The BYOC will be located in Longhorn Exhibit Halls E and F, features nearly 3000 seats, a new console village, BYOC feature stage, and new BYOC tournament headquarters.
As a new feature for this year, we're proud to release our BYOC floor plan in advance so that attendees can get an early glimpse at some of the new feature areas we've added, and to help plan your seating. We've also included a "sound overlay" so that you can see areas of the BYOC that we expect to be noisy, in case a more quiet experience is what you're looking for in your LAN party experience.
Several new features have been added to the BYOC space for QuakeCon 2009 including a console village, a BYOC tournament headquarters, a feature stage, and an internalized BYOC registration. These join existing BYOC features that include a 24-hour information desk, a 24-hour technical support desk, our volunteer services headquarters, and, of course, nearly 3,000 seats for BYOC gamers.
Each year, we are contacted by gamers that want to bring their favorite console games with them into the BYOC. Historically, we've granted exceptions to the most responsible and community oriented groups to set up console gaming stations, but within fairly tight restrictions. You've probably seen them scattered around the BYOC with projectors against the wall. Console gaming isn't something that is easy to cater to with the infrastructure that we have in the BYOC, but it's something that we all want to find a way to encourage more of.
This year we're extremely proud to announce that we'll be providing first class support for up to six of those community groups that want to set up their own console gaming areas. This limited test group will help us determine what role console gaming will have in the future of QuakeCon events. If you're interested in helping to make this project a success, be sure to check out how to Apply to Join the BYOC Console Village news post for more details.
Everyone should take an opportuntity to swing by the Console Village and see what's up this year at QuakeCon.
One of the most longstanding QuakeCon traditions is that of the BYOC tournament. Leveraging the awesome size of the BYOC LAN, informal organized play can be the best gameplay experience that QuakeCon has to offer. This year, we're happy to announce that we're backing informal BYOC tournaments with official infrastructure.
New QuakeCon BYOC features to help with informal tournaments include a gathering area for organizing players, a (very) small stage to help organizers shout to their respective player-base, and a large facility for scribbling out and displaying brackets for tournaments. These public space resources will be available to anyone that wants to run BYOC floor organized play.
Additionally our BYOC NOC staff is dedicating themselves to providing servers for as many BYOC tournaments as possible and is willing to work with any tournament organizers to prepare games and organization.
If you're the type of QuakeCon attendee and/or volunteer that is interested in organizing informal tournaments in the BYOC, consider getting started with your preparations early! We have a BYOC Tourneys forum were you can start drumming up interest or even pre-registering for your tournament.
While QuakeCon has no shortage of amazing events taking place during the event on the traditional Main Stage and Event Stages, we've added a third stage for community features in the BYOC. Catering specifically to the BYOC community, the BYOC Feature Stage will host volunteer drawings, BYOC tournament finals, and more!
If you've been curious about the experience of attending the BYOC, you're in luck! NVIDIA is providing a fully equipped and staffed section of the BYOC that general attendees can visit and play the hottest id games with the rest of the BYOC.
The QuakeCon BYOC is unlike any other gaming experience, but can be daunting to prepare for attendance. Here are some quick guidelines to help you gather your equipment and know what to expect from our BYOC and our event security.
When attending QuakeCon as a member of the BYOC, you are allowed to bring one computer and one monitor. They will be checked in with you during your registration process, and then they will never be allowed to leave the secure area unless you check out and relinquish your BYOC spot. If you're bringing a laptop, this counts as both your one computer and your one monitor and it still may not exit with you unless you completely check out of the event.
Your monitor can be just about any size, within reason. If you're bringing a CRT monitor, then you must limit yourself to 24 inch tubes or less. If you're bringing a LCD monitor, then you need to ensure that you stay inside of your three feet of alloted space at your table. If you are overflowing your three feet of space, you could be asked to move. Generally speaking, if you must overflow, overflow onto your friends rather than strangers.
While our event security does an admirable job at protecting the safety of your "big ticket items", it's impossible for our event to properly identify and secure the myriad of accessories, gadgets, and toys that arrive at QuakeCon. As such, you are responsible for the safety of your own accessories, gadgets, and toys. How you decide to manage the risk of those items is at your descresion. If you wish to bring them in and out of the event every night or even every trip from your table, please plan on a delay as your bag is checked at the exit and entrance. Also, no speakers on BYOC computers, bring your favorite gaming headphones instead.
You won't need a powerstrip for your computer and monitor, but may bring one if you need additional outlets. You may not bring any Uninteruptable Power Supply (UPS) equipment. While LAN parties are often famous for having power problems, QuakeCon is uncharacteristically consistent. Additionally, UPSs increase the load in a manner that make the failures they are trying to protect your equipment from even more likely. It's not good for the community to protect your equipment at the expense of your neighbors' equipment.
The QuakeCon BYOC features, for about four days, one of the largest high performance networks in the world. A few guidelines are essential to keeping a safe and speedy network for everyone. First, you may only connect a single network interface to the BYOC network. Second, you may not share this connection, or create other ethernet networks (like 802.11 networks). Third, you should get any big system updates, malware definition files, and game patches downloaded before you arrive. Our internet connection is very limited and you will experience painfully slow download times if you must retreive files from the internet. Time downloading instead of gaming is time wasted.
It should be obvious to any BYOC attendee, but any malicious behavior on the network will result in ejection from the event, cheating included.
It's important to realize that the BYOC has the capacity to hold almost 3000 gamers that practically live in the three foot square areas they sit in. Larger than some townships, the BYOC is truely a community. Take pride in your temporary citizenship of the BYOC and try to help the community thrive as a welcoming, exciting, and extremely fun experience.
Socially disruptive behavior, like random yelling, refuse build up, display of adult images or video, and facility vandalism are all harmful to the BYOC experience for large number of our attendees--even if they don't speak up immediately about it. Help us keep the BYOC nice by reporting disruptive individuals and facility failure to the Tech Support Desk. Even just informing the Tech Support Desk of a trash can that needs emptied can help a lot at keeping the BYOC enjoyable for everyone.
