The Purdue University Gamers Group called “PUGG” for short was founded in the Fall of 2000 by Tony Bower who enjoyed gaming events as much as any other person but craved more than the single Quake 2 tournament that was hosted by the Purdue ACM chapter. “ACM had a single event each year, and it wasn’t the organization’s priority,” said Tony.
During one of the ACM events, he managed to sit next to the future co-founder of PUGG, Mike Liska and the two shared an immediate bond over the desire to have more gaming events and have an organization on campus that was dedicated to that. Their main focus was to drag gamers out of the comfort of their own homes and have them in one location to game. “As much fun as we all had playing online, we found that the experience was much more memorable when in person.”
Their enthusiasm for gaming together in one room was not shared by many people who did not see having a “more memorable experience” worth dragging their heavy CRT monitors and desktops across campus. Even today students have to be incentivized to bring their generally lighter equipment to an event. However, this did not deter Tony and his team from hosting their events and they did so with alacrity, learning many things along the way such as setting up a proper infrastructure. “We had no funds, no real sponsorship, and a network no engineer would be proud of.” Everything they worked towards was completely worth it in Tony’s view as they did exactly what he set out for PUGG, “we were organizing tournaments, helping people setup, talking with new members or old friends. That was enough for me though. I loved the reality of the community that was coming together.”
First official LAN hosted by PUGG. (Fall 2000)
PUGG would go on to host 40 more events in its time and it would seem that nothing could stop its growth. They were soon the single largest gaming organization on campus with a steady income flow and sponsors such as Microsoft and Bawls. It looked like nothing could take down the Group but infighting between a new set of officers saw the steady decline and loss of direction for PUGG and by the end of 2009, the organization had gone on hiatus, its equipment and resources scattered across West Lafayette and was ultimately suspended by the Student Activities Office (SAO) and the Business Office for Student Organizations (BOSO).
It was then that myself and Nic Baumann, after going to one of the LANWars hosted by Gaming@Indiana University, felt that the Boilermakers deserved a gaming organization of that caliber and deserved to enjoy LANs at their own campus and be able to attend double the number of epic LANs in Indiana. It was definitely an uphill battle to restore PUGG to the good graces it once had and many negotiations had to be held with SAO and BOSO to prove to them that we were serious about reviving PUGG and providing an alcohol-free campus event, which Purdue actively promotes in all of its organizations. We decided to model the revived PUGG after Gaming@IU’s approach in the sense that we would have one single LAN event a semester instead of the original 3 per semester that was hosted by PUGG in the past. We decided to channel all of our resources into that single LAN and started the very first BoilerFrag giving it the number “1.0” to signify a fresh start for the organization. We reached out to sponsors to ask them to sponsor a brand new organization but one with a rich history and despite many rejections, we managed to secure 7 sponsors for BoilerFrag 1.0. It was during this time that NOS Energy Drink approached us about sponsoring PUGG and they could not have come at a better time. NOS’ commitment to PUGG was unparalleled as they outsponsored all of the other sponsors several times over but without their help, PUGG would not have reached the point that it is at today.
BoilerFrag 1.0 entrance!
After a successful yet hastily put together first event, PUGG gained recognition and once again the Group was looked at in the same light that it was before. Many gamers on campus started coming out to support the organization and the community was reformed. We put an emphasis on that aspect and beyond the single LAN events, we had Monthly Gaming Sessions which were strictly console and were thus easier to organize and have many people come by every month to game. PUGG went out to volunteer during Boiler Blast, which is a university wide volunteering service where university students gave back to the community by doing odd jobs here and there. Using the experience gained from the from BoilerFrag 1.0, we set out to create a second with a better venue, better prizes, more people and more equipment and BoilerFrag 2.0 was born and as they say, the rest is history.
PUGG volunteering during Boiler Blast and helping out a Lafayette resident do all her spring cleaning yardwork.
Console section in BoilerFrag 2.0.
Overhead shot of BoilerFrag 2.0.
PUGG certainly has had a very interesting history with many ups and downs but the community and the passion of a few gamers who decide to take the mantle of office has seen it through its tough times and so long as PUGG continues to cling on to that sense of identity, it will be hard pressed to be taken down again. Tony imparts a few words of wisdom to future Presidents, “Keep your members interested. Events are the key. Even if the event is ‘Pizza night at Bruno’s’, the more you bring members together, the more of a sense of community you’ll have. The better the community, the more help during the big events and the more worthwhile the experience.” I couldn’t agree more. The only reason we survived was because we had that community in the end. As officers, you won’t be there forever and you have to build a community to see your organization survive and that goes for any organization.
BoilerFrag 2.0.
What of the future of PUGG? It’s hard to say but Tony has the thought that e-Sports will start making more headway into college gaming and with the Collegiate e-Sports Series being hosted in Indianapolis by NOS Energy Drink, it is not a stretch to believe that. For me, I just want to see PUGG survive another 10 years and keep that community light burning.