Just got back from the staffer's last meeting before the big party. Everything has come together nicely and I think we've thought of all the angles and possible problems we might have.

Let the party begin! Anyone who wants to stop off on Friday afternoon/evening and drop off their equipment/pay is more than welcome to do so. No wait on Saturday that way. And you can help move tables. ;)

Should have a complete prize listing up on Wednesday for you all to drool over. Just heard from the nice people at Sierra Canada. Apparently they're going to be dropping off some swag at the party and maybe staying for a little visit as well. (Woot!)

We're all really pumped guys. This is going to be one HELL of a party, and we're PUMPED I TELLS YAH! :) If you happen to want to get a quick look at the party site it's up. www.fragtopia.com/2001

Really looking forward to meeting all the peeps I've been talking to for so long in email and ICQ. And of course to see again some old LAN friends from last year.

And lo, Marauder said unto the void, "Let there be servers!" and there came into existance a group of dedicated gaming servers. And Marauder, Dopper, Gezerman and Mr. E. looked upon them and saw that they were good.

Server and network testing is complete. The games are loaded. DHCP, IRC, Web etc all tested. The servers are good to go for the party! Racks of hubs and hundreds of network cables are just waiting to be installed. I can hardly wait to hook it all up for real and see it run. (Yes, that is a big fat stack of Dlink 10/100 Switches)

This party is, I sense, going to be alot of fun!

We're also working on a complete new design for the 2(001) site, just for the weekend of the party.

A few things just in hot off the Pappypress (tm)

Official Quake III Tourney juice:

"Top Prize in the Q3 1 on 1 is $500 with the rest of the cash and prizes to be divided up according to what comes in from the sponsors. As for the "pro" maps from id Software that are to be out with the next Point Release, they will be in the tournies provided they come out on time. Firm word on that later. There will be a 1 on 1 tourney for sure, and the team tourney will be decided according to attendence. If we get enough players to do a 4 on 4 justice, then that's what we'll do. If not, then a 2 on 2 will be the order of the day."

Also, as for the contest mentioned below.... Sadly, Marauder did not win. (Damn you Pappy. Damn you to eternally play CS.) Kathrean however did win! Congrats! Read all the details here. Prize includes admission to the event for both days, dinner with Pappy-R and the PQ crew, a PQ Tshirt, and a reserved seat near the sacred staffer area. :) (Don't sit near Marauder tho... You don't want his (lack of) gaming skillz to rub off on you... trust me.)

Got swag in from the folks at Logitech! Woot! 2 very nice optical mice for the party....... And.... We got THESE:

Thanks to Tankgirl and the great people over at Digital Extremes. 5 DE team signed UT posters! Woot! And damned fine posters they is!

AMK Services has donated one of their excellent Media Port replicators for a review and prize. Thanks guys!!

Apparently there is an interview with me (Marauder) going up tomorrow on Game Citizen. Take a boo. :)

I'm getting all worked up here guys! We'll be at VAM Computers this sunday afternoon hooking up all the networking equipment and putting it thru the wringer. (Ex. Playing games on it. Rough day eh?) I like to make sure we're going to have the absolute minimum of problems the day of. :)

Just over two more weeks! WOOT!

Marauder out.

Want to attend the LAN party and have Planet Quake pick up the tab for your entry? Want to have dinner with Pappy-R & the rest of the PQ crew? Pappy is generously offering you the chance to do just that. All the details are here.

Got a shipment in from Dlink. 5 of their very hot 32 port switches. Oh. My. God. My ping went down just looking at these bad boys. I can hardly wait to get them all hooked up and see 'em go. :) Should be very very sweet.

Signups are going well, we've got peeps from all over coming. Remember: Car pooling is your friend. :)

This just in from the PQ Overlord Pappy-R. (And I quote)

"All of PQ is coming and swag will be Pappy's bucks, stuff from iD and GameSpy, plus new video games to even out the packages."

Woot. Long live Pappy.

Special note of intrest to those of you who pay ahead of time for the party: You won't have a line up this year at all. Just pick up your badges and you're in playing games. Everyone else will have a wait while they sign in and have their badges made up. :)

The networking goodness begins. Shipment from Startech arrived today.

Got confirmation from Rogers@home. They'll be providing the staffers, news guys & some of the servers with Internet access for the party. (Sorry guys, not everyone gets it. :)

The nice folks over at Dairy Queen will be donating 20% off coupons for food purchases. (They're a 5 minute walk from the venue)

Digital Extremes (The makers of Unreal & UT) will be providing us with 5 UT posters signed by the DE Dev team! Woot!

Pappy-R is going to be providing something other than just cash for prizes. He, in a Santa Claus sorta way will also be bringing some Gamespy & iD Software swag.

I can hardly wait guys, this is gonna be one HELL of a par-tay!

Got a shipment of Mouse Skatez in for prizes. Thanks guys! Will be posting a little review soon as well. :)

Got an update from Dlink today. They're loaning us 4 of their very hot 32 port switches for the party.... Oh baby. We should, between this and the couple other switches we have (And the ones from Startech) have everyone at the party on a switch..... Network performance should be most excellent, I can hardly wait to try these bad boys out!

More people signing up, and as I noted, we've got some peeps flying in from the USA.... From as far away as California. Should be a blast. :)

° Next staffers meeting is Saturday, 6:15pm at VAM Computers... Trying to arrange the meetings so that the max number of staffers can attend.

° Tournament cash prize breakdown is complete:

CS, 1st place team: $500.00
CS, 2nd place team: $275.00
UT, 1st place: $150.00
UT, 2nd place: $75.00
Q3: $1,000.00 split up between 1-2 tourneys
Tribes 2: We're doing something, just not sure what yet. There will be a pub server up all weekend at the least.

° Thanks to everyone who's signed up so far. Looks to me like we're going to have a full house of xenos this year... Last year one xeno smoked pretty much everyone in most of the touraments...Who's going to come and stop them this year???

° The guys at We Are Gamers are coming up. Everyone look pretty for the camera.

° Really getting excited about FRAGtopia 2(001) guys... It's gonna be a blast! :)

Just talking with Pappy-R from Planet Quake last night. He's going to be running the Quake III side of things for FRAGtopia 2(001), and man... Does he have some fun and prizes lined up for you Quake III guys! :) More info in a bit.

Getting some folks signed up, from all over. Looks like we're getting some peeps from the states again. Remember, if you're coming, why not check and see if any other guys from your hometown are going to be attending? Car pooling gooooood! Just click on their alias to send an email. (Link to people already signed up is under the "Sign-up" section of the site.)

Got a message from the cool guys at Mouseskatez! They're donating some cool stuff for the party. Sounds like a neat idea. Small addon pads that make your mouse glide smoother. They're also sending a few extras along for review. Sweet.

Signups are open! Thanks to Red Leader for all his hard work. Just a note to you guys who signed up already, your names will be added monday! :)

I'm outta here for the weekend. Cyah all Monday!

Had a staffers meeting this evening, the minutes will be up in the next few days. Bascially we hammered out some details on more jobs for everyone (Oi! Always with the jobs!) Talked about our budget for this year, sponsors etc.

We'd all like to send a big thanks out to Sean McKee from Dlink Canada. Dlink will be providing network equipment again this year. Their 24 port switch was mostly responsible for the amazing network performance last year. Average pings were in the 8-16 range, with no PL.... Performance plus baby! Dlink is a long time supporter of the gaming comunity, and makes the equipment to do it right! From network cards and hubs to routers and switches. Dlink. Link for less.

Thanks to Everglide and PC Tote as well, recieved some swag from them. Thanks guys! :)

The planning and the plotting continue...

Just posted some updates to the tourney page... Plans and plots and such. Read 'em over, and post how you feel, your suggestions, flames etc in the forums. We need your feedback!

Working on the forms for signups as we speak. :) Should be up by the end of this week, so you can start reserving your spots. Please note that we are going for 100 players this year. We had 80 last year with very little promotion.... Reserve your spot (ex. Pay) ASAP.

Main page has some sort of odd FTP error that won't allow me to access the news page and update it.. grrrrrrr....

Just 1 day untill Tribes 2... Oh, and Black & White... Damn it.. Two sweet looking games that get delayed by a billion years, then they both come into my posession on the same day.. It's really not fair.... WHY MUST YOU MOCK ME OH LORD?!?!

Anyhows, LAN Party @ VAM Computers on Sunday. 10:30am ==>9pm. FRAGtopia staffers meeting starts @ 9:00am. Be there. :)

Yacking with NE|Cableguy last night, the man behind Smackdown 2001...... (Dopper should be posting a review of the party at sometime.) He's interested in setting up a LAN ladder.... Players and teams would get points for attending and scoring at LAN parties all over the place.. I suggested that at the end of a season, we get the top teams on the ladder together and have a championship... Something to think about, something that I think would be really cool and get peeps out to LANs. Post about it in the forums. :)

A few new sponsors have generously offered to help out with the LAN! Here they are, in no particular order.....

Logitech: Makers of fine and sexy peripherals. Mice, keyboards, mice, web cams, mice and more! They've also just announced a cordless optical mouse.... Lookin' pretty good.

Sierra: Tribes... Tribes.... :) Tribes 2...... Woohoo! Sierra in my mind can do no wrong. :)

Startech.com: Startech makes cables, networking equipment, fans and other peripheral equipment for your PC. Startech helped us out last year as well.

Planet Quake: Home of the much beloved Pappy-R, PQ Overlord (Long may he live) and naturally, the home of everything Quake related.

PC Tote: PC Tote makes sweet little carry systems for your PC... No more lugging around your precious gaming box in your arms, no more struggling with doors and stairs... Just snap it on, pick it up like a suitcase and away you go. VERY nice. PC Tote was also kind enough to help us out last year as well.

More work on the site to come... Working on the forms so you guys can pre-register as well.

Well, intro for the site is done, and the skeleton layout is done.. Now it's just filling in all the blanks and alot of typing. We started work on the forms for online resgistrations today, should be up in a few days. Man. I'm pumped about this one.. It's going to be alot of fun. Alot of work, but I think it'll be a hoot. :) Always is.

As usual, we need input from YOU GUYS! Take a look in the forums. Staffers will be posting thoughts and ideas. We need you guys to do the same. Let us know what you would like to see, what you liked or didn't like from last year etc.