Why Should You Go To LAN?

This past weekend marked the 63rd Insomnia Gaming Festival and with it new victors, new friendships and most importantly, new meme.

One thing that's become a bigger presence in recent times is student involvement. The reason for this in part is the development of university esports. It's quickly becoming a hub in and of itself for student interaction. Students fill a variety of roles from producing streams to tournament heads to just regular LAN atendees. In fact at i63 Rocket League, Overwatch and League of Legends all had students or recent students at the helm of their tournaments.

That's all well and good but why should you go to LAN?

Well let's start with the most obvious. Competition. For the majority of the year student teams are limited to playing in-house or against other local universities at LAN. Events like Insomnia and epicLAN give teams an opportunity to compete at a different level and gain valuable experience which you and your closest amigos can all take back to your home instituition.

Secondly, networking. Getting to know those inside and outside the university space at LAN can be a huge boon to career opportunities going forward. Whether it be volunteering and making connections with your team leaders and peers or playing so good a team wants to pick you up. It isn't just externals though, internally you can meet and talk to your student peers. This weekend alone I was speaking to people from all over the place in the university space. It was great fun. Speaking of fun...

It's a better time to go to LAN than any other when you're in university. You have like-minded individuals all around you, you have the annual breaks to plan it properly and you can possibly even get your trip partly funded. For i60 Swansea Gaming Society planned and executed a trip. It was amazing. We made the most of us in our group of 18 and honestly became my favourite LAN to date.

Hopefully I've convinced you. LAN is a social hub but also a career forwarder and one of the best ways to grow your skills and network. If you've got any questions, including how you can get involved, drop me a line on Discord at Murphy#0001.