CherryPopper

This is Part 2 of what goes into running MonsterLAN behind the scenes. I've already covered what happens before the MonsterLAN events in Running the Monster - Part 1. So following on from that this is part 2 of a 3 part walk through of what goes on behind the scenes of MonsterLAN. Part 1 will cover what we do before the doors open, part 2 will cover the running of the event and part 3 will be the aftermath of the event.

The Event

Once the admins are happy with the venue setup, we run around and check the venue from a safety point of view making sure cables are covered & taped down, signs are up and all power is connected correctly. The last thing we need is to hurt anyone at an event, the paper work would be a nightmare!!

There is also the fun job of making sure the toilets are open and filled with toilet paper as we have come close to running out before, not being able to relieve yourself after stuffing yourself full of pizza is a sure fire way to annoy your gamers into leaving. Who said gaming LAN's were just about gaming!

The doors are then swung open to the masses of eager gamers awaiting the awesomeness that is MonsterLAN. As they all file into the venue we're starting game servers for public play so the first people in will have something to play from the second they are connected. We also ensure that at least two of our Admins are roaming around making sure everyone is getting on the network okay and to help any first timers that might not know what to do or where to get all the info they need.

The friendly face of a helpful admin is an important part of any event especially a Gaming LAN event where its not always the most structured of events. First time gamers popping their Gaming LAN cherries are always a little lost as to how an event such as MonsterLAN actually works. They need some help so having people roaming around looking for that "I've got no clue" looking face, ready to help is the best way I've found to ensure everyone enjoys themselves. It also helps to have a slideshow on the projector that displays the most important info like website of the Intranet site, tournament times & other info to save you answering the same question hundreds of times.

It also helps with the people having issues like all the power plugs being taken by someone with every electronic device known to man plugged in or a network cable that was taken by someone at the end of the table instead of using the one right in front of them. There are always random odd things that happen when the masses walk in so its best to be close by to help fix them before it becomes a real issue because they have "attempted" to fix it themselves by re-routing all the power via an extension lead from the emergency exit sign or plugging the network for that row into a 10mb hub someone had with them.

One thing I will say is you have to be prepared for anything as they keep inventing a better idiot every LAN event we run. From people bringing toasters to microwave ovens, 2 gamers having the same wireless kb & mouse set to the same channels controlling each others PC without knowing what was happening and even people being total idiots by rocking up drunk. Keep your mind open as the possibilities are endless as to what idiots will do at your event.

Some of the big issues you will have to contend with are normally related to power. Hopefully you will have worked out the power layout before the event so you know how many PC's each circuit can handle. MonsterLAN runs 8 PC's off each power point (14 PC's per circuit). Its also good to have the ability to move a row to another circuit if you do run into issues as we have done in the past because of some gamer with a power hungry rig.

While all this is happening there are the smiling admins at the desk collecting your money and enabling you onto the MonsterLAN network via our custom DHCP server (aka LAN NAZI). This allows us to do a few things as well as restrict the network to only those who have paid. Our LAN NAZI system also lets us know how many people we have at the event, if any of them have a network bound virus like blaster (not so much an issue nowadays) and if they are attempting to disrupt our network. We can also quickly kick these people off the network to ensure the event runs as fault free as possible.

Once everyone is settled its normally time for the first competition and this is where your preparation comes into play. If you have put a lot of time into setting up and testing your game servers then starting them up should be simple and you can concentrate on the painful part of getting gamers into the correct teams, servers and on time to start each round. This is where I wish we could wire up all the seats with some sort of electric shock device as it seems no matter how much yelling over the PA or slapping of gamers heads there will always be some people in the wrong server, wrong team or totally missing because they went to KFC just as the tournament was starting. This is where most of the time will be spent in the tournaments and not having your servers ready to rock at the click of a button just means it will take twice as long to run a tournament.

Its also good to try to limit the amount of time a tournament goes for as people will get bored if they aren't into that game or get knocked out in the first round. If your tournament takes 3-4 hours and your not just a Counter-Strike Source Gaming LAN then you need to find a way to shorten it so other tournaments can be played to keep things fun for everyone, not just the CSS players. Finding the balance is the hard part but talking to your community about these things helps keep everyone happy, ok so almost everyone. Shortening things like round times, score limits & map times helps keep the tournament to a respectable timeframe. At MonsterLAN we aim for around 2hrs for each tournament with the expectation that noobs could blow this out to 3hrs at the most.

While the tournaments are running don't forget that not everyone will be in that tournament or wont be in it till the end so be sure to run some public servers to keep them entertained and to practise during round byes. We have also found that having some consoles hooked up to a big screen helps in this area & gives the gamers a reason to socialise a little away from their PC's. They are also great just for the spectacle part of gaming as having a crowd around you oohh'ing and aarrhhh'ing as you hit the notes in Guitar Hero really gets the fun factor into gaming and helps create a great vibe for the event. At the larger events we have even hired an arcade machine like sega rally to help give gamers something else to do that's a little more social. Remember they can sit at home and play games without all the pain of packing up their PC's so you have to make it worthwhile to rock up to your event for something they can't easily do at home.

By now the event should be kicking along nicely and now its time to organise the pizza run and ensuring everyone has ordered & paid for their dinner. We use a pizza ordering system on the Intranet as in the past we have had gamers forget what they ordered, said they have paid when they haven't or just totally forgot they ordered pizza and got food elsewhere.

Next up is the major prize giveaways and at MonsterLAN this normally means someone is going to look like an idiot and most of the time its me, even when I don't mean it. We have tried lots of different ways to giveaway prizes from gameshows to paper plane making and even piggy back races (which ended in carnage for the admins). Its silly things like this that make an otherwise boring event have a spectacle part to it where everyone stops to watch & win something, or throw ML balls back at me. It might seem lame to some but we have gotten some of our best feedback from the silly non-gaming related things we have done, plus us admins enjoy it most of the time. We have even done things like "Lupin's Loons" movies of funny pics put to music to enjoy over dinner, the ML movies I have done of previous events and just the random youtube videos put on the projector at various times to keep the event fun for everyone.

As the event goes on the other tournaments are run, random "Big Organised Games" are run to fill in the downtime between the tournaments, more prizes are given away in crazy ways the admins just thought of and the gamers start to settle into the event. One thing that can happen if your not on the ball is your event starts to slowly die and doing the random things like prize giveaways or funny videos on the projector help keep the events great vibe going into the weeeee hours.

Its about now that the admins adrenalin is all pumped out and we need to let some grab some sleep as we still have to pack the event up at the end. The graveyard shift is hard to do as your already tired but you don't want the event to die a boring death. So having a few things planned for the early hours always helps as we have even run dodgeball at these times to give everyone a kick to get them through till the morning.

One thing I haven't touched on yet is keeping your admin crew happy throughout the event. If they aren't happy then the events vibe will die quickly as the gamers wont have fun with grumpy admins. Doing things like feeding them & making sure that all of your admins get a chance to game helps keep a big fat smile on their face so that they will be having as much fun running the event as your gamers do attending it.

After the last gamer has fragged his last frag and left its time to packup & some tired admin discussion about the event.

Part 3 will be on the aftermath of the event. Stay tuned.