Event: TMC-LAN 4 - LAN Party Event Date: 1/29/2005 Written By: Warhawk Date Written: 2/01/2026

By the time TMC LAN 4 rolled around in January of 2005 we had settled into a groove and things were going great. That is, until what would become known as the “Splash Damage” incident (I’ll get to that in a minute). 

TMC-LAN 4 itself was a great success and by all accounts the best TMC LAN yet. GotNoRice was a bit of an audiophile and brought some nice vintage speakers as well as a turntable with a load of classic rock vinyl records. This was back when no one cared about collecting vinyl and nice original pressings were easy to find and very cheap. The classic sound system really added a great vibe to the party.

Since I was attending college at Sonoma State at the time it was a bit of a long haul for me to get to and from the LAN. As such I regularly left the LANs at around 4am so that I still had enough energy to drive home and not fall asleep at the wheel. 

We had volunteers for setup and teardown of the LAN, and people like GotNoRice, Metalslug and Beebo were regularly a part of the setup/teardown crew. While Beebo and Metalslug had very questionable work ethics, they regularly signed up no doubt because there were pre-and after parties involved. What exactly went on during setup and teardown I preferred not to know about as long as the work got done. 

The “Splash Damage” incident occurred when at 9:30am the morning after TMC-LAN 4 I was awoken by an angry phone call from Mel. He explained to me that one of our guys (turns out it was Beebo) had puked out of an opening on the second story and into the yard of the adjoining unit (hence the term “Splash Damage”).  Apparently a lot of it got on the neighbors weight bench that was back there, and no one was cleaning it up.  He said that he could be kicked out of his house if the neighbors complained and that if that happened he would hold TMC responsible and pursue legal action. 

Clearly this was a serious development. I got ahold of GotNoRice, who was the only responsible person on the scene, and explained to him the gravity of the situation. Eventually the puke was cleaned up, but by all reports Beebo did little to none of the cleaning himself and did his best to try and get out of taking any sort of responsibility at all. We also suggested that Beebo write an apology letter to Mel in an effort to smooth things over, but Beebo refused that as well.  

This showed very poor character on his part (it wasn’t the first or last time) and as a result relations with Mel were now very strained; putting the whole TMC-LAN operation in jeopardy.  Beebo was suspended from TMC for quite a long time (although in retrospect he should have been kicked out completely at that point).