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This might be better in the LAN subforum, but cross exposure is good and this is an announcement of sorts.

eXtelevision, in partnership with several other international TF2 organisations, are running a donation drive for sending two American teams to i46. We want to raise significant amounts of cash, $20,000 USD, 12767.32 pound or 15898.26 euros in total. It seems like a lot of money, but at the time of posting, a little more than 2 hours after donations opened, we were at 2% of our goal. As an international community of gamers, we can do this. Every donation helps and everyone can lend a hand, even if it means just forgoing a cup of starbucks or a night out at the bar, it could mean making i46 the most amazing experience in competitive TF2 ever.

Here is the donation link:
http://extv.chipin.com/i46-multiplay-north-american-contingent

Thanks everyone!

FAQ (thanks atmo)

What happens if you don’t get enough for one team ($10k)
between pledges, what we already have and what we are projecting to get, we will make 10k so that isnt an issue

What happens if you don’t get enough for two teams ($20k)
If we have sufficient time left when we get 10k, we are going to try for 20k, if it looks as if we arent going to make it, even with increased team contributions etc, then we will analyse the situation then, but it will be something amenable to the contributors.

What happens if you get more than enough (>$20k)
We will cut off the donations once we have met our goal.

These professional gamers have sponsors, why should we pay for them?

In addition, of the 4 teams that are up for the chance to go, 3 are community sponsored and one is sponsored by an organisation so small, they were only able to pay for 1 of the flight tickets (LG, if you are reading this, you are really appreciated and your contributions mean a lot to everyone, you have been in the game for a long time and your honesty and meaningful contributions do not go unnoticed). Ergo, this sort of deal we are doing here is THE ONLY METHOD OF SPONSORSHIP IN NA TF2. We want to have an exciting lan to watch, a scene to get behind, so we provide for it season after season after season.

In essence, they dont have sponsors at all. Only one team is even kind of sponsored and while, I am sure they will ask for a small amount of money to go, LG is not a big ticket globe trotting sponsor and so cannot pay for a team of 6 to go.

What do I get for donating?

There is a lot for everyone to gain. The most obvious is that those who are going will get to sit side by side with some of the biggest names in NA tf2, see them play live against great euro teams with no lag, no bullshit, no confusion. This is a great community builder and the opportunity to get the eXtv staff (who are paying their own way) to meet with the VanillaTV staff in person, develop those ties, will only improve the content coverage for everyone.

There is also the issue of, since eXtv will not be live producing the event, we can post produce a documentary about the event, show everyone everywhere, if they could come to i46 or not, the event and what it means to everyone. This sort of stunt also pulls sponsors in, seeing a community band together is what big name sponsors like.

It will allow us to have a big, international, exciting event for our growing non competitive viewer base, because it is important for the longevity of the game that pubbers become aware and excited about events like these.

All these things means new interest, money, excitement, content etc for each and every one of you. Surely that is worth sacrificing one night out drinking.

Why are flights so expensive? I saw them for tuppence and a wink on zombocom!
The flights were priced on kayak, bing and several other big travel sites as well as being ran by someone I know in the business of travel arranging. Unfortunately, the LAN is during the most popular travel season to England and other parts of Europe so airfare is much higher, also since we have to buy tickets so close to departure, they will be even more expensive than usual.

I’m poor and Scottish, what can I do besides give you money?
The biggest things you can do are spread the word to everywhere you know TF2 penetrates, and in places it doesn’t. eXtv doesn’t have a huge staff base so we can only cover a few outlets (you whiny euros take most of my free time just here on etf2l forums). You can also donate items, hats, keys, buds etc to our item donation fund, ran by eXtv and organised by our friend Chaplain. We have already raised about 200 dollars through that alone, a decent amount of money.

On the ground we are going to need some help in terms of computers that we can borrow for our players, maybe some transportation and anything else that might be useful. We don’t have a full list of what we need, but we will have more information on what we need to borrow closer to the event.

This is too short notice! Why don’t you wait until i49?
This is a little harder to answer, but basically we don’t think we are going to get another chance like this. TF2 isn’t dying, but excitement for LANs and such is. i49 might not be as TF2 centric as this one and we want to take full advantage of this while we still can. Our window to impress sponsors, advertisers and the general public isn’t a big one, so we intend to hit it hard with this.

come to i46 and get raped ))
jk

Quoted from rytis

did anyone bother writing to VALVE?

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/money.jpg

eXtine contacted Valve… Answer was no.

reddit thread here, get the word out!

http://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/v8u0m/help_send_the_top_2_na_tf2_teams_to_i46_lan/

Quoted from Sideshow

Just wondering, flow’s plans were originally to use the LAN winning from the esea one to fun their travel to i46.

afaik the ESEA prize money is needed to cover the ESEA LAN travel expenses

Quoted from Sideshow

Just wondering, flow’s plans were originally to use the LAN winning from the esea one to fun their travel to i46. If they win both the esea lan and this tournament, are they going to pocket the extra cash from esea? I mean they’re totally entitled to, it’s their winnings, just a thought.

EDIT: applies to every team, not just flow, but they seem to be the best which is why it’s more relevant

Although there is no promise from the teams in this regard, there is at least a bit of assumption that ESEA lan winnings will go to helping make this a reality, even if only making it so that the winners can afford food etc while there.

Many different approaches with Valve were taken but unfortuantely they wouldn’t commit to helping us make a specific Hat just for i46 lan that we could sell :[. I can understand that they want to keep well away as if they let us do this one thing they open the flood gates for everyone to throw ideas at them to sell items for different causes.

This project has my full backing and all of this money will essentially be going on travel and accomodation, its not like we’re paying for their alcahol and caviar etc :].