Triple LAN Madness with Pantheon

From the 13th to 14th March, all three of Pantheon's squads, Counterstrike: Source, Heroes of Newerth and Call of Duty 4 will be competing around Gauteng in a number of tournaments, making for a truly exhilarating weekend of LAN madness.

Pantheon will be bringing you the community results, updates, galleries and much more from this weekend's events. This post will act as a centralized point for the rest of the coverage that will be on display.

Steve "roskii" Roberts and Jacques "HoOdeh" Naude will be at MPLD initially on Saturday the 13th to cover the event, with both moving over to the LANGames eXtreme exhibition on Sunday the 14th to follow the progress of our Call of Duty 4 team. Matt "fluKe" Merks will be providing updates and so on from Wits on Saturday.

Read below for a preview of each of the events, and stay tuned for our continued coverage over this thrilling weekend.

Coverage:

Wits Wargames HoN Event - Johannesburg
MPLD CSS March - Pretoria
LANGames eXtreme Gaming - Johannesburg

Galleries:

TBA (Wits Wargames HoN Event - Johannesburg)
TBA (MPLD CSS March - Pretoria)
TBA (LANGames eXtreme Gaming - Johannesburg)

Team: Pantheon Heroes of Newerth
Who: Wits S2 iGame ASUS LAN
When: 13th March '10
Where: Johannesburg
Prizes: $300 & HoN Accounts, Asus Hardware, Roccat Kova Mice & Roccat Sense Pads
Info: Here

Organized by the Wits Wargames Club, with sponsors from Heroes of Newerth's own developers S2 Games, as well as iGame and ASUS, the event is the first LAN for HoN in South Africa, and will take place this Saturday at the Old Mutual Sports Hall on the Wits University Campus.

What makes the LAN unique is that it will be held using the iGame Online HoN server, which will allow gamers who won't be able to attend the LAN in flesh, to be able to compete from their very own home. Under the rules, only 1 member of a team must attend the event while the rest can compete from locations all around the country.

Pantheon's lineup will see four of its original members, including both of our newest recruits Jayson "Marax" Marilli and Guy "Dark" Peters-Hollenberg at the event. Paul "Vetoll" Fairbank will be competing from Durban, while Peters-Hollenberg will be playing from Cape Town. Matt "fluKe" Merks will be controlling the team from the event.

Last but not least, former Section 8 player Milton "Milenko" Bartholmew will be making up the last spot in the squad, with a possible chance of Bartholmew continuing to play for Pantheon after the competition.

Teams will be looking to make their mark as the countries first ever HoN LAN will set a precident for the rest of the year. Top lineups including oWnaGe Ouens (0ND) and Kai will be in attendance.

Pantheon Lineup:

Paul "Vetoll" Fairbank
Jayson "Marax" Marilli
Matt "fluKe" Merks
Milton "Milenko" Bartholmew
Guy "Dark" Peters-Hollenberg

Team: Pantheon Counter-Strike: Source
Who: MPLD
When: 12-13th March '10
Where: Pretoria
Prizes: R2000 (+ more depending on number of entrants)
Info: Here

MPLD, the Pretoria based LAN hosts, who have been a stable force in the eSports scene for several years now, will host their first competitive LAN for 2010. The event kicks off on the Friday night, with the remainder of the matches being played on the Saturday.

MPLD have implemented a new system where each 2nd month of the year, a Counter-Strike: Source tournament will be held, with the top placing teams receiving points for a annual ranking system. This will help to provide more coordination and communication between the hosts and players, which can use the information for future seedings and other such functions.

The competition will be the first LAN appearance for Pantheon Counter-Strike: Source since joining back in October 2009. Effectively, this event represents the first Source LAN of the 2010 season, and should be an enthralling experience with the top echelon of teams that have registered.

Teams such as Vintage, the former lineup of Avatar, who have strengthened their squad with players such as Jaun "Zeo" Nieuwoudt, as well as Bravado who have made a return this year with former Damage Control all-star Harry "incin" Apostoleris. Other notable mentions include Plasma, c7e, Soviet and Team 501, with the latter known for causing a number of upsets at MPLD.

Pantheon Lineup:

Richard “deviant” Groves
Wayne “Craan” Smith
Jèan “kustoM” Herbst
Graeme “korupt” Blackburn
Niel “Force” Spengler

Team: Pantheon Call of Duty 4
Who: LANGames eXtreme Gaming
When: 13-14th March '10
Where: Kopaneng, Hotel, Johannesburg
Prizes: Ati 5700's, AMD Motherboards & Quad Cores
Info: Here

Initially announced as a Modern Warfare 2 competition, much to the dismay of the community, the LANGames eXtreme Gaming extravaganza was quickly changed to a exclusive 8 team Call of Duty 4 tournament that looks to be a thriller of an event.

LANGames have partnered with the Durban LAN force of FRAG, as well as the nations LAN stalwart Arena77, to come together to host not just a LAN, but more of an exhibition to showcase AMD/Ati's new up and coming products, including the Ati's new tri-screen technology, the EyEfinity.

This event see's Arena77's second return to SA gaming (the first being rAge 2009's Quake Live Dreamhack Qualifier) after their much hyped hiatus, we can only expect great things. With the LAN being hosted at the Kopaneng Hotel, the presence of LANGamesTV as well as a number of other media representatives, the event will surely benefit gaming to its fullest.

Pantheon's Call of Duty 4 are coming off the back of a gold at FRAG February, where they once again proved why they are the best on the East Coast. The team will however be one man down as Greg "Rora" van der Spuy will be unable to attend. His replacement for the competition will be announced shortly.

Teams for the event still need to be announced, but with the prizes on offer, a number of the top echelon should make the trip.

Pantheon Lineup:

Chris "Evax" Noble
Dean "eXtreme" Tesner
Gary "Craolia" Noble
Hayden "PoOks" Huntington
TBA