Some updates:
1) Sponsor and I couldn't come to an agreement. They were hoping/expecting me to draw in a crowd much bigger than I could pull (hundreds). It's w.e, moving on.
2) I've been talking back and forth with a group of FLan alumni whom I've liken to call "the custard council" about doing the next FLan a bit differently. Currently I'm leaning towards the idea of having a big chunk of the tournament online and having the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals done at the LAN venue. I'm hoping this would attract more players. Just to throw a number out there, if we can get a full 16 teams to sign up that would bring the winning team a prize of no less than 400 per player (it's actually closer to 500 but I want to toss the second place folks some prize money as well).
And in case you're wondering how I got that number: 16 teams * 9 players - 360 that goes to venue + my 500 contribution for being a G / 9 players = 495.55
and then subtract a smallish sum from that to cover second place prize.
Another big plus about having a big chunk of the tourney held online is that it saves us time at the venue. Having those quarterfinal and after matches will take probably as long as the last FLan took (even with all the network and config problems worked out, which they have been), so this would save us from having to run a multiday event.
3) Since there is no sponsor there is no longer a need to run a multigame event, however, I would still be open to organizing a cs:go event in the second half of 2015 if there is an interest. If that doesn't pan out I'm more than happy to organize a 3rd flan event which will be dubbed FLan 3: Full Diabetes
4) The venue cannot afford buying 18 sparkling new 120hz monitors. I thought about doing a fundraiser to get em some new gear but that would be asking way too much from the community. I did think of an alternative though that I still have yet to bring up to the venue owner so don't take this as a final word.
I saw GXL had a nice little "Pay a bit extra to be able to use a 120+hz monitor" feature. Doing this would allow the venue and I to raise a more realistic amount of money to bring in say 4-6 monitors. And then all the money used from players paying extra would go to either the prize pool or to the venue for more gear. Hopefully I'll have more on this soon.
5) While speaking with the Custard Council a concern was brought up in regards to doing the event online then at lan. What if invite players stack a team?
Would that discourage other players from wanting to join? Would that just cause a bunch of invites to meet up at FLan to have an epic battle? I want to hear the communities thoughts on this. Should they be allowed to play at all? If allowed to play should there be restrictions on the amount of invites a team could have? What should that limit be? UGC has some decent limitation rules, should we make some based around those? I personally don't like the idea of disqualifying players just because they are OP, but I am not against setting a limit to how many can roster on a single team.
Please, tell me your thoughts and don't be afraid to voice your opinions. This is an event by the tryhards, for the tryhards.
-Miggy