Game plan

"Come one, come all ye gamers both young and old...33 hours of non-stop gaming awaits you on April 26 and 27, at the Capital Mall Banquet Hall in Thalawathugoda. L5 (LAN Party 5), organised by Death Company ([DC]) which will start at 9am on April 26 and conclude at 6 pm on April 27, is back in a big way and billed to be the largest congregation of gamers in Sri Lanka to date!
Although at first glance they might seem like five average-day gamers, once you get talking to Lohita Goonatilleke, Shanil Wickramasinghe, Radeepan Kanapathipillai, Teague Gray and Tai-Hsin-Shiek (A.K.A. [DC]) you discover the big plans they have in store for gaming in Sri Lanka. [DC] is the first organised and predominantly Sri Lankan gaming clan dedicated to take Sri Lankan gaming to new heights under a single competitive banner.

"L5 is open to anyone and everyone of any age or sex; all you need is yourself, a network cable and a PC. Prior registration online at www.deathcompany.org is preferable, as gaming clans might prefer to reserve seats together and that we can be better prepared to accommodate everyone and ensure that everyone has a seat. Even though there is no restriction on gamers coming unregistered on the day, they may not be guaranteed a seat and might have to wait until a seat becomes free. Also, everyone doesn't have to stay for the entire duration of the event, they can come and go as they like," explained Shiek.

"Although it's called a party, it's not your average definition of a party," said Lohita, adding, "it's basically to enable gamers from around the country to unite at one venue, share insights and game to their hearts content. [DC] will provide the venue, internet access, networking facilities and organise various tournaments for the gamers to participate in." Gamers are responsible for their own sustenance so they're requested to bring their own food and drink (non-alcoholic) from home or feel free to patronise the food outlets at the Mall, he added.

Some of the main gaming tournaments that will be held at the event are Counterstrike, Warcraft III: Defence of the Ancients, Call of Duty IV and Unreal Tournament, elaborated Shanil. However, gamers are free to play whatever else they want to as well, he added. "L5 is a very small-scale version of the LAN Parties organised in countries like the US where events like this are attended by about 8000-10000 gamers. We'll get there someday," adds Shanil optimistically. As there has been an overwhelming response from gamers in areas like Kandy, [DC] hopes to organise similar events outside of Colombo too once they've collected adequate capital to cover their costs, he added.

"Right from the beginning we've always got a lot of support from www.gamer.lk. They've put up posts about our events and even though we had the basic concept in place before, we were first introduced as Death Company on this site. We all started off and met via gamer.lk and the site continues to encourage and helps gamers and people new to the gaming world," elaborated Radeepan.

Thirty-three hours of solid gaming...over 150 gamers under one roof...no electricity or internet bills to worry about...no family members up in arms for your hogging the computer... Just how much more incentive could you possibly need?