LANcouver was a LAN party first hosted on the North Shore of Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was started in January 2004 and has hosted seven successful events, with the last event in July 2011. The event has attracted an average of approximately 50–120 attendees per event. LANcouver is a BYOC event, which means that everyone attending brings their own PC desktop or laptop. Network resources and power connections are supplied and connected by the administrators on-site during the event, who also host the various servers required for playing LAN based games such as Team Fortress 2,, and Unreal Tournament. LANcouver organizers have also been responsible for running tournaments at other events such as GottaCon 2012.
LANcouver 6 was a registered World Cyber Games qualifying event, and hosted qualifying tournaments for the national championships. The qualifying matches hosted at LANcouver events were:
Warcraft III: Frozen Throne
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Counter Strike 1.6
FIFA 2006
LANcouver 2011
In late 2010, LANcouver founders announced that an event was in the works for some time in 2011. In early 2011, that year's LANcouver event was announced, making it the first time that a year was given to the title rather than a number. LANcouver 2011 was the 7th event and was planned to be much larger than all previous events, while also incorporating other game types not played on computers such as Xbox 360 tournaments, Warhammer 40,000 events, and and other TCG events. LANcouver 2011 was held at the Great Northern Way Campus; another first for the event is that it was hosted in the City of Vancouver proper and not a suburb. The main PC gaming events for LANcouver 2011 were, and League of Legends. Console events were held as well, with the following main tournaments: Marvel vs Capcom 3, & Super Smash Bros. Brawl
LANcouver 2012 presented by ASUS
LANcouver 2012 was announced in late March 2012 and was held at the Richmond Olympic Oval, just outside Vancouver in neighboring Richmond, BC. Sponsors included ASUS, NCIX, Kingston Technology, Antec, Shaw Cablesystems, Compu2000, ROCCAT, and more. The event was host to three major tournaments: League of Legends, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and Counter-Strike Global Offensive. The top Canadian StarCraft II player received a trip to Toronto for 2012's World Championship Series qualifier, and competed to win a spot on Team Canada for the World Finals later that year, in addition to a top-end ASUS gaming notebook. Attendance was approximately 175 out of 200 BYOC spots, and over 150 spectators attended throughout the weekend.
LANcouver 2013 presented by NCIX
In March 2013, LANcouver organizers revealed that the 9th event would be held at the NCIX Warehouse in Richmond, BC, and that the event would also be title sponsored by NCIX. The departure from the Richmond Olympic Oval allows for several key factors from 2012 to be addressed, such as the lack of darkness during nighttime hours. It was also announced that NCIX would be holding a Warehouse Sale simultaneously, with early ticket purchasers for LANcouver getting early access to the NCIX sale. Tournaments in 2013 included League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, StarCraft, and others. New for 2013 were VIP seats, advertised as being in a "special seating area" and with features like privacy curtains, reduced noise, better seating and complementary refreshments. Other new features included a live broadcast of the LANcouver University panel sessions, improved networking, and an increase in prizing for the entire event. Nvidia's Shield Portable handheld gaming system had its Western Canada debut at LANcouver, and attendees were able to try the new system before it went on sale.
LANcouver 2014 and 2015
In April 2014, rumours surfaced that LANcouver organizers had been planning a special 10th anniversary for 2014. The event would also be the 10th since founding. Speculations included a 350-seat BYOC, multi-genre gaming, console tournament, or even live finals for a major international eSports event. In late 2014 it was revealed that LANcouver would miss out on hosting an event for that year, with a followup to be provided in 2015. In Spring of 2015 it was revealed that a 10th LANcouver event is in full planning for late 2015. Several reasons were given for the lack of an event in 2014, mainly concerning the organizer's personal schedule as well as difficulty securing an adequate venue within budget requirements.
