Las Vegas Open: Community Feedback on Dates Wanted!

Las Vegas Open in-bound!

Hey everyone, we’re coming in to the tail end of negotiations on the Las Vegas Open! I’ve been working on finalizing our entire events calendar for the year, and it is all coming together nicely. Once everything falls into place, you’ll be able to plan on attending the same events each year! We’re also going to form these events into a circuit with scoring and a circuit champion: the player that does the best at the most events! We’re working out the final details, but we’re thinking a large cash prize and a sweet trophy like the Belt of Russ!

As of now it looks like we’ll be running 5 events per calendar year: the BAO, Comikaze in early November, Duel Con in late September, Anime Expo (tentatively) in early July and of the Las Vegas Open. We’re still finalizing contracts on some of these events so there is a chance they won’t all fire off, but it is a slim chance.

The one everyone’s excited about of course is Vegas. We’ve gotten a HUGE response from folks who all plan on attending this event, with gamers saying they would fly in from as far away as Europe and Australia! This would be a real can’t miss event, with an emphasis on community, fun and socializing. We plan on organizing the tournament of course, as well as night time events for everyone to have Vegas fun and get to know one another better. We’re also working on providing child care services during the day so that wives and girlfriends can go have fun during the day while we geek out with toy soldiers (which makes it easier to sell to the family  )! We’re going to have our systems running smooth as silk by then, and already have a long list of volunteers and vendors on board to make this a really fantastic event! We’re also working on special guests, painting tutorials and all kinds of gaming fun!

After a lot of deliberation and feedback from the community, we decided to run the LVO in the time slot we typically reserve for the BAO, which is late February, early March. That gives us a nice buffer before Adepticon and after Christmas. The BAO we would shift to a later month in the year. The LVO is essentially what all of our hustling around running events like mad men has been leading up to, and we are absolutely committed to making this the best possible event!

The Question at Hand!

So far the most appealing bids on venues we have are for President’s day weekend in mid February and the third weekend of March. The pros and cons of each are:

President’s Day Weekend (February 14-16 or 15-17) means we could run the event Friday through Sunday and most folks would have Monday (a holiday) to relax and get home. Or, we could run the event Saturday through Monday, and then people could sneak this in over 3 days, possibly without taking a day off of work. The down side is that flights are a bit more expensive that weekend if you don’t reserve them a ways out. Also, that Friday is Valentines day, which could be good or bad. It makes it an easier sell to special someone in your life by saying you can have a Vegas Valentines, but it also could be a sticking point for some people who have romantic obligations that don’t include daytime gaming.

The third week of March (21st-23rd) is a bit cheaper to fly out, and that falls in the Spring Break dates for many American students and teachers. However, it is getting pretty close to Adepticon and it stinks when people have to choose one event over another due to financial constraints.

Now, we could shoot for a date in-between those two if we find a good deal (I’m waiting on a few final bids to come in). However, assuming that those are our options, what would be your all preference? Speak now and help us to nail this bad boy down! My goal is to have our entire events calendar for the year finalized by mid May so that we can begin planning and promotions to make them the biggest, best events we can!

Thanks for your feedback!  

Oh, and the rates we’re negotiating on rooms are pretty effin sweet! This will be an affordable GT with awesome prize support!