EPTI was headed to my first LAN. When I think about it, that day held quite a lot of ‘firsts’ for me. It was my first road trip as a driver – three hours to get from Hartford to Dover. It was my first time leaving my college campus for the weekend to go someplace other than home, which was only an hour away. It was my first time deciding I would get out and do something over the weekend, instead of staying cooped up in my dorm room eating leftover Chinese in between ladder matches. And the thing I was setting out to do – compete in a Starcraft LAN – was the first time I had let my passion for gaming actually spur me to get my introverted ass out of my chair, drive somewhere, and hangout with likeminded introverts.
Any one of these ‘firsts’ would have been enough to put me on edge. If it’s not already obvious, I tend to shy away from new experiences, preferring instead the warm comfort of my dorm room and laptop. However, this day would be especially unnerving for one major reason: I was meeting an online friend for the first time IRL.
By then I had actually become pretty comfortable with the concept of online friendships. As a WoW player for 5+ years, I had developed strong friendships with a number of guild members who lived across the country. This naturally transferred over to Starcraft, where in Broodwar I was lucky enough to befriend a very talented player, someone who became my coach in SC2, and my friend.
His name was Dean, and I was about to meet him face-to-face. Dean was a favorite to win the tournament. He had attended these New England LANs for years. Many questions were running through my mind: Would he act the same way as online? Would he be surprised that I actually showed up? Would we get food during the break? Would it be weird meeting him in person?
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I probably spent 15 minutes or so lost in Dover, cursing at my GPS to locate those goddamned satellites. Finally I found the place. It was a little hole in the wall settled next to a pizza store, across the street from a church. There were ghost and skeleton cut-outs hanging from the trees and taped to the building walls, and I remembered the day before had been Halloween. I took a breath of crisp New Hampshire air and walked inside to the distinct sound of clicking and clacking.
I spotted Dean immediately. I thought he would look older than the Facebook pictures made him out to be, but instead he seemed quite young, perhaps 18. He was playing at a computer surrounded by a few other gamers. They were watching over his shoulder in amazement, and talking amongst themselves while he played. I gave a nod, but he didn’t notice me.
I walked up to the counter, “Hi there, I’m here for the tournament.”
“Did you register online?” the clerk asked.
“Yep, I’m Nairul,” I replied. It was the first time I had identified by my gamer tag in person.
I paid the $15 entry fee as he checked my name off a list. I turned around and saw Dean still playing. There were more gathered around him now, watching intently. I walked over to claim a computer station near his. After taking my mouse and keyboard out of my bag, I turned my attention over to Dean’s cubicle. The small gathering of onlookers, which I was now partaking in, was watching the final remaining moments of his TvZ ladder match.
His opponent typed out GG and the game ended, convincingly. A few onlookers slowly clapped behind him. Others tossed out compliments:
“Sick macro dude,” someone said.
“Thors OP!” shouted another.
Dean didn’t really acknowledge them, instead roaming through his match history to look at his last opponent’s build order. A few moments went by when I decided to tap him on the shoulder. “Hey whatsup man … I’m Nairul,” I said awkwardly.
“He didn’t even build spines,” Dean replied.
I was taken aback by his response. I was expecting some sort of odd greeting in return, this being the first time we’re meeting in person and all. “Hm?” I said.
“This f**king scrub, didn’t even build spines,” he reiterated.
“Yeah I ‘dunno,” I replied, at a sudden loss for topics to continue our conversation. “When did you get here?” I asked.
“A while ago,” he said abruptly.
“Did they release the brackets yet?” I asked.
“Dunno,” he uttered, obviously disinterested in continuing our small talk.
“Well I guess I should get setup then,” I said, heading back over to my station to plug in my USBs and sign in to SC2. I was not happy – here Dean was the one guy I knew in this place, and he didn’t seem to care that I had showed up.
The tournament started shortly. The brackets were posted and I was rearing to start my first tournament match. While awaiting my opponent to accept the game invite, a middle-aged man came up to me and asked “Hey, are you Nairul?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“What league are you?” He asked. I could hear a humorous tone in his voice.
“I’m low masters,” I said.
“Awww crap!” He exclaimed. “Don’t be too hard on me, please.”
It turns out this was my first opponent. I checked to see that he was a Protoss in Bronze league. We played a best of three series where I nervously took the first two games, thus advancing myself into the winner’s bracket.
“Good game man. You made way more stuff than me!” He barked from his cubicle across the room.
“Thanks, was fun!” I voiced back.
I sat there nervously twiddling my thumbs waiting for my next match, waiting for the adrenaline coursing through my body to subside. I looked over to Dean’s cubicle and saw that he wasn’t there.
“Hey Kea-Nairul!” I heard from the entrance of the LAN center. It was Dean. I gave a confused look.“Com’ere, let’s take a walk,” He motioned.
“What did you call me?” I asked, while awkwardly walking over to him.
“Kea-Nairul!” he said. “Because you look like Keanu Reeves.”
“Where are we going?” I continued to ask.
“Just around the neighborhood?” he said, clearly wondering why I would ask such a stupid question. We proceeded to walk in a circle, a few blocks around the quiet homes surrounding the LAN center, talking about Starcraft, and other topics too. He wanted to know how my practice was going; if I was doing all the things he had told me to do in our last online lesson. Then we discussed the tournament, and how easy his games were going to be. Dean was pretty cocky, just like online.
The rest of the day went pretty well from there. I actually hung out with a lot of gamers, not just Dean. Aside from our lone walk around the neighborhood, Dean always seemed to have a posse around him. Taking a smoke break outside, or walking around the LAN center, the same 3-4 individuals followed Dean around praising his gameplay and intently watching his tournament matches. It made me sick, so I found some other gamers to watch the tournament with.
I ended up taking 4th place in the tournament… one away from the payout zone! I stayed to watch Dean in the finals. It was very close, but Dean took the final match 3-2 to win the tournament.
“Congrats man!” I said to him.
“Did you ever doubt me Kea-Nairul?” he said, smiling because we both knew the nickname irritated me.
“Hah, I guess not. Alright well I’m headed out, it was nice … meeting you, I guess?” I said with a confused look on my face, obviously not sure how to close.
“See you on SC2,” he said, looking away as his attention was grabbed by a fan.
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I walked out of that LAN center feeling that I had accomplished something. I was happy to have completed my first LAN and to have performed fairly well. I had finally gotten a taste of LAN culture and decided I liked it. And I was happy to have finally ‘met’ Dean. Although the experience was different than what I had imagined in my head, all in all he was the same personality I had been interacting with online. Over the next few years I went on to hang out with him at more LAN events. Overall, I wouldn’t say our initial meet up strengthened our friendship, nor did it weaken it. It stayed the same.
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Have you ever meet an online friend IRL? Did the initial meet up strengthen your friendship? Did it weaken it? Please leave comments below.
