In France 2015 will be the year of eSport. That's right ladies and gentlemen, DreamHack is coming to cheese land, but don't count Futurolan's Gamers Assembly out!
It is still the biggest BYOC tournament in France from its humble beginnings in 2000 with one hundred players to 2014 and thirteen times that player count spread over 8000 m² of hot computers and animations. Futurolan has managed to fill out the newly built Poitiers Convention Center.
GA 2015 Futurolan will be even bigger again. During GA 2014 the players were parked inside hall A while hall B was hosting the scene and the animations for the visitors. This time a new zone which features a huge theater will host the finals, the sponsors and all the animations aimed at the visitors.
So far the scheduled tournaments are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Battlefield 4, Shootmania Battle & Siege, Shootmania Elite, Trackmania Stadium, Trackmania Dirt, Trackmania Canyon & Valley, Hearthstone, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, FIFA 2015... and Team Fortress 2 :)
TF2's in, baby!
As you might expect, the precise number of slots for each tournament will depend on the attendance. So far Team Fortress 2 has 8 guaranteed slots and it's up to you to make it bigger!
You can sign up here, but don't forget to check out ETF2L's topic as well if you plan to go!
Alternatively, you can access the associated etf2l topic here.
Practical Stuff (because that's important too)
When?
Saturday April 4th to Monday 6th -- the place welcomes players starting Friday 3th at 18:00CET.
Where?
How much?
- €50 per player
- €15 for a manager pass (limited to one per team)
- €15 for monitor rental (19" ASUS 60 Hz VGA input)
- As a visitor, it will cost you €2 per day or €5 for 3 days. To have access to the players halls you'll have to pay €10 for 3 days.
Where to sleep?
Hotels in Poitiers are around 40€ / 2 nights. Sleeping on the site was possible last year, but is yet to be confirmed.
What's to win?
It depends on the attendance. Last year the total prize pot was of €1350 with 9 registered teams. 50% of the fees are used for the prize money.
Why should I come?
- Frenchies are actually way nicer in real life than on the internet -- I swear ;)
- It's also cheaper than i-Series and almost as big nowadays.
- You play way more matches in french LANs (last GA'lloween each team played 11 maps minimum over 2 days).
- Usually the tournament is split in 2 or 3 phases, the first one being used to draft skill groups for the next ones which guarantees you fun and balanced matches.