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I know it seems a bit ridiculous to put all the state abbreviations in the title, but it may be one of the only ways to get some people to know about what is going on. I, of course, run the New England SC2 League and we have been doing pretty well for a grassroots movement. There are over 200 people in the league (not all of them are bots) and we have some major sponsors like Cooler Master, NZXT, and Kingston HyperX. The thing that separates us from other leagues/tournaments, is that we do all our events live at different LAN centers across New England. But that may be coming to an end soon.
You see, a few years back, there were computer LAN centers all over New England. And there were plenty in the greater Boston region and other community hubs. Then the economy went downhill and many of these locations were not able to withstand the effects and closed shop. Fast forward until last year and we see that there are still LAN centers around, doing okay business, but not stellar. You see, the wave and resulting ripples from the economy kept spreading and eventually well known places like the HoloDek had to be shut down.
I created the league last December and have enjoyed working with LAN centers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts and I look forward to starting my relationship with one in Connecticut now. But the ripples continue onward. Galaxy Gaming, the last bastion of LANdom in Dover, NH is shutting down at the end of the month. I have a tournament scheduled for September. Obviously, that is not going to happen. It also turns out that Culture Crew Gaming in Standish, ME may be shutting down as well. I have the Grand Finals for season 2 scheduled to be there in early November, a few weeks before MLG Providence. Once more, that might not happen.
As a result, I've had to scramble to find a location for a LAN and luckily a local IT tech company in western Mass is helping out for September, but that is only for one date and we had to add a LoL tournament to the date so there wouldn't be big losses moneywise. That's not a bad thing, but it's not entirely a good thing either. You see, in the last year, 2 LAN center closed, 1 is going to, and 1 is pondering it. This will leave ALL of the northern parts of New England w/o a LAN center. There will legitimately be no LAN centers north of Boston. And this is saddening news.
You see, this prevents me from having my tournaments on location as it cuts off a large portion of the population from being able to actually attend these events on a monthly basis. Even if people skip a few, traveling every month for 3-4+ hours to a tournament where you may break even, just isn't worth it to a lot of people, especially when there is an entry fee as well. The only real solution is to hold all but the finals online. It works out for a lot of people, but then you miss that community aspect of the game. We have a mumble server and our own private chat room in game, but there is no face-to-face contact during the year. Many a friendship has been made at the tournaments because of that unique experience and you miss out on the feel of facing your opponent head on that so many online gamers don't know about.
There are pros and cons to this.
Pros:
Entry fee goes down
Don't have to spend gas money
Expected more participation
Finals will become bigger and more important
There is a possibility the Nor'easter may return
Cons:
My wife will complain about me sitting in front of the computer for 13hrs
Random door prizes will go to the wayside
Finals will all have to be held in southern New England (pro and con)
So, this may be the very last season/year that all the tournaments are held on location, and it really does look that way. So let's go out in style and try to make it to as many events as we can this season starting with the one next weekend, before it's too late!
Qualifier #2
West Barnstable, MA
July 16
Qualifier #3
Storrs Mansfield, CT
August 13
Qualifier #4
Amherst, MA
September 17-18
Last Chance
Standish, ME
November 5
Grand Finals
Standish, ME
November 6
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Galaxy Gaming is going down at the end of this month omg...
Really sad to see, I really regret not going to LANs back in High School when I had all the time in the world. The experience you get at a LAN is really valuable. It's a chance for a gamer to come out to meet and chat with people with the same interests. It's been 4 years since I've met someone around work or school who had the same interests in Starcraft as I had. I didn't realize how alone I was until I went to a LAN in Maine, it was very fun and very touching to meet SC2 players.
Can't say I didn't see this coming, but definitely didn't expect it to happen so soon. I'll do my best to attend all the tournaments. Big thanks to Drogith for all the hard work.
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This is really sad news, because you're doing such good work keeping the scene alive in the East. I have been writing up plans based on your model for a similar circuit in SoCal. Hopefully, you'll find a way through this trouble.
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Any possibility you'd be willing to take a LAN center venture on yourself? Obviously this would be a huge task and take away from the different locations you've been traveling to, but in the right area maybe centralize it a bit?
My only reason for suggesting would be if most/all the LAN centers are closing in the area, you could potentially benefit from being the only one in the area. I don't know many people who go to LAN centers myself being from NJ, but I think they can offer a great environment for people. Perhaps a LAN center/restaurant or bar?
I think the style of event you're promoting is awesome, it'd be a shame to see it fall by the wayside  Here's to hoping you can find a solution.
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On July 08 2011 21:39 Primadog wrote:
This is really sad news, because you're doing such good work keeping the scene alive in the East. I have been writing up plans based on your model for a similar circuit in SoCal. Hopefully, you'll find a way through this trouble.
It's a lot of work and effort to keep it as worthwhile for players and financially feasible but it is amazingly satisfying in the end. Thanks for your support.
On July 08 2011 21:46 Battleaxe wrote:Any possibility you'd be willing to take a LAN center venture on yourself? Obviously this would be a huge task and take away from the different locations you've been traveling to, but in the right area maybe centralize it a bit? My only reason for suggesting would be if most/all the LAN centers are closing in the area, you could potentially benefit from being the only one in the area. I don't know many people who go to LAN centers myself being from NJ, but I think they can offer a great environment for people. Perhaps a LAN center/restaurant or bar? I think the style of event you're promoting is awesome, it'd be a shame to see it fall by the wayside Here's to hoping you can find a solution.
I've thought about it, but it seems like I am paying off too much personal debt to be able to do something like this. Recession hit me and my wife good, so we are recovering. Just north of Boston would be a great location for some type of combination LAN center and I agree with your ideas about diversifying a location as such. Just as long as it is close enough to the college campuses.
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Whoa, I can't believe I almost missed this blog D:. This is really upsetting news, everyone is so cool, and it's great just meeting a bunch of people in the New England area. Thanks so much Pat for starting this, and spending all this time organizing and planning everything; it's always great to go to these tournaments :D. I really hope something will be worked out and this can continue.
PS: I also love door prizes haha 
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I am representing the "Local IT Tech Company" that Drogith mentioned in his posting. I would like to announce that because all of my employees and fellow founders are all gamers, and also miss Nor'Easter as well as the other fun LAN parties, Xana Technologies will do what we can to keep LAN parties alive. We plan on hosting more LAN parties in the future each one better then the last and we hope that fellow gamers join us to keep LAN parties alive and thriving even in this bad economy. Even though Xana Technologies as a company is young we have the resources and skills to host some awesome LAN parties in the near future.
Please join us on Facebook to show your support
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xana-Technologies/173455202674933
===========
Daniel Tucker
President
Xana Technologies
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On July 11 2011 12:33 XanaIT wrote:I am representing the "Local IT Tech Company" that Drogith mentioned in his posting. I would like to announce that because all of my employees and fellow founders are all gamers, and also miss Nor'Easter as well as the other fun LAN parties, Xana Technologies will do what we can to keep LAN parties alive. We plan on hosting more LAN parties in the future each one better then the last and we hope that fellow gamers join us to keep LAN parties alive and thriving even in this bad economy. Even though Xana Technologies as a company is young we have the resources and skills to host some awesome LAN parties in the near future. Please join us on Facebook to show your support http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xana-Technologies/173455202674933=========== Daniel Tucker President Xana Technologies
Good stuff, not in the Northeast but keep em going strong!
Thankfully northern virginia has a TON of korean-americans and there are PC Bangs everywhere...and even if 3/4 of them don't speak English "starcraft" is enough to get us through the day :p
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As a Bostonian, I am really shocked that NE has such a poor lan center situation... How can the NE USA be so different game wise from the rest of the US? We are even more densely populated than out west, yet even places like Oregon, Nevada, Arizona have LAN centers.
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On July 11 2011 13:21 Kezzer wrote:
As a Bostonian, I am really shocked that NE has such a poor lan center situation... How can the NE USA be so different game wise from the rest of the US? We are even more densely populated than out west, yet even places like Oregon, Nevada, Arizona have LAN centers.
Don't quote me, but I think the cost of living is a lot higher in the greater Boston area. Couple that with how expensive it is for rent/buy someplace sustainable... things go downhill quickly. Though, becoming complacent may have something to do with it as well.
Btw, LOVE the Xana guys!
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Although im not from America I help run a decent sized LAN party down here in Australia and find many similar issues to what your experiencing. We find however thats its the increasing affordability of high speed internet thats really killing the LAN scene here in Australia, that and many games these days are on online platforms that discourage trying to stack 200 gamers onto one internet connection. There used to be a fairly respectable LAN shop community here too but nowdays all thats left are the few holdouts in the big cities.
Unfortunately I think all but the very biggest LAN events will die out unless there is some change in the way things are progressing. Its a shame really, the end of an era.
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This news makes me sad, although I admit I saw it coming.
On July 11 2011 12:33 XanaIT wrote:I am representing the "Local IT Tech Company" that Drogith mentioned in his posting. I would like to announce that because all of my employees and fellow founders are all gamers, and also miss Nor'Easter as well as the other fun LAN parties, Xana Technologies will do what we can to keep LAN parties alive. We plan on hosting more LAN parties in the future each one better then the last and we hope that fellow gamers join us to keep LAN parties alive and thriving even in this bad economy. Even though Xana Technologies as a company is young we have the resources and skills to host some awesome LAN parties in the near future. Please join us on Facebook to show your support http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xana-Technologies/173455202674933=========== Daniel Tucker President Xana Technologies
That is absolutely fantastic.
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Does Game Underground in Framingham MA have enough room?
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Nope and they don't have any PCs either last I checked.
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On July 11 2011 12:33 XanaIT wrote:I am representing the "Local IT Tech Company" that Drogith mentioned in his posting. I would like to announce that because all of my employees and fellow founders are all gamers, and also miss Nor'Easter as well as the other fun LAN parties, Xana Technologies will do what we can to keep LAN parties alive. We plan on hosting more LAN parties in the future each one better then the last and we hope that fellow gamers join us to keep LAN parties alive and thriving even in this bad economy. Even though Xana Technologies as a company is young we have the resources and skills to host some awesome LAN parties in the near future. Please join us on Facebook to show your support http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xana-Technologies/173455202674933=========== Daniel Tucker President Xana Technologies
Thank you for doing this Daniel!
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I agree its a shame lan centers are going down. I remember the qwerty. I literally lived walking distance would spend the majority of my day there playing c&c3 and bf2. the console and obama are killing lan centers soon I fear us older gamer's who remember the days of large lan centers will be all that remains of them.
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EPT
