History

The whole disaster started about 1992 when the two crazy guys Dan Steimetz and Yves Thommes from the region of Echternach met the first time and found out that they had some major interests in common like shooting pseudo-Nazis. So they started to meet from time to time to see who’s the best at this famous game called "Wolfenstein 3D", they did all sorts of competitions, like best kill rate, best time… everything was single player only of course so one had to watch the other play which after some time started to bore them, even the "Wolfenstein 3D" sequel "Spear of Destiny" didn’t seem to compensate, something new had to be found…

Then finally in December 1993 the real catastrophe began, DOOM was released, the first major Multiplayer game. Now there was no way to stop them, they even forgot to go to school or to sleep, everything they were thinking of was DOOM, DOOM, DOOM, DOOM… They were playing together using Null-Modems. After some time they discovered that almost the whole game was customizable and started creating their own small MODs for DOOM. Some months later they thought that with some help from a third person they could create some real cool MODs and even have even more fun playing them. Guess what, they were not the only ones who enjoyed playing DOOM. One day Dan brought his classmate Patrick Morette along to show him what he and Yves were doing in their spare time and he immediately agreed to join them the next weekend for some multiplayer action. So the first three members of The Wicked Net found each other.

Only several months later the fourth guy, Jérome Peeters, who was really interested in network multiplayer gaming joined the three for a weekend. He wasn’t into the whole DOOM stuff at all, but he spend most of his time playing real-time strategy games, guess that’s why they always called him the brain J of the whole team. Jerome introduced the other three into his strategy world which was mostly Warcraft 1 at that time and the others showed him the dark side of multiplayer gaming with DOOM. They were meeting almost each weekend for some time to enjoy some multiplayer action in DOOM or Warcraft.

At this point of the history we should have reached the end of 1994 where DOOM 2 and Warcraft 2 were released. So the four crazy gamers just got some new food for the winter and actually now The Real Wicked Net was born. The four gamers Dan ‘badblood’ Steimetz, Yves ‘doc holliday’ Thommes, Patric ‘mo’ Morette and Jerome ‘wotan’ Peeters started to meet regularly to play some multiplayer games and get drunk.

1995 the whole thing started evolving and the four thought that The Wicked Net should not only be about computer games and stuff but it should be something special, so they started to go out and do some other “normal” stuff together. Oh yeah, almost forget, Command & Conquer was born about that time too and found immediately its place in The Wicked Net game universe. Ok talking about normal stuff, having some fun from time to time outside in the normal world the 4 gamers met guys like Frank ‘lazy’ Lazzarini and Francois ‘scav’ Campill which they gladly took into our very small community. Now they were already 6 and the whole started going faster and getting better. The only problem that they had was with 6 people the rooms where they played before started getting a little bit too small so they had to look for some alternatives. For almost the next two years they got two very large rooms under the rooftop of Jerome’s grandmother’s house, damn that was cool. The best place they ever had, it had this very special atmosphere (watch Net Wars and you’ll know what I’m talking about) which made every meeting a great experience.

In August 1996 for the launch of the game which changed the whole game industry/history forever, QUAKE, they wanted to organize something special, a very large multiplayer gathering, their first real large LAN Party. The day on which id software released this beast into the real world The Wicked Net had one of its greatest parties ever followed by a large LAN Party during almost one week and a half with 12-16 gamers (i'm talking about luxembourg here in the year 1995), which was not that bad during 1996 and remember that they only lived in the small forgotten country called Luxembourg where mankind still lives far away from modern technologies and lifestyle. This LAN party was such a big success that nobody wanted to leave afterwards, so everybody wanted to know when they could meet again for some carnage. So the six main Wicked Net members started to take the whole LAN party thing very serious and organized one LAN party ever six weeks for almost one week, sometimes even for two weeks. Oh, don’t get me wrong, don’t think that they stayed during all this time at the same place and played computer games 24/7, not at all. At weekends or at several days of the week they went out to have a couple of drinks and visit one of their favourite pubs in Echternach. But the most crazy time at their LAN parties were the closing nights, the last night before they wrapped up. I never saw so many people drink so much without throwing up, RESPECT!

During most of these LAN parties The Wicked Net captured some film material which they used afterwards to create their two amateur movies ‘Wicked Fiction (55mins)’ and ‘Net Wars (100mins)’ produced by the two members Yves ‘doc’ Thommes and Francois ‘scav’ Campill, thanks to Francois for his great special effects, good job man. I have to admit that those movies are for The Wicked Net members only, other people wouldn’t understand a single minute of those movies. They once showed it in public to some peoples which didn’t know The Wicked Net and his history at all and they thought that the movies were crap while on the other hand the whole wicked net team laughed his ass off.

Since then The Wicked Net has grown stronger and bigger, they count now almost 14 members in addition to the 6 leaders/founders which gives them a count of 20 gamers. Yeah I know that’s not a very long list but The Wicked Net admitted only people which had a really good time at their LAN parties, which didn’t think the whole time just about games but which have some skills when it comes to it.In 1998 a large group of motivated and funny players from Mamer joined the team. In the name of The Wicked Net founders I would like to thank the whole Mamer team for their support, without their help they wouldn’t be what they are today! Oh almost forgot, the got a name their self, how rude. They were called ‘Show No Pain’ and this team was 100% true Quake oriented which was just perfect for them, because *exaggerating alarm* The Wicked Net was almost in love with this game, they even prayed to the Quad God each LAN.

But unfortunately 1998 had also some bad sides, people like Jerome left the country to do some studying in Germany, Switzerland or France. And so the team started to lose some of its major players, which made the whole team a lot less serious than it was before. Some players like Yves ‘doc’ Thommes who still wanted to keep on playing seriously started to join some Quake or Half-Life clans in Germany or France, of course they didn’t leave The Wicked Net.

In 2001 some members of The Wicked Net created the luxembourg gaming community website gaming.lu

Today you can meet most of The Wicked Net members very often at the Bronx café in Luxembourg City or 'Beim Wohli' in Echternach.

I guess that's pretty much it, now we've reached 2006 where most of the players are employed or studying in foreign countries so the LAN parties by The Wicked Net are extremely limited now but they still exist and I suppose that's what makes them so special today, a team which started almost 14 years ago with multiplayer games and still organizes some very rare parties each year (2-3 per year, before they had 20-25 per year). They almost deserve the LAN Veteran title for the small country called “Luxembourg”. Almost forgot that The Wicked Net was also involved in the Luxembly events back in 1995 and 1996. Two quite large gatherings of Luxembourg's coder and BBS scene with almost 50-70 attendants.

Congrats go out to doc and mo, those are my fucking heroes, they NEVER missed one single Wicked Net LAN party since the beginning and also went to many LAN parties in Germany and France. I suppose they've been to almost 500+ LANs, damn that’s tight!

Keep up the good work guys. And may the Quad be with You!
- The Wicked Net Gatekeeper