When it comes to serious gaming, the PC is king.
Later this month, Mississauga gamers will invade Zap Extreme Internet Lounge on Rathburn Rd. E. for what's known as a LAN party. LAN, or local area network, involves dozens of computers linked together to allow gamers to play against scores of people in the same location.
Dave Campbell, who's organizing the game tournament, said a similar event in June had about 200 gamers and 15 teams facing off against each other in the video game, Counter-Strike Source. At the behest of his regular gamers, Campbell has organized another tournament featuring the same game, for Saturday, Aug. 30.
"I was blown away; we had teams from places like Belleville and Nova Scotia," said Campbell. "For lots of these guys, console gaming (such as the Xbox or Playstation) is seen as a form of entertainment while PC gaming is a sport. You should see it. Guys bring in their own mouse and headset and keyboards. It gets pretty intense."
While the tournament will be competitive, Campbell, who lives in Mississauga, went out of his way to ensure local youth could play and not get demolished by competitive gamers.
"Lots of these kids don't play for status or money or prizes and they certainly don't come with the expectation teams from across Canada will blow them away," he said. "With this one, I gave a lot of kids my word that no (elite) teams are coming and this is strictly for fun."
However, there will be prizes. The entry fee for players is $20 or $25 and winners will receive gifts including gaming headsets and SteelSeries mouse pads.
All participants will leave with a prize.
The reasons for having a LAN event are numerous, said Campbell.
"Not everyone owns a $4,000 computer," said Campbell, with a laugh. "With online tournaments, you often see hacking, or cheating, and with having the computers here in the store we can make sure no one touches them prior to the tournament."
Other issues include lag and bandwidth problems that can cause delays, meaning while you wait for your computer to start moving again your opponents can busy themselves by pumping round after round into your motionless character. Needless to say, when the game starts running again at proper speed, it's frustrating to see that you've been slain.
The social aspect of being surrounded by scores of like-minded people is also a big part of the tournaments, said Campbell.
"It's great to be around other people, especially when you consider lots of gamers play in their basements or by themselves," he said. "With LAN games, when you kill a friend (in the game) you can go over and rub it in their face a little bit."
For more information, visit www.zapextremegaming.com.
cclay@mississauga.net
