{"id":7833,"date":"2010-10-04T10:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T22:00:00","slug":"rage-2010-nag-lan-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/7833-rage-2010-nag-lan-wrap-up","title":{"rendered":"rAge 2010 NAG LAN wrap up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2010 NAG LAN @ rAge has come to end. 2 080 eager gamers had snapped up all the tickets a mere 24 hours after they went on sale, underscoring the enthusiasm for this yearly event. The Vaalhooligan Crew (VC)<\/a> were once again in charge of making it all happen. MyGaming caught up with Erich Blaschczok, the VC head honcho, and he shared some facts about the work that goes on behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

As the event was set to officially open at 10am on Friday 1 October at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg, VC began to check in the early arrivals. Within four hours of opening the LAN check-in, 1 700 gamers were through the doors and had their equipment set up. This year, the youngest gamer in attendance was 9 years old, and the oldest was somewhere in his mid-fifties. VC had 10 permanent staff on hand, as well as 10 interns from IT Intellect, working to keep things running smoothly.<\/p>\n

This year things were stepped up a notch. HP Networking sponsored equipment up to R2.5 million in value, much of which was imported four weeks prior to the event. Layer 2 switches were implemented, allowing VC a degree of network customisability, such as dynamically assigned IP addresses instead of static IPs. The HP equipment also allowed for network monitoring right down to each individual gamer to ensure that nobody abused the network and event policies.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, one individual was asked to leave the event for abusing the network and breaking various rules. This incident aside, Blaschczok said that everyone had a happy gaming attitude, and was enjoying themselves – this was evidenced by the cheers erupting from various locations around the LAN as heated battles came to an end.<\/p>\n

12 sponsored Intel servers were imported to handle dedicated gaming server duties. These beasts each consisted of two 6-core Xeon processors, running 12GB of RAM and Windows Server 2008 x64. Kaspersky provided virus protection for the dedicated servers. All of the favourites were represented: Counter Strike 1.6 and Source; Left 4 Dead 1 and 2; Team Fortress 2; CoD 4; Quake III; Unreal Tournament; Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142.<\/p>\n

The rAge 2010 nerve center<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

As usual, the LAN was divided between upstairs and downstairs locations inside the Dome. In network topology terms, the LAN comprised of three sections. Upstairs and downstairs were linked by a 20Gb\/s fibre connection, and the two upstairs sections were linked with a 10Gb\/s fibre connection. Blaschczok commented that the main 20Gb\/s link was running at about 40% utilisation.<\/p>\n

Powering all of this equipment were 28, 3-phase power boxes, running between 32 to 100 amps. 1 100 multi-plugs were provided, along with over 2 100 networking points. 1 270 trestle tables were required to support all of the PCs, screens, and networking equipment.<\/p>\n

A new feature this year was limited Internet access, so that gamers could authenticate certain games such as StarCraft II and Heroes of Newerth. This link was provided via a Wi-Fi antenna, set up on top of the Dome, and supplied by Wi-Fi direct, which then linked via cable into the LAN.<\/p>\n

Growing the rAge LAN for larger attendance is definitely on the cards, and Blaschczok said that the VC crew would be having their first post-rAge 2010 meeting this Monday to discuss the possibility, as there is incredible demand each year. Having assessed the success of providing an Internet connection, they will also look at the potential for providing more bandwidth and access at future LANs. It’s not all work and no play for the VC crew however, as they will soon all be jetting off to Zanzibar for a much needed holiday.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to all the rAge gamers (now suffering from WASD fingers and mouse cramps) who played their hearts out.<\/p>\n

Discuss the rAge 201 LAN aftermath on the MyGaming forum.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\t\t