Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. It features two teams fighting each other with nine different character classes, each with its own unique abilities, strengths and weaknesses. The game features stylized, cartoon-like graphics that make different classes and teams easily recognizable. This combined with the fast-paced action that the game offers makes it an ideal game for e-sports. TF2 matches can be enjoyable and interesting to watch for people who have never tried the game themselves.

The TF2 competitive community

Currently the largest TF2 competition is the ETF2L (European Team Fortress 2 League), which has 19 divisions filled with an average of 8 teams per division. The number of players in teams are quite large compared to other competitive games, which use a 5vs5 or 4vs4 format. TF2 mostly uses a 6v6 format for competitive play. Therefore, the average team consists of 7 to 8 members. This means that the potential audience of active competitive TF2 players is several thousands of players. We are expecting players from United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and of course Holland to attend the event.

The Event

“Community 2009″ will be the first Team Fortress 2 LAN to offer large cash prizes since the PCGamer Showdown in September 2008. There has been only a couple TF2 LAN tournaments that awarded playing this highly competitive game.
With Team Fortress 2 thriving and constantly growing as an e-sports game, we think it is necessary to create an event that meets the needs of the higher end teams as well as dozens and dozens of teams playing in the lower divisions.

These needs have been researched with active teams from the highest to the lowest division and they basically come down to:

• Prizes to make the event worth attending

• T.U.P. (turn up and play) PC’s, meaning at least some of the computers at the event are provided by the organizers
• Easy transport access
• Nearby accommodation

With the ability to offer T.U.P. PC’s we attract teams from all divisions of the current leading TF2 leagues. This means teams like Dignitas, Team CoolerMaster, Crack Clan and Trademark Gamers will be attending.

We are using the same venue as CDC Crossfire; WZZRD Enschede. This venue suits all our needs. Easy transport access, by car and by public transport and nearby accommodation (15min walk).

Attendance and Costs

When the group came together to organise the first Community LAN event, an “initial interest” post was made on the ETF2L forums. Over 40 teams gave positive responses, but for the purpose of having figures to work with, we’ll use a pessimistic 16 teams attending the event, with an average of 6 players per team, giving a minimum of 96 attendees. The first Community LAN event will cost a mere 50 euros for a T.U.P ticket which covers entry and shared PC* rental for the full three days.

* Shared PCs - There will be 54 PCs provided by WZZRD for the duration of the event. Because we’re expecting over 96 players, these PCs will be shared. Full tournament and warmup schedules will be provided by The Community team to allow significant time for each team to practice before their tournament games. We estimate that over the three day period each player will have 18 hours of play time with their team for warmups, tournament play and general PC usage. We will also provide PCs for general internet usage aside from the gaming PCs which players can spend short periods of time on when they’re not playing.

Tournaments

To offer fun and competitive play to all skill levels, we want to offer multiple tournaments with different prizes:

1. Premiership tournament which all the teams can enter (cash prize)
2. Mid skill tournament (graphics cards or similarly priced hardware prizes)
3. Low skill tournament (mice, headset or mousemat prizes)

Each team will be allocated a number 1, 2 or 3. This signifies the number of tournaments they can enter. Top teams such as Dignitas will only be allowed to enter one tournament. Depending on the skill range of clans attending, mid+ teams such as various division 2 teams may be allowed to play in either 1 tournament or 2. This gives every clan the chance to win the prize money no matter how unlikely, without top teams being able to dominate lower skilled tournaments. Our plans also include running some duel or possibly 2vs2 cups so that players who plan to visit the event without a team can participate.

Growth

The Community team want this LAN event to be the first in a series of twice annual LAN events for TF2. If you’re interested in sponsoring a series of events with us, we can provide discounts, extra advertising and P.R. and priority offering on sponsor deals for future events. We would love to have our events permanently sponsored by a dedicated company with a genuine interest in modern eSports.

Sponsorship Options

• Name sponsoring: our LAN will use the company/products name to promote their products. Example: Community LAN sponsored by YourCompany PLC.
• Banner sponsoring: Inside the WZZRD location are multiple options to promote using banners and promotion boards.
• Full sponsoring: Your company/products will be exclusively promoted on this TF2 LAN. This would require a massive investment on your behalf but the rewards in terms of advertising would be phenomenal.
• Prize sponsoring: To put your company/products in an easy but respected highlight you can sponsor the prizes.
• Tournament sponsoring: Each of the 3 different types of tournaments will be able to carry a name of a company if interested, this will include full prize sponsoring.
• Promotional Teams: We can offer the exclusive right to promotional team to hand out demo’s/promotional packages to the visitors of the LAN.
• Hardware corner: Many LAN events feature hardware stalls; choosing this sponsorship option would allow you exclusive rights to the only hardware stall at WZZRD. This will both be great advertising but likely very high sales for players finding that their existing hardware requires immediate replacement to carry on playing at the LAN event. Ideally we would prefer a peripheral hardware company in this position.
• Shoutcast sponsoring: We will give you the exclusive rights to shoutcast all the matches that take place during the LAN event.

Final Notes

Even though The Community 2009 is intended to be a Team Fortress 2 event, our organisation would be happy to run tournaments for other games as well if our partners wish to support different variety of games.