Well, its all over, the admin team are all on the long road to recovery. We hope you all had fun over the weekend. Big thanks to all the assistants and random players who helped us up through the long cleanup and the final door prize raffle. We'll be posting a full wrapup as soon as we can string something more coherent together.

GW to all admins/assist/players for a great LAN. When is 2000 players?

Huge Thanks to Shafted and all the sponsors. I think i speak for everyone when i say "That Was Awesome!" If i could complain about one thing... it would be the heat... Seeing that that isnt your fault, I'll let it slide.

Thanks again To.
-Shafted Lan PTY LTD
-AMD
-MSI
-DHCPower
-Ebay.com.au
-Dick Smiths
-Australia IT
-Anyware
-n2c
-Cisco Systems
-The 1000 terific players that managed to keep themselvs controled (mostly) :)

thats all... Same again next year??

more like next month ;P
have them more often if possible, replace the standard 400 ppl ones

/me strangles destroyer


It WILL not replace the 400 player ones. This took time and effort beyond measure.

As far as any future LANs in Australia and anyone that wants to have a 1,000, 1200, 2000 player LAN, heck, good on 'em. BDI will always be the first megaLAN in Australia.

We said we'd do a 1000 player lan, we DID a 1000 player lan. Future megaLANs will be compared to BDI.

But here's a warning to anyone wanting to do one - it's more work than you can imagine, it takes huge amounts of planning, and you'll need months and months to get it all together.

Hopefully we've shown everyone - gamers, Corporate Australia, other lan groups - that megaLANs can be done in Australia, can be done professionally, and can be pretty awesome events.

Now others can follow in our footsteps and keep it going!

Dir.

Being a gimp at the BDI I feel I can appreciate a lot more how much work goes into putting on a large lan though i wasn't involved in any of the months of preplanning. I was absolutely buggered after helping out til 10 last night but i'd do it all over again. I think the BDI was a really great success, sure it could have gone better but having said that it could have gone a lot worse. Props to all the admins for making everything flow as smoothly as possible.

I'd love to see something like this happen again in the future, prefrably by the shafted team but replacing the regular shafted with these just wouldn't work because i'm sure some of the S admin's have lives :)

btw, it was good to see some ppl playing serious sam though i didn't get around to playing it myself.

-spectre

Roar! What a LAN.

I think everyone did a fantastic Job, I had a great time.

IT WAS GREAT.

My TWO complaints were this:
One: Prize Money.

Whilst this argument has been heard time and time again, i will reiterate.
$4000 is TOO much for one comp.

We won the NS comp and got $60 which i am GLAD for, but CS getting 5/7 of total prize money is kinda gay.

Second Complaint:
Compitition timing/structure.
Pic and other admins\assists, you did a valliant effort, but in the NS comp we didnt start our first match till midnight notionally, but by the time the servers and everything else were organised it was like 1 am. 2nd was at 2:30 am.
I was up anyway, but i mean.....it stated 9:30 pm as the starting time!
Dont know how this can be rectified as from what i can gather, the admins were a LITTLE busy :)

GOOD JOB TO ALL. Tell me when the 10K lan happens :)

Late starting times were due to two largely contributing factors:

Network; The network hiccuped due to several problems at the start of BDI but was quickly rectified by Biggles. While it was only for a short time, this messed up the timing of the comps for at least and hour.

The same old, people sign up for a comp and either;

Don't join any games;
take 1/2hr to join a game
lose one game and decide they CBF playing

And we sit and wait for them.

So we've pulled off the biggest LAN in the southern hemisphere. Next year we should conquer the northern hemisphere also. All those who want to see a 5000+ player LAN raise your hand.

All those who want to carry ~2500 tables into the venue raise your hand

sif :D

/me *forgets* to volunteer for that lan...

5000+ ppl ... hmm i think not.

"BDI will always be the first megaLAN in Australia."

I hate to break it to ya, but it wasnt the first MEGA lan, WA hosted an 800+ lan at the beginning of 2002. Which is pretty mega if you ask me. I think you meant to say Milleni-lan , which in that case is true.

I wouldn't mind being a part of the set up for the next event like this, whether it be bigger or the same.

The one complaint i have is the timings for the comps. TNN were given the times for the comps etc. and were prepared to cast them, but then they were all muddled up and at different times. We tried to talk to the admins but couldn't get a straight answer [because of a bit of confusion i think, but thats expected running a comp of that size in a 1000+ player event]. Finally myself and cyberfelon were prepared to cast the CS finals, i mean we even got the HLTV delay set the same as the casts so they would be in time with eachother, but then we found out that the big screen was going to be showing them. Then we gave up, because of course, most of the people would be out there watching it.

Anyways, allround it was a fkin awsome event. Thanks to all the admins/setup d00ds/sponsors and the lot for getting the event to happen. Thanks to the players for going to it. And major thanks to Doug for organising it all [and for fixing my ticket problem =D].

Anyone take any pics that i can get a hold of ????

i took some pics but most are on my SLR camera.

i did this :

http://www.netspace.net.au/~treidy/bdi-sat-panorama--small.jpg

with my digital video camera and photoshop.

yeah, was a good event, things went ok. But the comps were prety poorly run as so far behind time, rules not setout correctly, server configs and so on not setup correctly(this is mainly for DOD comp)

I think the main problem is there was way to many comps run. Next time probably just the bigger games. Perhaps just a CS comp, 1 warcraft 3 comp (not 3 of them) and also 1 or 2 other games. This way better prizes, more time to play and so on...

Anyways thanks again to all the admins who put in the hardwork.

yea it was a good event. Worth the trip from Sydney.

Capt Veg

you count lans by how many people come.

not how many people come saturday and then count how many came sunday.

BDI had 2,000+ player lan, now thats an owner.

South Africa had a 1000 player LAN didn't they?

Ars3nal: I heard someone else claim that too but they could not provide any information about it, not even an event name. (I searched myself and couldn't find anything at all either) If you can provide a link to that mysterious event assuming it exists could you please post it here.

if you find proof? no one knows about that.... ?

Metallicat

yeah, was a good event, things went ok. But the comps were prety poorly run as so far behind time, rules not setout correctly, server configs and so on not setup correctly(this is mainly for DOD comp)

I think the main problem is there was way to many comps run. Next time probably just the bigger games. Perhaps just a CS comp, 1 warcraft 3 comp (not 3 of them) and also 1 or 2 other games. This way better prizes, more time to play and so on...

wouldn't work...
you cant say that the prizes need redistrobution, the way they were sent out was pretty good, and could not have been more even, except for cash prizes.

running two comps instead of 8->10 would not mean better prizes for the winners, it would mean less total prizes, and more door prizes

to have only two comps, why not just NOT run comps at all?

then we have people playing for enjoyment.
then just raffle off the sponsers stuff at the end, and every so often during the event.
(yes, I know this wasnt my idea, but I am changing it as i go along)

oh, and 80% of comp problems were caused byu the players, not admins or assists :P

Jason.... If you go by that rationale then , the lan that WA hosted had well over 1000 people.. I know for a fact there was 860 or so people the first day , then another 400 or so people the second day. It was held in challenge stadium and it housed 800 at once.... then people went home and others came... trust me, I know , I was there =)

Here is some pics of the event :)

http://www.walan.org/gallery/index.php?pageType=folder&currDir=./WALAN%20January%202002

why dont u nguys have 1 f***ing size

i have heard 600, 700, 800, 860, 900, 750, etc

WHATS THE ACTUAL EVENT TOTAL?

from some of those opics it looks like 600-50 people....

and boy are they cramemd up, its worse than BDI

I stayed back and helped with the clean up.

1st. Tables. Shoot me now.

2nd. Humans are pigs. Now really. You dont squash chips etc at home into your carpet do you. And leaving rubbish just sitting around. Could it have hurt to put it all into a plastic bag? You wouldnt do any of this at home unless you are a bum, so make an effort next time.

3rd. Tables. Shoot me again.

Overall, I enjoyed the Big Day In. Good job guys.

Go #THPAM! HOF HOF

[clown] Thor

I dont mind volunteering for 5000+ player lan. As long as we get some one else to move the tables... although i had much fun moving coke cans into giant room freezers.

i dont care much about the prizes, im more then happy with the ones we got in DOD.
With so many comps the admins didnt really do there jobs to make them run smoothly. I dont think this is because the admins didnt try, but maybe just had to much to do. Either that or get people that know what they are doing to run the comps. In the dod comps the admins didnt even know what DOD was.

I'm in total agreement with Thor. I mean the amount of s*** raven and i cleaned up just between the 2 of us, there was enough crap there to fill atleast 1 dumbster! and that was just the 2 of us covereing around 1/4 of the hall. Perhaps some more bins in future mite start to help with this? if people actually use them. The only bins i actually found at the event were at the entrance, perhas one at both ends of every 2nd row would help?


As for tables. Ech, bloody heavy after moving 20 - 30 of them :\

As far as helping pack up goes i don't really mind at all, however when i had to actually take all my crap out to the car (out the door along a bit down some stairs, along some more) and being told i am not allowed to go in or out of the only 2 open doors kinda pisses me off. The main entrance door was locked, couldn't use that, couldn't use the door just round the corner from the room "security will go nuts" and cant use the behind the admin area because i'm not an "admin or an assist" regardless of how much s*** i was covered in from cleaning up and packing up, and the graveyard shift i did on the helpdesk so the others could get some sleep. thats my only complaint really.

Aside from that it was a good event. unfortunatelly i wasn't there to sign up for any of the comps which kinda sucked.

I thikn next time however i'll have to bring my own chair :-)

It was awesome!

yeah, was lack of bins!

Lack of people joining servers! DHCP SERVERS BE DAMNED

/me whispers to biggles that he had to get dave to turn off 2, YES 2 shared internet connections

capt veg

http://www.walan.org/gallery/index.php?currDir=./WALAN%20January%202002&pageType=image&image=P1010003.JPG

according to this pic, there can only be a max number of computers of ~550

how can it be an 800 player event?

BDI had 1000 computers, plus servers...
that is a 1000 person lan

That WALAN picture isnt the whole venue.. i was atually there for the 800 player LAN.. and yes there was actually 800 people there... I'm very good friends with Dr_J, and i go to perth quite a bit.

I have to admit, I like WALAN LANs quite a lot, it runs sooo smooth, you get bearly any problems occuring (i help out with the event when im there)

The venue is great (OMG NO STAIRS AT ALL!) the food supplied is CHEAP!, and the air flow is PERFECT!

i suggest anyone that decides to go to perth for a holiday (great place btw) you should try attend WALAN atleast once.

so can't find any thing on this lan, no news write up's no nothing.

In the end i even did detective work on the images to spot something that even proves it was held in Australia.

Damn WA don't have there state writin on there number plates or something, and what is with the flag hanging from the room, its not even an australian flag.

Only thing that was australian was a rip curl sign being held up.

Not much was writin about the lan :\

Jason, there is a video of the lan floating round somewhere.. in fact I think it might be....hmmmm its not uploaded anywhere I can find at the moment.... . but trust me , thats in Perth... I know peopel that have the video on their PCs, I just have to find it....

That lan was most definitely 800 players the first day , and about half the second day +new comeers... .so all up it would have been WELL in excess.

I did a write up on the lan on CHAU a year or so ago... Ill post you the link...
**update*** in my write up I say that 700 people showed up to the event, but I have calculated that wrong. Trust me , there was 800 + ppl there. :D

the link is
http://www.challenge-au.com/columns/capt_veg/archive.php3?date=1009864800

BDI own me

Was a good LAN, but a few small complaints etc have to be made I think

firstly, the heat - even with the air con and fans running (good idea with those hope to see them at the next shafted) it was far too hot, a few mates of mine had to shut down their machines due to crashes from overheating, even the most beastly cooling doesn't usually have to sustain room temps of 40+ degrees.

secondly, the seat bookings. OCmelbourne reserved approx 13 seats, and upon arriving found that we had been left off the seat booking list - not good when there are 10 coming 350km from warrnambool and 1 from portland, and another 2 from melbourne - not everyone arrives at the same time, and at a lan of this size you sit together for security more so than for the sake of being with friends - as it was, we had to sit in 4 different groups - even after we let the admins know we couldnt find our seats we weren't helped to find an area where there were seats, we were just told "find somewhere to sit"... what a joke, I almost lost my arms carting my PC around for so long - I wouldnt have taken my PC in with me first if I hadn't expected to be able to go "here's where im sitting" and put it down.

umm... lack of bins, already been said, so ditto to that - I hoarded my rubbish and occasionally did a bin run but felt that the bins were far and few between.

signs were good, as were the tv's although the row I was on had no visibility (well at least not within the eyesight of the average geek)

It would have been nice to see the big tv running the whole time once it got dark, a few times me and a mate went and sat outside just to get away from the heat - it would have been rather cool to be able to watch games etc on the big-screen while doing this.

Umm... the boxes covering the cabling - near the front entrance there was a single (i think) fibre cable being protected by a massive hump. I personally ran into it and almost dropped my pc (its a mistake you only make once), but my friend ended up having to sit right next to the entrance and said that almost every single person going past hit it at least once and nearly tripped - nobody actually tripped, just all came close - although he did tell me one kids' father dropped his monitor coming over it (ouch!)

There should have been more breaks in the table rows, a few of us went for a bit of a wander to check out the case modding scene and it was quite annoying walking a row to find you had to turn around and walk it again because you couldn't get around the end.

Switch positions could have been marked a little more obviously, perhaps by little flags or similar? Also, it might be a suggestion that a larger notice is put up warning people they need to bring network cables - and long ones at that, between us warrny guys we managed to swap around cables for most of us to get the right lenghts but one of us only had a 2m cable to do a 10m run (he had to purchase one for like $20 or something) - it would be nice to see the cables pre-supplied in pre-made lenghts such as happens at MorB LAN's here in Warrnambool (http://morb.ath.cx) - but in a 1000 person environment this is stretching reality a little ;o) I can imagine a lot of cables were used for the network backbone as is, without throwing making and measuring 1000 cables for players :D

Some people really stink, eww. I had to leave early because I felt like vomiting from the smell emnating from someone nearby.

Seats were surprisingly comfortable for being made of wood!

People shouldn't sleep with their heads in the middle of an aisle, dude that's the best way to get ur face stood on. LoL...

Ear plugs are good if you want to sleep, thanks djwiz :D

Kudoz to DJ-Studd for a few hours of entertainment listening to certain law enforcement. ;)

CS configs borked my game, took me ages to get my controls back to normal, it's really a little inconsiderate to force everyone to run something like that, especially if it doesn't even use the default controls.

CS Comps were f***ed - we thought we were gonna start our game but the server just wasn't there.... then it was, then it wasn't and so on... eventually it got fixed.... and we played our game... and got beaten, but it took us 3 hours to find that out instead of <1!

Overall, the admins did a great job pulling it all together and I was amazed at how well most things worked as far as the lan itself, signage was excellent except i saw a hideous amount of people dropping their pc's off at the wrong side of the stadium because there were no signs directing them ot the carpark around the corner... If the seat bookings had worked or if at least we'd been helped find somewhere to sit i'd be much happier but oh well - nothing got stolen from any of us so I guess it's ok :) Most people are saying the comp problems are caused by players - but in our situation it was poor server management, I don't think the admins even noticed that the server was bouncing up and down.

Oh... and a wireless mike in a room full of computers? I wonder why it kept cutting out ;) mmm interference.

Oh well, my 2 cents, and then some - if you read all that - good, if not, it doesn't worry me.

--SileNceR