vietnam marathon went a lot longer than originally planned, due to a good showing of enthusiastic players taking part. Bowen, crusader of the game, played it practically non-stop and took out the prize for most frags with his devastating gunship pilot skills.
The CounterStrike competition got underway with 7 teams registering. Unlucky EMI only just missed out on making the final, dropping too many rounds to Soul Doctors who went up against the thrown together Random in the final. In a very close final, however, despite Venom being called in as a "ring-in" for the Soul Doctors, it was Random who came out on top - winning 13-12 in a tie breaker which was a great effort.
The Quake3 marathon attracted another dozen players while the CS comp was on and for 2 hours solid, the frags flowed fast and free. Consistent performer Dr Evil came out on top, winning almost every map.
In the afternoon, the Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught competition got underway, with 4 teams entering. A surprise final between Absolute Power and BioSphere saw young guns Absolute Power take out thier first competition victory. Good job guys.
Plenty of other games were enjoyed through the day. Warcraft3, Call of Duty and Americas Army all got a solid run, as did a number of others.
In the end, even though it started disastrously, it turned out to be a pretty good day.
Big, BIG thanks to Lurch, Shaper, Bowen, bmgoau and ALL those guys who helped out in the virus firefighting effort. Great to see the community pulling together in crisis ! Also, to all the guys who helped set up. Beecha for doing the game patchwork. Trojan, Warchild and Mod Man who were admins for the day. NutMeg for her efforts on the BBQ, plus galderoth, mex and T2000 who stayed back and helped with the pack up - CHEERS to you all !
Thanks to everyone for being good sports about all the troubles we had. We're already taking steps to make sure those problems dont rear thier ugly heads again, and we hope you'll be back for more fun and games next time.
Until then - Be good...and stay virus free ! ;)
As predicted we had a massive turnout, with an official count of 90 players. A boost of 22 players from the previous LAN and the largest LAN Wollongong has seen for over two and a half years !
What (unfortunately) wasnt predicted was all the problems we would encounter with such a large event ! I'd love to be able to tell you that everything went smoothly, but I'd be lying.
Problems began with a virus breakout early in the morning and with many attendees not packing the latest windows updates and virus protection, chaos ensued. At the same time, with 90 LANners - many of them bringing extra servers to run under the desk - the power drain was bigger than any we had experienced before. It took several scatterred power-outs and changes to the power distribution to sort that out. But if that wasnt enough, we were short on tables too as another group at the PCYC was having an open day down the hall and needed some of our tables.
All of these 3 problems combined at around 11am to cause the biggest calamity TeamDamage has seen since the infamous Love-Bug outbreak of 2001. For a while there I thought I was going to go insane......
Thankfully, instead of panicking, the community pulled together and we overcame the difficulties. Not long after lunch, everything settled down, people relaxed and the hard core gaming got underway.
The BattleField Vietnam marathon went a lot longer than originally planned, due to a good showing of enthusiastic players taking part. Bowen, crusader of the game, played it practically non-stop and took out the prize for most frags with his devastating gunship pilot skills.
The CounterStrike competition got underway with 7 teams registering. Unlucky EMI only just missed out on making the final, dropping too many rounds to Soul Doctors who went up against the thrown together Random in the final. In a very close final, however, despite Venom being called in as a "ring-in" for the Soul Doctors, it was Random who came out on top - winning 13-12 in a tie breaker which was a great effort.
The Quake3 marathon attracted another dozen players while the CS comp was on and for 2 hours solid, the frags flowed fast and free. Consistent performer Dr Evil came out on top, winning almost every map.
In the afternoon, the Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught competition got underway, with 4 teams entering. A surprise final between Absolute Power and BioSphere saw young guns Absolute Power take out thier first competition victory. Good job guys.
Plenty of other games were enjoyed through the day. Warcraft3, Call of Duty and Americas Army all got a solid run, as did a number of others.
In the end, even though it started disastrously, it turned out to be a pretty good day.
Big, BIG thanks to Lurch, Shaper, Bowen, bmgoau and ALL those guys who helped out in the virus firefighting effort. Great to see the community pulling together in crisis ! Also, to all the guys who helped set up. Beecha for doing the game patchwork. Trojan, Warchild and Mod Man who were admins for the day. NutMeg for her efforts on the BBQ, plus galderoth, mex and T2000 who stayed back and helped with the pack up - CHEERS to you all !
Thanks to everyone for being good sports about all the troubles we had. We're already taking steps to make sure those problems dont rear thier ugly heads again, and we hope you'll be back for more fun and games next time.
Until then - Be good...and stay virus free ! ;)