K, so we rocked up for this almost on time, about 11:15am.. official start was 11am.

First thing to notice, was that the guys had really taken the time to setup the hall, and lay things out.
Power was plenty stable enough, with leads running from plenty of spots (including the kitchen !!!)

Setup was simple (with great thanks to the laptop i now have), but even my mates seemed to be up and running in record time.
the network ran rather smooth, for a 10/100, though they seemed to be using gigabit uplinks, and the servers never faulted.

We signed up for the 5 vs 5 CS:S tourny, was due to start at 2pm, got underway at like 3:30pm, so im marking this as a downside to the whole thing
a tourny always sounds fun, but when not done right, it gets you stuck doing something that you just dont want to do.

Now, for the major plus, for all your scorners thinking "WTF !!! lan on australia day? at the polish club?" we still did our drinking duty, and sampled some of Hollands finest Beers and spirits, and they were rather damn fine. (the beer from there comes in 500ml bottles, and starts at 5% so its rather strong stuff for beer).

So, all up
the good:
great initial setup
easy to get running
awesome venue (for being licensed, and having food on hand that wasnt too badly priced. $2.50 for a hotdog)

the bad:
Tournament was poorly organized (sorry guys)
no other games aside from CS:S were planned.. and if they were, it definitely wasn't announced
no digital announcement system, this is something i always liked about the TasGn (which the hgl took over?) was the IntraNet and the Projector displaying info, this was always a plus side to the events, having to yell info out to the lanners is just a drag.
and whilst it wasnt anything the admins could really fix.. im marking them down for the serious lack of goods to leech.

The ugly.. well, as usual at a lan there was someone who was just way to loud about there business, way to OTT about things not working, and soo not asking for help, just sitting there crapping on about how nothing is working for them.. im more than willing to help.. but in the long run, if someone isnt going to be polite and ask around for help, its just not going to happen.

personally, these guys have great success with there events, and i think its partly because they have great servers, and know how to have a hall setup, they are also one of the only events offering decent prizes ($200 cash prize for the winning team in the CS:S tourny), and they have the following of a previous LAN event (the TasGN, which was one of the first to fill the void of the LANtastic / BFG and UNS lans shutting down), i seriously hope they get aorund to fixing the issues, and that they can manage to keep the Polish club as a venue for future LAN events, even if it is only 1 or 2 a year, because i would tottaly attend at that venue again.

Hope one of their admins reads this, and takes it as constructive.

Cheers
/tAK

So does the licensed venue make it an 18+ event? or was alcohol only served because it was Australia day? How did they police any under age drinking?

incase you didnt read properly, or i didnt make it clear enough, the LAN was held in the function room at the Polish club.

Alcohol was served by the polish club, and as such, ID was checked.
It wasnt really upto the organisers of the event to prevent any under-age drinking, it was the responsibility of the polish club, as they were the ones serving said drinks, and they are the ones with the license to do so.

and as far as i saw, only those over 18 were served anyways. and very few people (around 10 total) actually went to the bar.
short of that, i think myself and 2 of my mates were the only ones i saw with an alocoholic beverage near our computers.. or a beverage at all for that fact.

cheers for the review

Hmm, some good beer while lanning. Sounds like my cup of tea!

or pint of brew as the case may be.