For the players of Path of Exile, the season start is always an event. A gamer wanted to make the launch of “Secrets of the Atlas” even cooler and invited 50 gamers to a LAN party.
What was the LAN party like? At the start of the new season “Secrets of the Atlas”, there was a large LAN party in Wrocław, Poland. 50 gamers gathered to experience the start of the season together. Among them were professionals as well as beginners who only knew the second part of Path of Exile.
It was not only the participants that were special, but also that there were prizes to be won on-site. Both the developers of Grinding Gear Games and the sponsors from Endorfy provided rewards for the gamers. Instead of rewarding the best players, there was a bounty to be won at the LAN party.
There were bounties for example for having one’s character die in a certain act or for managing to keep one’s character alive the longest until the end of the LAN party.
Here you can see what “Secrets of the Atlas” is about:
Pizza, Hotdogs and Path of Exile
How did the LAN party go? At LAN parties, it’s about more than just gaming. On Reddit, the organizer Piotr Maciejczak shared some statistics from the event. There were of course many different foods and drinks, but it seems that hotdogs were the hit instead of pizza. According to Maciejczak, 130 hotdogs were consumed during the event.
Of the 148 characters created, 104 died. This is tragic because the LAN participants all played in a private hardcore league where death means elimination. The bounties only offer a little comfort.
At the end of the event, participants visited the zoo in Wrocław and looked at the meerkats. Even the developers were touched by the LAN party and commented under the Reddit post: “Congratulations on this successful event. We are glad you had so much fun and look forward to the next one!”
Who is behind the event? The organization of such a large LAN party is spearheaded by the Twitch streamer and creator of the Polish “Cmentarzysko” league, which is a private league for players from Poland. The fan of Path of Exile has always dreamed of a LAN party at the season start but never managed to convince his friends:
A real LAN party had been a dream of mine for a long time. For years I tried to convince my PoE buddies to have a real league start in LAN style: someone brings their computer, we fill the pantry with drinks and snacks and just play 16-hour sessions. For a long time, this was just a dream that never came true.
Piotr Maciejczak on Reddit
Now the content creator was able to fulfill his dream and has a positive outlook. In his conclusion, he writes: “Path of Exile is often seen as a single-player game, but there is just something about it that makes it best when you have someone to talk to, to tell about a ‘fat’ item drop or to ask for help when you get stuck on your build. This event fulfilled all those social needs in the best possible way :)”
A large LAN party with many gamers at the same time and a load of pizza, hotdogs and soft drinks, as well as prizes, sounds like a dream for many in the comments. One gamer fulfills this dream for his son: A player has assembled a gaming setup of 9 PCs because his son wanted a LAN party for his birthday
