A LAN party is a social event where individuals gather in a shared physical space to connect their computers or gaming consoles via a Local Area Network (LAN), facilitating multiplayer gaming sessions without the need for an internet connection. These gatherings can range from small groups in private residences to large-scale events in expansive venues, sometimes hosting hundreds or even thousands of participants. The primary objective is to engage in multiplayer games, fostering a communal and interactive gaming experience. ​

The term “LAN party” combines “LAN,” an acronym for Local Area Network, and “party,” indicating a social gathering. In this context, a LAN refers to a network that connects computers within a limited area, such as a home, school, or office, enabling devices to communicate directly. This setup allows participants to play games together with minimal latency, providing a seamless and responsive gaming experience. ​

While we aim to make these events as affordable as possible, we are effectively starting this event from scratch and fully expect to lose money. Future events may be cheaper once we’re able to cover the cost of hardware. Any donations made (or Supporter Packages) help greatly toward the goal of paying off this hardware. At around 30 attendees, we are barely breaking even on this event! This is with various members donating hardware and game servers for us to use.

There are a number of expenses and hurdles to overcome when trying to host a LAN party of this size. Costs have gone up across the board the past few years, on top of the difficulties outlined below. We aim for as much transparency as possible, so here are some cost specifics:

• Venue: Finding a venue that will host an event for an entire weekend (overnight) is difficult, let alone one that will make the price reasonable enough to be practical. We are grateful for the Beja Shriners!
  • Power and Networking capabilities at the venue are a concern as well. We bond two internet connections to have sufficient speed to support everyone, which also results in someone’s home not having internet for the duration when we borrow the modem. On top of this, most venues lack sufficient power or lack the power in the right places. Our admin group has created a power cart that rectifies this, which was not cheap!
• Networking: We aim to provide a 2.5gb backbone for all users. These switches are rather expensive (at least 5x the cost of 1gb switches) but ultimately prevent bottlenecks when filesharing. Additionally, we utilize a Ubiquiti router to control the bandwidth and prevent abuse. This router also lets us provide a fancy gateway login window, so we don’t have to make an admin manually sign-in attendees.  Simply sit down, enter in your password provided via email, and game! This provides a streamlined experience. We also provide Cat6 network cables and Ubiquiti Access Point for wireless users. All of this hardware cost is $2k+, alone.
• Power: Computers have gotten more and more power hungry over the years. Gone are the days of running six people on one breaker. With each gaming PC taking between 500-1000w, this means each 20Amp breaker can realistically handle 2-3 computers, max. This means 2-3 people can share a single breaker and two extension cables. These extension cables are necessary and surprisingly expensive. We provide 12ga & 14ga extension cables for safe and balanced power loads. Our estimated extension cable cost is $6-800 depending on guest count.
• Merchandise: We make little on merch. All of the apparel is hand-made, one-by-one, as we can provide a better product to you for cheaper. Minimum order quantities for complex shirt designs become impractical quickly. If we were paying ourselves for this merch, we’d be making below minimum wage. The benefit? You get high quality merch, we take nothing, and use the profit to pay off hardware and make sure future events can happen!
• Food: For this event we have a LAN member who is able to get us a discount on Chick-Fil-A. We’ve added a small upcharge to cover paper towels, sauces, cups, plates, etc. The profit on this is negligible.
• Unlimited Slushie Package: This is Nexion’s pet project and we will probably lose money on it, but it was an idea that was in place when we were still calling this “The BIG ICED LAN”, and it’s staying! These losses come out of Nexion’s pocket. So please, buy the slushie package.

The venue can hold 100 people.

However:
We're planning on having enough table space for everyone pre-registered, plus an extra 10 seats. If you are planning on attending and not pre-registering, please let us know ASAP so we can guarantee you a spot! The venue only has enough tables for ~28 people, so we're renting enough extra to cover what is needed. We will not be filling the space if we don't need to.

We're currently planning a number of classic and semi-modern games, with a few new ones sprinkled in. Of course, you are welcome to play other games if nothing suits your fancy. However, we encourage everyone to play games they think they may not enjoy, as the LAN environment is an entirely different experience. It truly is a party!

We chose the classics & free games for a few primary reasons:

1. They have dedicated LAN support
2. They can fit all of us in one game!
3. They easily installed before and at the LAN. See our Discord for more information!
4. Most of them can run on a very basic older machine
5. They're proven to be fun LAN games

Cash will be accepted at the event. We plan to have a cash box and utilize the honor policy for food & beverage purchases, as we believe you are all honorable and honest people 🙂

Note: we are unable to provide change for any food/beverages purchases during the event. We want our admins to game, not manage the Cheese LAN corner store!

Refunds are available on a case-by-case basis depending on merch production and timeline. If we're able to refund you, the refund will not include the transaction fee, as that is non-refundable by any credit/debit processor. We're happy to help, though, so just contact us!

The best suggestion is to ask in the Discord. Nexion or one of the other admins can assist you fastest, there.

If you'd like to assist with setup, teardown, cleanup, admin stuff, or any other skillset that you may think is useful, please contact us in Discord!

If you're looking to help financially, so we can keep doing these, or make them better, we've created various VIP packages that allow you to pay a little more for some perks.

If you'd like to straight-up donate monetarily or with hardware, contact Nexion in Discord. He may even make you a custom gold shirt, so you can let people know that you're the cheesiest Cheese LAN supporter around. A super-gouda supporter.

Of course! If this one is a hit, there will be more!