L3 is a BYOC computer gaming event held every six to eight weeks in Christchurch, New Zealand. The events see over a hundred gamers and computer enthusiasts attend, making it the largest and oldest regular LAN party in New Zealand. Events are public, but entry is limited to those 18 or over.

Origin

The concept of L3 was started in 2001 when the founders of the event, Sam 'KingJackaL' Evans and James 'Solid Snake' Tan realised that LANs were in short supply, specifically in Christchurch. Originally the event was run and organised solely by the founders of the event, with work moving over to include a core team of around 8 volunteers as the number of attendees to the event grew past 60 people, and continued past 100. The events are run in a 24-hours manners, normally over a weekend; starting on the friday afternoon and finishing on the sunday morning.

The name 'L3' itself does not stand for anything. It was not chosen for any other reason than that one of the founders (and which is lost in time) decided that the group should simply pick a random letter and a random number, and turn it into a well known name.

Past Events

The first event, in January 2002, was held at St Thomas' School Rugby Clubrooms with just 5 people attending with computers and 2 other people stopping by to have a look.

By the 6th event, in July 2002, numbers had swelled to the 40's, and the group were now hiring commercial facilities for holding the events.

After the 17th event, in November 2003, numbers had swelled to the 80's and stabilised, and the workload had expanded comensurately. The events were not run for the following 7 months while a new venue was found, pricing was changed, and the decision to expand the administration and organisation from the 2 founders to a team of volunteers was made.

By the 30th event, held around April 1st 2006, numbers had recovered and grown well past the 100 mark.

Community

The L3 team primarily organize online, through the L3 website and IRC. Attendees tend to center around the OCNZ community, and as such tend to use the OCNZ IRC channel: #ocnz on Rizon.

Gaming

L3 events have gaming tournaments. On average there are three tournaments per event. The three different tournaments usually involve an FPS, an RTS game and a Driving game. These tournaments usually have a large number of particpants. Sometimes these tournaments can involve small prizes but usually the participants play just for fun.