Now is the time to show off your latest Christmas presents and how tidy (or not) you keep your desk. The task is to simply take a photo of your desk perhaps including a small clue that might help people to guess whose desk it is. Send in your pictures to desks@epiclan.co.uk between now and 11th January we’ll put them on display. The person who then gets the most correct guesses wins a pint (or other drink) at epic.THREE. So let’s see how well you can remember what people bring to events.

Just make sure your photo doesn’t include your nick as your wallpaper or some other massive giveaway!

Now go take those pics, and remember to send your nick when you submit your picture.

The team at epic.LAN would like to wish all of our community members and partners a very happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

2009 has been a great year for epic.LAN and that is thanks to the support of the community, we are very grateful and we look forward to seeing you all in the new year for epic.THREE in February, and we know that will come around fast!

Enjoy the festive break, don't drink too much and we'll see you all soon!

The epic.LAN Team

After DJ Superchief's live set at epic.TWO in July, we've decided to line up not one, but two live sets to take place at epic.THREE in February.

One of the things we aim to create at our events, is a great atmosphere. Through lighting and background music, we give you a LAN like no other in the UK!

So at 11pm for one hour on both Thursday and Friday nights, you'll get to hear a set from our very own DJs Superchief and Haden!

Yet another great reason to come to epic.THREE on 25th-28th February at Uttoxeter Racecourse, Staffordshire.

With 47 people currently booked, it's looking to be yet another fantastic event!

See you there!

The hunt has now started! 51 people so far are scouring the internet for clues in our test of lateral thinking, code breaking and cryptic puzzle solving.

Currently 50% of the participants have completed the teaser rounds (The Initiation) and eagerly await Round 1 - Basic Training.

Teams from all over the UK and even further afield are currently taking part, with some of the main winners and runners up from similar puzzle hunts all competing for the prize of a £100 Kustom voucher, or just general honour!

Not to mention all of the people who are just playing for the fun of it!

It's great to see so many people taking part, and of course we'd love to know what you think about it so far and as you go through the various rounds. If this one is successful, then we'll certainly look to run more online versions as well as our event hunt.

If you aren't playing yet, then you can still join in! It all officially kicks off at 12noon on Saturday 19th, but you can access the teaser questions before then. To take part, go to http://hunt.epiclan.co.uk.

Following on from epic.TWO, we made the commitment to improve the scheduling and communications at the events. After a number of staff discussions, and some inspiration from other events, we've decided to look at the big screen as a better communications method, as well as clearing up the sound from the speaker system.

Our current big screen used simple PowerPoint to display messages. While it did the job for static announcements, it made it difficult to include any dynamic content and was also a bit clunky to update.

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Thanks to support from Kustom and epic.LAN the prize for the online hunt has now been doubled to a £100 Kustom PCs voucher!

Our test of lateral thinking, code breaking and cryptic puzzle solving will be coming to your screens on the weekend of 19th & 20th December to give you something to do on a cold winter's weekend.

After two successful event-based puzzles, we've decided to test your skills purely online in this special edition of the hunt.

Anyone can join in, and it's absolutely free to take part. Registration is now open at http://hunt.epiclan.co.uk.

There will be some short teaser questions on the Friday evening to get you into the right mindset, and then the first round will kick off at 12noon on Saturday 19th.

The second round will begin at 12noon on Sunday 20th with the top 10 players gaining a 30 minute head start.

For people who are new to our events, it's always useful to be able to put names to faces when you get there, so that you know who to ask for assistance.

So we've put together a few mugshots of the team members to help you out! Take a look at our Meet the Team page to find out more.

Our good friends at Crucial have confirmed that they will be sending their support to epic.THREE with a great selection of goodies, including a top prize of a 4GB DDR2 Ballistix RAM kit and of course plenty Memory Hawg pigs!

Take a look at the Crucial range of products at www.crucial.com/uk or you can follow them at twitter.com/crucialmemory

There's plenty more yet to announce about epic.THREE, to get involved make sure you've signed up and booked your ticket!

If you're a fan of the Crucial Memory Hawg then grab a look at the Memory Hawg Song on Youtube.

Opening ceremony video from Thursday at DreamHack Winter 2009, sorry about the low quality, camera doesn't like the low light!

Winbar, Murray-Mint and Saboo from team epic.LAN bring you more coverage of the world's biggest Digital Festival, Dreamhack Winter 2009. OVER 9,000 people are here enjoying a hardcore weekend of all things digital, combined with a real festival atmosphere.

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