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screenshot of lan.hicknhack.org

LAN Party Website

Because many of my friends got their fingers on PCs and played games, we started playing games together. Soon, the idea arose to arrange semi professional LAN parties, where we are able to give more players a chance to play together. The internet website and the intranet system for these LAN parties was build by myself.

details

It took us a long journey to find an adequate location, we almost gave up our plans. Literally in the last second we were hinted to the Fröbel Arena. The building was used as a former boxing arena for the Deutsche Bahn in GDR times. After the reunion, it stayed empty for a while and was then used by the Takebayashi Dojo e.V. as the main training hall. The location was ideal for our needs. We still do LAN parties there regularly.

The internet website and the intranet system for these LAN parties base on the same infrastructure as the students forum. Feature wise this page goes far beyond providing just a forum:
  • attendee registration
  • flexible seat reservation management
  • payment status feedback
  • tournament support
  • attendee driven party radio
  • pizza ordering system
  • news and timetables
  • administration pages for everything
  • multiple party support

history

29.03. - 01.04.
2001		 The first HicknHack Lan-Party took place. 35 players followed our invitations.
The biggest problem of this party was the temperature. We ultimately underestimated how hard it is to heat up a hall that big from 3.5°C to 20°C.
10.08. - 12.08.
2001		 It was time for a second party. This time everything went as it should. 56 players enjoyed the party. The delicious birthday cake and the tournaments were only some highlights.
16.11. - 18.11.
2001		 As the second party went so well, we did not wait long and organized the third one. This time the party was almost overrun by more than 100 attendees.
We got all kind of troubles:
  • The entire electricity of the house broke the night before the party, because of a defective heater.
  • It was a nightmare to organize enough tables and chairs for all attendees.
  • The network was barely sufficient to run with 100 PCs attached.
  • Organizing the tournaments was a fulltime job.
  • Ordering and delivering pizzas was a second full-time job.
  • We got several electricity failures during the party because of defect hardware of our attendees.
Beyond all the troubles, many combatants and most of the attendees helped to make this party a success as well.
This was the first party that used the new web infrastructure.
19.04 - 21.04.
2002		 After the very stressful third party we took some time off. But we could not resist to launch a 4th party. This party was as full as the third one, but we were prepared this time.
The first time we have used a beamer to provide support for the organization, show some fun movies and the tournament finals.
Dec. 2002 The HicknHack-Lan eV. was found.
The organization team had become more and more harmonized. With an official representation it was possible to rent the party location, that is now called HicknHack Arena.
Juni 2009 A more solvent tenant ousted us from the hall. Therefore, the 37th and for the time being last Lanparty took place in this setting in June 2009. We have all gotten a bit older and with the kids, priorities shift a bit as well.
We enjoyed the parties very much!