FragSoc goes Big

[Dreaming]

Hey all.

Just to keep everyone informed of FragSoc's plans and stuff, I thought I would make a post here. As some of you know, our Week 8 event this term is to be held in L/N/028. This is for two reasons, mainly because when FragSoc started 4/5 years ago we had about 20 members and now we have ballooned to having around 90 paid up members with 50 or so attending each event. We are outgrowing our current space!

But the other reason is that we are planning to host an inter-uni LAN tournament. We have received YUSU's backing on this and now really the onus is on us to organise it, invite other Universities and make it a success. The logistics will be sorted by myself and the rest of the committee, but we would really like members input on this.

What kind of things would you like to see at a big inter-uni LAN? Do you have any suggestions for how to get the word out to the biggest audience? What other Universities would be interested? Any other feedback or suggestions...? (inb4 shaft says pro evolution soccer)

[Matt]

forums like http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/ maybe a good place to "advertise" our lan party. Also ringing up or email other universitys maybe a good idea, ask YUSU to post about the lan party on there site and in that york univeristy weekly news letter.

one thing ill say is to try get a chatbox on the fragsoc lan site. :]

ill book work off now as i need to use up my hoildays, for this , the 7/8th right?


edit:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=118 maybe useful?

[Dreaming]

I hould make clear that the week 8 event is a practice event for bigger venue - it will still be epic due to us all being in the same room though.

for the interuni lan we would look at getting the physics centre booked =)

[MPJ88]

What about on their facebook pages?

[slugonamission]

I think IRC is still up from the last event...

http://www.mibbit.com/chat/?server=irc.freenode.net&channel=%23fragsoc

[NickCPC]

The bigger the better if we got the Physics centre booked we could have something special going on, although I can't wait to play in Langwith for a change!

Organisation would be key - deciding major tournaments (e.g. CS:S deathmatches, TF2 uni-clan teams, UT3 etc. and publishing proposed maps/rules and importantly times as it is unlikely people from other unis would want to stay overnight i guess, and want to come along for the parts which sound most fun to them), fun tournaments (e.g. fastest GRID lap time on a certain track with a defined car, highest 3DMark06 score, biggest percentage overclock over stock) and sponsorship - see if Corsair would be interested in selling some stuff at the event while providing a few prizes for the major events...

TheStudentRoom would be good for attracting individuals, but I think contacting fellow CompSci & Physics departments or equivalent FragSoc societies at a few unis would be the best way to attract people. Don't like try and get more than about 5 or 6 other unis i'd say...

Be interesting to hear some of the committee's ideas tho

[Dreaming]

We would be able to secure overnight sleeping accomodation for people visiting from other universities. Ideally we would like to attract as many as possible - the more the better. The way I am thinking, we run it as a normal LAN with games etc. and run tournaments through the two days. People would probably arrive late Friday evening to set up their stuff, we would have security and then lock physics up, go away for some kind of Friday evening 'warm up' social (not drinking necessarily lol) and everyone goes off to sleep for a 9am start (or something like that).

Tournaments would be through pre-subscription and could be:

Counter-Strike Source (5v5) - (PC)
StarCraft: Brood War (1v1) - (PC)
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (1v1) - (PC)
FIFA 08 (1v1) - (PC)
Need for Speed: ProStreet (1v1) - (PC)
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (1v1) - (PC)
Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (1v1) - (PC)

Project Gotham Racing 4 (1v1) - (Xbox 360)
Guitar Hero 3 (1v1) - (Xbox 360)
Halo 3 (4v4) - (Xbox 360)
Virtua Fighter 5 (1v1) - (Xbox 360)

That's just ripped off the games list for WCG, mainly because if they're already being done then they're likely a) popular b) doable (I can imagine an epic fail L4D tourney). Of course I don't think we want to use those, but as an initial template it's as good a starting point as any.

The whole thing would be conducted in a more 'professional' manner as we would be under scrutiny not only by our own members but other universities and the last thing we would want is for them to turn around and say we aren't capable enough to pull this off. That's in part why we're doing the L/N/028 event - to raise the profile with the university. Just today I was running around all different departments (who are all getting excited about what we are doing) checking off different check lists, health and safety, you name it.

Also, for the more ambitious amongst you, committee elections are coming up soon, so if this sounds like something you would like to be part of in organising, please do consider running for a position .

[Medium D]

I've got to say this is all extremely exciting, if we could run a couple of events a year with 100+ members in the future that pushes us from amateur into genuine pro levels of LANs, along with the responsibility and reputation that would bring with it. From a corporate point of view too that would be quite something - the first university to break into sponsored professional LAN hosting - very exciting.

[MPJ88]

are we gonna use the projectors in L/N for playing tournaments like we usually do for smash brothers etc?

[NickCPC]

Oh that's something else that MPJ88 has reminded me of - we could get perhaps a room with a few projectors in for spectators to watch what's happening in the main tournaments, or a break for people from their PCs to hang around in.

What do you think would go wrong with L4D Dreaming?!

However, if we could pull this off, this would be excellent for all associated parties.

[slugonamission]

Nothing is wrong with L4D, it's just broken and long-winded for tournaments.

[Dreaming]

[MPJ88]

why no TF2?

[Medium D]

Tf2 goes without saying.

L4D really would suck as a tourny though, the versus mode is long-winded and not suitable for competitive way by its nature.

[FranticFish]

When you say 1v1 KW, you actually mean RA3 yes?

And yeah, L4D is best left as just a game to play, getting competitive over it would just result in "Where the fuck was our taaaaank!!?!?!"

[Dreaming]

[Medium D]

Let's not forget DoW 2! Though by all accounts this mornings beta update ruined what was an original and strategic game, replacing tactics with Carnifex spam.

[slugonamission]

[LKiitma]

I think there definately needs to be some UT3 and TF2 added to that list, I suck at all the other games mentioned!

You should invite Lancaster uni, they have a gaming society now and I'm pretty sure it's something they would be interested in attending.

[glutamate]

You could post about it on specific game forums. Steam forums?