Do you want to sharpen your skills while showcasing your awesome AWS fire fighting abilities?

The first collaborative CloudWarGames.com event is now live….well at least the scenario out of the 3 we ran on Friday. The other scenarios will come out in subsequent videos.

This video showcases the first round we played focusing on a fairly beginner scenario. The team crushed it with the 2 advanced players coaching the other player while the beginner players took the driver seat and navigated the team through the scenario.

I had a great time and I think the others did too but don’t just take my word for it: Here is some of the feedback I have gotten from the Hot Seat Participants:

It can be really tough to gather your thoughts and think in a structured way on the spot, preparing yourself mentally for similar situations that could happen in real life is very useful.

My favorite thing was the collaborative setting of the session, it relied heavily on teamwork rather than competitiveness. I also liked that some of the scenarios we had to troubleshoot were very similar to real life scenarios I have faced in my career as a devops engineer.

Next Live Event:

Right now the next live event is tentatively set to go live on March 14th at 1PM Chicago Time.

Anyone interested in being a Hot Seat Participant should signup at CloudWarGames.com and a link to the Hot Seat application will be sent out shortly. Please read the next section in detail to fully understand what that entails.

The Hour Before The Event Starts:

NOTE: All times are US Central (Chicago) time which is about to change soon due to US daylight savings time. Please adjust accordingly.

• 12:00 PM We will open up the meeting for anyone that cares to join for the Pre-Game Briefing but it is not required.
• 12:15 PM Pre-Game Briefing: I will start doing a short presentation on the infrastructure for today’s live events and then do a short Q&A afterwards. Any CWG member is welcome to join.
• 12:40 PM Check-In Begins
• 12:50 PM Check-In Closes(Be sure to read the part below about Hot Seat Alternates).
• 1:00 PM Live Event Starts.

Hot Seat Alternates:

We can only have so many people on a call talking and screen sharing at once. That is why there is a limited number of Hot Seat Participants that can be on any one live event.

But what happens if one of the Hot Seat Participants does not check in by 10 minutes before the event goes live?

At that point, the missing Hot Seat Participant will forfeit their seat to the next available and present Hot Seat Alternate.

How does one become a Hot Seat Alternate? Just fill out the same form and make sure you are online with your camera turned on by the time designated.

Subject To A Change Of Venue:

Part of the reason this is all tentative is that Google Meet was definitely not the right format for this so I am frantically searching for a better way to run these events.

If you have any suggestions please send them my way.

Wrapping It Up:

That is it. Let me know what you think of the first live event video. I will be working with video editors to get more of the first event up for you to enjoy.

With that said I am Matt with Schematical/CloudWarGames and I look forward to burning down some servers with you. ~Cheers!