[TAEdarus]

BarCraft at the Mana Bar was ******* shockingly bad.
1. Venue doors opened later than the event start time (a time which they advertised as the start time for them too!) was about 15 minutes late opening?
2. Took about 30-45mins after opening for the stream to go up on the tele.
3. Minimal people there, still not enough seating (not a huge issue but there's no 'bar' to congregate around anyways)
4. Venue too small to be a worthwhile event.

Myself and a mate went, and while the beer was good and the company was alright (although the atmosphere did not encourage mingling) the event was just bad and we left after half an hour to go get drunk elsewhere.

The main things (from my ONE experience, heh) to keep in mind are:
1. Venue size / capacity
2. Seating / space (can you park your arse or find somewhere to stand as a group without blobbing in the entryway)
3. Atmosphere - if the place has none don't bother
4. The hosts - do they seem switched on? Organised? Keen? If they don't properly support the event it will fail.
5. The 'centrality' of the location - is it easy enough to get to (public transport being a biggy since there will be booze-o-hol consumed and people shouldn't be drink-driving.)

GL to getting something organised matey and keep us posted, would love an event to take hold and be as good as BarCraft should!

You have my support 110%