A VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

[J_Th4ng]

Hey guys!!

There has been an exciting development in grrrland over the last week or so, and it’s about time that I presented this to everybody for discussion, as it’s something that could affect us all – both positively and negatively.

Effectively, we may over the next couple of months land ourselves a sponsorship deal unlike any previously seen in South African PC gaming.

Sound exciting? It most definitely is!!

To give a little background:

At rAge last year, Flycatchr got into a discussion with a gentleman by the name of Martin Green. Martin is the sales manager for Digital Life magazine. Martin was interested in potentially setting up a sponsorship arrangement with a gaming clan, and was looking to get some more information on our clan in particular. Fly gave him some details surrounding our history, as well as discussing out involvement in the community and our achievements to date. He also provided Martin with a copy of the grrrAge 2008 video that Lee had made for us.

As a result of the above detail, as well as a recommendation from another clan leader - none other than Vinko (Chaosadpumkinhead of BBH), Martin decided that we were definitely the clan that he was most interested in. At this stage I can only speculate as to the reasons for this, but I believe them to be as follows:

1. Our membership demographic. We’re a little older than most, and most of our members are married or in serious relationships. A number of us are also parents, managing a gaming hobby whilst raising children. Having female members is also a drawcard, particularly in an activity that is very much dominated by young males. To all intents and purposes, we are ‘normal’ adults, that happen to have a gaming hobby (and as long as we keep him away from Paul, we can hopefully keep up this impression).
2. We are competitive, if not the best clan around. And we have a drive to improve on that record and become one of the best clans.
3. We have a strong bond between members. We have always prided ourselves as being as much a family as a gaming club. This appreciation of each other can be clearly seen in the fact that we engage in group activities outside of gaming, and also in the superbly edited grrrAge video from 2008.

All of the above should enable Digital Life to use us as a showcase of what normal people can do in terms of gaming. Gamers are becoming a serious group, and clearly Martin feels the need to identify with a certain segment of the gaming community, and we fit the bill.

Anyway, last week, Fly had a meeting with Martin, in order to discuss a potential sponsorship arrangement in more detail. Prior to the meeting, he and I had a brief discussion to cover off our expectations/desires in terms of sponsorship. This boiled down to the usual requests: Some cash towards T-Shirts, contributions towards our annual rAge pilgrimage, some assistance towards web server hosting and possibly a clan server for practicing. It turned out that Martin’s vision was a little more grand...

Martin has a number of partner organisations that he works with at Digital Life. Although he didn’t list them all, names like Rectron and AVG were mentioned. From what I gather (Fly, please add to this) Martin’s idea is to build an identity for us in conjunction with these partners. What this means is that we would be required to include sponsored logo’s in our tags and on our website, provide product placements, reviews and endorsements for relevant products (think graphics cards, not shampoo – especially since J0nny disposed of his ‘Legends of the Fall’ look!!). We will also be required to participate at a number of LAN’s throughout the year (up to four, rather than the usual one), and I would imagine provide interviews and appearances on behalf of Digital Life.

Sounds like a fair amount of stuff, eh? Of course, this sort of partnership would have to come with a significant reward to the clan (and of course to the members who are most involved). To this end, Martin asked that we should provide him with a breakdown of all costs associated with competing as a gaming team, over the course of a year. The numbers were to include travel and expenses to appear at LANs, hardware costs, general merchandising, and anything else that we deemed a requirement to successful competition. Martin will use this input as a motivation for sponsorships from his partners (either in terms of cash or product – Rectron supplied hardware for example).

Understandably, Fly left the meeting with Martin fairly fired up and excited about the prospects. He gave me a call to update me on the opportunity, at which point I got very excited too!! This agreement has the potential to be a landmark event in SA gaming sponsorship. As far as I know, no-one has been presented with an offer like this before. However, this sort of agreement also has some ‘costs’ associated with it, and they could be serious to the clan.

I called the clan admin team together to discuss these issues, in order to get a steer from them as to whether or not this would be something that we’d like to progress. Attendees at the discussion were myself, Lee, Sheri, Odi, and J0nny. Fly was included as a matter of course – he had brought this entire deal to the table after all. The only missing admin member was Mr Mega, who is unfortunately cooling his heels in Chad at the moment.

The issues discussed were as follows (if I miss anything here, please do update the list):

1. The sponsorship on offer will be for a specified number of individuals. It’s not as yet confirmed how big a BC2 team would be, but assuming it were 8 players (like BF2), there would be a sponsorship to cover a maximum of 10 people (allowing for two reserves). We would need to define exactly how people would be chosen for the team (both initially and on an ongoing basis), and ensure that there is no reason for resentment by non-selected clan members. It is unacceptable to create a rift in the clan because of this. Of course, certain sponsorships would benefit all members, e.g. merchandising, website hosting and clan server hosting.
2. Those members chosen for the team would have to provide a level of commitment previously unseen in the clan. Practice sessions would become scheduled and mandatory for all players, strategic planning and team management would have to be tightened up, and a disciplinary process would have to be introduced to punish infractions. ‘Real life’ will no longer be sufficient reason to skip on team commitments (of course with reasonable exceptions).
3. A clan code of conduct will have to be introduced, and fairly rigidly enforced. We are fairly strong on inappropriate behaviour currently, but this will have to be formalised. We will be representing a brand, and as such we will be required to behave appropriately at all times.
4. There is a fear that sponsors would wish to gain control over clan activities. Under no circumstances can we allow ourselves to be dictated to in terms of the game(s) that we play, the membership of the clan, or any leadership/management decision.
5. I do not want this clan to become another FiB – respected for our ability, but generally reviled by the community. One of the things that makes our clan special is that we are without a doubt one of the coolest clans out there, and it’s very important that this ethos doesn’t change. We cannot allow ourselves to become elitist because of a sponsorship arrangement, or because of an increased competitive focus.

Despite these concerns, it was unanimously agreed by the admin team that we should progress with this opportunity, and see what it was that Martin had to offer.

I sent a follow up email (complete with Spreadsheet attachment on costs) to Martin yesterday, and have already received a response from him. I’ll post this correspondence in its entirety shortly.

But before I do that, there are a few things that I want to make clear at this stage:

1. There has not been any agreement reached as yet. At this stage, it’s all vapourware. Although signs are encouraging, no agreement has been reached and it could all very easily come to nothing.
2. No team selection methodology has been defined as yet. We will be giving everyone an opportunity to voice their opinions on this, as well as declaring their own eligibility/ineligibility. There will most likely be members that are unwilling or unable to provide the level of commitment required to be in the team.
3. Although we should obviously discuss this amongst ourselves, please treat discussions as clan confidential until notified otherwise. As such, please confine all conversation about this to the Pryfart board of our forum, or secure chat between clan members (Skype/Steam chat/MSN etc.). That also means no chatting about it on the Shoutbox. We need to be very careful how we manage the communication with other clans should any deal be reached.

Guys, this is an amazing prospect!! We could very well be entering a new game (Bad Company 2), with heavyweight support from a major sponsor. Of course we will all be excited by this, and so we should be. It’s an honour to be selected as the preferred clan for this sponsorship. Let’s enjoy discussing the possibilities of what we could achieve. But at all times, remember that nothing has been agreed as yet, and it could all come to nothing.

I and the admin team (including Fly) will be working hard to ensure that we do everything that we can to make this a reality. We may ask for assistance from time to time from other clan members and I’m sure that everyone will assist wherever they can. If anyone has any ideas of anything that we can do to make this a reality, please let me know, or post it in this thread for general consumption. Having said that, Fly and I will be taking the lead on this initiative, and as such we will be applying our discretion as to how we interact with Martin and his partners. Of course logic and common sense must prevail, and if you feel that the clan is being misrepresented in any way, please raise any concerns that you have with a member of the admin team.

That’s all for now, let the discussions commence!! I’ll post the transcript of communications with Martin below, as well as a very interesting spreadsheet on costing. Well worth a look, I think!!

Oh, one last thing. HUGE kudos to our resident Flycatchr. Without your efforts, we wouldn’t have got anywhere close to this!!

[J_Th4ng]

Emails to and from Martin, as well as the spreadsheet.

My email to Martin from yesterday:

Dear Martin,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jarrod McElhinney, and I am the current leader of the gaming clan grrr. Mike Fletcher informed me of a meeting that he had with you last week, in order to discuss a possible clan sponsorship agreement with Digital Life and selected partners that you suggest.

Firstly, I’d like to thank you for the opportunity that you have offered us; I feel honoured that you have considered our clan as potential ambassadors for your magazine, and I trust that we will be able repay your faith with a tangible value offering to you and your partners. The opportunity that you have offered to us is fantastic, and I sincerely hope that we are able to turn these ideas into reality.

Subsequent to the meeting that you had with Mike, he gave me a call to discuss the possibilities highlighted in your meeting. He was extremely enthusiastic about the meeting and we discussed the potential value-add that we could provide to you and your partners, as long as the structure and framework of any agreement was suitably aligned to the clan ethos.

I then called a meeting of the clan leadership committee; in order to discuss the potential risks and rewards of entering into such a partnership, and ultimately confirm whether or not this was something that we felt should be progressed.

In the interest of transparency, I am happy to share with you the primary concerns that were raised and discussed in our meeting. They are as follows:

• Identity – We have a reputation within the gaming community of being a team that plays hard and fair, but also doesn’t take itself too seriously. A ‘win at all costs’ attitude would not serve the clan’s interests, and would in fact result in a serious change in our collective spirit
• Division – The grrr clan has always been something of a brotherhood/sisterhood. We are all good friends outside of our shared PC gaming hobby, and we favour group involvement and participation in many social activities. Creating a competitive team inside this framework (with a limited number of participants) has the potential to create unhealthy competition and feelings of exclusion within the clan itself, if not carefully managed
• Control – There is a concern that entering into a sponsorship agreement will mean ceding control of the clan to a third party. Under no circumstances would we be happy to enter into an agreement whereby sponsors could mandate such things as:
o New member acceptance/existing member dismissal
o The game(s) that we play (other than those agreed up front in the agreement)
o Team selection
o Clan branding
This of course does not mean that we would not be open to discussion on any of the above topics, however the final decision as to whether or not any sponsor suggestions are to be implemented must remain with the clan leadership

Despite these concerns, it was unanimously agreed by the leadership committee that this was an opportunity that we would not want to pass up, as the benefits for the clan (and gaming as a whole in South Africa) are of great potential significance, and this partnership could allow us to take our participation to the next level. As a clan we are gamers first, and we relish any opportunity to raise the profile of gaming in this country, beyond generally accepted public opinion that gaming is for children, nerds and the socially challenged.

We do acknowledge that, in order to receive sponsorship for our gaming activities, a significant increase in member commitment will be required. As such, we have decided that each individual clan member would be given the opportunity to opt in to any agreed sponsorship agreement, and that refusal to do so will not result in any punitive action upon the individual – although of course they would also be excluded from any benefits afforded by the agreement. Any individuals who opt-out from participation would still be governed by the clan’s code of conduct and as such will not be allowed to bring the clan’s name into disrepute in any way.

For those that do wish to be bound by the sponsorship agreement (and this is currently all clan members that have been approached), it is understood that there will be a time and effort commitment required in order for us to produce and maintain the highest possible standards of performance, as well as public relations activities, endorsements and attendance at agreed events. At the end of the day, our partners would be looking to us to add value to them, and we will look to deliver that value however possible.

As a clan, we believe that we have certain characteristics that make us unique and also appealing to the readership of Digital Life magazine. Most notable are the following observations about our current membership:

• All clan members are over the age of 21. The majority of our members are over thirty and are thus representative of a more mature segment of the gaming community (we prefer ‘mature’ to ‘old’!!)
• The majority of our membership is currently married, or has been in the past
• Two of our current members are female. In a sphere that is highly male dominated, this is highly unusual
• A number of our members have children, and have to juggle their gaming activities with being parents
• All of our members are employed (or run their own businesses), and therefore have to support the cost of their gaming hobby from their own earnings. Some of our vocations are: IT specialists, a network engineer, a credit consultant, an analytical model builder, a casting agent/cameraman/actor, a banker, an air conditioning supplier etc.

We believe that all of the above demographic characteristics combined with our successful competitive record sets us apart from any other gaming clan in South Africa.

Let me tell you a little more about the clan, its origins, and achievements.

The clan was formed in 2006 by two Cape Townian housemates, Gethyn ‘Megageth’ Gilmore, and Jonathon ‘sexy_jonny’ Wickwar. At the time, they had been playing Battlefield 2 for some time, and simply wanted to create a mechanism by which other players would recognise that they were friends when they were playing. Unlike most other clans, the name is not an acronym for anything, the name of the clan is grrr! Legend has it that the name was chosen by the two as a sign of the frustration that is occasionally felt in the game when being dominated by other players!

It wasn’t long before the two were being noticed in-game, and their competitive approach, friendly nature and wicked sense of humour resulted in them drawing a small group of like minded individuals to seek them out whenever they were on the servers, in order to play together with them as a squad of fun loving, easygoing but also competitive individuals. These people were to become the first recruits of the grrr clan.

Over the years since then, clan membership has not been static, with members joining (and sometimes leaving – regrettably in most cases) periodically over time. Our current rota stands at 16 members, and it peaked at 21 members at the end of 2008. It is not our intention to grow the clan significantly in terms of membership, as previously mentioned we are a close-knit group and it has always been more important for an applicant to fit in with the grrr character than to be a highly skilled player (although of course skilled competitors are always prized).

In terms of our competitive achievements, the highlight of our Battlefield 2 participation was our second place finish in the 2008 AGASA league, behind clan FiB. It was disappointing to us that we were not able to follow that success up with an equal standing at rAge 2008, unfortunately we were beaten into 3rd place by clan BFC (with FiB once again taking top honours).

As a clan we are very excited about the imminent arrival of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which is being released on the 5th of March. Most of our clan members pre-ordered the game and thereby secured access to the BETA testing program for the game, which has been ongoing for the last two weeks. On the evidence of what we have seen in the Beta, we are firmly of the belief that this game will be the ‘next big thing’ in competitive first person shooter gaming. With the latest Call of Duty title (Modern Warfare 2) not providing support for dedicated servers (and thereby destroying the game as a competitive option), there are a large number of Call of Duty 4 clans and players that have become bored of the game, and are thus looking for something new and different to compete in. This in addition to the almost guaranteed migration of both the Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 communities means that the user base for Bad Company 2 will likely be very high. Beta participation alone shows the amount of interest that there currently is in this game, with a total of nine servers already being hosted in South Africa to support the Beta program.

Grrr is well placed to be a major competitor in this new game. Not only do we have an experienced team that will move across from Battlefield 2 (a number of our members have already upgraded their PC’s in order to better support this game), we have also committed ourselves to enhance our teamwork abilities by means of a more prescribed practice structure, greater enforcement of commitment by players, and a changed team selection dynamic, all to ensure that we are as prepared as possible going into the forthcoming Bad Company 2 AGASA league. We firmly believe that we have the skills and the knowledge to take on FiB (Battlefield 2 AGASA and rAge champions for the last three years) and compete at the highest level in the new format.

Martin, I trust that this overview document gives you a little more detail of our clan as a whole, as well as our thoughts concerning this sponsorship opportunity. Mike mentioned to me that during the course of your meeting on Wednesday, you asked that we provide you with an indicative breakdown of the costs incurred by clan members in order to compete in both online and LAN based competition. To this end I have created a spreadsheet detailing typical costs, and have attached it to this email. You will note when reviewing the spreadsheet that I have created individual worksheets for each of the major cost areas, as well as a summary sheet (projected annual costs) that allows various factors to be changed, and calculates an total annual estimated cost that would be incurred. I trust that this will be useful to you. If you have any questions concerning any of the content of the spreadsheet, please do not hesitate to let me know. My contact details are included on my email signature. Feel free to give me a call if you’d like to discuss the various items, or in fact if you have any further questions about the clan.

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you myself, although the fact that I reside in Cape Town may make this a logistical challenge. I do travel to Johannesburg on business fairly frequently, and would certainly be able make some time to meet with you during any of my trips up there. My schedule is such that my daytime hours are usually filled (I have to pay the bills somehow!!), but would be more than willing to meet up in the evening or for an early breakfast, at your convenience.

For the sake of continuity, I suggest that Mike be copied in on all correspondence going forward. Not only has he represented the clan thus far in our interactions, but as a local resident he is better placed to be able to attend any face to face meetings that may be required.

At this point, I would like to thank you once again for your interest in our clan, and I hope that we will be able to take this opportunity forward. I am very excited by what we could achieve, both in terms of promoting your magazine, generating value for your partners, as well as moving the South African gaming community forward. The benefits of this arrangement are clear to us as a clan, and we are committed to any effort required to turn your proposal into a successful reality.

Kind regards,

Jarrod McElhinney

From Martin this morning:

Hello Jarrod, please to meet you and greetings Mike.

Thank you Grrr clan, for all the supplied information and the cost breakdown as delivered. I will go through the various aspects during the course of this week and reply should there be any additional information required.

Let me once more state that as Digital Life Brand, we are committed to our involvement with Clan Grrr and very excited to bring to fruition this mutually beneficial agreement within the next 6 – 8 weeks and look forward to an enjoyable year ahead.

Regards
Martin Green
Sales Manager
DigitalLife

[Paul]

Wow, just wow!

Serious kudos and that is with no sarcasm attached I always knew grrr was the best clan around (purely because I am in it) but this is seriously a whole new level.


Let me read through your epically long email and I will post my thoughts

[Phatso]

This is borderline surreality...

Excellent work from both Jarrod and Mike's sides. You guys are ambassadors for this clan

Jarrod, your businessman skills are evident and one would be foolish not to read your vocabularic™* masterpiece.
Mike, your enthusiasm and your friendliness and genuine character showed Martin that we aren't all twats..

Will post more thoughts as my chain of thought runs away with itself

Hooah!


*i am so claiming that

[flycatchr]

Mike, your enthusiasm and your friendliness and genuine character showed Martin that we are all twats..

LOL
:0 thats what i read

[s3xy_j0nny]

Mike, your enthusiasm and your friendliness and genuine character showed Martin that we aren't all twats..

Which is exactly why we need to put Paul back into his cage before anyone from Digital Life hears about or (God forbid) meets him...

[Megageth]

This is very exciting. Thanks to all working behind the scenes. I would suggest we all think carefully about how much time we are willing to commit to pracs and LANs whilst this sits on the backburner, its what I am going to do.

[Voetsek-Mikey]

Grrreat news.

A proud day to be Grrr!

We have the most weirdos and misfits put together - I like it and it look like Somebody else does to!


Well done Fly and Dr@g..... Grrr Legends!

[flycatchr]

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

[flycatchr]

my apologies for the mini meltdown, i would be devastated if we lost this for soe obscure political mess AND i would be devastated if this tore the clan apart.