Unfortunately I don't think I'll be making it this year. That said, I want to do what I can to support a strong TF2 showing at this event. Hit me up.

What's my dad have to do with this?

Yyyaaoooo!

I wanted to create a new thread for this event as we've made a bunch of significant changes.

Unfortunately, we haven't received the response that we wanted in regards to our plans for this event to be TF2-centric and feature a $2,000 Ultiduo tournament. As such, PBL has withdrawn the prize pot for the Ultiduo tournament and we're looking into incorporating other game tournaments into our schedule in order to entice more attendees. SkillCon is still a great opportunity for PBL and eXtv to put on a wonderful LAN event and we blame ourselves for not being able to get this event to a place where $2,000 for Ultiduo makes sense. Learning eXperience and all that.

Getting back to it, we will definitely be having the following tournaments: Hearthstone, SportsBall, and Primal Carnage: eXtinction.

SportsBall is a WiiU game inspired by the old school classic Joust. The SportsBall developers will be present and this should be a pretty dang fun party-style game.

Primal Carnage: eXtinction is the follow up to 2012's Primal Carnage and features asymmetrical team gameplay between Humans and Dinosaurs. The developers will be present and will definitely be very interested in hearing player feedback. I spoke with the producer Aaron today regarding spectator features and their competitive gamemodes. They have team death match, Chopper Escape, and Capture the Eggs. Chopper Escape is similar to L4D versus mode while Capture the Eggs is similar to L4D's Scavenge mode. We will have 10 computers from Intel with the game setup on them. This will be the first broadcast of Primal Carnage eXtinction in a competitive setting.

Besides those tournaments, currently the rest of the agenda is open to what player's in attendance want to play. We've already started talking to some local Las Vegas gaming groups who are interested in Dota2 and SC2. Counter-Strike:GO is definitely a possibility as well.

Thanks to support from ModMic we will have Dashner on-site running production and will be streaming the various events we will be running at the LAN. Keep your headphones, attach a ModMic. Mathsad is also on board to help us out with production and I'm eXcited to have him there with us.

LAN Vegas will be taking place from Noon Dec 29th until 11pm Dec 31st. Tickets are FREE and you can REGISTER HERE

Please let us know if you have any questions and feel free to share your opinions.

I'm eXcited to see this showmatch. I hope that players approach it with an open mind and try to have fun. I don't know if this is the best solution for 6s and comp TF2, but its definitely worth a shot. Thanks for eXperimenting.

genki desuka?

We might have gotten a movie, but DOTA updates get balance patches :(

• Attending an awesome LAN in Las Vegas over New Years Eve.
  
• Competing in the biggest Ultiduo LAN Tournament yet.
  
• LAN attendees will be overlooking SkillCon which should provide nice visual stimulus in between games.
  
• Supporting the first iteration of what could become another huge annual event for the NA TF2 community.
  
• MGE/Ultiduo against the pros we're bringing in.
  
• Providing great content for people to watch over winter break.
  
• Support PBL, an organization that isn't ESEA, isn't CEVO, and is trying to do great things for the community.
  
• Help PBL showcase the strength of the TF2 community to sponsors which will lead to more investment from said sponsors.

As a community, we're starved for events. This isn't decent money being thrown away for free, it's PBL making an investment in our community. If it ends up being a complete waste of money and is received by the community as a collective "meh", you better believe that PBL will be re-assessing their strategy. TF2 is our game of choice, but PBL is a business and they can't stick to a plan that isn't working.

I understand that there are some difficulties with people getting to Vegas and that more notice would have been great. Nonetheless, I hope that people can find a way to participate in what should be an awesome event.

Best I've ever seen on a pub: Monogamous (I Don't Fuck Around)

Wanted to post a bit of an update.

We've decided the prize payout for Ultiduo/MGE. Ultiduo will be $1200 for first place, $600 for second, and $300 for third. MGE prizes for Soldier and Scout are $100 for first and $50 for second.

We'll be announcing the Pros we've wrangled to attend this event once all that is settled, which will hopefully be just a few days after ESEA LAN. We're also trying to nail down some computers for rental and general use which we should hear about later today.

PBL has put a lot of effort into this event and we want to make it a huge annual celebration of the community. We wanted this to be a completely TF2-centric event (besides the Minecraft stuff which is part of the agreement of Skillcon), but we need to fill seats. We have already starting looking at including other games in order to get more gamers signed up. There is a DOTA2 group in Las Vegas as well as gaming groups at two of the nearby Universities.

I've never been part of the "TF2 is dead" crowd, but if we want more events for the community we have to support the events we have.

If you are considering attending this event and have any questions about it please let us know.

Generally TFtv is a hub for TeamFortress players right? I certainly hope that's the goal here.

First post was a bit vague, but hey, we're moving forward.

The Burnsiers are either staying in Lynwood across from the Gameclucks or at my parents in Olympia. We'll be at Gameclucks for most of the day, from when they open at Noon till maybe 8pm? We have to drive back to Portland and it's a long weekend of gaming and driving. It looks like Gameclucks has 20 pcs, we'll be on 5 of em. Not sure what their BYOC space/policy is, I'll check in on that.

We're down to scrim people in Arena:Respawn or in Dota. It'll be 5v5 A:R with a class ban for each team. The Arena:Respawn plugin can now convert Koth maps natively, so our map pool has eXtended quite a bit.

A:R is a lot of fun. We've kind of stumbled with our organizing of events to showcase it recently due to our focus on the LAN Vegas Nerd Years Eve, but we want to get more events put together for the format.

PBL isn't locked to A:R, but I think the mode does address some of the problems that 6s faces. All classes are viable and problematic classes can be dealt with. The open whitelist leads to way more creativity with items and if we find that there are just a few items that really throw things off, we can add a few item bans.

People have admitted that 6s has some serious problems. It pushes away pub players who want to main spyro and it necessitates having many items banned which is discouraging for Valve to include our input into their balancing. Robin Walker has clearly stated that he'd like to see some sort of pick/ban dynamic in Competitive TF2. When every other Valve employee in the room shuts up to attentively listen to what Robin has to say, maybe we should too.

A:R might not be the answer, but at least it's some sort of attempt to try a new style of competitive TF2 that offers things other modes don't.

PBL is for everyone, but they've certainly been helping me with events for the Portland Burnsiders.

Yyyaaooo!

I'm not sure on details either and we'll share the specifics when we can.

Hahah. Well, some are good buddys, some are eXperienced players, some are random pubbers, and some are poopy friends.

The Burnsiders are up in Seattle because we will be fielding 5 players in the Red Bull Dota 2 LAN on Saturday the 13th, Oh snap. Tom from PBL snagged 5 tickets for us and I quickly distributed them to Carver (my buddy @ modmic), Retro (OG Burnsider), LevelE (Our Dota2 Captain), and Pithium (Linux guru eXtraordinaire). Dummy got screwed.

We thought we were playing Dota on Sunday at first, but I guess A:R is on the docket :P Maybe we shoulda brought Dummy. Paals will be coming up with a friend so he might tag in on a machine.

Why don't you watch this video of the 5v5 Arena:Respawn Pug with invite players we hosted. It was casted by myself and some guy named flame. I'm pretty sure it was flame, but maybe it was really dflame.

Well said Buick. PBL is doing a lot just for the sake of doing a lot. They picked up our tickets for the Red Bull LAN and will be renting the Burnsiders the computers @ Gameclucks on Sunday just for the sake of making this happen.

I don't know what Moose is feeling hurt about, but the PBL crew do have their heart in the right place and are trying to do some huge things for the community. People are eXpecting Hilton service while we just opened our first campground.

ModMics are 15% off if bought through their website with CouponCode ModMicMonday14 http://www.modmic.com

They better utilize that weird hilt in a fight scene otherwise it's definitely just kinda stupid. Show the practicality of it and I'm on board.

Otherwise shit looked dope. Definitely more hype than the Phantom Menace trailer O_o

Just a reminder that you need to book a hotel room today to get the discounted rate. $54 to book it now which can be cancelled 7 days before the date. Tom from PBL is snagging some eXtra rooms at that rate that we can maybe pass along down the line, but those will be disappearing.

In other eXciting news, we've lined up an awesome sponsor (will reveal that more properly down the line) who will be funding Dashner's travel to Las Vegas for the event so he can help with our production. Yay!

Gonna be awesome.