Students from all over campus hauled their hand-built computers to Durland Hall on Friday evening to partake in the Esports and ACM LAN Party, an overnight computer gaming event. The event began at 7 p.m. Friday, but some attendees stayed until 4 a.m. Saturday.
The Esports and ACM LAN Party was hosted by the Kansas State Esports Club and the Association for Computing Machinery. A “LAN party” is a traditional multiplayer gaming get-together where participants hook up computers and consoles over a local area network to play games together.
Alex Todd, senior in computer science and member of the ACM, said the club has hosted a variety of similar events since its inception to get students more involved in computer science. This is the second LAN party hosted by ACM this semester.
For the duration of the event, participants enjoyed free pizza and soda while shouting across the room to communicate with their teammates. Attendees played popular hits like “League of Legends,” “Overwatch,” “Super Smash Bros.” and “Rocket League,” along with other games.
Jeremy White, senior in computer science, spent most of the night playing a Japanese rhythm game based on the popular “Vocaloid” program called “Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone.” The game requires users to hit certain buttons in time with music.
White said he is a big fan of the “Hatsune Miku” game franchise, and he usually plays on “Hard” and “Expert” difficulty modes. White described his favorite character from the franchise.
“My favorite Vocaloid is Luka because her accessory is a giant tuna fish, which I think is great,” White said.
White said he has been to other ACM LAN parties in the past, and he likes going to them because he can meet new people and play games that he would not have gotten a chance to play otherwise.
Some attendees admitted to having little experience with video games.
“My roommate dragged me here,” Anna Coleman, junior in anthropology, said.
Coleman’s roommate is Mary Siebert, junior in computer science. Neither of the two women said they considered themselves gamers, but they still enjoyed their time playing adventure games like “Little Big Planet.”
Coaches for K-State’s collegiate “League of Legends” teams also attended the LAN party to join the fun. “League of Legends” is a popular multiplayer game where teams of five face off in online battles, and its popularity as an esport has allowed it to have an official collegiate circuit supported by the game’s developers.
Noah Kelly, sophomore in computer science, is the coach for the division one team at K-State. Zack Bieberly, sophomore in biology, coaches the teams for the second and third divisions.
