LANsomnia – All Night Gaming Tourney

Posted in Features, Gaming by Aaron, August 29, 2010 at 2:02 pm | 741 views, 0 comments

Groggy, sleepy eyed gamers made what must have seemed like a long trek home this morning, having survived Project X’s second LANsomnia event.

Taking place at Switchbox 1.1, Project X tasked gamers to compete in a Starcraft II and Call of Duty 4 tournament, which would last throughout the night. Beginning at 11 p.m., 51 gamers competed from prizes and bragging rights. Once they reached capacity, many were turned away.

But despite a long night of aggression, glory and defeat in front of them, the people were friendly and excited the be there. People were leaving their seats to watch other screens and matches, talking strategy or just making idle chit-chat as they waiting for the tournaments to begin.

Jonathan Burkinshaw, founder of Project X, said there are a number of reasons why people love to come to LAN events like these, rather than sit at home and play online – even in the middle of the night.

“The unique advantage of coming out to these LAN events is, you get to see your competition. The feeling of gaming is severely different. Play online, you chat a bit, maybe curse their name. Here you can actually find them, shake their hand.

It’s the same thing as, why drink at home instead of going to the bar or a nightclub? It’s the social environment that comes with it.”

LANsomnia is one of Project X’s smaller events. It’s meant to be a great way to join the community and get to know other gamers with some friendly competition.

And, if you’re good enough, you can walk away with some prizes.

The winner of the Starcraft II tournament, which was the biggest draw for gamers at this LANsomnia, received a Steel Series Siberia Headset – a $90 piece of equipment.

Jonathan could feel the tension and excitement in the air as everyone watched the final match in the Starcraft II tournament. GunColt took the fashionable head ware home at the end of the night.

Most of the gamers lasted until the tournaments ended at 5 a.m. Then they turned a shuffled home, except for a few enthusiastic gamers that stuck around to play a few hours longer.

Project X has made it their goal to bring gamers together in Calgary. Their next, larger event will be Project X: Redemption, a PC and Console LAN taking place May 13 – 15, 2011. They plan to do more smaller events like LANsomnia in the meantime.

More details are available on their site, www.projectxlan.com

Below are the winners for the August 28 LANsomnia event.

Starcraft II
1st . GunColt
2nd. Peroguie
3rd. Amaimon

Call of Duty 4
1st. Team Meh: Zercom, Kiedo, JesusSniper
2nd. Team Knifer: Bubbles, Brown, Kinger
3rd. Team Big Sexy Fun: Azriel2150, Skilled&Confused, PinkRanger

Check back with Wild Gunmen to full coverage of gamer events and profiles in Calgary. Know of an event? Give us a shout, we’d love to let others know about it.

To contact the author of this post: aaron.chatha@wildgunmen.com