By Ninja
Well about two weeks or so ago I read about a big LAN coming up at a local stadium. Immediately I was excited about this new event, regardless of what it would be like. As far as I knew the Arizona Lanbashers League was putting it on it would be big. Eventually I found out just how big. Cash prizes in each of the tournaments would be given out, including a $4500 prize for the winner of the Q3A tournament. I contacted Dan Huffman of the ALL and I was all set to go.
I didn't bring my own system, so I wasn't actually in on the gaming. But when I got to the basement of the Veterans Memorial Coliseum I realized that this was probably to my benefit. There were quite a few gamers there, roughly 144 in all, divided between about 64 in the UT and Q3 brackets and near 16 in the Age of Kings tournament. Count in the 20-30 spectators and you have quite a crowd. I wouldn't have stood a chance in the games, but I was able to see more of the tourney. The games were initially delayed because of some server problems, but eventually the games got underway. UT and Q3 consisted of 6 player FFA games on 3 maps that had been previously specified. The AOK tournament was based on 1v1 games. When I arrived, the gamers were already practicing their respective games for the most part; feverishly squeezing in the last bit of play before the tournaments began. I was able to see most of the games going on, with LAN Q3A and UT games going, and a few gamers being heckled for playing against the bots. Single-player AOK practice seemed to take precedence, while a few of the players in that bracket indulged in Counterstrike or Rogue Spear games to pass the time.
Eventually, the server problems were sorted out, and the games began. The action was intense, with the AOK games starting first. I watched a brief AOK game that Phunguy lost very quickly and then moved on to view the other tourneys. Everyone was deeply absorbed in their games, but after the three maps were up, the bottom 4 scores were dropped from the tourney and the top two moved on to the next round.
With a majority out of the official tournaments, before the next round various games showed up on the players' machines…some of the more popular things to show up weren't even games. A few notables would be the Fish screen savers, which appeared all over the place. Also, a small crowd formed around one person's hunting game, who was harassed for not being able to get anything much bigger than a rat (although in true gamer fashion he dropped his buck with a head shot at under 30 yards). But the biggest draw of all would have to be SGT_Rock's Japanese game show near the servers, which pulled in a huge crowd.
Eventually many of the attendees left for the dinner break, and I left the event around 5:30. While I was there, I did manage to get a nifty T-shirt, which all of the people signed up got and also had a chance to sit down for a talk with Dan Huffman, one of the members of the ALL team. He filled me in on the background of the event and many other details. Arizona Challenge 2000 began as the collaboration of the Arizona Lanbashers League and Battletop. Created as part of the Battletop tournaments, it was designed as a preliminary tournament for the New York tournament. The winners of the New York tournament would represent the US in the World Cyber Games in Seoul, which has huge prizes for the winners, and is backed by Samsung. ALL organized the event, and in return Battletop would foot the bill for the event. The ALL also aided as a catalyst for Battletop entering the US market. Gaming in South Korea, where Battletop originates from, is a huge industry and widely covered by the media. Incidentally, there was no coverage whatsoever for the event in Arizona, unless you include me, and I wouldn't. Battletop, in addition to organizing tournaments, is also a worldwide ranking service, providing free, real-time ranking against other players, much like the system used for world chess rankings, or so I'm told.
The Arizona event, in any case, was merely a precursor of things to come. Thanks very much in part to the ALL and dedicated gamers, Arizona enjoys a very active LAN and gaming scene, not including Indian gaming. In any case, the ALL is a talented group, but truly, it could be anywhere. As the ALL grows, it is a model for other regional groups. As Dan told me, the ALL is even looking for LLC status, and planning on doing at least an annual event and semi-annual ones like the AZC2000. They will serve as a sort of focal point for gaming in Arizona. For January of 2001 they're planning another large event with Battletop, but this time with more sponsors, and hopefully, more media coverage. We can only hope that this is the future, with gaming becoming even more social. I truly hope it is. And I suppose this means I have an excuse to revamp this old machine as my LAN rig. Unless Jedi Mind Trick wants to give his away?
The event was a success, in any case, thanks to the tireless efforts of the ALL Core. I was told some hadn't slept for a few days, and were at the arena for pretty much 24 hours, working non-stop. I tip my hat to them for showing us all the future of gaming, where local cooperation with world organizations leads to greater competition and benefits all involved. Perhaps world peace will come about thanks to a friendly match of Team Fortress 2, if it's released in any of our lifetimes.
(Further results for later in the tournament can be found at the ALL site: www.lanparty.com/all)