Some of you will soon be packing up for epic.FOUR (the staff have already started!) and as many of our past participants will testify, it's a pain when you turn up to an event and you've either forgotten a major part of your PC setup, like your mouse, or even left all of your clothes behind (not mentioning any names...).

So being kind, helpful types here at epic.LAN, we've put together some advice and a checklist of things you need, to make sure you don't forget anything for the event and also on how to Survive the LAN Party when you have arrived for those new to LAN gaming events.

PC/Games Preparation

Please also remember to ensure that your PC is fully up to date and virus scanned before you leave. Also make sure that all of your games are up to date, particularly those running via Steam. We do have a network connection at the event, but it won't cope with everybody arriving and patching on the first night, so please update as much as possible beforehand.

If you do have to make any major updates/patches at the event, then do remember to check on our new FTP which will be running throughout the LAN. If there's something you need that isn't already on the FTP and it may be of use to other participants, such as a particular patch or map-pack, then let a member of the team know, so they can put it on the FTP for others to share and save the bandwidth.

One of the latest developments to our events was the Big Screen. This web-based application allows us to update event information on our projectors and other devices around the building quickly as well as allowing for the display of dynamic information such as game server live queries.

After listening to feedback from previous events, participants have been looking for ways to communicate their messages to others such as free slots in a game (what happened to old fashioned LAN shouting?). So we've added a new feature to the Big Screen app which allows people to post messages to slides via Twitter using a set hashtag for each event. The application will then monitor those hashtags and display the messages (with some filtering options to limit abuse).

Anybody can view the messages using either the Big Screens, or because the system is web based, you can open your own local copy of the screen on your PC, laptop, phone, netbook etc. You will need a registered Twitter account to post messages to the screen, and avid Twitter users can of course use tools such as TweetDeck to monitor the hashtags locally too.

One of the highlights of the epic.LAN events is our Pub Quiz. By far the biggest 'tournament' of our events, the Saturday night regular feature in our timetable sees the majority of participants take part in a couple of hours of mental activity with one or two beers, giving a welcome break from all of the gaming!

The quiz takes place at 8pm in the main hall and is open to teams of up to 5 players. Each participant pays just £1 to take part and all of the money goes to the winning teams.

We can now confirm the following rounds for the epic.FOUR quiz:

• General Knowledge
• Film & TV News
• Gaming News
• TV Themes
• Current Affairs
• Gaming Themes
• Music
• Gaming Phrases
• And 3 super-secret bonus rounds!

Then after the quiz, it's our ultimate test of a real gamer, the boat race!

If you haven't yet played the fantastic indie title, Plain Sight, then you can win a copy in our epic.LAN Plain Sight Giveaway.

Plain Sight will be featuring as one of our fun tournaments at epic.FOUR next weekend (29th July - 1st August) and if you don't already have a copy, or you want to win one for your friends, then you can join in our free competition to win one in time to play in the epic.FOUR tournament.

All you have to do to enter is answer a couple of simple questions about the game correctly, we'll then pick out the winners at 10pm on the Thursday at epic.FOUR. You don't have to be at the LAN to win, but it would be much better if you are!

There are a number of minor changes to the site layout from our last LAN ready for epic.FOUR detailed below:

• Parking - Please ensure that you park beyond the edge of the Grandstand Building, towards the Railway Bar (Sleeping Hall). There is another event taking place which will be using the hard-standing area directly in front of the grandstand.
• Breakfast Catering - We are using a new breakfast supplier this event after feedback from the past event. These will be serving from a temporary unit outside the gaming hall entrance so you can pick up some breakfast meat on your way from the sleeping hall to your seat.
• Camping - Please ensure that you set up your tents to the left of the roadway in the centre-course area as the area on the right is being used by another event.

You can view the full site plan here, full details will be on the intranet at the event and if you have any questions, you can ask any member of the team for assistance.

The epic.FOUR seating plan will be locked down at 10pm on Monday 26th July to allow us to finalise the event layout. From this time, only new bookings will be able to select an available seat, existing participants will not be able to move.

Please bear in mind that after the lockdown, we may consolidate seating so that only the minimal number of rows are set up for the event. This process may involve "defragmentation" of some seating arrangements. If this happens, we will ensure that groups with the same clan-tag are kept sat together as they are currently and we will only do this if necessary. At this time, we only envisage rows A&B being affected, depending on the number of last-minute bookings between now and the event.

While we do operate a self-service seating plan, we do always reserve the right to rearrange as required for the event.

The first draft of the epic.FOUR timetable is now available.

Our event timetable lists key event activities such as catering times as well as our more organised big games and tournaments. The timetable will also be available on our intranet and big screen systems throughout the LAN and will be updated with any changes during the event.

Although we do timetable some games, it doesn't mean that you can't play games not listed in the timetable, in fact there is loads of spare time in between the big games for you to organise your own smaller games and social activities. 

There are just under two weeks left now before epic.FOUR, so if you haven't yet grabbed a seat, make sure you book now to avoid missing out on our great scorching summer LAN!

One of the great things about epic.LAN is our seat picker. It puts you in control of where you sit at events. What isn't great is when you're part of a group and sorting out where you all sit can be like herding cats!

We've got the solution for you, you can now appoint someone to be the manager of your seat. They will be able to move you around the seating plan so you can arrange your clan or group however you like.

To assign someone as your seat manager, just go to your booking and there's a link for 'Seat Manager'. You can select anyone with the same clan tag as you to be your seat manager. Then when they click on a seat on the plan, they will be able to choose your booking.

epic.LAN - herding cats, so you don't have to.

Once again Kustom will be joining us for some fun, games and general sugary badness at epic.FOUR this July.

Kustom are LAN favourites at events all over the UK, giving you the opportunity to try some of the latest gaming peripherals before you buy at the events.

You can also pre-order from the Kustom website and have your items delivered to the event free of charge, simply make your purchase as normal and select 'collection from epic.FOUR' as your delivery method. The stand will be available from the Friday evening of the event.

In addition to the stand, Graeme will be running a range of activities and tournaments for everybody to take part in, including some Armagetron fun as you've never seen it before!

Visit epiclan.co.uk/epic4 to grab your place and join in some of the Kustom fun!

We were thinking recently how F1 could be made more exciting, and rather than adjustable rear wings, all the FIA need to do really is equip the cars with red shells and banana skins, then we'd have some overtaking and interesting racing.

Anyway, real-life motorsports aside, we'd also like to announce that we're returning to Mario Kart Wii for our fun console tournament at epic.FOUR later this month.

Just like with our earlier UT2k4 announcement, we've decided to go back to a console game which has been enjoyed by many at our past events. Plus with the random nature of the game, you all have a good chance at winning!

Our console area is available for everybody to use through the event and will be equipped with an Xbox360, Wii and N64 for some retro gaming action on our big screen. You can also bring your own controllers and games along for any of these consoles to play along with your fellow gamers.