Neon Theme, Event Groups, and Early Registration: Three Powerful New Features

We're thrilled to announce three major features that make LAN.events more customizable, collaborative, and flexible than ever before. Whether you're an organizer looking to give VIPs early access, or an attendee wanting to coordinate with your team, these features are designed to make your LAN party experience better.

🌈 Neon Theme: Light Up Your Experience

We've added a brand new Neon theme to our theme collection! This vibrant theme brings a cyberpunk aesthetic to LAN.events with glowing effects and bold colors.

What Makes Neon Special?

The Neon theme features:

• Vibrant Colors: Electric cyan, magenta, and yellow accents that pop
• Glow Effects: Buttons and interactive elements have a subtle neon glow
• Light & Dark Modes: Available in both light and dark variants
• High Contrast: Designed for readability while maintaining that neon aesthetic

Perfect For

• Gaming tournaments and esports events
• Cyberpunk-themed LAN parties
• Anyone who wants a bold, energetic interface

The Neon theme joins our existing Neutral and Retro themes, giving you three distinct styles to choose from. Each theme is available in both light and dark modes, so you have six total combinations to match your style.

👥 Event Groups: Coordinate with Your Team

Event groups let you organize teams, squads, or friend groups for LAN events. Perfect for tournaments, team-based games, or just coordinating with your friends.

What Are Event Groups?

Event groups are private teams within an event. As a group leader, you can:

• Create a Group: Set up your team with a name and description
• Invite Members: Add teammates by email or username
• Manage Members: Track who's joined, who's invited, and manage roles
• Share Registration Links: Generate special links that let people join your group directly
• Set Limits: Optionally limit group size to match tournament requirements

How It Works

1. Create Your Group: Navigate to an event and click "My Groups" to create a new group
2. Invite Teammates: Add members by email or by searching for registered users
3. Share Links: Generate a registration link to send to teammates
4. Coordinate: See who's joined and manage your team roster

Note: As a group leader, you're automatically added to your group when you create it. You can use your group's registration link to register for the event if needed, but you're already a member of the group.

Perfect For

• Tournament teams
• Friend groups attending together
• Organized gaming squads
• Any group that wants to coordinate registration

🎫 Early Registration: Give VIPs First Access

Early registration links let event organizers give specific people or groups access to registration before it opens to the public. Perfect for VIPs, sponsors, staff, or early bird specials.

What Are Early Registration Links?

Early registration links are special URLs that bypass normal registration timing. When someone uses an early registration link, they can register even if general registration hasn't opened yet.

Features

• Custom Labels: Name your links (e.g., "VIP Access", "Staff Registration", "Early Bird")
• Usage Limits: Set maximum uses per link
• Expiration Dates: Optionally set when links expire
• Group Assignment: Assign links to specific event groups for coordinated team registration
• Usage Tracking: See how many times each link has been used

Group Assignment Workflow

When you assign an early registration link to an event group, you enable a powerful workflow:

1. Assign Link to Group: Create an early registration link and assign it to a specific group
2. Group Leader Registers: The group leader uses the link to register for multiple tickets (one per team member)
3. Assign Tickets: The group leader assigns each ticket to group members
4. Team is Ready: All team members have their tickets assigned and ready to go

This is perfect for tournament organizers who want team leaders to handle registration for their entire team!

How Organizers Use It

1. Create Links: Go to your event's management page and navigate to "Early Registration Links"
2. Configure Settings: Set a label, max uses, and expiration date
3. Share Links: Copy the link and send it to your VIPs, staff, or early bird registrants
4. Track Usage: Monitor how many people have used each link

Perfect For

• VIP attendees
• Event staff and volunteers
• Sponsors and partners
• Early bird promotions
• Testing registration before public launch

How These Features Work Together

These three features complement each other beautifully:

• Neon Theme makes your event pages look amazing, especially for gaming tournaments
• Event Groups help teams coordinate and register together
• Early Registration lets you give groups or individuals priority access

For example, you could:

1. Create an early registration link for tournament teams
2. Share it with team captains who create groups
3. Team members join through group registration links
4. Everyone enjoys the experience with the Neon theme!

Getting Started

For Attendees

• Try the Neon Theme: Click the palette icon in the navigation bar
• Join or Create a Group: Visit an event page and look for "My Groups"
• Use Early Registration Links: If you received one, click it to register early

For Organizers

• Create Early Registration Links: Go to your event management page → "Early Registration Links"
• Manage Groups: View and manage all groups for your event from the event management page
• Customize Your Event: Encourage attendees to try the Neon theme for a gaming aesthetic

Learn More

Want detailed instructions? Check out our help documentation:

• Event Groups Guide for Organizers
• Event Groups Guide for Attendees
• Early Registration Guide

Ready? Set. LAN.