Previous Events

A Saint Louis LAN Party for Charity

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Laclede's LAN 9

January 14,2006

Better space, a better network, and new sponsors! Laclede’s LAN 9 set yet another high bar for attendance at 112 gamers, and we moved into the cafeteria at West County Technical School, while gaining Allhawkeye85 as a staff member. Our sponsors showed up in force, with Nathan Kirsch from Legit Reviews doing hardware demonstrations for the latest technology, and Nerds on Site bringing the Nerdmobile and a fully stocked booth showing a potential career path for the PC enthusiast. Adrenaline Gaming Zone, a console gaming group, ran a Halo tournament to complement the PC tourneys we were offering.

Hurricane Katrina Relief Charity LAN

October 29,2005

When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, we wanted to show support by mobilizing the community we had helped to build. We did what we do best – play games! In doing so, we were able to raise $2,180 with the help of Ranken Technical College and Best Buy. Since this was a side project of sorts, we experimented with other attractions, like Domino’s pizza (courtesy of Ranken Technical College), Halloween costumes and game-themed jack o’ lanterns, and an Airsoft shooting gallery in a separate room. This was also the first event to feature PurpleMint and -mogwai as new staff members, part of our sponsorship and pumpkin-carving team.

Laclede's LAN 8

August 13,2005

Laclede’s LAN 8 brought 78 gamers together to once again stab, shoot, and obliterate each other in the name of camaraderie and community. Although we saw our efforts as the least you could do to throw a good event, LL was nevertheless starting to cultivate a fanbase among its most loyal members – EmoScreamo showed up to Sargentwolf’s registration area wearing a Laclede’s LAN T-shirt that he had made himself.

Laclede's LAN at GameRIOT

July 1,2005

Many chapters of the larger Laclede’s LAN story took place at events other than ours. Had we been thinking about it more, we might have referred to these road trips and random party crashing as “active outreach”, but the truth is we just loved hanging out with gamers of all stripes and did it whenever we had the chance. Our philosophy was clear, though; when you’re trying to grow, nurture, and serve a community, you can never make too many friends. Our trips to local and nearby events helped us stay in touch with the people we were asking to come to our LANs, strengthened alliances and partnerships with other similar groups, and served as an influx of new ideas and differing perspectives on the best ways to bring gamers together.

Laclede's LAN 7

June 11,2005

Laclede’s LAN 7 is where things really started happening. We more than doubled our attendance to 72 gamers, we added Havicaz and his famous posing abilities to the staff, and generally ramped up our LAN experience into what we had always wanted it to be: the best in Saint Louis. The Dickie Burgers, the Console Corner, Tim’s Pink Lemonade and other LL staples were all part of the action, but we continued to add features we thought our community would enjoy, like a large projection screen broadcasting the tournaments on a delay and the Counter-Strike Ice Cream Cake (a subject of much controversy and sardonicism).

Laclede's LAN 6

May 7,2005

Laclede’s LAN 6 was a staff-only event. LL was about to undergo major changes to the staff roster, location, and scale; we needed to have a small event to re-center ourselves and explore our new venue. It was a great LAN, and it coincided with ACE and Sarge being officially added to the staff, as well as a brand-new website and the creation of the iconic Pierre Laclede logo.

Laclede's LAN 5

December 18,2004

Laclede’s LAN 5 finally saw us move out of the cramped kids’ area and into a rec room, as we started to outgrow the smaller area. The Console Corner continued to be a fun diversion with four-player Halo 2 running on a projector. Meanwhile BEan spent much of his time trying to track down muggers, vagrants and criminals outside the church.

Laclede's LAN 4

November 20,2004

Laclede’s LAN 4 was our first major battle against an unwelcome new enemy – Valve’s new digital distribution platform, Steam. Steam required an internet connection to update, and Valve released an update for Counter-Strike the night before our event that made older versions incompatible. Committed to making our tournament happen, Dudsmack took a 56K PCI modem and systematically got every tournament entrant updated via a dial-up connection he owned. The release of Half-Life 2 was huge, but at the time, Steam was a nasty price to pay for it…

Laclede's LAN 3

October 23,2004

At Laclede’s LAN 3, we stumbled upon the perfect method of lighting a LAN party – multicolored Christmas lights. Just bright enough to keep you from tripping over a cable or misplaced foot, but still dim enough to put the focus where it belongs – on gamers’ screens – our Christmas lights were both the perfect light source and a visually appealing accent to the neon case lights and monitor screens. Aesthetics and signature decorative styles weren’t foremost on our minds when designing our events, but sometimes…

Laclede's LAN 2

September 8,2004

If you’re looking for the first Laclede’s LAN appearance of both BEan and ACE (and who wouldn’t), it’s right here at our second event. ACE showed up with a case whose yellow sheen evoked visions of a tropical paradise, even in the darkest basement of Chesterfield Presbyterian Church. Although still sequestered in the kids’ area, and still using ancient monitors and equipment, we doubled our attendance to 16 people, and started the competitive tradition of LL with our tournaments…