Today, we’re excited to welcome BenQ as a sponsor of Gamers for Giving 2016! A longtime supporter of our efforts, BenQ will once again be providing us with equipment for use at our annual fundraising event.

BenQ is the leading monitor brand for competitive gamers. The company delivers a broad range of projectors, flat panel displays, and monitors for any application. Their cutting-edge models lead the industry in performance, reliability, environmental sustainability, and aesthetics.

BenQ monitors will be deployed throughout the Gamers Outreach streaming lounge – an area of the 2016 event specifically dedicated to streamers and guests who will be raising funds in support of the cause.

We’re incredibly thankful to have BenQ’s support. Be sure to show them some love on Facebook and Twitter, and check out their products during this year’s event!

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

We’ve just posted the format of the Gamers for Giving 2016 Call of Duty tournament! If you plan on joining us, be sure to read through the competition rules by viewing the tournament PDF, or by visiting the Tournaments page.

The Call of Duty tournament will span across both Saturday and Sunday. Teams should anticipate playing on both days!

Team passes are currently available for purchase through our partner, LANFest.

A team pass grants four players + one coach with access to the event. Only one person needs to purchase a pass for a team. We will collect all team information (player names, team name, etc.) at the event itself.

Our stream plans for this year’s event will be announced in the coming weeks.

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to drop us a line on Twitter,@GamersOutreach.

Hope to see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

Halo has always been a part of Gamers for Giving – and that trend will continue this March! The franchise that led to the birth of our event will once again have a presence at Gamers for Giving! On that note, we’re excited to announce this year’s tournament format has been posted! If you plan to participate, please familiarize yourself with the tournament rules by viewing the competition PDF, or by visiting the Tournaments page.

Note: the competition will take place over the course of both Saturday, March 12th AND Sunday, March 13th. Teams should anticipate competing on both days.

Team passes are currently available for purchase through our partner, LANFest. A team pass grants four players + one coach with access to the event. Only one person needs to purchase a pass for a team. We will collect all team information (player names, team name, etc.) at the event itself.

Our stream plans for this year’s event will be announced in the coming weeks.

If you have any feedback or questions, feel free to drop us a line on Twitter, @GamersOutreach.

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

Update: we’ve made a change to the tournament format since our original post. Players will need to bring their own controllers, which must be Nintendo GameCube controllers only. All other controllers, including Nintendo Wii U Pro controllers, are not allowed.

Smashers rejoice! The tournament format for our upcoming Smash Bros. event at Gamers for Giving 2016 has been posted! YES!

You can read through the format of this year’s competition by visiting the Tournaments page, or by checking out the full rule-set PDF by clicking here.

Note: we’ve made a change to the schedule. The tournament will now only take place over the course of Sunday, March 13th. While attendees will be able to access the venue throughout the weekend, actual competition will only take place on Sunday.

Warm up / friendlies will begin at 10:00 AM on Sunday, and last until 11:30 AM. The tournament will begin at approximately 12:00 PM.

Monitors, consoles, and Wii U GameCube controller adapters will be provided. Players must bring Nintendo GameCube controllers. See the tournament rules to ensure you bring everything you need to participate!

If you have any questions, feel free to hit us up on Twitter! We’ll see you at the EMU Convocation Center this March!

Hearthstone players, ready your decks! We’ve just posted the Gamers for Giving 2016 Hearthstone tournament document! This is the first year Hearthstone will be featured as a headline tournament, and we’re excited to see how the competition unfolds! You can view the full PDF rule-set by clicking here, or by visiting the Tournaments page.

One thing to note: we’ve changed the original schedule. The Hearthstone tournament will now only take place on Sunday, March 13th. We’ve made this change in an effort to accommodate more players competing in tournaments on Saturday.

After arriving to the event and obtaining credentials, players may register for the Hearthstone tournament at any time on Saturday, or between 10 AM and 11:30 AM on Sunday. Simply visit the Tournament Desk located at the NOC in the center of the arena floor.

The tournament will begin at approximately 12:00 PM on Sunday, March 13th.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to drop us a line on Twitter.

We’ll see you at the EMU Convocation Center this March!

Are you a PC gamer who attends a LAN party to, you know, actually play on the LAN? Well, we’ve got good news! We’ve just posted a list of the local servers we’ll be hosting at this year’s Gamers for Giving!

Game servers include…

• Minecraft
• Tekkit Classic
• Left 4 Dead
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Team Fortress 2
• Garry’s Mod
• Half Life 2: Deathmatch
• Public CS: GO Server
• CS: GO Tournament Warm-Up Server (2)
• F.E.A.R.
• Counter-Strike 1.6

A full rundown of activities we’re planning for the LAN can be found on the LAN Party section of the Gamers for Giving website. Expect this section to grow a bit between now and the weekend of our event!

Have a request or recommendation for another server? Hit us up on Twitter, @GamersOutreach!

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th and the EMU Convocation Center!

For those of you planning to participate in the Gamers for Giving 2016 CS: GO tournament – we’ve just posted the detailed outline of the event’s format over on the Tournaments page! You can access the full PDF by clicking here.

If you competed in last year’s tournament, you’ll notice the overall format and map pool are very similar with one (potential) change in regards to seeding. Teams will either participate in a round-robin style competition to determine initial bracket seeding (like last year), OR teams will be seeded directly into the tournament bracket based on the in-game ranks of players. Tournament administrators will determine the best method of seeding in consideration of time constraints based on the competition’s number of entrants.

Either way, seeds will be influenced by the collective in-game ranking of a team’s players. In-game ranks will be assigned a numerical value of 1 – 18 (Silver I = 1, Silver II = 2, Silver III = 3, etc…). The sum of a team’s numerical rank will influence its starting position in the tournament, or its initial pool of competitors during round-robin play.

For example, a team comprised of five Global Elite players will be assigned a numerical rank of 90 (18 x 5). A team comprised of five Silver I players will be assigned a numerical rank of 5 (1 x 5). Teams with higher numerical ranks will be given higher seeds. Teams will be responsible for reporting the in-game rank of each of their players upon registering for the tournament. A tournament administrator will verify the ranking of each player prior to the start of the first tournament match. In the event players have misrepresented their ranks, administrators reserve the right to assign a match forfeit to the team.

If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to send us an email at contact@gamersoutreach.org, or hit us up on Twitter!

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!

The blog title says it all! If you didn’t have the chance to grab a seat in the LAN party, now’s your chance! We’ve just added more rows to the event! New seats can be purchased here.

We’ll start announcing the availability of seats over the course of today and tomorrow, so be sure to grab yours while tickets are available!

Additionally, if you’re a team of players who want to sit together but are currently spread throughout the LAN, now would be a good time to take advantage of the extra space and move your seats next to one another.

The total seat count in the LAN is now 520 (including VIP seats). Wowza.

We look forward to seeing you in March!

We’ve just updated the Schedule page to reflect our anticipated flow of activities. While we plan to add a few more items not currently listed, the current schedule should give you a basic idea of when you’ll want to be present at the event.

Gamers for Giving is like a music festival. As the hosts, we organize specific headline activities that take place during the event. Beyond those activities, Gamers for Giving is what you make of it. Free play and exhibition gaming occurs throughout the entire duration of the event, and LAN party attendees play whatever games they choose to bring.

The overall schedule can be found below. Please note: the schedule may be subject to change. Be sure to check the Gamers for Giving blog, Twitter, and Facebook for updates!

Saturday, March 12th:

• 9:00 AM | VIP ticket holders may obtain credentials and begin setting up equipment.
• 10:00 AM | All attendees may begin checking in and obtaining credentials. Console stations will be open for warm up. PC tournament participants may register themselves for their respective tournament by visiting the NOC. Exhibitor booths will open.
• 11:30 AM | The console warm up period will be closed. All console players will be asked to clear the stations in preparation for the tournament.
• 11:45 AM | Opening keynote. Streams go live.
• 12:00 PM | Console tournaments begin.
• 1:00 PM | Registration for PC tournaments closes. Brackets constructed.
• 1:30 PM | PC tournaments begin.
• 11:00 PM | Day 1 of tournament play ends. Venue will be open throughout the evening for registered participants.

Sunday, March 13th:

• 9:00 AM | Console stations open for warm-up.
• 10:00 AM | Console warm up period closed. All console players will be asked to clear the stations in preparation for the tournament. Exhibitor booths will open.
• 10:30 AM | Day 2 of PC & console tournaments begins. Tournament streams go live.
• 6:00 PM | Raffle Drawing
• 10:00 PM | Approximate Tournament Finale. Streams end.
• 11:00 PM |  Tear down begins. Event is over! See you next year!

The Gamers for Giving 2016 League of Legends tournament settings have been posted! If you plan on competing, be sure to familiarize yourself with the format of this year’s event by reading through the tournament PDF, located here. You can also find the PDF on the Tournaments page of the Gamers for Giving website.

Here are a couple major items to note…

• Each team will be seeded in the tournament bracket based on the average tier rank of its members.
• The tournament will take place over the course of both Saturday AND Sunday. Players should anticipate playing on both days.

The tournament will have a guaranteed $3,000 prize pool. The prize pool may increase in the event we are able to secure excess or specialized sponsorship, but will otherwise remain constant regardless of the number of tournament participants. In the event of a prize pool increase, an announcement will be made here on our website.

We plan to stream the entirety of the League of Legends tournament. The stream channel has not yet been determined, but we’ll be sure to keep you updated as we get closer to the event.

If you have questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us on Twitter,@GamersOutreach or to @JStratose (who is also acting as the tournament’s head admin).

We’ll see you on March 12th & 13th at the EMU Convocation Center!