Last Edited: March 4, 2002

The goal of this F.A.Q. is to give participants an idea of the thought and thinking behind certain rules and decisions and to address a wide range of questions that might seem obvious to some but that others may have questions about.

Table of Contents

I - About Gamers' Gauntlet and the F.R.A.G. Organization

- What are the goals of a Gamers' Gauntlet event?
- What is F.R.A.G?
- Why did you change the event name from F.R.A.G. to Gamers' Gauntlet?
- Why is Gamers' Gauntlet abbreviated to G2 and not GG?
- What does the F.R.A.G. organization do with all the $$$ that is collected from registration?
- Does the staff get paid to hold these events?
- Who supplies you with all the game/infrastructure servers?

II - LAN Infrastructure

- What is the Network Infrastructure?
- Why only 10Mb to the clients?
- What is the policy on trading files?
- When are good times to trade files?

III - Equipment

- What should I bring?
- I forgot XYZ...what should I DO?!
- Are non-Windows machines supported?
- What about security?
- Can I leave my PC when I go back to the room to sleep?
- Why can't I bring my UPS?
- I only have a 486 (or worse :), should I try to attend the event?

IV - Games

- What kind of servers will be offered?
- What games will be played?
- Do you guys play XYZ?
- Can I bring my own game server?
- Spectators
- Coaches
- Why can't the tournament matches be best of 3?

V - Event

- Can I reserve my seat(s) before hand or is there an assigned seating system?
- Will food/drink be provided?
- Food and Drink! What can I bring!?!?!?
- What Prizes do you have?!
- How old is the typical participant?
- Why do I have to have a consent form signed?
- Do people really play all night?
- What if I need to cancel? Do I get a refund?
- Can someone take my place if I can't attend?
- How can I get off of the mailing announcement list
- How often do you hold these events?

Topics

I - About the Gamers' Gauntlet and the F.R.A.G. Organization

What are the goals of a Gamers' Gauntlet event?
See our "About" page.

What is F.R.A.G?
F.R.A.G. stands for Free Range Action Gaming, which is the group of people responsible for presenting the Gamers' Gauntlet events.

Why did you change the event name from F.R.A.G. to Gamers' Gauntlet?
Better name recognition and to distinguish ourselves from the horde of other partys that have the word "FRAG" in their event name. 

Why is Gamers' Gauntlet abbreviated to G2 and not GG?
GG is synonymous with "Good Game" and even though we're trying to provide everyone with just that...it's a little awkward to say "Are you going to the next gg?".

What does the F.R.A.G. organization do with all the $$$ that is collected from registration?
All of the money that is collected from registration is put back into the party in the form of additional equipment, prizes, and participant overhead like the name tents and sign in packets. Our event is one of the few parties out there that owns all of its power and network infrastructure and is not dependent on sponsorship money to survive. 

Does the staff get paid to hold these events?
The staff receives none of the moneys or prizes collected for each event. The Gamers' Gauntlet event is run solely on donated time with the goal of creating the best LAN experience possible at each event.

Who supplies you with all the game/infrastructure servers?
Due to the nature of the PC hardware market we do not use any of our event money to purchase the server equipment. We instead use personal and sponsor loaned equipment to run the event.

II - LAN Infrastructure

What is the Network Infrastructure?
Each table is set up with a 10Mb switch with an uplink to a 24-port 100Mb "master" switch.

Why only 10Mb to the clients?
The ideal situation is to have the backcone running at a higher network speed than the clients. With both the clients and the server backbone running at 100Mb you run the risk of a few clients having the ability to saturate and adversely effect the entire backbone and network. 

What is the policy on trading files?
Trading files isn't prohibited but is highly discouraged during "prime" and tourney playing times. We do reserve the right to ask you to stop sharing files if it is adversely affecting the network and other users on the network.

When are good times to trade files?
Usually anytime between 2am-12noon.

III - Equipment

What should I bring?
This is a BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) event. Please refer to the "What to bring" page for more details.

I forgot XYZ...what should I DO?!
If you can't borrow said item from a friend, like a forgotten power strip or an Ethernet cable, there are a Target, Best Buy, Electronics Boutique and several office supply stores about ten minutes away. There is also a Comp-USA about 30mins away. (I-40 East to I-540 to US70 East)

Are non-Windows machines supported?
It is each participant's responsibility to make sure that whatever device you bring to play on at the event can obtain a DHCP address and will play whatever game you had in mind. Please refer to "What to Bring" and "Network Info" for further questions. We can hand out static IPs if needed.

What about security?
We have at least 1 staff member at the server table at all times during the event, even late at night, to look after the room. 

Can I leave my PC when I go back to the room to sleep?
When you leave your PC for the night it is up to you to take mice, keyboards, pads, and/or headphones. Basically anything small that could be picked up and walked away with. Pretty grim ehh? The good news is that we've never had anyone report any equipment lost/missing. 

Why can't I bring my UPS?
We ask our participants not to bring UPSes to the event mainly because of the unpredictable power requirements/strain that they can cause to a power circuit. In past events UPSes have caused circuit breakers to flip because of the extra current they pull. 

I only have a 486 (or worse :), should I try to attend the event?
The question is: will your machine run the games that you're coming to play? If the question is yes then by all means bring it on!

IV - Games

What kind of servers will be offered?
We will have related public, pickup and match servers for each of our main tourney games as well as various other servers that we know people are expecting. In addition, we provide servers for popularly requested mods.

What games will be played?
You name it and there might be someone there playing it. A good way to gauge exactly what games the participants are looking to play is to take a look at the game survey at the bottom of the player registration list. There will be people playing all sorts of games and your best experience of the event might very well be in a game that's "not popular". 

Do you guys play XYZ?
YES! There will be at least one person at the event that probably plays the same game you want to play. Finding that person can be a little tricky sometimes. A good place to find other players for your game before the event is the Public Forum. At the event you can also go up to the front desk and request an announcement to help find people as well.

Can I bring my own game server?
No. The reason is that we map out the room for just the right amount of power/network connections and our participants enjoy the stability that it brings. If we allow anyone to bring game servers we would have to allow everyone to bring an addition machine, which would threaten the stability of our infrastructure. Any additional servers you do see should have been approved by the staff before the event.

Spectators
Spectators can attend our events for a reduced entry fee. With the large amount of computer equipment we require that all non-event participants register as spectators. Please check out the rules section for spectator guidelines.

Coaches
We do allow coaches as an enhancement to team game play. Coaches have specific rules and must be either a participant or paid spectator.

Why can't the tournament matches be best of 3?
We run tourneys, not ladders. Our bracketed tourneys are almost always double elimination so even if you lose you still have a chance to win it all in the losers bracket. There is also the issue of time. To do a best of 3 we would need to allot about 2 hours per match which would push our typical 8-10 hour tourney into a 16-20 hour event.

V - Event

Can I reserve my seat(s) before hand or is there an assigned seating system?
There is no assigned seating. It's a "first come, first serve" setup.  Once you have checked in, you can reserve additional seats for others that you know are coming and who will be sitting with you. A reserve seating system is more complicated than it may appear and definitely has the potential for making many people unhappy with their assigned seats so we have stayed away from this in the past. However, once you arrive, you can reserve seats nearby for your friends or clanmates. Please check in with G2 Registration before bringing in any equipment.

Will food/drink be provided?
We sell canned drinks and may have bottles of Bawls. We do not provide any sort of food items as the event is located directly off of an expressway with just about every type of food joint less than 10 minutes away [by car].

Food and Drink! What can I bring!?!?!?
Drinks, food, and small coolers are okay in the room, but please keep a low profile. There is also an table area just outside the gaming room that can be used for eating. The lounge area is NOT an eating area, please stick to the table area and clean up after yourselves.

What Prizes do you have?!
We have various door prizes and  give aways that we purchase and obtain from sponsors.

How old is the typical participant?
It varies. There will be people from their teens who don't hold a drivers license to people that have grandkids. Getting your ass kicked in game though is ageless ;>

Why do I have to have a consent form signed?
We are in charge of the tourneys, security and the power/network infrastructure...not you. We need our participants to be of legal age so that we know they can legally take care of themselves.

Do people really play all night?
Yes and no. There will be people who will stay up all night playing and hanging out each night but most of the crowd starts heading out around 2-4am and gets back around 10am-12noon the next day.

What if I need to cancel? Do I get a refund?
It depends on when you cancel. Please refer to the "Refund Policy" page for details.

Can someone take my place if I can't attend?
Yes. Please refer to the "Refund Policy" page for details.

How can I get off of the mailing announcement list
Send an email to Majordomo@rps.net with the following line in the body of the message unsubscribe frag-announce and you will be removed from the mailing list.

How often do you hold these events?
We shoot for 4 events a year with each event happening every 3 months. This isn't a guarantee as there is always the risk of having to bump the scheduled date around to suit holidays, hotel availability and/or school schedules.