We talk to Abby about all things Computer Society. This society hosts large scale LAN events, and boasts the largest student run LAN in the country. If you’re a tech wizard or a complete novice, they’d love to meet you at this year’s Freshers Bazaar.

What is your society all about?

Our big focus is our large-scale LAN events, spanning across entire weekends. These LANs are not a casual affair, we’re the biggest student run LAN in the country and have the technical equipment and gaming know-how to back it up. Whether you’re interested in how the LAN network functions, want to compete in tournaments, are a tech enthusiast and love seeing people’s rigs, or just want to spend time with friends and play a few chill card games and the odd party game, there’s something for everyone at LSUCS.

In my two years on committee I’ve seen the society grow to a large and encompassing community, whether you fully embrace the ‘nerd’ tag, or just dabble in some PC building and the odd anime, there’s a place for you within our society. LSUCS surprised me with how welcoming the group is, and LAN really does start feeling like home after a while.

What sort of events are put on by the society?

We run our LANs, and each is unique; whether it’s dressing up for Halloween, handing out our Secret Santa presents sat around a tree in James France, or enjoying a BBQ and huge cake. Each LAN also has a freebie, be it a mug or an Easter egg, and a new selection of tournaments and free-to-play games to get involved with. Our LAN quizzes always put your knowledge to the test, whether it be doing maths with Pokémon or trying to guess gaming theme songs.

One of our more special LANs is Charity LAN. All our members get to put forward suggestions for a charity to support at one of our LANs, then we all get to cast votes on who to support. Seeing the society come together to support a cause close to them is something special, and having members and other societies collaborate at LANs to run extra events for charity make the whole LAN feel different and exciting, whilst we all raise a large sum for a cause we chose.

We also have a weekly social to the local Weatherspoon’s, which is a chance to chill and occasionally play the odd card game. We gather in our Discord voice server weekly to play on the society’s game servers. Of course, we wouldn’t be a society without the odd night out, whether it be to the cinema and the pub, or to the union for a whiteboard social.

Our free console nights are another big draw, we book out an entire bar and set up around 10 consoles for the evening for some competitive fun. But mainly end up playing at karaoke on Rock Band and having a few drinks with some Cards Against Humanity.

Why, when and how did you join?

I wasn’t really into going out every night of Freshers, so going along to the Activities Bazaar and seeing how many amazing groups there were to get involved in really helped me settle in. After going along to a couple of events LSUCS clicked with me, and after setting up a LAN whilst idly chatting to the other volunteers I never left!

Best or most memorable moments from your time in the society?

When we hit a real bump in the road, and quite literally. We use a van to transport all our server and power equipment, as well as picking up attendee’s PCs for the event. We were turning around the roundabout into the uni when the gear box suddenly didn’t want to work, we managed to get our tech delivered but still had 30 pickups to do for attendee’s PCs.

Within a couple of emails and a Facebook post or two, we had 4-5 cars ready to go for pickups and more happy to help if needed. Seeing people volunteer their time like that is always amazing, and there’s been countless times people have gone out of their way to help us; this makes the society feel like a huge group of friends.

Another one was the first time we ran an official Werewolves LAN. If you don’t know what Werewolves is it’s sometimes called Mafia: it’s a deduction game where everyone has a different role. The ‘villagers’ must find who the ‘werewolves’ are through social deduction and debating, before the ‘werewolves’ coordinate in the ‘night’ about who to eat. Overseeing a group of 30 or so complete strangers at our first event of the year all trying to figure each other’s motives out was great fun to watch. Werewolves is now one of the most popular LAN events.

Describe your society in three words…

Games, Memes, Friends!

What would you say to someone considering joining?

If you’re on the fence you can come drop by and see us at the Activities Bazaar on October 1st, or at any of our events. I’d highly recommend you come have a look around the LAN, and someone will always be up for giving you a tour and playing a console game or two!

Anything else we should know?

You can join our Discord server at any time to find a party for a game or to just ask some questions about the society, uni, or anything else you might be worried about! We’re always open to suggestions for new gaming events and tournaments, we cater to all gaming genres so just shout and you’re sure to find someone with shared interests.

Interested in finding out more? Contact the Computer Society via their social media channels: Facebook, Twitter. You can also join their discussion group on Facebook, or one of their forums.

LSU has a huge range of societies – you can find the list of all 115+ societies here.

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