OWR, the Online Warrior Resistance, has once more satiated the hunger of mad Xbox LANatics. Another LAN party was produced by them and this time it was in Long Beach, CA. Everyone brought their Xbox 360’s and only one game was played. That’s right, it was Modern Warfare 2. It was an all day frag fest that lovely 14th day of November, last Saturday. The weather was sunny all day and cool in the night. About 15 people showed up and 1 was left standing…….PSYCHE! It didn’t happen like that.
I was coming from San Diego and I had to wake up extra early in the morning just to show up at a decent hour. The long drive was well worth it though. We started out with an empty garage and gradually filled it with tables, Xboxes, displays, chairs, and krispy kreme doughnuts. Any weird adapter that was needed was gladly provided by Dave, OWR co-founder, and because of that everyone was up and running smoothly with sound and display. It was planned for us to have about 20-40 more people show from the fanboy site, but alas we did not have enough room for them; so Dave had to turn them down. One of the more important things that we had to pay attention to was the power. We attempted to connect no more than 3 or 4 stations per outlet or circuit, to prevent a breaker trip. You have to remember each station has a display or TV, an Xbox 360, something for sound (either speakers, headphones, or some other device), and various fun accessories.
As the day progressed and people started to straggle in, the people already there began playing on Xbox live. Our connection to the internet was pretty impressive. About 6 or 7 people were playing in different matches all at the same time without any hiccups. Once everyone showed up, we began playing internally via system link. This is when the fun really began. As expected, everyone started out with a “clean slate†at the F.N.G. first level. And, as expected, the more skillful players began leveling up a whole lot faster than the less skillful ones. There were lots of people smack talking; while others were yelling who the eff is [insert gamertag here]; while still others were keeping quiet like a ninja, racking up the frag counts.
When night fell and the fragging continued, one of the players broke out his projector, setup his screen, and played Modern Warfare 2 across a display that was well over a 100 inches. The projector was high definition, so the eye candy (and dizziness) was definitely there. The player had an advantage in the sense that his regular gunsights were the size of a human freakin head; but he also had a slight disadvantage, his back was to the rest of the crowd and everyone in the event could see exactly where he was. I took some pics and video of this monster. I called it Call of Duty theater, because that is what it exactly felt like. Some other guy brought his night vision goggles (yes the ones that come in the prestige edition of MW2). Check out the pix of this crazy device. When I tried them out, I was surprised on how well they worked. When you look inside, there is a screen that is almost the same as a screen that is used on a compact personal digital camera. There are different settings that you can play with to make the screen change color and focus.
One thing was evident though. Everyone was having fun. I think the reason for this was the fact that there were not any real tournaments or competitions set up. Everyone showed up to just link up and play against each other. Some people even brought other games to the party, but no one could be pulled away from Modern Warfare 2. We all pitched in for food and got to eat all the spaghetti our stomachs could take. At the end of the event prizes were given away randomly, using poker chips and bag.
Overall the night was good. While we were there, a boxing match was being shown on TV; and everyone there were able to catch a good fight. There were a couple power hiccups throughout the night that affected some matches, but not enough to anger anyone. The prizes were decent. This was an event definitely worth showing up to again.
The organizers of the event have a full blown website now. It is www.owrgaming.com. They don’t have any real pre-requisites to join there club. I am guessing you would at least need an Xbox 360 and the games they play to participate in their LAN event. They want to plan another LAN party after the holiday season at the beginning of 2010. Their goal is to have enough people to attend in which everyone can pitch money into a pot and use that money to rent a decent sized place to allow more than 25 people to go at it against each other. They are growing slowly but surely, but with the help of other gamers just like you, their goal can be attained without any problems. They are also looking for sponsors as well. As they are growing, more and more people will be exposed to whatever they are promoting. Whatever money or goods they receive from sponsors goes right into LAN event itself. If anyone is interested in attending the next LAN event, just keep checking their site and join their forum. They’re looking for southern Californians or anyone who happens to be in the area. These guys regularly play together on Xbox live as well. They mostly play on the weekends (and some weekdays) and setup private rooms for anyone to join in on. Their gamertags can be found on their website.
The next event should be as good as the last one. Don’t be scared and check out the Online Warrior Resistance.
