Feel the need to get social with your gaming and find other like-minded Aussies? Tired of doing all your competitive gaming online? Not sure what groups are out there for you to join? Well, GameSpot AU is here to help. Welcome to the first edition of Club Lounge, a new ongoing feature that will profile some of Australia's largest gaming groups and clans. The first group to be profiled is the Sydney Gamers League (SGL). Founded in the late 1990s, SGL is aimed primarily at PC gamers who play competitive first-person shooters and real-time strategy games. However, the group also caters to the console market for specific games like FIFA Soccer.

　　GameSpot AU spent a few minutes with SGL competitions and assistant event manager Chris Hailes to get a rundown on the history of the organization, see how it runs tournaments, and find out what the league thinks the future holds for the local competitive gaming scene.

　　(And if you want your gaming group or clan profiled in a future Club Lounge, send an e-mail to [email protected] to get the ball rolling.)

　　GameSpot AU: Can you talk to us about the early days of SGL?

　　Chris Hailes: SGL, founded in 2001, was the fastest growing LAN gaming event in the Sydney area. Soon after, we very quickly became the source of all competitive gaming in the Sydney area. We were honoured to host the WCG and CPL National Finals, seeing the greatest gamers from all over the country battle it out for the right to fly to the international finals around the world and represent Australia. The main aim for SGL in the early days was the competitive gaming market, and over time, this has changed to accommodate both the fun- and serious-based competitions.

　　GS AU: How big is SGL and how far has the group come since the beginning?

　　CH: Since 2001, SGL has seen waves in attendance. In the early days, SGL was easily a 500-player event, and we were only limited by our networking equipment and choice of venues! But, unfortunately, some decisions were made that resulted in our numbers falling to 200. Currently SGL is on a comeback, with a new management team, brand new networking and power gear, and a new focus on fun. Our most recent event saw more than 350 through the door, and our current goal is to get back up to our old size of 500.

　　GS AU: What hurdles did you come across as you expanded?

　　CH: The biggest problem we are finding as we grow is with the venue. As you can imagine, finding more than a thousand square metres in floor space, more than a quarter of a million watts in power, and preferably 100Mbps in Internet connection is very hard to find.

　　Networking a tournament together is a mammoth task.

　　GS AU: What sort of games do you focus on and how often do you host events?

　　CH: Currently, we run competitions for some of the largest community-driven games like CSS/TF2/SC2/DoTA etc, but we pride ourselves on doing all kinds of games throughout our events; our last event we did was Mario Kart on N64 and Nerf Gun Duels. Ultimately, we want to run competitions for as many games as possible, but it all depends on time and sponsor support. But that's not to say that we don’t play noncompetitive games! I have seen all manners of games being played, from DOS games to single-player games. Currently, we have been running at around five events a year; however, as we secure a new venue, we will be running at six larger events (for up to 500 people) and six smaller events (for about 100 people) each year.

　　GS AU: Where do you get the money to host events from? Is it difficult getting funds together?

　　CH: It is surprisingly costly to run an event for anything over 100 people. Firstly, there's the networking equipment, which includes about a quarter of a tonne of switches and routers, plus around 10km of Cat6 Ethernet cable, all to provide a state of the art, gigabit LAN. At the last event, we had more than 500 terabytes transferred. Then there is the power equipment, including distribution boards to convert three-phase power into standard power, all of which has to be done safely (we have had no breakages or damages to any of our participants electronics). And finally, there is the Internet cost. At the last event, we had a direct 30Mbps pipe out to the Internet, and we ran up 700GB of Internet quota in one weekend!

　　Part of our troubles comes in trying to maintain the $20,000 in prizes we give out at each event.

　　GS AU: What's the biggest event/achievement that SGL has pulled off recently and can you describe it to us?

　　CH: Recently, we have acquired Nvidia as a sponsor, who provided SGL with the world’s first Nvidia 3D Vision Surround beta. This technology is a combination of Nvidia's 3D technology and Nvidia 's Surround technology (for example, playing a game like Bad Company over three screens), resulting in the ability to play a game over three screens in 3D. That was quite an intense experience.

　　GS AU: How can people get involved with SGL to either help out or compete in?

　　CH: People who wish to attend the event or compete in the competitions just need to keep an eye on www.sgl.org.au for the new event details; anyone interested in helping out with setup, pack up, or throughout the event can touch base with Chris (r0cKy) by PMing him through the SGL forums.

　　A bird's-eye view from SGL 3.

　　GS AU: What does the future hold for SGL?

　　CH: The future for SGL is bright. At the moment, we are looking at warehouses to convert into "gaming houses," complete with sleeping areas, permanent setups for different gaming, and awesome net, so keep an eye out on www.sgl.org.au for details about that in the coming month or two.

　　GS AU: Compared to overseas leagues, the competitive gaming scene in Australia struggles a bit in comparison. Why do you think that is?

　　CH: Overseas leagues, unfortunately, have always had the sponsorship power, which in Australia, just doesn't exist. We have, unfortunately, not been able to get the same kind of support with large manufacturers or suppliers here in Australia. While competitive gaming is popular in Australia, it’s a much larger market in other countries. I believe this will be changing in the near future with large distributors like Altech and manufacturers like Asus getting behind gaming events. The growing demand for large-scale computer gaming events in both the competitive and social markets will assist in getting bigger and better sponsors, which will in turn make events larger and better. As you can see, it’s an endless cycle! SGL's ultimate goal would be to run the largest event in the country, but to do that, we need support from more companies to assist with the larger costs associated with doing so!