GRRR Squad Forum

I agree.

Whatever we do, please lets not start saying "LOL". Type it or actually laugh but FFS please do not say it.

Fly we understand!

We all good at pretending on the shout box!

I mean we all pretend to like Paul and Jono.

A lot of time and effort went into those letters Drag!
Thanks for putting that together, we really appreciate it.

A special thanks to Fly for getting this ball rolling. Its not an easy task trying to promote 'gaming' without sounding like a nerd.
I reckon Fly and Drag were superb.

Thanks again guys!
nyx: Whatever the outcome, you're Grrr Legends! nyx:

Holding thumbs/crossing fingers that it all works out! Excited to see where this goes.

Flycatchr wrote:PLEASE DO NOT DISCUSS THIS WITH ANYONE OTHER THAN CLAN MEMBERS
PLEASE DO NOT DISCUSS THIS ON THE SHOUTBOX


we do not have anything in writing yet, things could still go south
and the admins need to decide the proper way to publicise whatever we do manage to achieve to the community so that we maintain the very reputation that got us the sponsors in the first place

AHA! First example of someone trying to censor me on the clan forum because of this sponsorship! And it hasn't even been confirmed yet! I won't stand for it I tell you!

LOL Jono

Thanks again to Fly for initiating all of this and to Jarrod as well for the exceptional letter to Martin.

Exciting times! Let's hope it works out that we get the sponsorship and that we can retain our unique elements that makes us truly [grrr]!

No-one got anything more to say on this? Discussion about how things would work, practice commitments, attending LANs, suggestions for value-add things that we could do for our sponsors, comments about the cost structure, ommissions from the cost structure, questions about Digital Life, questions about the sponsorship workings, opinions on the validity of this, concerns about team structure and selection, questions about clan management structure, waorries about being made to commit to stuff, hardware desires, legal worries, term and contract related stuff - or one of hundreds of other things?

I must say, that's rather disappointing. I know that this is nothing real as yet (and it may all come to nothing), but there is a possibility here that could be of major significance for the clan, and affect the way that things work going forward.

My instant response to Mike's feedback on his meeting with Martin was to think of all of the ramifications for the clan should this go ahead (both positive and negative). I also took the time to write this all up for Martin's benefit, as well as doing a write-up to post here for the clan to read. These things ultimately cost me time that I would've spent with my family this last weekend, as well as the majority of my limited gaming time over the last week. I would've thought that on reading the posts at the start of this thread that everyone would've had thoughts, comments, questions and suggetions that they'd like to share.

I am happy to do this, it is after all a commitment that I made to grrr when you elected me to take a turn as clan leader. And I think it's all a very exciting prospect. But I'll be honest, it doesn't feel like there is any real enthusiasm for this amongst the rest of you?

Thus far, only 8 people in the clan have actually even responded to this thread to share any kind of reaction. This in response to a couple of days work on my side, and a lot of effort from Fly to arrange and attend meetings with Martin - all of which has resulted in a pretty exciting potential sponsorship for the clan.

Now maybe I'm overreacting a little, after all this thread was created less than 24 hours ago. But still, to not have even one post of constructive feedback/discussion as yet? That's disappointing.

//rant

I'm off to chill and do some work.

Soz, Drag, but I felt you had covered most of it. Just a general outline seemed pretty good to me.

I appreciate the work that's been done so far and having read through your mail, I feel you and and the admins have already covered most of the bases. You were pretty thorough and I was totally surprised by the amount of detail that went into that mail. The last thing that I thought of was that you might miss something.

I'm keen to throw ideas into the pot here, and I know we have some really smart guys around who can come up with a handful of ideas in a 10min brainstorming session. Maybe we should all hook up on Teamspeak later tonight and run through a few ideas? Even if nothing else comes of it, at least we'll know how to approach the next meeting. eg, setting up minutes so we have some structure. I doubt we'll need minutes in our first effort. Just a casual brainstorming session and getting everyone's ideas and feelings out in the open.

Something I should add:
I've been sponsored before for online racing. Having won the SA championship for 3 years running, I was approached by an int'l sponsor to race in the European league.

It was a pretty informal contract, some clauses that might interest you:
The person who set up the contract was to be my manager. Anybody else who contacted me regarding sponsorship had to be directed to him.
My end of the bargain was to drive in the car livery that they supplied. I didn't have a say on anything regarding the car colours... they had it set up before they even contacted me, but they knew the league rules on what is acceptable and what isn't. eg, no porn or swearing allowed.
They did the car design and chose the number. I had to just race in their colours. I had to attend 6 of the 8 races minimum, plus I had to attend their team practices. (They had a crew of 4 setting the car up for me for each race, and there were 3 practices of 2 hours a week).

I got 1500 pounds for the season, and the crew would share the bonuses:
100 pounds per point
500 pounds per win, 400 for 2nd, 300 for 3rd and 200 for 4th and 100 for 5th.

It was a pretty basic deal. At the end of each race, I got a screenshot of the results and mailed it through to my 'manager', who would make sure I got paid.

Don't know if there's any other information I could give you on that? Welcome to ask. But maybe its not that relevant in our situation.

Still pretty overwhelmed by the whole situation. It's pretty impressive what has been achieved so far. Waiting to see where this goes and what the next step is. Looks like we're waiting on Martin to get back to us. Until he does, I didn't think we should get ahead of ourselves.

As grav mentioned Drag...
You have covered most of it.

Only input I can offer is that we could maybe "relabel" the monthly Lans here in witbank..... and in some way incorporate them in the whole thing as its a event being organised by grrr members and happens once a month and we allready have a venue...

Otherwise in my offline state my first priority is to get online and like mentioned before I will be online hopefully in eraly march and then I hope that I can try-out for this team as I dont have a issue to commit to the required pracs and wot not

And I also want to say thanks to Mike and you for setting this up as this is something we could only have dreamed of in earlier years ....

Hey Jarrod

We can see you put a lot of work into this and thus I think you have covered everything. Once we get their view on how it would work I am pretty sure we will then have questions.

But I do understand your frustration when you put in effort and it appears no one cares. This does highlight the fact that anyone who does "opt in" to this sponsorship will have to be willing to be alot more active and that doesn't mean posting more crap on the shoutbox

Having read through everything as layed out to Digital Life etc, I don't feel there is anything I can add apart from the points I raised in the Admins meeting. For the benefit of those who did not attend:

1) I do not want sponsorship to enforce attendance or participation in any game, LAN, competition as an 'obligation'. In other words, I do not want to end up with the clan in a situation where we have to force players to attend LANS/Comps that they would rather not play in because of sponsorship commitments. My major concern was that the sponsorship provided by Digital life et al would amount to no benefit to us as a clan other than enabling us to attend comps to represent our sponsors.

2) I will not be part of any arrangement whereby my clan participation and/or acitvity is limited or censored because of sponsorship. As a minor example, if Digital Life's sponsorship meant that swearing/innuendo/political or religious views expressed by any member (particularly me of course) in the shout box or any thread on the forum, needed to be policed, I would be dead set against any involvement in such an arrangement.

3) I do not want the sponsorship to form any division within the clan with regards to who is in the A team and who is in the B team etc. Financial backing means that we must select our 'best' players and this can lead to conflict.

4) I would be unhappy if sponsorship commitments amounted to anything more than regular practice and our best efforts to play well in competitions when representing [grrr] as sponsored by Digital Life. I'm talking in direct correlation to gaming as our mutual hobby/pastime. Wearing sponsors' t-shirts, putting their branding on my pc etc is fine; Becoming driven to win at all costs and losing the enjoyment of online gaming is not fine.

5) An extra point here: Unless this sponsorship is going to benefit the clan in ways that we haven't managed already through members' contributions, irregular r4ge sponsors from members' companies/employers etc, then I think we need to seriously consider our motives for accepting any arrangements with Digital Life. For the past 3 years, we have enabled most of our clan to attend r4ge (including transport and accomodation), we have organised our own t-shirts and sponsors for the clan, we have provided upgrades, games, software for members who otherwise would not be able to acquire said items (I have benefited from such aid many times from various members of the clan) etc. Unless Digital Life are offering something over and above this, we aren't benefitting from any arrangement. In addition, we should look at sponsorship that will benefit the clan as a whole, and not just those chosen to represent us in comps.


I know that most of the above sounds negative, but I am actually very excited about Digital Life's interest in sponsoring us. I'm fkin keen to see what they want to offer (exactly, not just ideas) and I think Fly and Jarrod deserve a huge amount of thanks for their efforts in bringing this opportunity to the clan. I will continue to play the pessimist, however, in the hopes that we rule out any possibility of disappointment that could arise from this deal, should it come to fruition.

Now I am 30 mins behind in my work, so I will fuck off.

Jono