My First Ever LAN!

 

Hey hey lovely readers, this particular blog was written while I whittled away a two hour train ride returning to my uni city following my first ever LAN! It finally happened! I got to experience an actual LAN event, in the UK, and I got my first (of many) press passes. It is so wild to type that and read back on it. But you know what they say, there is a first time for everything and this was my first LAN.

If you had told 2020 me that just three years later she would be attending LAN events with a lanyard that says press pass - she would have for sure called you a liar and say you had a screw loose. I don't think she would believe everything that has happened in such a short period of time. But it really happened and that is just wild. Literally wild, I’m barely a year into my esports career and have attended the play-offs of an international event in London - I also nearly missed the train back to uni but that is Google maps’ fault for sending me the wrong way to the tube station.

Anywaysssss, while writing this as my heartbeat returned to a normal and safe level from an unnecessarily stressy getting lost in London scenario, I’m going to write up my experience of my first LAN - and I’ll include pics too of course! Oh and one thing I have learnt from all of this - other than to not trust Google maps, is to have some sort of cushion for the plastic arena seats - they really are not comfy XD. 

The caster desk 

Honestly, my first LAN threw up a few surprises - for one it wasn’t for a game I expected. I had low key been expecting Valorant - like the Redbull Home Grounds - or perhaps MSI (yes I am working on convincing management to send me to that one - so if the lovely people at management are reading this, please send me to MSI 2023!) seeing as MSI will be in London (at the same arena as this event) later this year. To be fair though I will be doing everything possible to attend MSI one way or another but having a press pass at that event in particular would be really cool! But anyway - so my first LAN was actually for Apex Legends, a game that I have a very limited knowledge on and had to ask a few friends to give me a crash course on.

Definitely the best job ever

Trust me, you are as surprised as I am - but I was offered the chance to attend a LAN and knowing I needed the experience and just wanting to get to experience a live crowd, I was more than happy to attend. Honestly though the feeling of being at a LAN was unparalleled and receiving a press pass? The poor colleague who was with me had to put up with me bouncing foot to foot in excitement for over half an hour while we did all the necessary checks and received passes, etc. I honestly am amazed he managed to put up with me because I was literally so excited considering I had next to no experience of playing Apex. Genuinely bouncing foot to foot in the press check in area for over twenty minutes. Could not stand still for love nor money. Oh I also got a piece of merch courtesy of my colleague but more on that later (thanks to him btw!!). Truly, I really loved the experience and getting to see how esports events work with a live audience - I’ll be attending the next Apex event in London in June one way or another - but again if management would like to send me as a member of the press again I will not complain.

The lanyard with my press pass + hoodie courtesy of my colleague

**Bonus being I will actually know where I’m going, what I’m seeing and what I’m doing for next time - you live and you learn!

So I realize now I haven’t actually stated clearly what event I was at - I was attending the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Play-offs which the first of 3 events ran 2nd to 5th February 2023 from Copperbox Arena in the Olympic Park in London. Which by the way is a really cool building but a pain to get to via the tube depending on where you are coming from in London. The actual setup for the event was 20 teams of 3 (as per standard Apex games) from across the regions competing to qualify for the finals of the event which took place on the Sunday. Spoiler alert - TSM won.

The Stage and Team Areas (as many as I could fit into one photo)

Basically, the event had numerous matches, the team who won each match would get the highest amount of points and so on, I’ll be honest for the first half of the day I had my notes page pulled up ready if I needed it as I stared at the screen ever so slightly clueless. But the casters were truly so helpful especially if you had really basic knowledge of Apex as a whole and did a great job of making sure everyone understood what they were looking at. I would like to point out I did do actual work while I was at the event in between skipping around energetically and staring cluelessly. If there was one thing I felt bad about though, it was that I had very little idea who many of the pro players were - which was something I had been worried about beforehand too. I knew some of the teams - I mean come on, TSM, Fnatic, 100 Thieves - yeah I know who the orgs are (well some of them - Fun123 was a new team to me) - but as for the players I was a little clueless. My sincerest apologies to the pro player who sat beside me at the end of the day in the reserved seating for press / players / team / family members and I had no idea who he was while the fans in front of us were gushing over him. I’m so so sorry - I’ll make sure I know who you are for next time!!! 

Press Seating - behind fans

Quick break from me rambling about the event to offer my cheat sheet help on understanding Apex if you haven’t played/watched game play:

Apex Legends Cheat Sheet by Nia

• 3 player per team - multiple squads in each game

• Pick a character, one of each per team no duplicates

• Legends (character) -> passive, active and ultimate ability

• Drop ship with jump master (usually the captain of the team) who decides where you land as a group

• Heal items, shield, etc. provided but search for a gun

• Map starts to decrease via circle called the ring - must be inside the ring when it closes if you stand outside the ring = lose health

• When you die (via the ring or being shot) enter down state - allow teammates to revive you

• When you fully die (killed when in down state or whole squad killed) loot will move into a box for other people to pick up

• If only you are fully dead but squad is fine, you can pick banner off loot box, take it to revive station and then can shoot other people

• Aim is to eliminate all the other teams and be the last team standing to win…

• Last squad standing wins.

Also if you are wondering what the outside of the arena looks like - don’t ask me, I didn’t get a pic until I left by which point I was lost anyway so I didn’t actually get a picture of the actual arena. But I can say it is hella pretty and it looks really cool at night when all the lights are on and it is under the stars. But that’s because again, I got lost, whoopsie. I mean to be honest with you, I’m not surprised, when it comes to getting lost, I could get a degree in it. And to be fair I had had Google maps on and that didn’t help either so there you go.

1 of 2 pics of outside the arena while I was getting lost

2 of 2 of outside the arena - still lost XD

But anyway, I met up with my colleague that I was attending the event with, and we travelled across to Copperbox Arena, also it is worth noting I am very much the baby of the company - I’m one of the youngest members of staff, maybe second youngest out of the entire company, and my colleague is most definitely a parent. And that is a compliment - he carries candy pretty much everywhere and gave me a creme egg which I took great delight in nibbling as I had been too tired to eat on my train and hadn’t had a creme egg in the longest time - though child me truly adored them. Literally a good start to the day - and start as you mean to go on as the day continued to get better. Anyways we got to the arena - which was a five ish minute walk from the tube stop - probably shorter if like my colleague, you have long legs. Yes there is a reason behind the name smolsh0rtie and much of it is because I have short ass legs despite the fact I walk fast. Honestly I can keep up with my colleague but him having long legs vs my short self was not fair at all haha.

As this was my first event as press at a LAN everything was new to me and I felt like a fish out of water, trailing behind my boss and following literally whatever he said as he actually knew how everything worked. Basically we collected my press pass and did the necessary tasks as a member of press with a press pass and then made our way to the actual room where the tournament was taking place. And when I say my mouth fell open, I am not kidding, this arena was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was expecting something like the LEC studio - fairly small, a few desks, a few rows of seats. As you can see from the photos, I could not have been more incorrect had I actually tried. The place was hugeeeeeee, I mean I probably should have predicted it what with there being 20 teams but you know I was a bit silly about that, and did not realise how big it was going to be.

less than half of the seats were here ^^ 

Literally huge, the caster desk, broadcast desk, twenty desks in boxes for the teams which were stacked above each other - just look at the photo and then the crowd seating. Oh my actual goodness, the amount of seats was incredible, so so many seats for so many fans, and then some specific seating areas for team members, content staff, press, etc. there was also the merch stand, press area, and if you want to know where bathrooms and food were - don’t ask me, I forgot to eat because I was so excitable the whole day. Genuinely bouncing up and down all damn day, no idea what the rest of the press and team members thought was going on with me but I was on such an endorphin rush. The press area was kind of out of the way - like well out of the way for general fans but we could still hear the stage and the wolf whistles which we later heard people joking about was for Yuki - who was playing for Alliance. Take that as you will haha. And if you are wondering who Yuki is and what his background is - trust me you will be surprised because I sure as heck was - then follow this link to a piece by Esports GG from a couple of years ago: https://esports.gg/news/apex-legends/yuki-alliance-apex-team-razer/ and if you can't be bothered to read that then take a look at this picture courtesy of ALGS (EA) photo team from day 2 of the playoffs:

Photo by Joe Brady - @joebradyphoto Image source: ALGS SmugMug 2023 - Player Yuki from Alliance 

Also just to restate - I did actually do work while I was at the event other than just bounce around excitedly and watch a fans scream excitedly for the various players. 

hugeeeeeee so big - I felt so tiny ahaha

Also because of the way the event was configured, press could just dip in and out of seat sections so I often curled up in the seats - a word of advice as said earlier, take a cushion or something because those chairs make everything go numb if you sit in them long enough. But anyway, my colleague had a really professional camera - one that is way outside of my business expenses radar - that I got to sit and play with, I would say use but it was definitely more of a play with kind of opportunity but still really cool as on a normal day I would never be able to afford to try out a camera like that one. So little old me was sat curled up getting to play out a professional camera while staring round in awe at the entire event - even if Copperbox is a small arena in many ways, it felt so big to me, and trying to take photos using the camera zoomed in and out really reminded me of that fact.

The Nessie Apex Legends hoodie my boss bought for me

We kind of dipped in and out of the event at points depending on what jobs needed doing so when I was working backstage in the press area my boss explained the Apex hoodie Nessie - yes the neon yellow one that I’ve been wearing everywhere. The hoodie is also far more expensive than I would normally agree to pay for but because it was my first LAN and you know, whole baby of the company thing - my colleague bought it for me and I nearly lost it. So I wore it for the rest of the event - and subsequent days, I’m actually wearing it as I type. The hoodie will have an embroidery/screen printing put on it at some point to say smolsh0rtie and first LAN dates because it has so much sentimental value to me now and obviously I’m not complaining that I didn’t have to pay for it. Plus honestly the hoodie is such a lovely bright shade of yellow I can't help but feel happy wearing it - both because of the memories it holds and because the bright yellow is just such a happy colour. I wore my press pass over the top of said hoodie as press passes has to be on show throughout, which I cannot lie, was freaking hilarious - it was so entertaining to me when fans looked between the pass and me and realised I was most definitely their age and working at the event instead of purely spectating. But the whole age conversation and working in esports is one to save for another time as I want to talk about that in the future.

My first LAN and in London too

The whole experience was so magical, it is one a memory I will hold onto for as long as time, it was just so special and being able to watch the matches with a live crowd who were so excited and into it was incredible. Just pure magic, to see how esports unites so many different types of people and brings together friends from across the world and nations all for one event. And as my colleague said, even if you weren’t overly into Apex, the crowd’s excitement was so infectious that you would be celebrating with them by the end of the event too. At one point while I was sat watching while my colleague was off interviewing, a pro player sat on the seat next to me - and I am still so sorry to him that I had no idea who he was or indeed what org he was playing for. I was actually retelling that part of the story to one of my friends and she said ‘omg my friends would hate that so much, surely you must know he is!’ I still need to work out which team he was playing for - so nope, still not that much clearer who he was but he seemed cool and the fans in front of us absolutely loved him! So you know someone knew he was just not me - I will be searching to figure out who he was though as another pro sat down later in the day and I had no idea who he was either truth be told. 

The little saga of 'I have no idea who just sat down beside me but the fans in front of us love him'

But you know I had a great time regardless! It was such a cool atmosphere and an opportunity I’m so glad I got! It is still so wild that I get to attend LANs as part of my job, and get to experience all of it at such a young age too - but that’s a topic for a different day. Honestly I was on such an endorphine rush literally all day, even when I got lost and barely made it back in time for my train I was bouncing around with so much excitement. Oh and just to prove I did actually make it back to my original train that I had booked weeks in advance - enjoy this picture of me sat in first class for 2hrs sketching the cover image for this blog and brainstorming how I would talk about my first LAN without sounding like an overexcited child. But yano who cares, I had an amazing day and I'm so excited to attend my next LAN - hopefully another London based one!

Proof I did in fact make my train even though I got incredibly lost in (not central) London

** also bonus note - when I was actually first arriving with my colleague and we went back stage to do some prep work before we began watching the event, one of the team members went past - I had no idea what team or if he was a player, it turns out he was a coach. But to the coach of XSET who smiled at me that afternoon when I was feeling really really nervous and totally out of my depth, thank you. Your smile was enough to help me feel a little bit calmer. And to all the other esports, press, content, media, and everyone else who was so lovely and friendly, warm and welcoming and smiled every time they saw me - thank you to all of you too, it made the world of difference knowing people welcomed me there and weren't judging me.

So there you have it, my first ever LAN event, in all the details with all the images running alongside. Enjoy the pictures from the event!

Thanks for reading and for being here, and see you on the next blog!

Byeeeeeeee ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ