This page will update as I get new information, so bookmark this and check frequently for more news on the LAN! Updated as of 8/2/14…See updated area below.

This year, I’m going to do something different than last year. I’m having this at my home and it will be 8 hours of gaming and more!

Mark your calendars for August 16 (Saturday).  Rain or Shine (I have adequate space to hold this in doors) Outside portion of the LAN would be for grilling, hanging out, etc…
Time: 1-9pm
Where: My home in Pittsburgh, PA. Attendees will receive my address shortly before the LAN. I appreciate and expect this information not to be passed around. It is ONLY for attendees. Please respect my concerns on this.
Age requirement: 18 and over. I will accept 16 and 17 year olds, ONLY if they have a parent/guardian present and that I get their okay in person as well as writing, the day of the event. NO exceptions.
Drinking: Only those over 21 (with valid ID) are permitted to have alcohol. However, it is ‘bring your own’. It is expected that you act as a responsible adult (regardless of drinking alcohol or not).

Anyone acting up, misbehaving, or otherwise disturbing the rest of the attendees will be asked to leave (WITHOUT a refund). Depending on the level of disturbance, law enforcement may be called. I am VERY strict on this as this is my HOME. I have to deal with any aftermath. So I will not tolerate someone who isn’t acting responsibly.

 Cost: Alrighty folks, now that I’ve put the downpayment on the LAN services (Consoles, Screens, etc), and have had the fundraiser going for a bit, I’ve now got a price per attendee.
Now, before I state the price, I’ll let you know that the price per attendee come DOWN if we get more people to donate to the fundraiser. So the cost stated is the most it will be. It will NOT go any higher.

Okay, that out of the way, the cost per attendee is $35.
That will cover the 8 hour LAN time (nearly 3 times as long as last year’s LAN), your entry into the FFA tournament, food and beverage for the day. You will also receive a small goody bag. This will include the 2014 Halo Mega Bloks exclusive figure among other things.

[UPDATE] Okay folks, were two weeks out from the LAN. So I figured this would be a good time to post what the schedule of will be. Before I start that, let me state a few things. Photos will be taken throughout. By coming to the LAN, you consent to have your photo taken without reimbursement in any form. Photos will be used for Blog purposes, such as the LAN recap and possibly as part of background images for the Blog’s home page.

Alcohol is bring your own. You MUST be 21 with a valid license to bring and drink on the premises. NO exceptions. If I feel you are unfit to drive, you are NOT to drive. Rather you will be instructed to call someone to get you, be that friend, family or taxi. (Cost to yourself, not HFFL). This is a family type gathering, so please behave as such. Remember, I have to continue to live here after everyone else leaves. Bad behavior will not be tolerated. Be forewarned that we have police as neighbors. Again, act respectfully. Okay, on with the schedule:

Smoking is not permitted on the property. There will be a receptacle just outside of the property fence for you to smoke by and dispose of your cigarette butts. (I have breathing problems, so please be mindful and respectful of that, thanks.)

Noone is permitted to come to the LAN without paying full admission. This is due to the need to cover the equipment and food/beverages cost, as well as the cost for some of the prizes.

Aug 16, Pittsburgh, PA (at my home) Please feel free to mingle about during the course of the day. I encourage it!

Cost $35 
This gives you free pizza, burgers, hot dogs, beverages (soft drinks), a door prize and gaming on screens/consoles from GameOn. As well, you’re automatically entered into the FFA tourney. You’re free to participate in the trivia contests as well, for prizes.

Start time 1pm (You’re welcome to show up earlier, though I may put you to work helping set up for the LAN)

1-1:15pm Introductions/Door Prizes
Starting with myself, we’ll all each introduce ourselves. You will be given a sticker to put your first name and gamer tag on. Let us know where you came from to get to the LAN. After such time, I’ll hand out door prizes to everyone.

1:15-2pm Pizza and casual gameplay. 
Pizza is being provided by HFFL’s very own PensHalo.

2-2:45pm Halo Show and Tell
Please bring something Halo related that is either one of your favorite things or something fairly unique. Each person will be given a few minutes to talk about the time they bring.

2:45-4 FFA Tournament
This will be a double elimination tourney. So even if you lose in your first match, you’ll get a chance to continue on.
This is going to be played on four consoles. Top two move on in the winners bracket, while the bottom two will move to the losers bracket. If you lose again in the losers bracket you’re out. If you lose once in the winners bracket, you’ll move to the losers bracket and still compete until you lose again.
If more time is needed, the schedule will be shifted to accommodate the time needed.

Prizes will be awarded after the Group Photo (read on)

4-4:30pm Halo trivia contests w/prizes
There will be a few simple questions asked and the first to answer correctly wins a small prize. Then, challenge yourself in the written test. YES, there will be a test! LOL. A 20 question trivia contest. The person who answers the most wins. In the event of a tie, there will be a run-off between those persons in a lightning round.

4:30-4:45 Group Photo shoot
Beyond taking some pics of everyone attending as a whole, we’ll get some individual and small group shots too. These will be posted on the blog.

4:45-6pm Casual Halo 4 gameplay
Players choice on what game types.

6-6:45 Burgers and Dogs!
I’ll be grilling hotdogs and making homemade hamburgers. Cheese, Tomato, Lettuce, Ketchup and Mustard will be provided. (And of course buns, LOL) Beverages will be available throughout the whole of the LAN.

6:45-9:45pm Casual Halo 4 gameplay

9:45-10pm Wrapping up
It would be appreciated if any of you would help in clean-up, though not mandatory.

If you are coming to the LAN and it’s SOLID that you are, please e-mail me at [email protected]
Please let me know if you will be bringing anyone with you and how many. Only e-mail me if you are CERTAIN you are coming.

I will be e-mailing attendees my address the Saturday before the LAN (a week from today). This is why it is IMPORTANT for you to e-mail me your confirmation of coming to the LAN.

At least a week’s RSVP is preferred. You may who up the day of, however, I can not guarantee door prizes to those who do not e-mail me before hand. Those are ‘while supplies last’.

Any questions, please feel free to ask via e-mail.

[/UPDATE]

Regarding donations: This isn’t just to raise money for the LAN and domain renewal. I am proud to announce that HFFL will donate a portions of the funds to the Autism Society of Pittsburgh.

The way this will work is 50% of funds raised will go to the LAN/domain renewal and the other 50% to the charity. Should the funds raised exceed $2,000, anything above that $2,000 mark will be donated to the charity.

Here are three examples to illustrate this.
$1,000 raised will see $500 to HFFL and $500 to ASoP
$2,000 raised will see $1,000 to HFFL and $1,000 to ASoP
$3,000 raised will see $1,000 to HFFL and $2,000 to ASoP

In essence this means that HFFL at most would have $1,000 of funds raised, where as the charity once total funds raised is at $2,000 will receive all monies above that amount. I would like to ask you folks to kindly pass this information around to hopefully get more funds raised for the charity.

I chose this charity due to Mega Bloks also supporting Autism. Mind you, this decision was made BEFORE Mega committed to being a sponsor. So it’s just icing on the cake that they did say yes to sponsoring this.

We’ve stalled at $400 raised. Only $200 of that is going to the LAN. So that means $550 needs to be covered. Last year we had 15 paying attendees (and a few extras that didn’t game, but still attended). The $35 cost was based off that number. $35 X 15 attendees = $525. The left over $25 would be my cost, so no worries there.

If we get more donations for the fundraiser, more will be applied to both the LAN and the Charity (Autism Society of Pittsburgh). Again, that also means cost per person can come down. Should we have more than 15 paying attendees, the cost will go down accordingly.

I’ve said it before, but to be sure, I’m not looking to make any money from this. As you can see from the numbers above, with the LAN costing $750, I’ll be covering all expenses for food and drink (no alcohol, that’s bring your own and ONLY if your 21 and above – IDs will be checked).

So here’s where I once again ask that everyone get the word out about the fundraiser. If you are attending, get your Halo friends to come to, so your cost will come down.

If you want to bring your XBOX 360/controllers/screen, that’s definitely permissible. If you do bring your own set-up, your cost will be reduced by $15 from the final price (should it change from the $35 as stated above). No modded controllers or XBOX’s though! 

There will be a FFA tourney. 

I’d really appreciate it if you’d consider donating to the blog, via the paypal link on the main page.

Here’s the good thing about that, if everyone who came to the site in just ONE day of the 365 days in a year donated $1, I’ve have enough to cover the LAN and the blog’s renewal as well as the charity fundraising (see below)  I hope that you find my blog is worth at least that much in entertaining Halo articles, news, art, reviews, the Spirit of Fire Podcast and so on. From now until Aug 1st, or if I raise enough sooner, I’ll be holding the fundraiser for this and on occasion post a gentle reminder. This isn’t mandatory. I’ll never ask for “dues”. My site is free to all.

If enough is raised to cover the cost of the LAN, then it’s free to come to. 

Mega Bloks has agreed to sponsor the LAN by way of door prizes and tournament prizes. Each attendee will receive a door prize (first come first serve/while supplies last). 

Mega Bloks released a pic of their 2014 convention exclusive figure. Feast you eyes on a newly articulated, removable armored Cyan Spartan Mark VI (Halo 4 style).

What makes this special to me is the color choice. Cyan and Black are HFFL’s official colors. Now I can’t say if there is a correlation here or not. What I will say is that I will have a few DOZEN of these to give away as door prizes at the 2nd Annual HFFL LANstravaganza.

As to the prizes for the tournament, that information will be revealed closer to the LAN date.

Click Mega’s logo above to go to their Halo Mega Bloks homepage!

Food and Refreshments will be available as part of your admission. Food will be the good old American classic summer foods: Hot Dogs and Hamburgers. PLUS, I may just make a special dish…

If you want to bring someone that won’t be gaming, that is fine. There will be a small charge for refreshments to them. That TBD by the amount of attendees.

-Sal