The scene at Cyber Fusion 2009 once they hit the 40-hour mark. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
LAN parties were a fixture for many spotty-faced college students during the mid-nineties to mid-noughties.
During those days, the only way for a group of friends to play a computer game together was if everyone was in one room together with all their computers physically wired to each other.
Usually they would be playing Counter-Strike or Defence of the Ancients (DOTA). You either did this at someone's house, or more commonly here in Malaysia, at a cybercafe.
Sometimes, educational institutions would get in on the act and host LAN parties of their own during special events, one of which reached legendary proportions.
Is it true that the world's longest LAN party on record was held in Cyberjaya?
Verdict:
TRUE
First, a foray into terminology. LAN is an acronym for Local Area Network, which is a bunch of computers hooked up to a server, switch or router. A LAN party is when such a network is set up purely for the users to indulge in some digital fun playing multiplayer computer games together.
On April 11, 2009, 291 gamers got together in Cyberjaya and decidedly had some digital fun together and broke the then Guinness World Record for longest LAN party, which at that time stood at 36 hours.
The record attempt was held during the Cyber Fusion 2009 game convention and was an international affair seeing gamers coming from Malaysia, China, Brunei, Korea and even Yemen.
Most of the participants were aged between 19 and 25 and were full of youthful vim and vigour for the “arduous” task ahead.
Saying that, 17 participants dropped out after several hours for various reasons, including fatigue. The event organisers initially wanted to hit 38 hours, however, once they reached their target, they decided to push the envelope further and go for 40 hours.
Participants played DOTA (which is still a very popular game now), Call of Duty 4, FIFA '09 and Sudden Attack.
One thing we have to acknowledge though is that during the early 2000s, there were cybercafes that operated 24-hours a day (illegally) and were mostly used by college kids playing multiplayer games, so technically, they should be the ones holding the record.
However, seeing as none of them petitioned the Guinness Book of Records, the record still goes to Cyber Fusion 2009, which they've kept to this day.
Reference:
1. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-lan-party
