On February 29, 2020, spectators, commentators and 32 players with their computers invaded Le Rituel in Cherbourg for the GoéLAN. Back to this competition.
Gamepads is an association that was founded in 2013. His objective? To make discover and promote the video game through all its aspects.
Its president, Mickaël Spagnol, explains: « The world of video games and everything related to them is booming in France. The practice of video games is becoming more and more democratic and interests a growing proportion of the population. This enthusiasm motivates the members of the association all the more to take up new challenges. »
And speaking of new challenges, here’s one: creating a new event! Since 2014, the association has been organizing the Video Game Odyssey, which welcomes up to 2,000 people for a weekend. Over the years, the association has noticed that there were 2 different audiences that came to visit the show: families and competitors. That’s when the idea of the GoéLAN emerged with the objective of satisfying the competitors.
« The format of the Video Game Odyssey is more family oriented, explains Mickaël Spagnol. So we wanted to please everyone and create a new event that proved to be a new challenge for the association! »
La GoéLAN is a LAN (competition that brings together several gamers in the same place to compete on a chosen game) with a format different from the usual competitions. Indeed, the gamers did not compete on a single game but on 9 different games (CSGO, TFT, Disc Jam, Rayman Legends Kung Foot, Puy Puyo vs Tetris, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Rocket League, Lethal League Blaze and a quiz).
The day was therefore rhythmic with a simple and well-organized course: the teams were divided into 4 pools of 4 teams who competed in 5 different games. The best team in each pool made it to the semi-finals. She then had to win 2 different games to advance to the final and maybe become the winning team of the competition. Some spectators came to watch the competition on site while others followed it online with live commentators. A finely tuned organization so that no one loses a crumb!
« I’m very satisfied with this first edition, says Mickaël Spagnol. We’ve obviously had some feedback with small adjustments to make but overall the competition went very well and the players were happy, so that’s the main thing. I would like to thank the FIVA Group for its financial support which enabled us to organise this first edition. Can’t wait for the next one! »
GoéLAN 
Live commentators
