Online vs. LAN
Derek Hidey
Issue date: 10/11/06 Section: The AT Wire
In April of 2005, Brent Riesen, staff writer for GotFrag.com, wrote an article titled, "Online vs. LAN: In-Depth Analysis." Riesen took four players from a leading competitive Counter Strike team and compared each player's Cyberathletic Amateur League (CAL) statistics to his Cyberathletic Professional League (CPL) statistics. Of course, the CAL is hosted online and all of its matches are played on hosted servers. On the other hand, the CPL is a huge local-area network (LAN) gaming tournament hosted in Texas twice a year.
Riesen concluded that, based on his four subjects, gamers tend to perform better in online play rather than in LAN play. The reason, according to Riesen, is because people are more comfortable gaming in a setting they are familiar with. However, there were too many variables to take into account for each player. For example, he makes it clear that there was no suggestion of cheating involved, which is a huge factor. Other, more minor examples include things like the player's Internet connection speed, the computer's processing ability, the computer's sound system- basically anything that has to do with a player's personal computer. When someone goes to a LAN competition like the CPL, the tournament administrators go to great lengths to insure that there is a level playing field. I can't tell you how many times I've lost a CAL match in Call of Duty 2 because our opponent's server kept crashing; requiring us to restart the match after a solid fifteen minutes had been played.
Competitive gaming will always be at its best in a LAN. In fact, it is the competitive drive that keeps LANs from disappearing entirely. There are a ton of LAN centers around the country that host small, community-wide tournaments in a variety of games. They aren't anywhere near as impressive as the CPL or many of the large-scale LANs in Korea and Japan, but they serve their purpose. Online tournaments just don't provide a level playing field for gamers. There are cheaters winning tournaments right now because there was no way to tell. In his article, Riesen suggested that the cheaters real advantage isn't that he is cheating, but that he is participating in a venue in which cheating is a constant worry. For the legitimate gamer, it is difficult to concentrate, and especially to lose, when that question is always lingering in the back of your mind, torturing you: "Did he cheat?"
Riesen concluded that, based on his four subjects, gamers tend to perform better in online play rather than in LAN play. The reason, according to Riesen, is because people are more comfortable gaming in a setting they are familiar with. However, there were too many variables to take into account for each player. For example, he makes it clear that there was no suggestion of cheating involved, which is a huge factor. Other, more minor examples include things like the player's Internet connection speed, the computer's processing ability, the computer's sound system- basically anything that has to do with a player's personal computer. When someone goes to a LAN competition like the CPL, the tournament administrators go to great lengths to insure that there is a level playing field. I can't tell you how many times I've lost a CAL match in Call of Duty 2 because our opponent's server kept crashing; requiring us to restart the match after a solid fifteen minutes had been played.
Competitive gaming will always be at its best in a LAN. In fact, it is the competitive drive that keeps LANs from disappearing entirely. There are a ton of LAN centers around the country that host small, community-wide tournaments in a variety of games. They aren't anywhere near as impressive as the CPL or many of the large-scale LANs in Korea and Japan, but they serve their purpose. Online tournaments just don't provide a level playing field for gamers. There are cheaters winning tournaments right now because there was no way to tell. In his article, Riesen suggested that the cheaters real advantage isn't that he is cheating, but that he is participating in a venue in which cheating is a constant worry. For the legitimate gamer, it is difficult to concentrate, and especially to lose, when that question is always lingering in the back of your mind, torturing you: "Did he cheat?"
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