Marathon online struggle

It's a lucky thing yesterday's Auckland Anniversary Day allowed much of the city's working population a chance to sleep in.

A healthy portion of the 700 or so gamers battling it out over the weekend in the country's largest LAN (local area network) gaming event, Equinox, would have been dead to the world after periods of play lasting up to 18 hours at a stretch. Gamers paid $60 each to join in, competing for prizes worth $25,000.

Six big gaming tournaments made up Equinox, with multiplayer games such as Unreal Tournament and Battlefield 1942 proving among the most popular.

Equinox executive director Neal Thompson said the tournaments provided plenty of drama. Last year's CounterStrike champions, Team Reality, were beaten by former members of the team who split off to form rival syndicate Parallax.

And if overseas reports of young gamers dying after marathon sessions put you off such events, Thompson said Equinox interspersed the online action with bouts of rest.

"We encouraged everyone to get up and sleep upstairs in an area we put aside, and there were a lot of people getting sleep in hotels and motels nearby."

Equinox