Draft:Lanwar

Lanwar Inc. hosts professional gaming conventions across America. Its unofficial slogan "Keeping the Party in Lanparty" signifies what its events try to accomplish. The events started as LAN parties located in Louisville, Kentucky. From 2006 until 2007, it expanded and subcontracted as the BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) coordinator for the World Series of Video Games. By Michael Kane The World Series of Video Games utilized Lanwar to help coordinate, support and implement BYOC LANs across the United States for their events. (As a note for this article, "Lanwar Inc." refers to the company, and "Lanwar" refers to the Louisville event.)

Lanwar LAN Events
Lanwar Inc. has been running LAN parties since 1998. It started as a joint effort between multiple United Parcel Service (UPS) IT workers (John Maggio, Brian Minrath, Gary Collins and Troy Schwartz) who wanted to create a large LAN event to play games, amongst other social activities.

The location of the Lanwar events has consistently been the Student Activities Center at the University of Louisville. This site was selected mainly due to its large amount of floor space, available power, and most importantly a connection to the Internet2 backbone providing the high bandwidth needed to support such events.

While the events started off as pure LAN gaming events, several other genres of gaming have been tried over the years, including arcade, board and card games. In 2002, the director of Lanwar Inc. (Troy Schwartz) and his staff decided to create an even larger event which would rival LANs in other countries (such as DreamHack). Thus MillionManLan was born as an annual event (which took the place of the summer quarterly Lanwar event).

MillionManLan
The MillionManLan is an event held in Louisville, Kentucky, once every year. Because Lanwar Inc. is located in Louisville, the event coordinators needed a hall which would adequately allow for expansion and addition of more gamers and an overall larger event. Thus the space chosen was the Kentucky Exposition Center, with over 330000 sqft of available space. Because of this, MillionManLan is able to provide one of the largest venues for BYOC LAN gaming in the United States.

Lanwar Extracurriculars
Lanwar has separated itself from the typical LAN party by placing an emphasis on other fun activities in addition to competitive gaming. Duct Tape Wars, Tank Wars, Egg Drops, Speed Tests, Case Mod Contests, Texas Hold 'em Poker, Underwater Rock Paper Scissors, Jousting tournaments, Tug of War contests, and a host of smaller "For Fun Only" computer tournaments have all been a large part of the event's atmosphere. At most Lanwar events, there are as many gamers who participate in these types of events as those who participate in serious competitive gaming tournaments. This focus provides an event that appeals to multiple types of gamers.

Coverage
Being one of the largest LAN parties in the country, Lanwar and MML have both been covered by many sources in the gaming community. 1 ² ³.

Since its inception in 1998, Lanwar has hosted over 50 large-scale events for the national gaming community. Lanwar holds multiple events each year, seating over 21,000 gamers since 1998. USA Today, CBS, NBC, Fox, Slashdot, Tom's Hardware Guide and others have all featured Lanwar events.

History
Lanwar/MillionManLan Schedule (Total attendance: 21,097)

Year 18 – 2015

 * MillionManLan 14 - July 9th - July 12th 2015 - 312 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 56
 * January 16th - January 18th 2015
 * 318 Gamers in Attendance

Year 17 – 2014

 * MillionManLan 13
 * July 31st - August 3rd 2014
 * 269 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 54
 * January 17th-19th 2014
 * 222 Gamers in Attendance

Year 16 – 2013

 * MillionManLan 12
 * August 8–11, 2013
 * 251 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 52
 * January 18, 2013
 * 224 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 475

Year 15 – 2012

 * MillionManLan 11
 * August 2, 2012
 * 211 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 50
 * January 13, 2012
 * 215 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 426

Year 14 – 2011

 * MillionManLan 10
 * August 4, 2011
 * 194 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 48
 * January 14, 2011
 * 185 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 379

Year 13 – 2010

 * MillionManLan 9
 * July 8, 2010
 * 190 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 46
 * January 17, 2010
 * 111 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 301

Year 12 – 2009

 * Lanwar 45
 * September 19, 2009
 * 76 Gamers in Attendance


 * MillionManLan 8
 * July 9, 2009
 * 341 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 43
 * January 17, 2009
 * 137 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 554

Year 11 – 2008

 * Lanwar 42
 * October 11, 2008
 * 134 Gamers in Attendance


 * MillionManLan 7
 * July 3, 2008
 * 295 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 40
 * January 19, 2008
 * 259 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 688

Year 10 – 2007

 * Lanwar 36
 * October 06, 2007
 * 170 Gamers in Attendance


 * WSVG Summer Championship
 * July 5, 2007
 * 521 Gamers in Attendance


 * WSVG Louisville / MillionManLan 6
 * July 21, 2007
 * 1018 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 33
 * January 13, 2007
 * 215 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 1924

Year 9 – 2006

 * WSVG / CPL Dallas
 * July 05, 2006
 * 1,408 Gamers in Attendance


 * WSVG / MillionManLan 5
 * June 18, 2006
 * 1,135 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 30
 * April 29, 2006
 * 158 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 29
 * January 14, 2006
 * 335 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 3036

Year 8 – 2005

 * Lanwar 28
 * October 22, 2005
 * 327 Gamers in Attendance


 * MillionManLan 4
 * June 23, 2005
 * 1,067 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 26
 * April 02, 2005
 * 413 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 25
 * January 15, 2005
 * 502 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 2309

Year 7 – 2004

 * Lanwar 24
 * October 09, 2004
 * 514 Gamers in Attendance


 * MillionManLan 3
 * June 24, 2004
 * 1,253 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 22
 * April 03, 2004
 * 200 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 21
 * January 17, 2004
 * 548 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 2515

Year 6 – 2003

 * Lanwar 20
 * October 04, 2003
 * 530 Gamers in Attendance


 * MillionManLan 2
 * June 26, 2003
 * 1,008 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 18
 * March 22, 2003
 * 561 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 17
 * January 18, 2003
 * 574 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 2673

Year 5 – 2002

 * Lanwar 16
 * October 12, 2002
 * 528 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 15
 * July 06, 2002
 * 200 Gamers in Attendance


 * MillionManLan 1
 * May 24, 2002
 * 742 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 13
 * March 23, 2002
 * 200 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 12
 * January 19, 2002
 * 540 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 2210

Year 4 – 2001

 * Lanwar 11
 * October 13, 2001
 * 540 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 10.5
 * June 30, 2001
 * 200 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar X
 * April 28, 2001
 * 435 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 9
 * January 13, 2001
 * 382 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 1557

Year 3 – 2000

 * Lanwar 8
 * October 05, 2000
 * 299 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 7
 * April 29, 2000
 * 204 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 6
 * January 15, 2000
 * 254 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 757

Year 2 – 1999

 * Lanwar 5
 * September 25, 1999
 * 192 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 4.5
 * July 10, 1999
 * 95 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 4
 * April 25, 1999
 * 123 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 3
 * January 16, 1999
 * 187 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 597

Year 1 – 1998

 * Lanwar 2
 * August 08, 1998
 * 116 Gamers in Attendance


 * Lanwar 1
 * April 24, 1998
 * 90 Gamers in Attendance


 * Total attendance: 206

Operations

 * Troy Schwartz – Burden
 * Dawn Schwartz – Bbabe

Members at large

 * Dillard Raymer – Pantera
 * Beckah Raymer – Beckah
 * Frank Nelson – Francopoli
 * Trevor Garner – Lancer
 * Larry Burke – Anla-shok
 * John Miller – §hadow
 * Jason Riley – IronWolf
 * Eric Adams – SirTy

Networking

 * John-Michael Bassett – Zeke / Ezekiel / Mutt
 * Steven Tardy – FooDog
 * J. Eckert – Sargonas
 * Travis Hauser – Enforcer
 * Peter Urda – Zealot

Power

 * George Conover – Infinityplus
 * Greg Goodman – Lordviper
 * Tom Roy – Tommykillall
 * Jonathon Wyza - Wyza

Tournament

 * Mathis Sneed – JurassicFido
 * Paul Frederick – Outrayjus
 * John Reeder – Zero

Past staff

 * Gary Collins – Crunch
 * Gary Newton – GMoney
 * Jeremy Crump – Kazmont|OSLT
 * Brian Minrath – Cleatus
 * Erich Meck – FuManChu
 * Chris Dickens – AlexKidd
 * Melissa Smallwood – [CDVR]LissBaby
 * Dan Kinder – Stale[GummiBear]
 * Dave Wilson – Demosthenes
 * Rich Williams – Watcher
 * Nathan Nelson – ForrestGump
 * Brian Gill – Darkamus

Sponsors
Lanwar has partnered with a number of companies over the past decade to provide sponsorship for the event and its attendees.

Past sponsors include Abit, Activision, Aerocool, ASUS, nVidia, AMD, ATI Technologies, Alienware, Bawls, BFG Technologies, Cisco, Cooler Master, Corsair, Directron, DFI, Enermax, Everglide, Gamefixx, Geargrip, Hitachi, Hooters, Icy Dock, Ideazon, Intel, Kingston, Logitech, PC Gamer, Powmax, Seagate, Tom's Hardware Guide, Westwood Studios, World Series of Video Games.