Event: Lan Surge 002 - LAN Party Event Date: 01/10-11/03 Written By: Warhawk Date Written: 01/13/03

Last weekend, Manticore and I made the trek up to Sac Town for LANsurge 002. We both attended LS 001 and I think we both agree that 002 was MUCH better. 002 was a completely different experience, I think partly due to the fact that there was a good number of bay area lanners that also made the trek. Namely, Gamekiller, Jen and Honestplayer. There were close to 70 in attendance, which was easily double the amount that showed up for 001. This made the party a little more lively than 001. Even with twice the people the facility was still relatively empty. As word of this LAN spreads I can see it easily turning into a 2 or 3 hundred person LAN.

Even with all those people and all those computer systems pumping out the heat, the building was still frikin freezing. This time most were prepared with heavy clothes and blankets, and some heaters were also brought in. While the heat never seemed to reach to the gaming tables, the heaters were a life saver. It was nice to be able to walk over to the heaters to thaw out for a bit while taking a break. It also provided a good place to chat with the other gamers.

While there still was no internet access at the LAN, it was not a big problem due to the fact that almost any patch or game file you would need could easily be found on the main file server or someone's shared folder.

The food selection at the LAN was seemed improved over LS 001, although it was still not ideal. Apparently the building and facilities are paid for with the money from the food that is sold at the event. In an attempt to have people buy as much of their food as possible, there was a no outside food rule imposed by the building owner (understandably). This would have worked wonderfully for the building owners had they provided some more substantial food. While most of it made for good snack food, it was not enough to sustain one over an extended period of time. Many were forced to seek outside sources of food, which was evident by fast-food dumping ground that the outside of the building became. At one point there was close to 20 fast-food drink cups set outside the door. The food highlights were a pizza order called in at around midnight and a box of krispy kreme doughnuts (which were all reasonably priced). My suggestion to the building owners, if they want to make a lot of money, would be to use kitchen facilities (that are already a part of the building) to provide a better selection of food.

Early on, us bay area lanners got into a game of BF 1942 which had the new Desert Combat Mod installed. This was the first time any of us had played this mod. It is still in alpha stage, so it still has more bugs in it than a hobo's bedroll. The idea behind it, which is converting BF 1942 to a modern battlefield, is a great one. Once the bugs get worked out this mod will be wicked cool. Unfortunately, we could not get more than 7 or 8 people into the BF server, which is not enough to have a decent game. A disturbing trend that was carried over from LS 001 was that 90% of the gamers there are completely obsessed with CS. A lot of people at the LAN intended to play other games besides CS, but they all ended up getting sucked into the swirling vortex of CS.

Not being big fans of CS, Gamekiller, Manticore and I decided to start up a game of Dungeon Siege. We ended up playing it throughout the rest of the LAN, and we all had a lot of fun. So you see kids, you can have fun outside of the swirling CS vortex.

After reading a few post LAN comments on the LS message board, it appears as though a lot of people have burned themselves out on CS for a little while. Hopefully this means there will be more of a variety in games at 003.

In the afternoon on the second day the raffle was started. This time not one, but TWO Pentium 4 processors were raffled off. This was totally awesome, and by far the best LAN raffle prizes I've ever seen. Unfortunately it wasn't as awesome as it could have been, because like at 001, I didn't win jack. Gamekiller was lucky enough to win one of the ultra fantastic "Shred Proof", "Ultimate in Optical Mousepad Technology" mousepad that is LITEPADS. Gamekiller also won the case mod contest, thanks to his l33t computer modding skills. Jen won a nice t-shirt from the drink sponsor XTZ. Even though I didn't win anything, I was just happy that Jen won a t-shirt instead of another processor.

Overall this was a great LAN. I had a ton of fun, and I think the rest of us bay area lanners did too. I can't wait for the next one!

ADDENDUM - 01/20/2026 By Warhawk

Jen later changed his handle to Dima.

Gamekiller was one of the original three founders of SV Frag.

Bobby aka "Oskor" became a member of TMC on December 19th, 2003. Oskor would go on to host a total of 6 LAN Surge events before running into venue difficulties in 2004 when the community was officially shut down but they were great events while they lasted.