I guess the biggest thing that contributed to most of the issues was that we lacked alot of staff this year in certain areas that we usally do not lack in…

let me first say that all of our staff did a GREAT JOB and i love every one of them, however this year i had alot of staff members back out at the last minute and it really effected our event as most people might have noticed.

I hope to build out a more solid staff/volunteer base and the biggest complaint/gripe that i have is i really need to get someone that i can work with that can organize the volunteer base. i had a hard time delegating jobs out to others this year because #1 we just didnt have people to do the jobs or #2 i did not have someone to manage and communicate to the force of people that were willing to help.

so i guess as a direct response to your post i want to take this opportunity to ask the community. Would anyone want to help manage volunteers? Maybe try and get an army of volunteers together? Anyway. We always try and make every event better and we will strive for excellence. please keep the dialog flowing and lets keeping reaching for the stars and the best lan party ever!!!

Just wanted to express my opinion of my first ever LAN. As there doesn’t seem to be any kind of forums or contact option I’m going with this comment…

Attended GXL TMG over the weekend and I had a lot of fun. That said, there were a LOT of things that I KNOW could have been handled better. I understand you guys get swamped with things to do, but honestly most of it goes into the planning of the event.

1. Registration – LAN was supposed to start at 5PM and myself and others were in line just to get in the door past 7PM. We paid $40 and it sucks to sit outside. In the future, I suggest some sort of online form to fill out in terms of what you are bringing into the LAN. I understand (and am grateful) that you guys are trying to beef security, but honestly the photo prints were horrid and completely pointless. The IDs didn’t even have our real names on them. This process seemed much slower than it should have been.

2. Tournament Organization – Most tournaments started at least an hour late, or didn’t happen at all. Some of this is lack of interest, but a lot of it is simply disorganization. My suggestion: print off a sign-up sheet for each tournament and have them on a table (or tables) off to the side of the LAN. Once people get situated inside, they can go over and sign up by hand and add their names to the lists. This gives you guys a great idea of who is interested in what, and how many people you have. When a tournament is supposed to start, you start it. I don’t understand why “sign-ups” were starting a half hour after the tournament start time. Also, some way to suggest games to play (other than commenting on a post) would be nice.

3. Communication – I know you guys were trying hard but sometimes it seemed like this area was really lacking. It was really hard to hear the microphone from anywhere except right by the stage. Also, if a tournament didn’t start on time it was difficult to find out when (or if) it was going to, and who was running it. Communication wasn’t that bad honestly.

4. Ace of Spades??? Some of the smaller tournaments we were just told the prize was “uh I dunno if there is one, you get into Ace of Spades though”. This is especially disappointing if the Ace of Spades never happens.

5. Prizes – Was there any rhyme or reason to the order of people getting to choose prizes? I personally am not one of these people but getting last pick seemingly at random would have kinda sucked. Just curious…

6. ASK THE COMMUNITY – I was really disappointed that we didn’t have a Brawl tournament simply because “TMG was unable to acquire a Wii” (aside: really?!). There were like 300 people there and I’m sure plenty of folks (myself included) would be happy to bring consoles/controllers/games/etc. if we know ahead of time that these items are in need.

I want to be clear, I had a really fun time at the GXL and I would most likely attend another one in the future. I’m not trying to gripe and complain, I just want to improve the LAN for the future. Smoother events are going to attract more people.