FG LAN - View from the Top
Competitive and Casual players, but most importantly CrossFire fans descended on Toronto Canada for a few hours on March 30th 2013 (maaaybe just a bit more than a few, but who was counting right?).
The following is my account from my illustrious position as a Community manager and producer for our version of CrossFire.
My LAN Experience started many months ago when I was approached by Jon from Frost Gaming after WCG about the ideal of running an event in Toronto. Previously we had done a community poll and tossed the idea around of trying to get something organized here, but we were never really sure who would attend and what kind of an event it would be.
It took Jon, and his formed team of Purvis, Chase and Denxi to come up with the idea and roll on the back of some momentum from WCG to make something happen.
I immediately latched on to the idea and started discussing logistics with the team. Denxi was handling rules, Jon was making a website and Purvis started to handle some of the physical aspects. Pretty soon a plan was forming and I was able to go to my company with the idea to garner some support.
Our company takes these things seriously, and wants to see numbers and plans that are created by these third party companies. There is a conflict of interest for me to request money or points or prizes on behalf of a third party (with the exception of the forum events and other community stuff). When we deal with official sponsorship we need to deal with things as a business. Jon was able to create a lofty proposal based on my recommendations and I was able to take it to my executives. From this we got our $500 prize plus Roccat gear for winners. In addition to this, I was able to confirm codes and ZP Prizes for players.
It's at this point that I started to press Purvis to figure out the details in Toronto. We are constantly in patch mode around here, already have a small team, the benefit of the LAN was that it was being organized by someone outside of the office. I was there to consult, but I was pushing Purvis to get his ducks in line. Thankfully this is where Delaco stepped in with a HUGE all star move to get computers for the LAN.
Lastly we needed to cover the casting. Late in the organization it was apparent that we were going to have some conflicts with some casual events happening on our twitch channel. Erick from CFL Stepped up to the plate and brought in a winning staff of casters to help broadcast the event. I want to give a special shoutout to him for his help with that, and also for the frantic pace at which competitive events are coming in April and for his future help with those.
March 28th.
The last day before the weekend. Having printed out some materials and gathered up the ROCCAT gear I was still looking for more things to give away. That's when I noticed we had some extra G4Box Lanyards lying around and some extra CF Stickers. I was able to collect those and get ready to bring them down to the lan. A confirmation on the phone with Purvis that everything was on it's way to Toronto was the last thing that was needed.
March 30th 8:30am.
Wake up. Snooze multiple times. Thankfully I had my laptop and giveaways already packed.
Cab it down to the Radisson for about 9:45. The original plan was to have setup between 8-9, registration between 9-10 and then start the tournament at 10.
As I arrived I noticed things were in chaos. Players were wandering aimlessly around the halls and there was little to no organization. I quickly realized a few things:
I will take a moment here to explain a couple of our initial problems with the game and pc's.
Problem #1
Windows 8, Mumble and CrossFire
There were a ton of problems with Mumbles Overlay, and it was quickly apparent that we were going to have an issue with voice communication. I was actually on the phone with the Korean developers at that time trying to get a solution to the problem, but alas it was 2am for them and they were all asleep.
Problem #2
Mumble and Headsets (steelseries in particular)
Most people forgot how to work the headset settings in Mumble. It was a fairly simple solution. Just go to the settings and chance the input/output device to the correct device. However it was much easier for them to just call Delaco or myself over to troubleshoot this problem for them!
I spent at least a grand total of probably 10% of my time at the LAN changing device settings in mumble. This solved the problem 99.9% of the time. Delaco was able to solve the other problem where people could hear you but you couldn't hear them. I'm sure the solution was just as easy.
I'll lump the mumble problems in here too, it was very apparent that no one was really prepared with their own mumble server. I often wondered throughout the day, what do people use for voice comms normally? And why aren't they using those now?
Thankfully the Windows 7 machines performed perfectly. And we were able to find some mumble servers that worked. And soon enough matches were being played.
2:00pm
In the early part of the day I think people were maybe a little shy about coming up and saying hello. Unfortunately I never really had too much time to address the crowd with a proper thank you and greeting. CrossFire was the priority and we were knee deep in matches. Purvis was rocking out the organization at this point and he was able to do the live casting via the projection screen which worked out amazing. I can't imagine what we would have done without that! The crowds were cheering the great plays, we figured out the lighting system so we could set the mood! That's when I heard the first NICEAH!!
Somehow through all the people there that became the phrase of the day. culminating in a SUPER NICEAH! by the end of the day, you could use it for pretty much anything you wanted, for the pizza, for a sick headshot, for a computer crashing. You had to be there, and it will only mean the most to those who made the trip there!
By late afternoon we were in stride. Our broadcast was picking up 500+ users, a HUGE thanks to Bruce, David, Envsn, Rick, Erick and the CFL crew for broadcasting these matches. We managed to reach a huge number of people throughout the day and it was all done by you. I think you guys all cemented yourselves as must-attend casters for future events and I hope you guys can build on that experience and momentum for future tournaments and leagues with the CFL!
We broke 630 viewers on the main cast, and between the 2 lan channels plus the community broadcast we were easily over 1,000 people watching CF on Saturday. Enough to
----Suddenly the internet went dead.
What?
Oh, someone stepped on an internet hub and pulled all the cords out.
It's ok now, back on track.
With some pizza in people's stomachs and various teams were able to take a walking break and explore the Hotel and surrounding area we were back to the matches. At this point the teams on the loser bracket were getting anxious to fight their way back to the winner circle and the winners bracket was breathing a sigh of relief knowing they can keep going forward.
AEONK were proving to be formidable competitors downing a crowd favorite SprayOPS, eHostage beat out SNSD but lost to the quiet killers of Web Gaming.
Carnage handily moved up to 3-0, Lifeline had received a bye and then had taken down Molson who quickly moved past one of the Casual teams in attendance EscapeArtist.
9:00pm
Our biggest feature matchup of the day started around here. LifeLine vs Carnage.
The crowds at the LAN were really gathered around and intently watching the screen. Carnage did their pre-game group huddle while LifeLine was more about being in the zone and prepping themselves mentally. The match was on.
Right away it looked like this was going to be a cakewalk for Carnage, they were up 2, 3, 4, 5, down 6 LifeLine was on the edge, emotions were running extremely high. Then out of nowhere something clicked on their team, the communication went up the confidence went up, the strategy and execution. And they won 1 match, 2 matches, 3 matches. All the way up to come back from down 6 to tie game!
At this point our Twitch cast was peaking users, we were well over 500 people watching. The excitement in the room was crazy, even a call of a NICEAH! couldn't get many laughs as people were too focused on the action.
The clock for the event was starting to become a concern, with 10+ matches still to go it was already looking like a late day. But what was more concerning was that we might get kicked out of the convention center. Going to a tie was not something I wanted to see, I knew also that we didn't have concrete rules set out for this kind of thing so going to a tie was surely to create controversy.
We decided a 5 round tie breaker was a better option than the full 7 rounds. And at that point we also decided that if they were to tie again we would go to a 1 round sudden death playoff. There was no time to go back and forth and the loser could still play AEONK to get back into the finals.
So a 5 round match it was, during the round one of the LifeLine players monitors went black. This brings us to the next problem
Problem #3
Using your own equipment can be detrimental
Power cables, device drivers, inconsistencies with OS versions all make for varying degrees of uncertainty when it comes to these kinds of things. In the future players should not be bringing their own monitors. The PC's we had were pretty amazing and monitors were not necessary. This could have avoided this problem. But it happened, so back to the match.
What happened here was that there wasn't enough early notice on the drop of the player due to the technical problems. When a player drops we can all see it immediately from the main projection screen. But when there's some sort of monitor problem we didn't see it and part of the round was still played out. This caused a boat load of controversy. It didn't help that this was in a tie game with the rounds being close scores.
In the end it was decided the round would be scrubbed, and the score would remain as it was before the problem and it would be restarted for 1 round with a 5v3 advantage for Carnage. This was as fair as we could make it given the factors that were involved at the time. Could more planning be done for this kind of issue, most definitely. But for what it was this was as fair as we could make it. No matter what Purvis, Delaco or myself decided we could not please both sides. The only other option was to restart the entire match and no one wanted to do that.
Once the match was restarted, Carnage won the tie-break in a still very close match.
LifeLine was off to face AEONK, who by the way didn't even realize they were in the money still!
LATE PM
At this point I lost track of time. Minutes were turning into hours and it seemed every time the tournament was looking like it was going to finish before midnight, it would drag another 30 minutes.
The machines running CrossFire started to show their age, and we had a few more crashes and a couple client errors in game which dragged the tournament on even more.
EVEN LATER PM
AEONK lost to LifeLine in the semis and they decided to forgo their cash prize in favor of a Permanent Item of their choosing. AEONK came out of nowhere in this event, they were definitely exciting to watch and all skilled players.
It was great to meet them and we're happy to oblige their request. We look forward to seeing AEONK in more tournaments in the future!
We were well after midnight when the Finals started, back at it again LifeLine and Carnage. At this point we had to spot teams for connection issues so I spotted Carnage for the first part of the match. At this point I was good luck for stability on all machines. It seemed every time I walked near a machine it would work fine, and every time I stepped away the machine would crash.
Case in point during the finals, I was behind Terrorisms computer when I noticed we had enough spotters for Carnage, I took that opportunity to move back out to the floor to watch the cast on the big screen, also I was setting up prizes to be raffled off for some of the people who were still there crowded around watching the amazing---Terrorism hit his windows 8 key and crashed the game--- DARN! Just when I thought I could get away with it.
So I went back to watching their stuff and then I moved over to LifeLine to spot them for a bit. I also moved off of LifeLine's computer when they had a disconnection!
Unfortunately the final round, while clean and fair had it's fair share of disconnects and a client error. Which brings us to our final problem.
Problem #4
Client Errors
Client errors happen when the code detects some type of anomaly. Be it a disconnection of packets, or a clipping error, or shooting through walls. These errors are designed to kick the person out because something beyond the normal code of the game is happening.
Unfortunately client errors are tuned in such a way that they can be overly sensitive.
This all being said, for the 50-60 halves that were played with the game, there were really only 3-4 client errors that actually AFFECTED the matches. Client errors were not the biggest problem that day by a long shot. And while I'm very critical of the game I work on, and I'm constantly trying to improve the experience for you guys. I was certainly not embarrassed for how well the game played on all these machines.
Congrats CARNAGE
After the match was over and the emotions were expelled, it was hugs and love all around. The players who remained to watch the whole thing were tired, but it was a great chance for me to shake hands with them and talk about the game and how great of a day it was.
In fact for me, it was great to do that throughout the day. Even to the players on Molson who couldn't stay the whole day, or those who had to leave early. Or having a chance to meet Web Gaming, the quiet team who dominated until they decided to head to Niagara Falls to vacation! It was really amazing to be able to meet up with the people that play the game I work on. As someone in my position it's one of the coolest feelings in the world.
Without the players and teams who showed up to this event we wouldn't be looking to the future with bright ideas and new experience and the possibility of running future events, online or offline, for money or points. The idea of gathering any number of people together in order to play CrossFire competitively is truly an amazing goal and one we are still striving for.
So with that, we packed up the computers and by about 3:45 I took my leave. It was about 4:30 by the time I got home and I was exhausted, my feet hurt and I barely had a voice left. But it was one of the best CrossFire experiences I've had to this day.
I will take a moment to give a few shoutouts to some teams on highlights that I remember.
It was very clear from the outset that we needed more staff and more logistical information. We learned a ton from this event, but without Purvis and Delaco this event wouldn't have even happened. The two of them single-handedly made this event happen. I was just the pretty (or ugly more like it) face of the event. I tried to help where I could, but these two guys were the kings. They kept the teams in check, they kept the broadcasters informed, they kept the computers running. I just brought some Pizza and a Ban Hammer. You guys brought everything else!
I really hope that this LAN brings a new sense of respect and camaraderie to the people of this community, especially the competitive side of things. We deal with a lot of crap around here, but everyone showed maturity, respect and the ability to have a good time. Lets keep that going and keep the positivity and competition in tact as we do more events.
Coming up:
If you want to run your own event, be sure to build the momentum, do it right like FG did with this LAN, learn from this event. Create the proposal, come to us for support, we're here to work together as a group to keep this competition going!
Thanks all for reading! I'll be posting some pictures on our CF Facebook this week. And we'll also be linking to the youtube video matches as well.
The following is my account from my illustrious position as a Community manager and producer for our version of CrossFire.
My LAN Experience started many months ago when I was approached by Jon from Frost Gaming after WCG about the ideal of running an event in Toronto. Previously we had done a community poll and tossed the idea around of trying to get something organized here, but we were never really sure who would attend and what kind of an event it would be.
It took Jon, and his formed team of Purvis, Chase and Denxi to come up with the idea and roll on the back of some momentum from WCG to make something happen.
I immediately latched on to the idea and started discussing logistics with the team. Denxi was handling rules, Jon was making a website and Purvis started to handle some of the physical aspects. Pretty soon a plan was forming and I was able to go to my company with the idea to garner some support.
Our company takes these things seriously, and wants to see numbers and plans that are created by these third party companies. There is a conflict of interest for me to request money or points or prizes on behalf of a third party (with the exception of the forum events and other community stuff). When we deal with official sponsorship we need to deal with things as a business. Jon was able to create a lofty proposal based on my recommendations and I was able to take it to my executives. From this we got our $500 prize plus Roccat gear for winners. In addition to this, I was able to confirm codes and ZP Prizes for players.
It's at this point that I started to press Purvis to figure out the details in Toronto. We are constantly in patch mode around here, already have a small team, the benefit of the LAN was that it was being organized by someone outside of the office. I was there to consult, but I was pushing Purvis to get his ducks in line. Thankfully this is where Delaco stepped in with a HUGE all star move to get computers for the LAN.
Lastly we needed to cover the casting. Late in the organization it was apparent that we were going to have some conflicts with some casual events happening on our twitch channel. Erick from CFL Stepped up to the plate and brought in a winning staff of casters to help broadcast the event. I want to give a special shoutout to him for his help with that, and also for the frantic pace at which competitive events are coming in April and for his future help with those.
March 28th.
The last day before the weekend. Having printed out some materials and gathered up the ROCCAT gear I was still looking for more things to give away. That's when I noticed we had some extra G4Box Lanyards lying around and some extra CF Stickers. I was able to collect those and get ready to bring them down to the lan. A confirmation on the phone with Purvis that everything was on it's way to Toronto was the last thing that was needed.
March 30th 8:30am.
Wake up. Snooze multiple times. Thankfully I had my laptop and giveaways already packed.
Cab it down to the Radisson for about 9:45. The original plan was to have setup between 8-9, registration between 9-10 and then start the tournament at 10.
As I arrived I noticed things were in chaos. Players were wandering aimlessly around the halls and there was little to no organization. I quickly realized a few things:
- My help was required
- Delaco is a PC setup machine
- Everyone was anxious to play!
I will take a moment here to explain a couple of our initial problems with the game and pc's.
Problem #1
Windows 8, Mumble and CrossFire
There were a ton of problems with Mumbles Overlay, and it was quickly apparent that we were going to have an issue with voice communication. I was actually on the phone with the Korean developers at that time trying to get a solution to the problem, but alas it was 2am for them and they were all asleep.
Side note: We have been in communication with them, and X-Trap and the devs recognize a compatibility issue with Teamspeak and Mumble and CF. Note that they did not find any issues with ventrilo.
Once we turned off overlays things seemed to be a bit better as long as the players didn't open up second instances of mumble. Mumble was having issues saving settings, so the constant plugging and unplugging of headsets was an annoyance for everyone. This brings us to...Problem #2
Mumble and Headsets (steelseries in particular)
Most people forgot how to work the headset settings in Mumble. It was a fairly simple solution. Just go to the settings and chance the input/output device to the correct device. However it was much easier for them to just call Delaco or myself over to troubleshoot this problem for them!
I spent at least a grand total of probably 10% of my time at the LAN changing device settings in mumble. This solved the problem 99.9% of the time. Delaco was able to solve the other problem where people could hear you but you couldn't hear them. I'm sure the solution was just as easy.
I'll lump the mumble problems in here too, it was very apparent that no one was really prepared with their own mumble server. I often wondered throughout the day, what do people use for voice comms normally? And why aren't they using those now?
Thankfully the Windows 7 machines performed perfectly. And we were able to find some mumble servers that worked. And soon enough matches were being played.
2:00pm
In the early part of the day I think people were maybe a little shy about coming up and saying hello. Unfortunately I never really had too much time to address the crowd with a proper thank you and greeting. CrossFire was the priority and we were knee deep in matches. Purvis was rocking out the organization at this point and he was able to do the live casting via the projection screen which worked out amazing. I can't imagine what we would have done without that! The crowds were cheering the great plays, we figured out the lighting system so we could set the mood! That's when I heard the first NICEAH!!
Somehow through all the people there that became the phrase of the day. culminating in a SUPER NICEAH! by the end of the day, you could use it for pretty much anything you wanted, for the pizza, for a sick headshot, for a computer crashing. You had to be there, and it will only mean the most to those who made the trip there!
By late afternoon we were in stride. Our broadcast was picking up 500+ users, a HUGE thanks to Bruce, David, Envsn, Rick, Erick and the CFL crew for broadcasting these matches. We managed to reach a huge number of people throughout the day and it was all done by you. I think you guys all cemented yourselves as must-attend casters for future events and I hope you guys can build on that experience and momentum for future tournaments and leagues with the CFL!
We broke 630 viewers on the main cast, and between the 2 lan channels plus the community broadcast we were easily over 1,000 people watching CF on Saturday. Enough to
----Suddenly the internet went dead.
What?
Oh, someone stepped on an internet hub and pulled all the cords out.
It's ok now, back on track.
With some pizza in people's stomachs and various teams were able to take a walking break and explore the Hotel and surrounding area we were back to the matches. At this point the teams on the loser bracket were getting anxious to fight their way back to the winner circle and the winners bracket was breathing a sigh of relief knowing they can keep going forward.
AEONK were proving to be formidable competitors downing a crowd favorite SprayOPS, eHostage beat out SNSD but lost to the quiet killers of Web Gaming.
Carnage handily moved up to 3-0, Lifeline had received a bye and then had taken down Molson who quickly moved past one of the Casual teams in attendance EscapeArtist.
9:00pm
Our biggest feature matchup of the day started around here. LifeLine vs Carnage.
The crowds at the LAN were really gathered around and intently watching the screen. Carnage did their pre-game group huddle while LifeLine was more about being in the zone and prepping themselves mentally. The match was on.
Right away it looked like this was going to be a cakewalk for Carnage, they were up 2, 3, 4, 5, down 6 LifeLine was on the edge, emotions were running extremely high. Then out of nowhere something clicked on their team, the communication went up the confidence went up, the strategy and execution. And they won 1 match, 2 matches, 3 matches. All the way up to come back from down 6 to tie game!
At this point our Twitch cast was peaking users, we were well over 500 people watching. The excitement in the room was crazy, even a call of a NICEAH! couldn't get many laughs as people were too focused on the action.
The clock for the event was starting to become a concern, with 10+ matches still to go it was already looking like a late day. But what was more concerning was that we might get kicked out of the convention center. Going to a tie was not something I wanted to see, I knew also that we didn't have concrete rules set out for this kind of thing so going to a tie was surely to create controversy.
We decided a 5 round tie breaker was a better option than the full 7 rounds. And at that point we also decided that if they were to tie again we would go to a 1 round sudden death playoff. There was no time to go back and forth and the loser could still play AEONK to get back into the finals.
So a 5 round match it was, during the round one of the LifeLine players monitors went black. This brings us to the next problem
Problem #3
Using your own equipment can be detrimental
Power cables, device drivers, inconsistencies with OS versions all make for varying degrees of uncertainty when it comes to these kinds of things. In the future players should not be bringing their own monitors. The PC's we had were pretty amazing and monitors were not necessary. This could have avoided this problem. But it happened, so back to the match.
What happened here was that there wasn't enough early notice on the drop of the player due to the technical problems. When a player drops we can all see it immediately from the main projection screen. But when there's some sort of monitor problem we didn't see it and part of the round was still played out. This caused a boat load of controversy. It didn't help that this was in a tie game with the rounds being close scores.
In the end it was decided the round would be scrubbed, and the score would remain as it was before the problem and it would be restarted for 1 round with a 5v3 advantage for Carnage. This was as fair as we could make it given the factors that were involved at the time. Could more planning be done for this kind of issue, most definitely. But for what it was this was as fair as we could make it. No matter what Purvis, Delaco or myself decided we could not please both sides. The only other option was to restart the entire match and no one wanted to do that.
Once the match was restarted, Carnage won the tie-break in a still very close match.
LifeLine was off to face AEONK, who by the way didn't even realize they were in the money still!
LATE PM
At this point I lost track of time. Minutes were turning into hours and it seemed every time the tournament was looking like it was going to finish before midnight, it would drag another 30 minutes.
The machines running CrossFire started to show their age, and we had a few more crashes and a couple client errors in game which dragged the tournament on even more.
EVEN LATER PM
AEONK lost to LifeLine in the semis and they decided to forgo their cash prize in favor of a Permanent Item of their choosing. AEONK came out of nowhere in this event, they were definitely exciting to watch and all skilled players.
It was great to meet them and we're happy to oblige their request. We look forward to seeing AEONK in more tournaments in the future!
We were well after midnight when the Finals started, back at it again LifeLine and Carnage. At this point we had to spot teams for connection issues so I spotted Carnage for the first part of the match. At this point I was good luck for stability on all machines. It seemed every time I walked near a machine it would work fine, and every time I stepped away the machine would crash.
Case in point during the finals, I was behind Terrorisms computer when I noticed we had enough spotters for Carnage, I took that opportunity to move back out to the floor to watch the cast on the big screen, also I was setting up prizes to be raffled off for some of the people who were still there crowded around watching the amazing---Terrorism hit his windows 8 key and crashed the game--- DARN! Just when I thought I could get away with it.
So I went back to watching their stuff and then I moved over to LifeLine to spot them for a bit. I also moved off of LifeLine's computer when they had a disconnection!
Unfortunately the final round, while clean and fair had it's fair share of disconnects and a client error. Which brings us to our final problem.
Problem #4
Client Errors
Client errors happen when the code detects some type of anomaly. Be it a disconnection of packets, or a clipping error, or shooting through walls. These errors are designed to kick the person out because something beyond the normal code of the game is happening.
Unfortunately client errors are tuned in such a way that they can be overly sensitive.
This all being said, for the 50-60 halves that were played with the game, there were really only 3-4 client errors that actually AFFECTED the matches. Client errors were not the biggest problem that day by a long shot. And while I'm very critical of the game I work on, and I'm constantly trying to improve the experience for you guys. I was certainly not embarrassed for how well the game played on all these machines.
Congrats CARNAGE
After the match was over and the emotions were expelled, it was hugs and love all around. The players who remained to watch the whole thing were tired, but it was a great chance for me to shake hands with them and talk about the game and how great of a day it was.
In fact for me, it was great to do that throughout the day. Even to the players on Molson who couldn't stay the whole day, or those who had to leave early. Or having a chance to meet Web Gaming, the quiet team who dominated until they decided to head to Niagara Falls to vacation! It was really amazing to be able to meet up with the people that play the game I work on. As someone in my position it's one of the coolest feelings in the world.
Without the players and teams who showed up to this event we wouldn't be looking to the future with bright ideas and new experience and the possibility of running future events, online or offline, for money or points. The idea of gathering any number of people together in order to play CrossFire competitively is truly an amazing goal and one we are still striving for.
So with that, we packed up the computers and by about 3:45 I took my leave. It was about 4:30 by the time I got home and I was exhausted, my feet hurt and I barely had a voice left. But it was one of the best CrossFire experiences I've had to this day.
I will take a moment to give a few shoutouts to some teams on highlights that I remember.
eHostage, you guys are all forum regulars so I knew your names well! Don't troll my forums and you won't be banned!!! It was great to meet you.
Carnage, it was nice to finally meet you guys and see you play live. You're some of the best people to play the game and true ambassadors of the game.
It is always nice to see LifeLine as I have history dating back 2+ years with those guys. I'm glad they represented the original crew and were able to take second place.
It was amazing to see SNSD come in from Quebec, it was nice to meet them and they are great competitors.
I got to shake some hands from Molson and all of them seemed like very respectable players, I'm hoping they can continue their experience in future tournaments and leagues!
And to EscapeArtists, our Casual Team who came to compete and take in the tournament and who stayed to the end to watch the final match.
To everyone else who I had the chance of saying hello to and meet. Thanks for coming up and saying Hi. I love to meet all the players who play, so don't be shy if you see me! It was great to have so many people support CF this weekend.
Thanks to everyone who was able to make this LAN Party. I'm really looking forward to showing my company the results of this, and hopefully there can be a push to help support events like these in the future.It is always nice to see LifeLine as I have history dating back 2+ years with those guys. I'm glad they represented the original crew and were able to take second place.
It was amazing to see SNSD come in from Quebec, it was nice to meet them and they are great competitors.
I got to shake some hands from Molson and all of them seemed like very respectable players, I'm hoping they can continue their experience in future tournaments and leagues!
And to EscapeArtists, our Casual Team who came to compete and take in the tournament and who stayed to the end to watch the final match.
To everyone else who I had the chance of saying hello to and meet. Thanks for coming up and saying Hi. I love to meet all the players who play, so don't be shy if you see me! It was great to have so many people support CF this weekend.
It was very clear from the outset that we needed more staff and more logistical information. We learned a ton from this event, but without Purvis and Delaco this event wouldn't have even happened. The two of them single-handedly made this event happen. I was just the pretty (or ugly more like it) face of the event. I tried to help where I could, but these two guys were the kings. They kept the teams in check, they kept the broadcasters informed, they kept the computers running. I just brought some Pizza and a Ban Hammer. You guys brought everything else!
I really hope that this LAN brings a new sense of respect and camaraderie to the people of this community, especially the competitive side of things. We deal with a lot of crap around here, but everyone showed maturity, respect and the ability to have a good time. Lets keep that going and keep the positivity and competition in tact as we do more events.
Coming up:
- CFL Finals (soon)
- Invite Tournament team announcement
- Invite Tournament (April 15 - 21)
- 4 Team Playoff (April 21 - 26)
- CF Global League (June 1-2)
- And more???
If you want to run your own event, be sure to build the momentum, do it right like FG did with this LAN, learn from this event. Create the proposal, come to us for support, we're here to work together as a group to keep this competition going!
Thanks all for reading! I'll be posting some pictures on our CF Facebook this week. And we'll also be linking to the youtube video matches as well.
Comments
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Definitely the best post from anyone on the forums in a loooooong time now.
NICEAH!! Seems like our own Saidin had a wonderful experience at LAN.
It was great seeing all the matches broadcasted. Without the casters, you (Saidin) and the rest of the team, and the participants, nothing would have happened. Hopefully, more of these events to come in the future! -
Great read, glad everyone had fun.
I'd like to put a few thanks out;
-Christian/GM-Saidin (for helping out with everything A-Z and being awesome!)
-JPurvis (for helping organize and being the main reason this event happened)
-Delaco (for providing equipment and being a huge help)
-Erick (for casting the entire time! and liking mangos)
-Lionheart (for being a troll)
Big thanks to all of the other casters as well, excellent job!
I'll be announcing some more changes soon with FrostGaming soon and streaming stuff with more giveaways on our FG twitch channel.
Stay tuned, thanks again to everyone who watched/played and helped! -
I was the first person who yelled nicea and kept saying it. It was fun and exhausting by the end of the night my team and I were drained and just wanted to sleep. It was fun meeting people including Delaco, Purvis, zzxq and saidan. I was glad i finally met Ray and Sweep from trio my former teammates and the web gaming guys. Hopefully there will be another LAN in the near future and even more people can come!
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Looks good Saidin! Despite me being unable to attend and support everyone due to my situation at home, glad everyone had fun and that our idea came to life. Four months ago, this LAN was an idea on my notepad that I showed Jon - with that Saidin and JPurvis came into the picture and created the actual thing.
Big shoutout to Purvis for his long dedication for the event.
![[LobsterMts]](https://forum.z8games.com/uploads/customavatars/57/navatar_5413357.gif){kind=avatar}
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