Given that last Respawn we had over 10 teams sign up to the Team Fortress 2 competition, but only 5 teams were able to play due to the competition being delayed because of (among other things) Flatout 2 to a timeslot which it is just impractical for a large number of people to awake at, is there any changes being planned to make it more accommodate for players to play a larger tournament?

im currently stuck on what i can do, last time i scheduled TF2 to start earlier i only had 5 teams sign up (even then i delayed it to get more teams which didnt work )

so either it starts really early on saturday or i schedule it for sunday early morning...

Also, even though I know I will never win the TF2 prize given the team that currently wins it constantly is still competing, but the prize for TF2 has been lowered over the time I have been at the lan because of lack of participation, could this be partially because it is constantly being pushed back?

i dont believe this is the case, when we had the $900 total prize for TF2 @ V15 with comp starting at midnight we got 8 team rego with 6 showup

V16 i lowered the prizepool for TF2 since at that stage we had half the teams to what cod4 and CSS got (think 22 rego for COD4 compared to 8 rego TF2 @ V15)
even though i didnt actually announce the prize money for TF2 for that lan, i advertised it as starting at 9pm (3 hours earlier than normal) and only had 5 team rego and 4 show up, this is after i delayed it back to nmidnight to try and get more teams involved

V17 saw the prize money lowered to $180 with the midnight time slot back in place and we got 15 team rego. so it doesnt make much sense tbh, there doesnt seem to be a pattern except that starting it early like i did with V16 really stopped alot of people competing due to COD4/CSS tournies under way

As I say every time, pushing the competition to Sunday 9 AM is a bad idea - most of us are realistically unable to get a decent, if any, sleep at the venue. In effect, it just becomes an even later competition where we're all zombies.

You're definitely right about the lack of pattern for turnout. It's ironic that we probably had the relatively toughest effort to date getting to the prize last time and the prize turned out to be the lowest

i know

its wierd as, and i dont know what my option's really are here, i move forward 3 hours and get a shit turnout, i keep it at midnight i get a decent turnout but am dead by the end.

maybe moving back to single elim will help a little

What do you think about moving it back a few hours? Start at 10 or 10:30 or something? The trouble with single elim is that some poor team gets steamrolled and then that's it, it may not be that enjoyable for such a team. I believe this can be somewhat mitigated with some seeding (giving the good teams a bye for the first round, if you need help with this, just ask us).

atm starcraft is the only comp on sunday that is actually played. It is supposed to be a 2 day lan, but no comps are run on day 2 because people whinge and bitch about not getting enough sleep. THEN when deadman does his best to fit the comp in on the saturday because he is pressured so much, you all cry that its at whatever time it is.

honestly if u are unhappy with the time your event is scheduled for, dont play. The lan is for everyone, and doesnt revolve around 1 game specifically. So imo suck it up or gtfo

^told


But why not start putting more comps on sunday and encouraging people to stay. I get pretty lonely when the room is empty :S.

Agreed.
I'm sure Deadman has enough shizen to worry about without having to cater to everyone's whim.
Run the comps when they fit in the schedule best then let the players decide how badly they want to play (weeds out the girly-men, IMO).

Guni, you can come be lonely with me on Sunday (but totally in a non-gay way)

Settle down there mate...here we are having a perfectly rational discussion about the best time for TF2 to run in the interest of maximizing participation, and you feel the need to come in here and rant about it like we're throwing some kind of tantrum?

I'm simply trying to keep things in a realistic perspective. Games played by sleepy players have a proportional decrease in quality. It's a fact that most people are zonked on Sunday, and TF2 is supposed to be a major competition.

Guys, just remember that Deadman has to carefully balance the needs of the players VS official stuff we run (like AFK and FUN COMPS) plus everything else we do. And it's like walking on a piece of string carrying a jumbo jet on your back. It's not easy. I'm quite sure he knows not everyone will agree with the decisions made but realistically, it's done for the benefit of you the player and the event as a whole. We can't cater to individual players who want to play in every competition because in the time frame we have, its just not feasible. So please bare that in mind.

I'm happy for the tournament to be at 9AM. Frankly, I'm much more alert around 9am than I am at midnight, cause I usually nap in my car for a few hours between! 12 AM is a much shitter time IMO, no-one is really paying attention to anything then.