LegendaryLAN Winter 2011

Registrations are now open!  Sign up on the main page and go here for the all the info…

****From the wrap-up email****

Thanks to everyone who attended LegendaryLAN Winter 2011.  At 30 total attendees (a record for our group), I certainly had a blast myself and from the feedback I've gotten it seems to have been a big success!  As always, if there was anything that hindered your experience or suggestions you have for us for future events, or even something you really enjoyed, we'd value your feedback – please post on the forums here.  We really appreciated your patience as we worked through some power issues early on, since this was the first time at the new venue.

A big congratulations to our rookie champion – Mike Miller (“druziil”).  Mike took 1st place in our new tournament this year – Goldeneye Source.  That, coupled with 2 other 2nd place finishes (CS and Starcraft 2) and with 2 achievements, sent him well into the lead for the weekend competition with 25 points.  Other notable finishes included Tyler Sayer (“para”), also a LAN rookie, taking 2nd place with an amazing Starcraft 2 tournament finals win against druziil and Kactus in the final moments of the LAN.  Franco Logozzo and Nate Brown tied for 3rd with top finishes in both CS and Unreal Tournament respectively.  Final tournament standings for everybody can be found on the intranet marathon page (does not include achievements or caffeine).  With two rookie champs this year, it just goes to show that its anybody's competition!  Hall of Fame scores have also been updated, in case you'd like to see where you rank all-time.  We hope you enjoyed the friendly competition.

There were plenty of great highlights from the weekend, some of which included:
-a close and exciting finish to the weekend with a back-and-forth Starcraft 2 2v2 tournament final match on the big screen between DDay, Druzil, Para, and Kactus
-lots of laughs over lunch on Saturday at the diner with the waitress questioning Brian Reilly about his headcrab hat (which he wore with great style and pride, by the way, carrying on our tradition for the 1st person eliminated in CS – thanks for being such a great sport Brian)
-Zach Border and Tom Palmer's CS knife-fight heroics to stay alive in the CS tourney
-a fresh and exciting new Goldeneye Source tournament (remember that from your N64 days?)

Unless something unexpected happens, expect to hear word on our next event sometime over the summer, as we're thinking it will possibly be late this year (since a couple of us have kids on the way soon).  Also, we're always looking for new folks to join our admin team, so if you have an interest in helping plan these events, feel free to let me know.

Thanks for the great feedback gri3v!  It was great having you join us.

Agreed on the space.  I dont think we would go over 30 at aC's house.  To me, having been cramped out of my mind at my little place for the past few years of LANs, I bet it felt like more space than normal to our folks, lol.  But to the newcomer, I certainly understand.  I felt bad that you were sitting in such a transition area and were getting bumped all the time by people going by.  Thanks for being flexible and patient.

Part of me wants to look at renting a bigger venue, but another part of me likes how low-cost we currently are ($10 is a pretty good steal for a weekend of gaming, food, and prizes IMO).  This encourages participation by those that don't normally LAN and that pricetag would inevitably go up if we rent.  The other intangible is the “old-school feel” / “togetherness” factor that you get from hosting in someone's house.  Hard to quantify that aspect, but its there.

Anyway, we're considering all these things as we think about our next event – it will be great to hear from your experience if/when you guys do decide to try to rent a venue.  Your feedback is valuable in helping us perfect our craft!