Sometimes, I'm bad at this...

We here at CPT Aus HQ have been trying to work out what form the event will take this year. By this time we’ve usually locked in major sponsors, and maybe even started recieving and posting pics of prizes, but none of that has really happened yet.

Y’all know what’s what. We don’t need to go too far into the dumpster fire that is a lot of 2020, but maybe now more than ever people need a little bit of happy in their lives.

So, after some Deep Thinking, we’ve definitely decided we’re going ahead, in some form, at some time during PAX Online.

Prize scrounging emails are about to go out, and we’ll keep y’all up to date as people (hopefully) confirm. We want y’all to know, though, that we’re going to take it very gently with even our frequent collaborators. For a great many reasons, lots of folks have other things on their mind, so if nothing else we’re going to need to think very hard about the wording of how we approach people.

This was going to be an “oops, said I’d do a Thing, didn’t do a Thing yet” post and it ended up a lot more introspective than intended.

The TL:DR version is; Yes, we’re going ahead. No, we don’t know exactly what form the event will take. Yes, we realise that (good cause or not), this is a somewhat frivolous event, so we are unlikely to get the usual engagement. That’s OK. We just want to still do A Thing.

Hopefully no one sees what we’re doing as too frivolous or distracting, but we’ll totally understand and respect if you do.

To finish, though, we here at CPT Aus HQ just want to say we love you all, and we hope you’re being kind to each other, as well as being kind to yourselves.

Watch this space (and the Facebook page) for more information, and please do let us know if you have thoughts/suggestions.

Prize Pool Total

Greetings to thee, sentient being that can consume language!

We're pretty dang excited about this year's prize pool, and thought we'd share some numbers with you.

At the moment, with a couple of TBCs in the mix, we have the following totals to share:

  • Overall prize and raffle pool: $8675
  • 1st Prize Pack: $1385
  • 2nd Prize Pack: $1024
  • 3rd Prize Pack: $753
  • Remote Raffle pack: $508
  • Raffle Pack 1: $574
  • Raffle Pack 2: $434
  • Raffle Pack 3: $287
  • Raffle Pack 4: $242

We also have door prizes, a general "you did Thing, have a Thing!" prize pool and some other nifty things to give away.

Really, when you think about it, it's a pretty darn awesome ROI on your ticket price if you win a thing. And even if you don't, you've helped make some kid's life a little bit better, which is pretty darn awesome. :)

Not many left

Wonderful humans! 

We've missed our sold-out record from last year, and I can make my peace with that, but there are still a very limited number of tickets left. In fact, we have bu 11 LFG tickets to go. Once they're gone, to use the redundant cliché, they're gone. 

I guess that means if you want to join us, you really gotta get on that. :)

We're BACK!

That's right! The generator wheels are spinning up, the dust has been blown off some of the contacts and I'm looking for that little springy thing that goes under the main lever. You know the one? You found it over by the couch in, like, February? 

Anyhoozits! We're going to start annoying people via email, seeking returning and additional sponsors, confirming support and generally working to get the biggest pile of STUFF we can possibly lay our hands on in order to move some tickets (including raffle tickets) and raise many cashbucks for Child's Play Charity.

 

Keep watching this space for more announcements in the coming weeks and months, and keep being awesome. Yeah. You. You're rad. :)

Done & dusted

*phew*

We've come out the other side of another wildly successful CPT Aus event.

Granted, there were a few hiccups with round explanation (I shouldn't be allowed near the explainses), but if we look at our KPIs, I think we can tick them off:

  • Fill a room with awesome people - CHECK
  • Ask questions and seek answers to those questions - CHECK
  • Give out loads of prizes and auction items - CHECKITY CHECK
  • Have fun and have a good laugh (even if only aimed at me) - CHECKARINO
  • Raise money for the kids - CHECK, CHECK and CHECK again!

How much? Well, how does $6,835 sound? Sounds pretty good, eh?

That takes our three year total to $16,955.

I'm just going to take a moment to process that.

Huge and eternal thanks to all of our prize donors, venue providers, ticket buyers and assistance givers. It was a great night, and would literally not be possible without all your amazing help.

 

 

Remote Raffle

We're giving people a chance to support the kids and maybe win prizes, even if they're not able to attend on the night.

"How?" you ask.

With the Remote Raffle! By the simple act of purchasing a ticket (or several), you're helping us raise more money for Child's Play Charity and also in the running for a fun time. :)

Tickets are just $1.30 each (incl. booking fee), and the prize pack itself is worth over $500 (and counting). 

As of 14 October 2016, the Remote Raffle Pack consists of:
- 1 (One) 6 person voucher for The Enigma Room in Sydney!
- 1 (One) Kaladesh pack c/o Wizards of the Coast
- 1 (One) Rogue One fun pack c/o Wizards & Hasbro
- 1 (One) Transformers Titans Return (Voyager class)
- 1 (One) copy of Pie Face the game c/o Wizards & Hasbro
- 2 (Two) download code for Deathstair c/o Fun Sponge Games
- 1 (One) download code for Submerged on all three major platforms (that's 3 codes total, one each for Xbox One, PS4 and Steam) c/o Uppercut Games
- some random fun things c/o your humble Organisor & Host (but not so humble as to not use capital letters for his title)

Follow the link below to buy tickets, or click on Remote Raffle in the header. 

https://www.trybooking.com/Embed.aspx?eid=235169

Running prize pool total

I should probably try to find a neater way of saying that. :)

Still, with a confirmation of the final prize support list from Wizards of the coast, we're now at $6600 total in prizes and auction items. 

This is amazing, humbling, and generally awesome.

The Remote Raffle is also up and running, 

For just $1.30 a ticket, you get a chance to win a prize pack worth (at time of writing) $360. You don't even need to be there on the night! 

Hit the link below to buy some tickets.

https://www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=235169&embed=235169

 

SOLD OUT!!!

So... yeah... I'm crap at coordinating all the comms things.

I'll work to be better, but if this is the only outlet from which you get information, I owe you an apology. You see, we kinda sold out of tickets in about 5 weeks. That's about two and a bit times faster than last year, and is super awesome for us! It means that we're four weeks out and we've already raised $3840 for Child's Play. 

Unfortunately, because I didn't really keep this info stream updated, it means some of you may have missed out on tickets by not knowing how quickly they were selling.  For that, I apologise.

Fear not, however! You can still be in the running to win a great prize pack with our Remote Raffle!

For just $1.30 per ticket (including booking fee), you get a chance (or chances) to have your ticket number randomly generated by our random number generated on the night. :)

https://www.trybooking.com/Embed.aspx?eid=235169

 Click the link above for more info and to buy some tickets. 

As of 6 October 2016, the Remote Raffle Pack consists of:
- 1 (One) Kaladesh pack c/o Wizards of the Coast
- 1 (One) download code for Deathstair c/o Fun Sponge Games
- 1 (One) download code for Submerged on all three major platforms (that's 3 codes total, one each for Xbox One, PS4 and Steam) c/o Uppercut Games
- some random fun things c/o your humble Organisor & Host (but not so humble as to not use capital letters for his title)

So get on it, humans! Help us help the kids. 
 

TICKETS ARE ON SALE!

Head over to https://www.trybooking.com/MUFD for event info and a ticket link.

Remember that you don't need to be on a table of 8 - we have LFG tickets.

Also, you don't need to book for your entire table in one go. If you're the first, just grab an unbooked-on table and tell your friends the table number.

Get in quick, too. We now have just over twice as many page Likes as we have room for people in the venue, so don't miss out!

You wouldn't want this to happen to you, would you:
https://youtu.be/iHSPf6x1Fdo

Rumblings

Don't look now, but the machinery is chugging away behind the scenes and you should all keep an eye on our Facebook page and other social outlets in the next few days...

On a related note, the TryBooking team really do make it easy to make new events based on previous things so you don't need to reinvent the wheel each time. :)

Like a documentary, maybe?

Hello Fronds

I interrupt your day to being you a brief message from the team at Childs Play Trivia Australia.

Here's the TL:DR; Child Play Trivia Australia needs a short video to promote the event to future attendees and sponsors. If you think you can help, please email sponsors@cptaus.com

And now for the full spiel;

Do you have videography skills, or video editing skills? Do you enjoy giving of your time to help others? If you answered yes to any of these questions, we have a need for your services.

As you probably know, Childs Play Trivia Australia (CPT Aus) is an annual trivia night to help raise money for the most excellent Childs Play Charity. Childs Play Charity, raises money to help children with play therapy and also supports children in Women’s Shelters. This charity reaches across national boundary’s to help thousands upon thousands of children and families in need. Here is a podcast that the wonderful Fat Soda (aka Brian)  did with administrator of the Charity, Kristin Lindsay

http://www.9bitpodcast.com/PodCasts/Interview_CPC.mp3

With two events under our belt, CPT Aus has raised over $10k for Child's Play Charity and - through them - the Sydney Children's Hospital. In order to promote the night, we'd like to make a 4-6 minute video showcasing the preparation and lead up for the event, the people that attend it, and the wonderful prizes they receive.

...wait

Before we go any further. You should know we don’t keep any of the money we raise, and we pay all administrative costs out of our own pocket. Simply put, we couldn’t afford to pay for your efforts. That's not to say we don’t value and respect your time and skills. We do, and would be super grateful for what we know is a massive favour, amounting to a charitable donation of said time and skills.

ok where were we

The purpose of the video is to provide something we can point people towards to show them what we are about, and why we do what we do. It’s a way to engage more people and - through that engagement - help more children in need.

So if you have any videography and video editing skills, and if you want to help us help kids in need, please send us an email to sponsors@cptaus.com. Please include your name (so we know what to call you), your age (sorry over 18 only - pesky child labour laws), and your contact number (so we can call you).

Thank you lovely people for reading this.

The CPT Aus Team.

We have a domain name!

The amazing and wonderful Fat Soda, shaking his head sagely at our Squarespace-based URL, has given unto us our own domain name.

Look ye, people, and wonder at its majesty. It may even be in your address bar RIGHT NOW! Ooh....

Now you can send people straight to http://www.cptaus.com, rather than having to remember all the other things.

It also means we've got a specific email for interactions with sponsors. If you, or anyone you know, wants to support the event with a prize donation, please drop us a line at sponsors@cptaus.com

Easier than we thought

Time for another story.

One of the things that warms the cockles of my black, twisted heart was the enthusiasm with which people have given us prizes and general support. It's also been a bit surprising how many people have, and the way in which they have. Even people who've had to say no have done so in a friendly and non-form-letter-y way.

One of the first such surprises was the result of a "what the hell, it's worth a try" email to Turtle Beach. I knew their stuff was solid, and popular with lots of my video gamer mates, so figured it was worth a go. I assumed the response would be a polite "sorry, but no", what with them being a pretty big mob who probably have their own giving schemes in place. So I was tickled a very manly salmon colour when the email response came, not from automated.response@turtlebeach.megacorp.com, but from an actual named email address and very firmly in the affirmative.

Several weeks later and an exceedingly generous box of stuffs arrived at Casa de Euan. A similar package arrived last year as well, and they were our second returning sponsor to sign on for 2016. 

Details will be finalised and announced later in the year, but for now we'll just throw out a huge thanks to Turtle Beach for there past and ongoing support. 

We're back, baby!

Greetings to you all!  

We've blown the dust off our logins and fired up the social media reactors. 

Child's Play Trivia Australia will be back at Games Laboratory in 2016. The Wednesday before PAX Aus this year is the 2nd of November, and that's when the trivia night will be held.

Watch these spaces for continuing updates, little stories, and general info.

Meanwhile, put us into your calendars, gather your 7 mates, and save your sheckles for the night itself.

CPT Aus 2015 - THANK YOU!!!

For those who weren't there last night, or who missed it when we read things out, here's a list of people we'd like to officially thank for helping make the night the resounding success that it was.

Brian at Qwertees

Jenn and CAH team at Cards Against Humanity

Emma at Global Gear

Chris and Johnny at Brotherwise Games

Crystal from Crystalsidyll

Lola at Turtle Beach

 The amazing folks from Greater Than Games; Paul, Chris, Adam

Nick at Good Games

Matt from the Enigma Room

Luke from the Sons of Obi Wan

Ed, Ryan and Andrew from Uppercut Games

Al from Senyac Games

Will Hungerford from Privateer Press

Julia from Asmadi Games

David from Grail Games

Jackie from Jackie’s Crochet Creations

Andy from Sweet to the Bone

Miriam for the Cthulhu beanie

Adam Strang for his PAX Pass

Joel for the mechanics and questions for the best round EVER!

Super huge thanks to:

James & Cato from Games Lab, for giving us a home for the event 

Wil at Hasbro for giving us such great support 

Jamie Dillion, the Child’s Play boss lady, for helping crystalise the event and for liaising and with supporters

Erick and Brian for the hugely generous donation of PAX Merch!

Owen, Shayne, David, Kwaizy, and Fatsoda for helping organise the event

TofuSama, Lamiroire, Goldfish, and Andrew for being the best minions a fella could ask for

ALL OF OUR ATTENDEES for getting into the spirit of the night and digging deep to help sick kids and their families.

CPT Aus 2015 - Wrap up

We did it!

The dawning of a new day sees me sipping coffee, contemplating roti for lunch, and  looking back over last night's amazing event, analysing just precisely how awesome it was.

 Spoiler alert: it was EPICALLY awesome!

The attendees were blown away with the prize stash, the auction items, and all the other things on offer. 

The standout round of the night was Truth by Consensus, wherein tables were presented with and either/or question - for example, Terminator 2 or Aliens, Best ninja turtle - and whichever answer was chosen by the most tables became the right answer. The reactions from the attendees were marvellous and passionate. And they were clearly all insane, because the room chose Terminator 2 over Aliens. Madness.

All of the auctions went really well. with the SDCC Devastator and a 15 year limited edition Pinny Arcade pin being hotly contested.

I realise by now you're all yelling at me for burying the lead, so I'll come out and say it. We didn't equal our target of funds raised from last year, we didn't even just beat it, we smashed it. All together, we raised $5720! 

This is an awesome result, and we literally couldn't have done it without the support of our amazing sponsors, dedicated admin and org team, and all of our tops attendees. You're all amazing.

Thanks hugely once more for you collective and inidividual fabulousness, and we're already looking forward to CPT Aus 2016!

Auctions!

 

"But, wonderful organisers, how will the auctions work?"

We're glad you asked.

The best way is to give the money directly to Child's Play, flagging the donation for Sydney Children's hospital.

Here's what worked last year: If you're intending to take part in the auctions, don't hit the ATM and walk around with great wads of cash falling out of your pockets. Just have the money available, in good ol' secure 1s and 0s.  Then, if you win the auction, you can make the donation in the room via the Child's Play website.

You don't have to risk violent mugging, we don't have to handle large chunks of cash, and Child's Play gets the money straight away. EVERYONE WINS! 

There'll be a silent auction, as well as traditional "what am I bid?" loud auctions.

Which format is to be use for which items is TBC.

Oh, and in case you forgot, our auction items are:

- SDCC Exclusive Devastator

- D&D 5th Edition Party Pack

- Magic: The Gathering Duel Decks Anthology

Our home

Time for another story.

Games Laboratory is the FLGS you would build in your dreams, if your dreams were my dreams and what the heck are you doing having my dreams, they're my dreams dang it! Get your own dreams!

*ahem*

Located on Little Lonsdale Street, Games Lab is three levels of awesome. First, there's a games store with several tables for playing and a great selection to choose from. There's also a refreshment fridge, snacks, and even lockers for temporary hire.

Above that is an events space, where many, many people could gather to play Magic:The Gathering, Warmachine, or any other game you care to name. It's also a great place for a trivia night, just by the way. 

And below them both you'll find the Alchemist's Refuge. A comfy, welcoming bar with a fantastic choice of boutique beers, furniture that comes straight out of the better sort of gentlemen's club, and an expertly-curated games library to play as you sip a brew.

In case you're thinking all this is just "oh, he has to say that, they're the venue", you should all know that last PAX Aus weekend, I spent not only the day of the event at Games Lab, but most of the following day, the Sunday night after PAX closed, and even the Monday after that at Games Lab. Also, the one time I went down to Melbourne to see a Tripod show and spent ages at Games Lab. It's a great place, is what I'm saying.

James and his crew know games, know how to engage people about and with games, and are super supportive of Child's Play Trivia Australia.

It really is everything you could want in a games shop, a place where hardcore alpha gamers can puff their chests at each other, where dubious other-halfs can be sucked in with a gateway game, and where curious newbies can have their horizons expanded and their minds blown.

Really, you should just go there.

http://gameslaboratory.com.au/