Lan Annalysis - CoD4 comp etc, Just a bit of a debate/info thread on CG Options

[denied]

Have a read, very interesting in how Respawn could attract more players to their main competitions for TF2, CSS, CoD4.

Thread: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread...espawn-LAN-v22/

Posts in which you should observe mostly: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread/p4861125#4861125
and: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread/p4861261#4861261
and also: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread/p4861741#4861741


Have a read, as CoD has been on a steady rise of competition and teams for the past 2 years now, could be worth while investing.

Enjoy :>
www.mindfreak-esports.com

[Zantikk]

I support this.

With better prizes the amount teams will most definitely grow.

Even with the current prizes the cod4 comp attracts around 12 teams (on average 4 competitive + 8 casual teams).

At the moment the rest of the AusCOD community can't justify coming down to a BYOC comp (with $35 entry) to win 5x $50 headsets.

Have a look @ SGL Lan in Sydney. They manage to get the right sponsors to be able to give away 5x $250 graphic cards for their 1st prize cod4 comp.

Honestly, with better prizes the community will start taking this seriously and could possibly see 8+ competitive teams coming down to play.

[aNx]

i support this thread.

[KripsOne]

I support this aswell

Last respawns prizes for cod 4 were a joke.

[kinkz]

I also support this thread.

[hektik]

I support this thread.

[synic]

I support this thread.

[Trolik]

I support this thread.

[Jen]

Have a read, very interesting in how Respawn could attract more players to their main competitions for TF2, CSS, CoD4.

Thread: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread...espawn-LAN-v22/

Posts in which you should observe mostly: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread/p4861125#4861125
and: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread/p4861261#4861261
and also: http://www.cybergamer.com.au/forums/thread/p4861741#4861741


Have a read, as CoD has been on a steady rise of competition and teams for the past 2 years now, could be worth while investing.

Enjoy :>
www.mindfreak-esports.com

The average price point for entry at other lans has been around the $30 mark. We're only at $35 so that we can continue to pay our rising expenses. Cutting that price would mean a service that rivals the current Melbourne Public transport system (****house) and nobody wants that!

$3800 (as you updated) is unsustainable per game based on your maths in your thread that you started on Cybergamer.
There are costs beyond the venue that you have not even considered in your post:

Cost of maintaining our power network (which I'm sure you'd agree is exceptionally robust thanks to Miniwalks and his team keeping it in top condition)
Cost of replacing items that get damaged/go missing etc (such as power boards, damaged fibre, damaged network cable, "borrowed network cables")
Cost of hire equipment (Tables/Networking Gear/Fridges/BBQ/Projector etc)
Cost of the venue hire and public liability insurance.
Upfront cost of food/drinks to sell to you guys throughout the event (any profit made on this gets funnelled back into the above)
Ongoing cost for the website.
Cost of maintaining the servers your games are hosted on and ensuring any software we use is license compliant.
The Free Midnight BBQ

So if we sacrifice all the stuff we do, such as repairs, buying new equipment, replacing old equipment, selling luke warm drinks and no food. Then sure we can move the budget to better prizes but we work with the money we have. We have and will remain a NON PROFIT event. No single admin/team leader/gopher profits from the event in any way. Infact the only thing the admins get is a free entry.

Please understand that there is more on the backend than just paying for the venue. I hope this gives you a bit more perspective and puts a more balanced part to this concern rather than "Respawn are being cheap and giving crap prizes" as many of your fellow gamers. We take this feedback very seriously and I've already shot an email to the admin group to see if there is any movement we can do from our current point to improve it to a point you guys are posting happy thoughts not sad thoughts.

Cheers

[Phazeuleh]

There's free bbq at midnight what????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

[SirSquidness]

I support it too! The entire admin team would LOVE to give out thousands upon thousands of dollars in prizes.

However, a few things to note:

- Both price rises to the Respawn entry fee were because not raising prices was not viable.
- The costs of running Respawn are significantly more than the $3000 estimated in the thread.
- We don't pick the prizes sponsors give us. We fight for what we get already - we only got the prizes for CSS that we were promised last week. We run too often for it to be viable for sponsors to drop a few thousand dollars each on our event.
- Every single dollar that Respawn recevies goes to Respawn. Not a single cent of the entry fees goes to anything other than Respawn.

Have a look @ SGL Lan in Sydney. They manage to get the right sponsors to be able to give away 5x $250 graphic cards for their 1st prize cod4 comp.

The SGL business model is far from profitable and we're not going down that path. They also have connections we don't.

[Burnouts]

bring back cash prizes at least.

[*666*]

but im sure they would be able to contribute some osrt of cash prize with the products that get supplied for 1st and 2nd prizes.

like team skill of teams that are now going to Respawn is amazing compared to when i first attended a Respawn and half they player that do keep coming back a 8X + Respawners, so why not give back a little to the loyal community that does support Respawn and the CoD4 comp

[SirSquidness]

but im sure they would be able to contribute some osrt of cash prize with the products that get supplied for 1st and 2nd prizes.

You overestimate the budget size of sponsors for an event as small as Respawn.

[Jen]

There's free bbq at midnight what????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Yeah, we've done it for as long as I've been there!!

Surely you've seen the stampede at midnight before poker? (don't get it confused for the redbull girl stampede of 2010)

[denied]

Well, there's 3 games in which competitively major for Respawn.. Cod4 (the most popular @ respawn), CSS, TF2.

We once had an influx of cash prizes,(which was a nice $500 for first place) we had more sustainable teams when we had the prize flow. Since then you have lost loyal members of the community stop coming because of the prizes in which are supplied today.

Sponsors give you prizes to hand out for competitions, I actually don't know where the $500 + $250 prizes went to?

Would be happy with something like..
1st Place: $500 + 5 Tt eSports products
2nd Place: 5 Tt eSports products.

The competitive CoD4 teams would love it if the money they payed to enter would go into some sort of a prize pot. Even if you only took.. say.. 15-20 $ from the original $35 payed for entry.

[aNx]

I just dont understand how the first respawn I went to cash prize was $500, and now the entry fee is more.. and the prize is less.

It's quite confusing. Without the players the even would be nothing - clearly. Yet, where is the incentives for competitive gamers to come or even the casual gamer? Leeching alone is not worth the $35 ticket.

[Zantikk]

I just dont understand how the first respawn I went to cash prize was $500, and now the entry fee is more.. and the prize is less.

It's quite confusing. Without the players the even would be nothing - clearly. Yet, where is the incentives for competitive gamers to come or even the casual gamer? Leeching alone is not worth the $35 ticket.

I remember for 1 or 2 Respawns it went up to $750 then went back down...

[Phazeuleh]

There's free bbq at midnight what????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Yeah, we've done it for as long as I've been there!!

Surely you've seen the stampede at midnight before poker? (don't get it confused for the redbull girl stampede of 2010)

:[[[[ cod4 usually doesn't finish till 4am maybe that's why I miss it ((

[priorax]

I feel like reading that linked CyberGamer post that some of the general concencus is that, and please correct me if I am wrong, but you feel that re-introducing a cash prize for CoD4 will cause more competitive players to want to come.

My argument against this is one of, if you do it for one competition, you have to do it for all of them, largely because if say you gave CoD the prize what was suggested above of $500 + 5 TTesports products, that's $100 a player + a $60 keyboard (for example) each. Then again for CS:S and then prizes for comps such as TF2, Flatout 2, Quake 3, GRID, etc.

I personally feel that if we introduced a cash prize it would also detract from one of the things that I personally love about Respawn, it's a chance for casual gamers (such as myself) to play games in a competitive setting against players who they normally wouldn't play against, however if we were to get a sudden influx of competitive or even sponsored teams in, I happen to feel like there is a chance that this section of our community may become intimidated and not enter the competitions.

While I agree that it is a good concept, I personally do not feel it to be one that can be easily justified.

[Tibor]

Personally i prefer to have no pro teams at respawn. With anymore than there is now 3/4 of the LAN would dissapear after the comp is over. Respawn is good because of the casual gamers. Its nice to be able to give a shout out to ppl that your playing game "x" and have some ppl join as opposed to saying no i only play COD.

Early respawns had cash prizes for comps yes, but they also had constant power and network issues. The cash prizes have given away to rock solid power and network. Also the FPS comps still have prizes, unlike many of the comps they used to have(dota for example). Think yourself lucky there is a prize at all or even a comp.

Another idea is if you want better prizes why dont you contact the admins and see if you can help. You talk to companies and get better prizes. Or is that to much of an effort for you? Remember that all of the admins and there lackys dont get paid.

If you dont like respawn dont come, it leaves more room for those who come and enjoy the experience.

[DArenberg]

I'm for better prizes, for everyone!

I'm afraid the technical, logistical and socio-demographic knowledge shown in the Cyber Gamer thread of running a live event with over 400 participants is obviously lacking and so is the usual standard of debate.

COD as all games that has come before and after; will die out, I do not understand the troll mentality of self proclaimed Pro gamers.

Lets just put another "Respawn COD Championship" win down so you can claim another free mouse mat and chalk another top 3 win for your yearly sponsorship quota.

In the words of Razer;

"eSports has come a long way. But sadly not sponsorships. All too often, amid the josting and hankering for scarce sponsorship resources, are emerging talents left to languish by the wayside, with a token product on one hand and broken promises on the other. "

[Queen Gainer]

Why are all the CoD4 players focused on prizes only? They don't go for fun.


Pretty shit imo.

[Jen]

Surely you come for the atmosphere, the gaming and the comradery right? (I'm pretty sure I spelt one word wrong).

[Glasseater]

Yeah i want more money i think there should be a comp where they just give me all the money from the door also i want a pony.

[beeslol]

Yeah i want more money i think there should be a comp where they just give me all the money from the door also i want a pony.

I'm sure we could rustle up a pony for you, probably between two slices of bread.

[Zardoz]

I just dont understand how the first respawn I went to cash prize was $500, and now the entry fee is more.. and the prize is less.

It's quite confusing. Without the players the even would be nothing - clearly. Yet, where is the incentives for competitive gamers to come or even the casual gamer? Leeching alone is not worth the $35 ticket.

Here's a secret - at the time, this wasn't profitable. We were losing money out of this model. Any event that loses money is not sustainable. We had to make some very snap decisions and cut down on these - yes, there was a bit of tension within the team when we made these changes but if we didn't, we wouldn't still be here.

We did this because, well, people like to win more! It's pretty obvious. We gave it a shot, it didn't work out.

We'd still sell out even if we didn't run a COD4 competition. We'll still continue to do this, as long as the community treats us with the respect we deserve and we see value in supporting this community - that's what it's about. Not paying the same teams to win over and over again.

We'd like to run some pro-oriented events in smaller venues, specifically catering to these particular communities. We just haven't figured out the best way to do this and to solve some of our big problems that prevent us from doing so (eg, fast Internet access and steam auth that will work). Once we've overcome these challenges, we'll be sure to put something on the table that you guys will love.

[DArenberg]

Zardoz and everyone else that is involved from the admin team to the gophers,

As with everything in the world there will always be a minority of self evaluated hard done by oppressed people who believe they rightfully deserve society to sustain there existence.

Do not let these people take away from the support and gratitude of the mass majority who respect and value the efforts of a volunteer non profit organisation who's selflessness has shown very few boundaries.

Yes this is a shameless Pro Respawn post, but once in a while it is needed to be said .

Congratulations and thank you.

Edit: grammer

[Cheb-]

OH I'M SO SORRY WE'RE NOT DREAMHACK (((((((((((((((((((((

[Alioth]

I believe there should be cash prizes for Minesweeper. I'm totally pro and deserve the fat cash. This one time, I cleared it in one click! What's up now, n00bs?! Stop hatin'.

On a more serious note, while I don't condone more srs bsnss comp players at Respawn, killing the atmosphere, if they believe they're good enough to deserve a cash prize, they can pay a $100 premium 'pro' entry fee with the excess cash going to their prize.
I can hear the cries now...
"That's absurd! You can't expect us to take any risk for a greater reward. We want our shit for free!"

I fully support any extra dosh going back into the maintenance of the LAN. You guys do a crazy good job and I'd hate to see it collapse just to please a few people.

[beeslol]

I think Alioth kinda has a point.

If these comp teams want big prizes, then they should be willing for a buy in.
If they're as good as they think they are, then they should be willing to put their money where their mouth is.

[Rangers]

I think Alioth kinda has a point.

If these comp teams want big prizes, then they should be willing for a buy in.
If they're as good as they think they are, then they should be willing to put their money where their mouth is.

'Nuff said.

[Worthless]

Are we really talking about the possibility of attracting more arrogant "pro" gamers to the event who contribute nothing, are loud, obnoxious and rude to anyone who is not a "pro". No. Just no. Hell no.

It was worse enough having the pros ruin our good time the event before the last. I don't want to have to put up with that again.