Hahha I was so confused when I opened this thread from the beginning and saw it was over a year old (then vaguely remembered when Napalm originally posted it) -- oh Krakah you silly goose. Now that its been risen from the grave, I'd like to say that tournaments are great, but pick up games have the potential to be pure gold at LAN parties; especially ones as big as yours (that's what she said?)
As Krakah mentioned, we popped in our KF server, then FITES made an announcement and within minutes it was full. Not sure if they saw the flyer that we handed out or if someone asked, but this quickly became the highlight of the LAN for me this year!
I guess there's nothing wrong with people adhering to their own schedules, loosely based around tournaments etc. but to me personally, when there are literally hundreds of people gathered in the same room for a weekend of gaming that has been planned all year, its a shame we don't [collectively] interact more in the actual GAMES.
Just imagine coordinating 25% of ALL attendees to join the same empty 64 man Battlefield 3 server, or get a few 32 man Tribes: Ascend filled up, or even the underrated, but extremely fun Aliens vs Predator multiplayer... these are just some FPS games; the list is endless with the right attitude

I'll end my rambling with this... we all know the feeling, 2 or 3 friends boot up a game, that familiar Steam message pops up and before you know it, everyone is in chatting via TS/Mumble/etc. hooting & hollering
and we're all having a blast! I know the majority of you know exactly what I'm talking about (especially the FITES guys because we did it virtually for awhile with BFBC2) and I would love if we can work toward making this a reality at the bigger events.