having been relatively disconnected from the scene for years, I really wasn't sure what to expect ot feel going into this. as cliche as this is and as much as it should be predicted, I've been blown away by the truly unique community experience lan has. I've been especially blown away by the sheer amount of people that immediately recognised me upon me telling them my name (and others who recognised my face) despite my inactivity, even people I never really knew well and people who I'd expect to be known by so many people that they wouldn't know me. idk, I just expected to be forgotten/unknown and was blown away by this being so far from the truth. love you guys. i appreciate being made to feel so welcome. this community is so special in a way that I cannot describe.

I've felt for a long while that I just don't really have a place here anymore and maybe thats true and idk what my future is with this scene but I'm still grateful for the temporary feelings that its not. really surreal.

will edit this later with a proper list of shoutouts/thank you's but obviously very tired rn but wanted to say some feelings while I had them.

shoutout to staff and teams tho. final was tragically close. you guys could've had gully or product, commiserations on it not going that way. thanks for the show.

if anything I said sounded off I'm sorry like i said im really tired but GOOD FUCKING LAN LOVE U GUYS SLEEP WELL

I just want to say thanks to Mitch for coordinating the B stream and having the idea to get a bunch of old casters back, and to all the other boomer casters who came back. Never thought I'd cast again, let alone get to cast with Marxist or Flatline again, and had so much fun with both of them.

having some post lan clarity lying here nutrient deprived so I'll try to make this post now

It can not be understated how well production has done this lan and I appreciate every one of u. The grand final and LBF casts were outstanding and it was great to see some newer faces stepping up and casting to such a high level.

shoutout to everyone I got the chance to meet, as per usual I've not a bad thing to say about any of u

shoutout to papi for bringing the Bear Grylls experience to me

shoutout to mak and associates™

shoutout to my bank account

shoutout to whoever is on the confidential div1 roster that me and bumfreeze crafted in spoons

I love all of you and I look forward to seeing you all soon :) xxxxx

editing into my first post made it super long so posting here, sorry for length still

ok longer list:

arch, shadu, blob, fribs, nhaaj, solar, lucky, twiikuu, kaidus, whip, sodium, connie, rahmed, aelkyr, jmax, shaddowdude, gubbins, eepily, dcs, sammus (amaterasu), ceejaey, squirrel_bvc and the other unmentioned doggos I met (mac, streep36, I think that's it?), grumpykoi, solarlight, faust, kireek, turbotabs, soda, apolo, sirduck, drhappiness, amik, paddie, and everyone else I met (bum, wan, gamma, beater, surny to name a few)

edit: edited down to be compact rather than new line for each entry, control + F if u wanna look for a name

Head empty no thoughts but:
shoutouts to all the old faces I got to see and talk to again, always a pleasure
shoutouts to all the new ones as well since it's the first time in years I got to go out the house
shoutouts to essentials for letting me step in last minute to replace eepily and generally putting on yet another professional and great stream
shoutouts to the like 3 people that recognized I was wearing NL merch

I can't possibly list everyone I'd wanna shout individually cause there's hundreds and half of them are cringe youtuber friends that people on here don't care for anyway, but thanks for making this a fun all LAN and rekindling some love for this game for me again
Cu@ hamburg?

Shoutouts to all the essentials crew (archrhythm, soda, jon, jmaxchill, dr happiness, connie, loris, sodium, dcs) behind the scenes for doing an ungodly ammount of work to make the lan run relatively smoothly
Shoutouts to the casters (lucky, bum, turbotabs, eepily, surny) for all stepping up and delivering some incredible casts
Shoutouts to beater for casting with me
Shoutouts to kaidus for being a gigabrain and carrying me through all the desk segments
Shoutouts to froyotech for being good sports and giving us some banger games
Shoutouts to paddie and jay for some interesting 2 am conversations about na
Shoutouts to witness gaming for making me believe in the eu dream
Shoutouts to danny and gazy for jeing chill as fuck and doing a great job convincing me to come to hamburg lan
Shoutouts to mak for introducing me to his girl stella and buying me a lucozade
Shoutouts to crayon for being a very long friendly boy
Shoutouts to silves for deciding to come to lan fairly last minute
Shoutouts to z0diac for teaching me british (welsh???) slang
Shoutouts to everyone else i met and talked to, so many people and so little time.
Shoutouts to ignis for dodging lan
Shoutouts to british food for being so fucking dogshit it made the 15 euro airport vegan salad bowl i just ate actually taste good
Shoutouts to my alarm for not waking me up until 40 minutes before my flight and almost making me miss it

shoutout to theseus for letting me lose elo on his account
shoutout to verkle for breaking beavern hdmi cable after drinking ten litres of vodka
shoutout to beavern for being the chillest man alive and for letting me use his mousepad
shoutout to deere for letting me throw pugs on his account
shoutout to temrane for having the worst cfg at lan
shoutout to rahmed for being the designated pepsi plug at lan
shoutout to whip and rest of mcv for winning lan! (and for getting me into byoc)
shoutout to not steven, vclox and theseus for an absolutely splendid dinner
shoutout to flick for being impossible to find in a crowd
shoutout to charlie for ordering 10kg of fries from five guys
shoutout to akio for bringing the blahaaj to lan
shoutout to nhaaj for being chill as fuck
shoutout to [REDACTED] for letting me drink illegally
shoutout to the essentials crew for a pleasant viewing experience
shoutout to i69 for being my first lan and being one of the best experiences ive had
and finally shoutout to all of the teams that made it as exciting as it was to be a spectator!

Shoutout to everyone I've met or missed

Shoutout to ArchRhythm, DrHappiness, Soda & BlackOutJon for making it happen
Shoutout to Beater & Connie for being the best observer pair I could have hoped to work with
Shoutout to twiikuu for the servers
Shoutout to Sodium and DCS for administrating
Shoutout to bear, loris and cuppers for some hype-ass videos
Shoutout to all the talent and everyone who elevated the matches to such a high level
Shoutout to the teams for playing the best TF2 in the world and also not taking the grand finals to map 5

Shoutout in particular to the crowd; you can't hear it in the VOD but the noise in the hall for grand finals was through the roof and made all the stress and struggling of the previous hours, days and weeks worth it

Also shoutout Mr McVities for the hobnobs ;)

Edit: and shoutout to Overwatch and Valorant for delaying the stage and keeping us up until 4am

Double edit: Statistics prove the TF2 crowd was the best

shoutout to the guy who got kicked out for fighting

Shoutout Production/Casting/Admin team you guys nailed it this year and were all really awesome
Shoutout Froyo for coming to LAN, giving us some good matches despite a lack of teams.
Shoutout wG crew for letting me give my 2 cents watching the games
Shoutout Kaidus for being a wizard in general, man is a workhorse
Shoutout all the scottish guys that came, nice to see theres more of you now :D
Shoutout Xypher crew, Mak crew, Tf2easy, Rahmed discord and all the other teams/dudes I met, was nice to see people again :)
Shoutout ascend (div2 winner)
Shoutout to valorant finals fucking up my sleep before I had to fly out at 6am
Shoutout cyanic for his mike tyson impersonation

Big shoutout to whoever bought the overpriced as fuck booze from the venue.

cu@ germany maybe?

Shoutout to essentials and the lan team for giving me something to watch/listen to while working and putting on an amazing event. Shout out to whichever team was in charge of producing valorant for taking forever to clear the stage

shoutout to nasboii for managing to dodge every camera in the venue for the third LAN in a row

shoutout to all the casters, producers and teams we got the chance to play against
shoutout to sneaky, marten, samski, poison and shappie, i fucking love u guys and i couldnt have asked for a better group of people to call my teammates and friends
shoutout to gazy for giving me his mousepad after the lan and being my dad
shoutout to gragery and mak, my fellow turkish brothers, i wish u were there grag
random shoutouts to wandum, jun0, amik, beavern, josh, seeds, bear, oJ and honestly anybody who ive had a chat with for just being awesome people
Also big thanks to bumfreeze and lucky, amazing cast
Also shoutout grumpykoi for explaining to me very passionately why froyo was winning

i hope to see you all again in germany!!

I'm inevitably forgetting people here sleeping a handful of hours since finals, but wanted to get something posted before i go to bed since I got home a few hours ago.

BlackoutJon - Since Wolf's departure, you have done nothing but go onwards and upwards with EssentialsTF, and it's shown here at this event. Between investing money in improved equipment, doing what you can to help staff attend the event, and running a tight ship with DrHappiness, Arch, Kirsty, and Eepily this weekend, there's not a thing more I could have asked from you and your team. God bless and thank you for involving me again.

DrHappiness & Kirstysoda - Literally no matter who it happens to or what bullshit you are dealing with, the two of you go out of your way to make sure any and every concern about the physical and mental wellbeing of the crew and attendees is addressed. I don't know how either of you do it, genuinely. You're 2 people but you humbly do the work of 20. Honestly if it weren't for you 2 I would not trust myself to safely return after i65, but knowing you two are at an event makes me know that everything is gonna be alright in the end.

ArchRhythm - You are one of the most talented producers in TF2's history, and I hope you realize that with directing this event. Constantly scrambling to fix this little hiccup or that, while also being able to actively direct, vision mix, and audio mix and actually *pulling it off* has my jaw dropped in shock. 99% of people (myself included) would have crumbled doing half of what you did. You have a hell of a talent and it only makes me look forward to Atlanta that much more.

Beater - I have been daydreaming about getting to observe with you for as long as I have been thinking of attending iSeries, and I'm glad I finally got the opportunity this event. You are truly in a league of your own in that regard, and I don't think we could have pulled off some of the camerawork we did without you. To not only do that, but to then also be holding down the casting booth when you're not doing observing, and a banger job at that as well? For real you are insane at what you do and hope to see you continue on!

JMaxchill- Honestly had such an amazing time this weekend working with you on the in-game cameras. Bouncing ideas back and forth constantly, and navigating the new-ness of having cinematic cameras with HLAE at a LAN event was definitely no easy task, and it would have been much shakier without you. You're also just a joy to be around and really helped lift my spirits when I was getting down myself at times. Genuinely you are a homie now and forever, and I hope god willing we get to do it again next year.

JWB - I know you were a bit apprehensive about coming back to the community and meeting people, but fuck am I glad you decided to turn up. Was wonderful hanging out with you and your da- sorry, MidnightMick and I hope you know that as long as you are friendly and willing, there will always be a place for you in the community and at LAN <3<3<3

yanyul - Honestly you are too kind, was such a pleasure spending my free-time hanging out with you, and chilling post-finals with you, mak & pitts/marten/froyo/etc was very laid back. Absolutely have matching vibes, if I end up at the German LAN we'll definitely have to catch up.

EssentialsTF Leads - I know I pretty much thanked all of you individually, but I really do need to take a second and appreciate your collective efforts. The last 2 Insomnia events have truly been life changing for me, and I've done a lot of growing up and learning in the time I've gotten to know and work with you. Honestly before you reached back out about DreamHack I was at a loss as to if I'd ever really want to work in esports broadcast again, but now I am as fiery as ever, simply because you all believe in me. This organization and this event change lives in ways I can't articulate and i don't think can even be fully comprehended in the next decade for me, but I want you to know that I love you all and I am glad to call your organization a second home for me. Genuinely in awe of what we've put together and what's in store for the future. Honestly just hoping for the continued success of the organization, excelsior!

im not crying you're crying

ill use this accidental post to say come to hamburg lan

• shoutout to all the first time langoers (wiitabix, nintails and zhern come to mind) i got to meet, i love how pure and passionate the next gen are
  
• shoutout danny and gragery(D:), turkiye is massiv
  
• shoutout faust, matek and oj for being the chill footie brothers
  
• shoutout turbotabs, plunk, wan and kuno for being chill brothers in general
  
• shoutout paddie, banny, habib and jay (and rest of froyo i didnt get to talk to) for bringing passion to their games and then being seriously chill out of game
  
• shoutout to the witness crew, ive loved watching u guys develop and im sure u will go further soon enough, and obviously for being da boys
  
• shoutout to talent, production and tech guys u guys put on a dope show and worked through some stressful stuff. And a special one to my dawg bumfreeze, u crushed the grandfinals
  
• shoutout to my crew <3
  
• shoutout to anyone i may have missed but i think i covered all my bases :P
  
• oh ya i forgot shoutout to krokit, jackwalms, awj and amik and that whole crew, u guys r always dope

ty digy and acecle for carrying me back to the hotel and mac for mercing for me in playoffs
thanks to nintails for stealing my toothpaste
shoutout to tf2easy for being cry babies and tryna get us kicked out the tournament because i drunkenly unpaused without asking in our 0-10 game gg!

Quality event had a great time:

Shoutout to production staff and casters who put on an incredible show for everyone who couldn't be there.
Shoutout to my team (Dejvi, Kin, Tony G, Storm and Tekszi) who made for some great games.
Shoutout to Xypher for being chill and friendly all lan (sorry for helping kill Coyo).
Shoutout to polly's pad for all being dope.
Shoutout to Jun0 biggest wheeler dealer at lan.
Shoutout to rest of Boomers and for a great game and Doggos for some top tier banter on the Saturday.
Big ups Matek, Mak, and Leo the footy bois.
Shoutout Zod, Con, Sneaky, Sil and Hugo the most welsh players I've ever met.
Shoutout Sodium for the being the best Admin who did a banging job.
Shoutout Mak mumble for taking me to the pub constantly.
Shoutout Morale for agreeing to go turtle.
Shoutout Domo and Ixy for being a laugh
Shoutout Toe for always taking time to explain strats and gameplans post game.
Shoutout Con again for buying prosecco when the bar ran out of beer.
Shoutout Svift and Yohn for the ballsy job they did.
Shoutout Turbotabs for being swole af
Shoutout Flick for being the shortest guy at lan
Shoutout Plunk for always having more booze in him than a brewery.
Shoutout Charlie for beggars hype with me.
Shoutout Kuno for being cooler than an iceberg.
Shoutout Josh and Gaz for Dance Dance Revolution.
Shoutout MCV for winning the b tournament.
Shoutout Piggles for having Charisma 100.
Shoutout Russel's mates for being as sound as him.
Shoutout the guys in the tournament we had to teach how to install maps.
Shoutout everybody else I chatted to if I haven't named you here, you all made it a banging time.

shoutouts to lambo driver

shoutout to my team wiitabix apolo nhaaj crazycalumrock croc for epic time on lan
shoutout beavern for being the funniest lad on lan
shoutout yak for being the most lovely british guy on the planet
shoutout dejvi for cool tf2 talks inbetween games
shoutout archrhythm for good guilty gear games after finals
shoutout piggles for being the most respectful anglosphere player after games, also shoutout for two toxic brits in there, the kicked one and the one with flag
shoutout cheesecake for making me laugh more than after smoking during finals
shoutout whip for loads of jokes
shoutout entire essentialstf staff for making this happen and letting us make etf2l awards show on insomnia
shoutout lux for being the life of the party
shoutout temrane, lawjr and refleks for good times in wetherspoons
shoutout yohn and his girlfriend because her cookies are cool and thanks for a good time together
shoutout pitts and plunk for cool talks outside
shoutout for amik, good luck with your channel bro
shoutout for yanyul, meyy, marten, danny, habib, sneaky and all others being around the lake during friday night, it was fucking great
shoutout for ivan for a great time on essentials.tf staff area
shoutout for sodium and dcs for good adminning and being cool guys
shoutout for rahmed for making the cool tshirt thing happen
shoutout for scarlet for a really cool cosplay
shoutout for ceejaey, akio, not steven, seeds, turbotabs, samus, squirrel_bvc, acro, nash, assassin+, nubbi, faust, matek, oj, phlogic for great talks and being chill
shoutout gaeta discord
shoutout anybody else who i spoke with but didn't mention here, you guys were cool

shoutout to kay's good cooking (temrane, Theseus, Scarlet, Solar, deere) for a super fun and chill time, it was lovely.
shoutout to Jmaxchill and JWB for being my cool writer buddies
shoutout to xypher (Acecle, lilcute, coyo, DigyB, Nintails, Ascend), was nice finally meeting some of you and seeing the rest again
shoutout to Enzo for helping me speak with xypher (-coyo) on day one when they were still afraid of me
shoutout to Cosmo for helping to carry on the Porg e-Sports legacy by wearing matching pants with me for the whole LAN
shoutout to all production staff that I barely got to see because they had jobs to do, you all make the dream work (also I think there should be like an opposite day where you get to play while being produced by prem people, that way we can hang out)
shoutout to the casters that I got to see a bit more, you're also very important and you all looked great on screen
double shout out to turbotabs for buying me lunch, truly turbodad
BIG shoutout to lawjr for managing to play a map on my PC, im sorry it crashes when people get married in game
Shoutout to the "ex-Prem" players that were all so nice to talk to : Piggles (with the wide smile), Crayon, mak, Grenja.
shoutout to SVIFT danny and sneaky the cat, hope to see you both at next LAN
shoutout to Matek, Shaddowdude, Chez, Assassin+ and Dejvi (+Matek's date) for taking me home to their airbnb so I could watch the Arsenal game, I ended up staying 18 hours, the food was delicious and it was a ton of fun.
shoutout to Akio for lending me her blåhaj so that I could fake a tinder profile picture
shoutout to kuno for giving the tightest hugs possible on top of being certified cool
shoutout to Lukas/Thompson for still being all around great, now with epic hair to boot !
shoutout to McV and doggos, we didnt speak too much but its always cool to see good old gaming clans
shoutout to the people I met and said goodbye to at 5 am on the last day (Josh, Faust, Gazy, morale, Lux, jun0, the "krokit gang", Toast, nas boii who was so nice)
angry shoutout to zhern for dodging me despite going to my row to take creepshots of computers
shoutout everyone else i couldnt make fit in one category : mulaa, Domo, habib, Pitts, Rahmed, Not Steven, DCS, Samus, nhaaj, marten, yohn, apolo, tobi, croc, condawg, charlie, BeaverN, CeeJaey, Storm, kindred, Connie, Kireek, Jortand, Kireek's polish friend who brought sweets (Im not good with names sorry), oJ and anyone else I forgot.
also shoutout to the mysterious uWu bandit who left a bunch of notes saying that on my PC. I will find you.

You all make LAN special

shout out to Essentials staff, producers, casters, hosts and analysts for making this event possible
shout out to DCS and Sodium for running a smooth tournament & watching the Belgian GP with me
shout out to Gubbins for philosophising with me about the state of TF2 volunteering and walking me back to my hotel at ungodly hours, maybe we will go to the casino another time
shout out to morale for keeping me up to date with the latest F1 memes
shout out to CeeJaey, Mac, GrumpyKoi, Lucky, TurboTabs, JLEBS, Beater, jun0, twiikuu, yak, squirrel_BVC, JackWalms, AWJ and Lux for being lovely to talk to and hang out with
shout out to Rahmed for asking me to sign his shirt
shout out to supra for offering us (Polish?) sweets
shout out to BeaVerN for being BeaVerN
shout out to the B tournament teams for taking it seriously and playing some fun matches
shout out to everyone else I spoke to but forgot mentioning here
cu@ again soon

shoutout to my team, I had a great time finally meeting them in person
shoutout to SVIFT, very lovely people and huge respect for the energy they brought despite having to face off against the Top3 in the invite group
shoutout to Froyo, playing them was the most fun I've had in 6s in a long time
shoutout to twiikuu for setting up LAN servers to play on
shoutout to production, casters, hosts etc. . Looking at the vods they have done a banging job producing this LAN
shoutout to all the people I've met in spoons, had a great time talking to all of you
shoutout to all the people that came up to me and started talking about the pyro stuff before I even said a word
shoutout to beavern who borrowed me his monitor which saved me a lot of headaches with the rental one. I definitely still owe a more beers
shoutout to all the people that gave me beers, unfortunately I wasn't able to drink the canned ones because they're just too grim
shoutout to all the people I've played with or against over the years, there are too many to list them all but it was a blast to finally meet and talk to all of you
Overall I had an absolute great time for my first proper LAN and I wish it would have lasted longer

I hope to see you all again in hamburg

lan death is hitting me hard so apologies if I miss anyone
shoutout to eepily for putting in work before lan only to be sidelined by his health
shoutout to twikuu for having the best lan servers of any i-series event
shoutout to kirsty for being lovely
shoutout to nhaaj for bringing the noise to the open bracket games
shoutout to everyone in the grand-final crowd for making the atmosphere electric

hopefully I'll make it to Hamburg, if not cu@ Copenhagen

oh here we go again

shoutout to :

- AWJ, jackwalms, Cryo, Thompson and Thomson, Gen , Amik, Cegr , Krokit and Koi for the time spent together dmixing / hanging out , and even though Lucky couldn't hang out as much this LAN bc of casting, the hugs were very appreciated from all of you, you will always be my favorite gang <3
- Plunk for buying me drinks in exchange for cigarettes and food
- Ascend for being 5th best med in the world and letting me religiously pat his hair every time we saw each other
- Yanyul for the deathmatch against the geese by the riverside
- Row and HOI for somehow being able to make sure I was okay no matter where they were
- KirstySoda for the best hugs this LAN and the amazing production work ( thank you Essentials, you guys were awesome!)
- Supra for the nice chat and helping fix the portuguese pickups while at LAN
- Lux , Fribs and Mia for being part of this LAN and putting up with my dumb ideas
- Ruin and Ruin's mom Sunshine for the nice talks outside
-Hugo for the annual catch up, stay safe man
- Vclox for SPILLING THE DAMN HULA HOOPS
-DigyB , Habib and Wiitabix for putting up with the requests I got from Nurwhal, fac and Piney respectively

Other shoutouts to Rahmed, Connie, Sprite, Lilcute, Piggles, marten, Dr Phil, Squirrel, condawg, Jlebs, enzo, shadu, Blobchap, nhaaj, twikuu, aelkyr, yak, ceejaey, counou, bear , nas boii and i'm sure there are more , i just can't remember everyone from the top of my head

gg , c u next year

shout out to Essentials for putting on another great show
shout out to Twiikuu for the servers
shout out to DCS and Sodium for running the tournament so smootly
shout out to all the teams that competed, especially froyo for coming on over
shout out to samir in the big house for becoming 7th best team in the world
shout out to Lucky and Bum for giving a great grand finals cast even at 4am
shout out to AWJ, Krokit, Thompson & Thomson, Cegr, Amik, Coach Cryo, Grumpkoi, Pitts, Kin, Piggles, Yui, Frenchie, Hysteria, Maurice, and anyone else who joined in on our drunk dmixes
shout out to the yorkshire crew Ascend, z0diack and Leth (nations cup please)
shout out to CeeJaey, Morale, Domo, Crayon, Beater, Jun0, Enzo, Bear, Ruin, Lux, Mia, Plunk, OJ, Sprite, Blobchap, Aelkyr, Rahmed, Yak and a bunch of other people who I spoke to

see you next time