If we are truly serious about this, we need more than a poll, we need a couple people to make some phone calls and inquire about things like venue rental, hotel costs, travel costs, then provide some numbers on what an event would cost, what sponsor leverage we would be able to use and what the estimated cost for attendance would be. A poll now would just be "which location is closest/easiest to get to for me"

A cost analysis needs to take into account venue rental, hardware rental (about 1.5 ethernet cables per person is usually adequate to account for broken cords, switch to switch data etc) including chairs, tables, cables, switches, projectors, sound equipment etc. as well as labour fees for security/custodial staffing.

A per person analysis needs to take into account cost of travel from the major urban centers in the US for flights, and average gas prices/mileage for people driving, hotel cost for the hotel nearest potential venue, price for transportation from airport to venue and the expected ticket cost when taking into account all of the event cost analysis, plus prize money, plus a little extra to account for the inevitable cost overruns associated with running an event like this.

A poll will not be sufficient until we have this information for all of the proposed sites which are, so far, LA area (southern california), NYC, Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and a few more places.

and it can take the better part of 2 hours to get to those places from midway/O'hare if there is traffic (and there always is in Chicago). That is a couple hundred sweaty nerds trying to get from O'hare to the venue any way they can, its just not the most feasible.

Indy is ideal because the airport is on the side of town that both convention centers and IUPUI campus is, the hotels are right next to any potential venue as well. There is a once every 15 minute shuttle from the airport right into wherever we would hold the LAN, there is a gaming group that I am affiliated with that I am sure would let us borrow the switches and cabling necessary to put on such an event, there is a history of putting on great LANs in the area with local expertise on LAN logistics and area venues etc.

On top of that, hotel prices are cheaper here, as are flights into IND. ORD can be rather expensive at times. Everything is just closer together in Indy, everything is cheaper in Indy, and it has all the same attractions and interests of a normal city with great food, a bar on every corner and a reputation for hosting events of all size without much of an issue.

***EDIT***
Flight prices being cheaper isnt necessarily true and will depend on a lot of factors, I ran some searches and they came out comparable (within 20-40 USD depending on when I search for and what days we wanted to have it)

Chicago is nice for location, but unfortunately has outrageous labor union fees associated with renting anything there, like any big city really. GenCon is held here in indy with a ton of success, plus there is a university campus with more than enough room to spare (a major Collegiate Star League event was held there) for a LAN big enough to draw a crowd.

Oh, mama bears pizza, possibly the best pizza in the midwest. Definitely be making my way over there <3

and no, probably not. I can however get you a new one :)

TF2 will be in either 6v6, 3v3 KOTH or 4v4 KOTH.

18 is getting in with no waiver, if you are under 18 and you have your parents/guardians/hobo-down-the-street sign the waiver for you, you can come. If you register and don't see that option, let me know and I will get you a pdf copy of the waiver to sign and bring with you.

I should mention that only 85 tickets remain, so get on fast if you wanna go. It's not super competitive or anything, but is a great time and a very fun community.

http://i.imgur.com/i7h975P.jpg

tl;dr, LAN in bloomington Indiana, april 13-14th, 20 dollars, 25 with a custom t-shirt. drinks, food and non custom t-shirt included, all tournaments free to enter, no cash prizes because the university doesnt allow such silliness.

Indianapolis is not boring :<

but it is far cheaper to host a LAN here than a bigger city. Cheaper flights usually too. Good enough for a super bowl, good enough for a LAN party.

what can I say about RJ...

He is an incredible person, really nice and laid back, wants to be friends with everyone and has the nice personality to fill that. I dont think it is possible not to like RJ.

I am most familiar with his scouting, but he is a more than competent pocket who just needs a great medic to make an amazing combo sure to be the backbone of any top of open team.

Good luck my man, you have certainly grown as a player in the last two years.

there is also a utility called ndiswrapper that takes the dll files of the windows drivers and sometimes makes them work. It was touchy a few years ago, but I imagine it works wonders now.

That was, by far, the creepiest thing I have ever fucking seen,

Of all the people I have played with over the years, testify has always been one of my favorite. Awesome dude, great pick up for any team.

I agree that it is not an issue, but is an example of other problems.

And a while ago (before the granary shit-hole update) every time I played a scrim or match on granary, I would send a bug report about red spawns. Never responded to :(

I hate granary. I do not hate the mid, or the pushes, or the holds. I do not hate playing the map, or looking at it, or watching it be played. I actually really enjoy playing granary. What I really hate is granary red spawns. I know it is just a small issue, but it has always irked me that, in 10 updates to granary, Valve did not decide to change the red spawns. I have lost hope in Valve fixing... well anything really.

So it is up to us, and I think the best way to fix granary spawns, and other map issues, is to make pro versions of the map, and then use them in ESEA. ESEA already controls their own servers, distributes their own client and manages a lot of other components of the TF2 experience. This would be a great way to get people to use their scrim and pug servers as well as give the community something we have deserved for a long time. Maps that are not broken as fuck.

Its not just granary spawns, its also things like:
invisible wall on gullywash mid
asymmetry on many maps (granary etc)
gravelpit issues
clipping problems
shadows through walls on many many maps

We already have pro maps, but I feel that if we want more widescale implementation, we should encourage ESEA to adopt these pro versions, implement them on their servers and play matches on them. Valve isnt going to fix their maps, but we can, and should. In perspective, granary spawns arent that big of a deal, none of these things really are, but they do detract from the experience slightly. If we could, as a community, add on to and remove from the maps we know and love, we could make the game much more fun to play and watch.

Runs very well in linux, I maybe get +5 or so frames on my laptop, havent tried on desktop yet. Some minor issues mostly related to mice and for some reason, stupidly long load times etc, but very playable and hopefully gets super solid and stable.

You will likely notice frame increase if only because linux is lighter and runs faster than windows on average if set up correctly.