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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Tournament of Championships

I've been plugging our upcoming local tournament on this site as of late, and I wanted to open up a discussion with the gaming community at large regarding tournaments.

As this is my first time running such an event, it is important to me to "fix" some of the issues that I have had with other local tournaments.  The primary things that I wanted to address are:
  • Starting on time, and staying on time - A tournament can last quite a while, it shouldn't take up more of my time than advertised that it would.
  • Having a transparent scoring system - I want to know how my army and my games will be scored before I get to the event.  Will the event be more hobby-based, or competitive in nature?  The scene here in Indy is largely competitive, and many people tailor their lists to meet the comp requirements of the event they are attending.  I'd like to know going into the event what type of crowd I'm going against.
  • Having good prize support - Having a 20-man event and only handing out the standard prize support that GW provides your store feels cheap.  I'm all for stores making money off of the events that they run, but some effort should be made to spread some of that love around.  The recent event at Games 2 Die 4 had great prize support, and I'd love to try to emulate that spirit of giving.
  • Encouraging fun, gentlemanly play - I hate that the guy who wins best sportsmanship is always the person who comes in last.  The prize given to this guy speaks worlds about how much importance is placed on sportsmanship (usually a dice cube).
What are some other things that you have been disappointed with in your local tournaments?  Am I missing something here that would prevent you from having a good time at an event?  What would you like to see in a local, or even a national event?

7 comments:

  1. "It's Warhammer 40K not G2D4 40k or Game Preserve 40K or My Basement 40k."

    From your tournament rules it looks like you have this covered pretty well, but many local tournaments (even the G2D4 ones) always impose some idea of how the game should be played. TO's want to try to fix something with the game, and it always ends up screwing someone over who's making an honest attempt. Disallowing allies at the G2D4 tournament is a good example of this. Let people play the armies they've worked hard at collecting and building without handicaps.

    "Well, we always play it this way..."

    This ones mostly for the sake of the non-locals. Define what terrain pieces counts as and what their benefits are. This will save players from arguments and making bone-head tactical mistakes because they assume everybody plays it the way they do.

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  2. That's a great suggestion about the terrain.

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  3. As I'm very interested in playing, I've got a few questions:

    What is the focus going to be? Is this going to be a no soft score series?

    I have a kit-bashed tyrannofex that is mostly non-GW. Can I use it?

    Will there be lunch? Or will enough time be built in for us to go grab lunch?

    Are the scenarios going to be custom, or are we playing from the BBB? If they're custom, will everyone have access to them before the day of (I've been to tournaments where the locals had had time with the scenarios to even play them a few times)

    I definitely agree about defining terrain before the first player even walks in. Have a sheet printed up and put it next to the table number with definitions.

    Make sure all between round scores are posted, that way there isn't any doubt.

    I like to have soft scores (painting and comp) judged before the tournament even starts and everyone judges all armies. Gives a wider range of scores, and allows for judging before any opponents are known.

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  4. @armbarred: This event is my take on a "competitive" tournament. Sportsmanship and painting scores will not affect your battle record. I am a hobby gamer, so these areas will be judged and awarded, but not co-mingle. I like to think of it as a "separate-but-equal" system. The prizes for painting and sportsmanship will be at least as good, if not better, than the prizes for battle record.

    Lunch will not be provided, but there will be plenty of time to visit one of the nearby restaurants, and snacks will be provided during one of the later breaks.

    As long as people can tell that your tyrannofex is a tyrannofex, it's fine with me. I'm actually rather excited to see it.

    I will send each player an information packet upon registration that details how the scoring will work as well as 6 missions, 4 of which will be played.

    Each player will be able to vote for their favorite army, as well as their favorite opponent. These players will receive prizes as well. I wanted to create an event that let the competitive players determine who had the best record, but also encouraged good hobby and sportsmanship.

    If you have other questions or comments, feel free to leave them here, or e-mail me at:
    indy40k@gmail.com

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  5. Two things I'd like to throw out there to be considered is:
    1) not getting automatically full points for a massacre/tabling. If you have to pull yourself off of the objectives to table the opponent, then you should count as having those objectives.
    2) I would like to see the next tournament be at 1750 if possible. I feel 1,750 is becoming more standard and it also seems like many of the new codexes are geared towards higher point levels. It also allows more recovery from bad luck.

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