Halo for Heroes II You are a member of a project management practicum class. The major assignment for this class is to plan and implement a fund-raising project that will raise at least$1,500 and provide an opportunity to practice project management. You have joined a group of six students who have decided to organize an event based on the popular Halo video game. Your professor tells your group that they are in luck because another group did a similar project last year. He hands you a copy of their post-project audit.

1. What are the two or three most valuable lessons you learned from this report and why? 2. What are one or two important questions/issues that are missing from their report that you wish were addressed? Explain why this information would be useful. 3. Briefly discuss the value of project audits based on this example. Imagine what it would be like if you did not have the audit. Project Halo Audit Objective: To raise at least $1,000 for the National Military Families Association by conducting a Halo video game tournament in Kleinsorge Hall on November 16 and17. Operation See tournament information (below) for a detailed description on how the tournament was managed. Risk Management Through risk assessment we were able to identify and mitigate potential risks to the project. We were concerned with technical difficulties in setting up the gaming operations in the different classrooms. We did a trial run three days before the tournament in one of the classrooms to work out the mechanics of connecting consoles to the audio/video equipment in the room. This made setting up things on the first day of the tournament much easier. One surprise was that a few players failed to show up at designated times and we wished we had their cell phone numbers to contact them.

Outcomes Our final contestant count was marked at 100 contestants, for a total of$1,000 in ticket sales. In addition, we received some cash donations from private sponsors, donated color fliers and equipment rental, 12 cases of Mountain Dew from Pepsi, and several smaller incentives from local businesses. The total valuation of all ticket sales and donated items was $3,113.43. We were unable to locate a business willing to sponsor any large prizes; therefore, we had to purchase these out of our cash proceeds. After the purchase of all prizes and repayment of$100.00 to Prof. X for our seed money, our final net proceeds were $720.00.Despite not reaching our financial goal, the participants enjoyed the experience and we learned a lot about managing a project.

Lessons Learned Don't advertise specific prizes until you have obtained them. We assumed we could get a local retailer to donate the grand prize (Xbox 360) but ultimately we had to pay for it ourselves. A multimedia marketing campaign is needed to reach the target audience. We utilized several different strategies to reach our target market, including a dedicated website and PayPal signup, a donation drive web page extended on this site, physical kiosk signups, the development and distribution of 2,500 color fliers, a MySpace page, a Facebook page, and an announcement on the College of Business website. We actually had contestants from as far away as Portland and Eugene. Do a walk-through at least one day before the tournament. Take time out to focus on the team. Team-building exercises we did in class, like "My group as a car," helped us resolve interpersonal issues before they became serious. Many of us felt the grand prize was a deterrent, with many prospective players opting out because they did not feel they were good enough at playing Halo to compete for such a lofty prize. In retrospect, we felt we could have done just as well by using donated prizes, like tickets for the local movie theaters and gift cards. Next time we would set up a loser's bracket so that players would have a chance to play against others with comparable ability and win prizes.

You need luck or personal contacts to secure big sponsorships. We had neither. However, we were surprised at how willing local businesses were to donate small prizes to the project.

Take advantage of the contacts you have on your team. Despite our extensive marketing campaign, roughly half of the participants were friends of ours. Your team's social network provides both opportunities and limitations. For example, we had no active member in the Greek community on campus to organize a competition across houses.

Tournament Information

Welcome to the Halo for Heroes Tournament!

By entering this tournament, you agree to the following rules and guidelines. Important!

This tournament is open to the public and we encourage open competition between all skill levels.

The entire tournament will be played on projected screens in dark rooms. You are more than welcome to bring your own controller to use during the tournament.

You will be able to make your custom profile on our system prior to playing, but we are unable to allow any outside memory to be loaded onto the systems due to time constraints and the "allow one to do it, allow all to do it" problem.

We hope you will have fun, and thanks for supporting Halo for Heroes and the National Military Families Association, Inc.

Reservations

This tournament is by online reservation only on our website, halo4heroes.110mb.com. Space is limited. If you are unable to register and purchase a ticket online, please contact us. Once you have registered, an event manager will contact you by the e-mail address you provide upon registration within 24 hours. You will be e-mailed a ticket confirmation with an assigned play time, which you will need to enter the tournament. Please keep this, as it has important tournament information. If you are unable to play during the assigned time, please contact us immediately.

Arrival Show up early! All players who enter the tournament must be ready to play by their respective times as noted on their ticket confirmation. Please arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled match time to check in. All players will need to check in at the front lobby of Kleinsorge Hall. All players who are late will forfeit their chance of participating in the tournament. We cannot guarantee parking around campus, so please take ample time to arrive at the event on time. (See the vicinity map.)

Tournament Sequence All tournament rounds will consist of three matches played on Halo 3 among four individual players. Game style will be "Free for All Slayer" with 25 kills to win the match with a 10-minute time limit per match. All other game rules and options will be Halo 3 default settings. The player with the highest cumulative kill count of all the matches will advance to the next round. All the others will be eliminated from the tournament play. Round 1 will be conducted on Friday, November 16,and Rounds 2 and 3 will be conducted on Saturday, November 17. All play will be on projection screens. In order to judge the tournament, after a match is over the event managers will need to record the scores. For this reason, please be patient and wait until the event manager gives the okay to proceed with the next game. Below is a map schedule so you can begin practicing.

Halo 3 Map Schedule

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Last Resort Guardian The Pit High Ground Epitaph Narrows Snowbound Isolation Last Resort

In the event that there is a tie, players will immediately play a single tie-breaking match. "Free for All Slayer" with five kills to win the tie-breaker with a five-minute time limit. The map for the tie-breaker will be "Construct."

Non-Tournament Play All players who did not receive a position in the tournament can still play! There will be an area set up for non-tournament play. There is a $3.00 charge for all entrants into non-tournament play. Under-Age Players Players under the age of 17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. The parent or guardian must also sign a Parental Release Authorization and bring it with the child to the event. Any unaccompanied persons who are under age will not be allowed to participate in the tournament.

General Rules

1. Do not damage any hardware and equipment. If you break it, you just bought it. 2. Conduct yourself in a respectful and supportive manner. 3. Unacceptable behavior will result in disqualification. 4. All disputes will be settled by the operators of the event.

Audience If you have been eliminated and would like to stay and watch the tournament, you are welcome to do so. Family members and friends of contestants are also welcome to attend as an audience. We ask that all audience members be supportive and respectful of all contestants. We reserve the right to dismiss disruptive audience members from the premises.

Prizes and Raffles The winner of the tournament will receive an Xbox 360. Other finalists will receive various prizes, including games, controllers, and gift certificates. All participants can participate in the event raffles that will be held at the event. Contributions to enter the raffles and the potential prizes will be disclosed at the event. Refunds This tournament is to benefit the American Military Families Association, Inc. There will be no refunds under any circumstances. Any dispute must be brought to the attention of the event managers for a decision.