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Inside the World's Largest LAN Party

MrSeb writes "Last weekend, over 12,000 LAN party goers turned up at DreamHack Winter 2011 in Jonkoping, Sweden with a PC under the arm, on their back, or packed carefully in the trunk of their car. Every single attendee is squeezed into just three massive halls — the largest holding 5,000 computers — or four days, only taking brief breaks to sleep or check out one of the many stages (including some of the largest e-sport tournaments of the year). Being the largest LAN party in the world, DreamHack's infrastructure is suitably monumental: it takes days to lay the thousands of cables, and at the heart of the network is tower of Cisco routers that interface with a 120Gbps internet connection provided by Telia."

6 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Oh my! All those sweaty geeks in one place. by tedgyz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Think of the smell.

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  2. Re:Oh my! All those sweaty geeks in one place. by masternerdguy · · Score: 4, Funny

    But it helps grow bacteria. By not bathing, you're creating millions of lives.

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  3. Re:Oh my! All those sweaty geeks in one place. by MrSeb · · Score: 5, Funny

    FWIW, I'm a long-time LANner, and yeah... the smell can sometimes be pretty pungent.

    Often the main problem is trying to provide enough showers for 1,000 people or more. Most of these venues are set up to provide showers for just a few people (usually sports athletes or similar). Some LAN parties try to get around this by bringing in a hoard of portable showers (and toilets!), but it's still impossible for everyone to shower in the morning (or evening).

  4. Re:Oh my! All those sweaty geeks in one place. by bryan1945 · · Score: 3, Funny

    LAN - Laxatives And Nudity

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  5. Re:Oh my! All those sweaty geeks in one place. by 517714 · · Score: 1, Funny

    More smoked sausage than Oscar Mayer.

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  6. Re:Recipe For Disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    so 1200*2400 + 150*9600 ~= 4.3mW ouch....

    4.3mW? That's nothing. My MP3-player alone requires more power than that.