| Event: PDX LAN 7 - LAN Party Event Date: 05/26/2006 Written By: Warhawk Date Written: 02/15/2026 |
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It was 2006 and the date for PDX LAN 7 was set for May 26th. I was a couple of months into my job at Antec and I made it my own personal quest to have Antec sponsor the event, and allow me to attend as a representative of Antec. While some in the organization was familiar with the concept of LAN parties, none of them were familiar with the size and importance of the PDX LANs. Previous marketing people in my position had sent out small prizes to be given away at various LANs in the past, and I believe there was even an automated form online that people could fill out asking for sponsorships. However, it was not something that the company took seriously, and they saw it more as a niche thing rather than a way to directly connect with a valuable market segment.
Since Antec was such a small company there weren’t many people I had to convince of my cause. However, Antec being an extremely cheap and low budget company, I had to agree to find my own travel and lodging to the event.
Side tangent:
Antec was an extremely miserly company. Even though we were salaried employees, we had to clock in and out everyday. If we came in a few minutes late, someone from accounting/ finance would call us and ask us why we were late; even if we worked late the night before.
One day, one of the sales guys was extremely pissed off. The sales guy went on to tell us about how the finance department was upset at him because on one of his recent company trips he over tipped a cab driver 50 cents above the allowed amount. They were refusing to reimburse his expense report until he came over to the finance department and gave them 50 cents.
Most decisions in the company appeared to be guided by the bottom line cost, rather than the return on investment. Meanwhile, the owner of antec was driving to work in a supercar everyday and living in a palace fit for a Roman emporer.
Paying my own way to this event would help me prove to Antec the value of having me at events like this. This trip as an Antec representative was a big step toward what would become a long string of LAN sponsorships and event staffing including larger events such as Comic Con and CES.
In the months leading up to the LAN an entertaining TMC forum thread developed surrounding the LAN. The thread started with a general announcement of the LAN, and initial plans for who was going to go and how to get there. We formulated a plan where a number of us would pile into JonDom’s minivan and head up there.
It was then that former TMC member, Offspring decided to interject with simply “Screw PDX.”
General negativity toward virtually any topic of conversation was nothing new from Offspring, so everyone in the thread completely ignored his comment. Not having garnered any sort of response or reaction, Offspring attempted to stir the pot again with the following comment:
PDX is a lame LAN party for the simple reason that, they're more geared towards people having fun, rather than competition. I personally find an issue when they give away the same prizes for "double jumping" as they do for someone who competes and wins a tournament.
Plus, my team helped get the LAN sponsored and yet we sort of got slapped in the face and that pissed me off.
So basically, Offspring was upset that PDX put too much focus on people having fun at a LAN, which speaks volumes about Offspring’s outlook on life more than anything else.
This comment also was generally ignored until Vector, the guy who runs PDX LAN, came onto our forums and commented with the following:
So offy is mad again? Last time I posted he was mad too. You must get mad a lot.
Offy I still <3 you.
Here's what happened (at least as far as i know) Offy's clan (TFS) emailed me about a month before PDXLAN 5 and asked if they could bring some zboards to PDXLAN 5 to give away as TFS - At that time I said no - we couldn't really give TFS too much credit as it would look odd as they were competing in the BF2 tournament - I told the person I was working with that it may look unfair if a team were to win the BF2 tourney and they were a sponsor. The guy emailing me agreed that we would minimize TFS's involvement and pump the sponsor, zboard instead.
So mr. mad pants (offy) you may want to get your story straight before you flame :) As you know, and most people can see, I have no problem getting sponsorships ;)
For the rest of you - I am excited that you are coming all the way from California (where I grew up) to come - I liked the contest you had (jonDoms) - personal thanks for helping these folks get to PDXLAN this May! - that's pretty cool of you - though they may have thanked you already - I just want to say its really cool of you to do. I hope you guys do well!
Anyway, I don't come by here as often as i should, but thought I'd pop in and say hello.
Take care guys, see you in may
Have Fun, Frag Hard,
=Vector=
From that point forward “Mr. Mad Pants” became Offspring’s official title on the forums.
Eventually Offspring posted this response:
You know what, it's been 2 months since I posted that and since I've had time to reflect on it, I was wrong in posting that. Vector did do a lot the two times I went to try and make it more enjoyable for me, but I didn't really want to see it.
I really don't remember exactly why I was so mad, since it all seems like stupid stuff now. As I told him over Xfire just now, I'm sorry for writing that crap as all he tried to do is put on a good LAN party, plus I wasnt' made aware of both sides so I was wrong in that. There is one thing though, that still kind of bugs me that one of my friends told me about in regards to one of the contests. I'll discuss that with Vector at a later time though.
In all honesty, I did have fun the first time we went up. I didn't have much fun at the last one mostly based off the fact that the game we were there for, is a bad game. This is my personal opinion, but BF2 just isn't anywhere near as fun as Desert Combat was, nor will it ever be. Because of that fact, it put a damper on my mood at the LAN.
Another downer was the fact that it was so damn cold in the giant wherehouse, which they changed back to the hotel for. Basically, in a nut shell I was wrong for writing that rant, and I realize that now. Vector does his best to put on the best LAN he can, and at the time I wanted it to be something it's not, nor was it setup to be. That's on me.
The post continued on and addressed an ongoing argument Offspring was having with Metalslug (chair drama), but the real monumental thing to note here is this is one of the only known records of Offspring admitting three things:
1. He was wrong
2. He was sorry
3. He actually had fun at a LAN once.
To my knowledge, this was the first and last time Offspring expressed any one of these three feelings, let alone all three in one message. It was the trifecta of feelings that it was previously believed Offspring was incapable of feeling.
On the subject of fun and LAN competitions, one of my personal goals in attending PDX 7 was to compete in the 2 v 2 Command and Conquer Generals tournament. The last time I competed in one of these at PDX I took second place to a guy named Khimera, and this time he was on the list of registrants again. Khimera’s partner was Guppy Hunter, another player I was familiar with; a player I had faced and beaten in my last PDX tournament. Guppy Hunter was not at the same skill level of Khimera, but was still a formidable foe, and I knew the Khimera and Guppy Hunter combo team would be the strongest competitors in this tournament. I would later come to find out that once Khimera spotted me on the registrants list that my team would be his biggest challenge.
JonDoms and I entered the tournament as a team and we resolved to set aside some time to practice and prepare for the tournament. Unfortunately many real life responsibilities and scheduling conflicts meant our actual time spent practicing as a team ended up being only an hour or two.
Once at the LAN and in the tournament Jon Doms and I were easily able to roll through the tournament bracket. As expected, the finals came down to JonDoms and I vs Khimera and Guppy Hunter. We put up a good fight, but ultimately lost the match and took second place. However, after the match and excited Guppy Hunter and Khimera came over to us and told us what a close and intense final battle it was and congratulated us on putting up a really good fight. They were very kind and gracious winners. They honestly couldn’t have been nicer dudes, and did not run their victory in our faces in any way, which I thought was rather classy of them.
My favorite part was when they mentioned that that months ago when they first saw us on the signup list for the tournament they immediately began training to beat us. Khimera said that they put in 2 or 3 HUNDRED hours of practice time in preparation for this tournament. I was blown away when I heard that. I didn’t have the heart to say it to him, but I thought to myself about the two hours max of practicing that JonDoms and I had done and in a weird way felt as though we had actually won. I felt this way because there was no chance we would have been able to match that amount of practice time; and honestly I couldn’t possibly see 300 hours of our time being worth whatever the first place prize was.
I have a massive amount of respect for both Khimera and Guppy Hunter, they were both extremely nice and some of the best players I’ve seen. If I had to take second place yet again, I’m glad it was to them.
In the end the LAN was a success, and while not everything went off perfectly, we all had a good time. In the coming months Antec would allow me more and more involvement in enthusiast consumer events such as other large corporate LAN events, and even Comic Con.
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The following is the Antec trip report submitted to our managers at Antec on how the event went. This was written by Warhawk and Hawtie on 05/30/2006. Edits have been made by me to change real names to gamer handles.
This last holiday weekend Hawtie and I withstood the 12-hour drive up to Portland, Oregon in order to participate in the 7th edition of PDXLAN. Because Antec was sponsoring the LAN, we decided it would be a great opportunity to get the brand name out to the 500+ gamers and attendees. Before actually going to the LAN Hawtie and I prepared list of games and events that we could do to help liven up the LAN as well as get gamers involved in the Antec brand. The list of games was given to the LAN coordinator for review – needless to say he loved our ideas and we were given not only positive feedback, but also an upgrade in booth size to 10’x10’ and a position inside the actual event (rather then being stationed in the lobby with the other sponsors) at no additional cost!
Friday:
Setup, Socialize & and the Games begin!
The first day of PDX consisted of setting up the Antec booth (which was larger then we had anticipated - but we weren’t complaining) We put posters up all around the venue to help enforce our presence at the event as well as setup display models of cases and various other products. Right away we had inquisitive attendees curious about our products and a lot of “oohs and ahhs” after we personally showed them off. When doors finally opened for gamers to come in and set up we were very pleased to see many Antec cases being used (there were MANY SuperLANBOY’s, a couple Sonatas and P160Ws and P180s.
Before finishing setup we hid a number of envelopes full of “Antec bucks” around the venue for gamers to find. The Antec bucks were intended to be used in the “Antec Auction” at the end of the event. Later that evening we had hundreds of gamers line up to get stamped with an Antec Inc. stamp on their face – we gave $2 “Antec Bucks” per facial stamp. This was fun way to get the name out to the gamers. Gamers could also have their faces stamped if they wanted to win a P160W at the end of the event.
Saturday:
Contests & Games – “Thank you Antec!”
The first event we ran was the “Power Supply Toss” in which participants lined up to see who could toss a broken power supply the furthest out into the parking lot. Next we had the egg-smashing contest in which contestants smashed an egg on their face to see if it was hard-boiled or raw. People who got the raw eggs received a prize. Both events were a lot of fun for everyone involved and there were a lot of spectators there to watch. The entire event we had the Antec logo stamps ready to provide people stamps on their faces in return for Antec dollars. People lined up to get stamps all over their faces, and were willing to do all kinds of things for the Antec dollars. Many even became obsessed with collecting as may Antec dollars as possible. Other contests we held were a human wheelbarrow race, Simon says, Neo HE and other product question and answer games, musical chairs and twister (almost all contests were done on the main stage so that everyone at the event could see – this was good, fun publicity for Antec). Everyone loved the contests and were very enthusiastic about them, and about Antec in general. There was much love for Antec! People swamped by our booth, asked questions, paid compliments and praise, and even wanted to buy our products right then (during the course of the weekend we both received 10 or more requests to purchase Antec items at the event).
Many people had stories about how much they liked their Antec cases and power supplies. There were a few minor complaints, one of which was that the P180 black door does not fold all the way back against the case. Another one was that we should make beige cases again so everyone who still has beige optical drives can have a matching case. We also received a lot of great ideas like adding LED screens to the side of the power supply to read the current watts being used, or having the removable motherboard trays that slide out from the back of the case. We also directed gamers to our online survey in order to obtain more of their ideas and background.
Sunday:
Tourneys
Sunday was the day of Tournaments. We continued promoting, passing out Antec money and getting people excited for the Auction. At midnight we held the auction in which we gave away ten prizes, half of which were Antec products and half of which were funny gag gifts. We also threw out some fans and illuminates. There was furious bidding and some had amassed thousands of Antec bucks over the course of the event.
Monday:
Antec wrap-up
Monday was the final day of PDXLAN 7. Tournament prizes were awarded – Antec had provided prizes for 3rd place winners. Raffle prizes were also dispersed as well as the winner for the “Antec My Face” Contest. After prizes were given it was time to pack up and hit the road.
Summary:
We did a lot of good things at this event: We got to show off a lot of new products to a lot of people, and all the gamers were very excited at our show of support for the event. Antec was definitely a prominent name among all 500 of the event attendees, and I would consider our promotion efforts a great success, it was without a doubt a worthwhile event for Antec.
I don't know where the pics came from but I assume Kuyaglen took them:
