I tried for the past couple days to come up with a few suggestions. Honestly its all a stretch. I couldnt really think of anything major.
-First being seating. And this has more to do with the attendees than it does the staff. I really dont know how difficult it is to follow directions. Pick your seat on the intranet then sit at it when you get to the event. Sitting in someone elses seat on purpose is outright disrespectful. Accidentally sitting in someones seat because you genuinely didnt know there was assigned seats and then making a big deal out of it when asked to move is, again, outright disrespectful. We had a guy drop out at the last second who MIGHT have came. Due to people switching seats, had he came he wouldnt have had a seat. Good thing he didnt make it. I'm sure the staff would have done a good job to accomodate us in some fashion, but it shouldnt have even gotten to that. PAY ATTENTION AND FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS!
-Second being Prize drawing. I share the same feeling about moving it to Saturday evening. One person above said they wish there would have been some kind of closing ceremony. With the prize drawings usually on Sunday morning, it kind of was the closing ceremony in past years. It also made everyone stay for the entire event. I noticed alot of people (including us) packed up the night before.
-Third - This goes to Munich and DWRoelands. I understand where both of you are coming from in regards to outbursts/celebrations. The key is to do it in moderation, and to still be mindful of your surroundings. When we won the BF3 tourney out team made a point to NOT yell like lunatics, to NOT shout WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! at the top of our lungs every time we got a kill. Nobody is expecting anyone to act like they're in a church, but it would be nice to not have people who didnt act like the 13 year old kids we all make fun of from Xbox live.
FITES has become more of a social event than it has a gaming event for me. Especially with trying to get something off the ground here in Philly. I only played a little UT3 when we first got there, and pretty much Battlefield3 the remainder of the time. This is NOT in any part to the way the even is run. Its just how I tend to utilize the event these days.
The only thing I wish you guys would really do is have MOAR events, and BIGGER ones. But from my understanding, thats in the works, and I'm looking forward to it.
thanks for another great event.