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The NOVA Open is back for 2011, bigger and better than last year, expanded and better suited to cover and cater to EVERY PLAYER TYPE. If you are just a painter and converter, we'll have competitions and events for you. If you're a casual gamer, our GT's and TT will fit you just right. If you're a hardcore competitor, this is the place for you. If you just want to hang out, get some swag, meet some great gamers, and have a great weekend, this is the place for you.


Registration is now fully open for the Warhammer 40,000 Elements of the 2011 NOVA Open.
Weekend Badge purchase is now fully open for all attendees of the 2011 NOVA Open.
Go to http://novaopen.com and click on "Registration" to purchase your tickets.

Venue and Dates
The NOVA Open begins with a social in one of the hotel bars at 4:00PM on Thursday, August 25, 2011.
Open gaming (which will be 24 hours a day throughout the weekend) begins along with our traditional Whiskey Challenges and live podcasting at 6:00PM Thursday.

The NOVA Open will occur entirely within the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, in Arlington, VA, deep in the heart of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area.
Rooms at the Hyatt Regency in our block are locked in at a HIGHLY affordable $109/night. The hotel offers a free shuttle to and from Reagan National Airport (DCA) and the DC Metro System. Attendees whose name is locked in past the cancellation deadline will be entered into a raffle for FREE hotel accommodation over the weekend.
Rooms can be reserved at: https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_gi_new&groupID=3217963

Warhammer 40,000 PRIMER PACKET: http://novaopen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Primer-2011-GT-Missions-v3.pdf
Warhammer 40,000 is our headline event, after the success of last year's inaugural tournament. We updated our formats and missions, and added a Team Tournament and Invitational. There is a HARD CAP of 256 tickets for the NOVA Open GT. More than HALF of these sold by 1/18/11, within 2 weeks of opening registration to pre-registrants. Purchase a ticket now, if you are certain you will be attending. Our format and space considerations will not permit us to open any spots beyond the 256 offered for the 40k GT. Additionally, the first 400 Weekend Badge purchases are guaranteed a full Swag Bag, each of which contained over $35 in products in our first year alone.

Warhammer 40,000 Events and Initial Schedule
Thursday, August 25, 2011
6:00 - 10:00PM: Whiskey Challenges (Celebrity Deathmatch, Open Game Pairing Service ... small prizes for all), Earlybird Registration

Friday, August 26, 2011
Registration for the Team Tournament and Invitational begins at 6:30AM, with first rounds kicking off at 8:00AM
Schedules thereafter diverge ...
Invitational - 5 Rounds running from 8:00AM - 8:30PM, with a 1 hour break for lunch and 30 minutes between rounds; 2 x $1,000 cash prizes for the Best Overall and Best General finishers; live feed video casting of the final Best General match

Team Tournament - 3 Rounds, 7 Games per Team, 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Time intentionally left to relax before the GT, head out on the town in Washington, DC, open game with people from around the world, or watch the Invitational finals

Saturday, August 27 - Sunday, August 28, 2011
8 Round, 256 Player NOVA Open GT
Unique bracketing system on Day 2 structures it so that ALL PLAYER SKILL LEVELS are rewarded and have a shot at an undefeated second day with a best general prize and reward. More information on this can be found here:
Relevant Article 1: http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2010/12/creative-and-incidental-comp-at-nova.html
Relevant Article 2: http://whiskey40k.blogspot.com/2011/01/nova-open-is-better-for-casual-gamers.html

Warhammer Fantasy GT
Saturday and Sunday, with possible events for Friday
96 Player Warhammer Fantasy GT
Details still in works, to ensure the best possible product - brought to you in conjunction with Mike C from Showcase Comics, and Scooter Walters from the Inner Circle Gaming Club. Registration soon.

Warmachine / Hordes
There will be Warmachine and Hordes competitive and casual events all weekend long, starting on Thursday night. Brought to you by Pressgangers from the DC region, final details are being organized and registration will begin soon.

Malifaux
32 Player Malifaux Tournament on Friday, August 26. Possibly more events forthcoming. Registration soon.

Painting
Golden NOVA Painting Competition, and Iron Painters Speed Painting Competition for the artistically minded out there. Our appearance crew are hard at work preparing the details of these, and working on more terrain for main and special events, including a scale battlefield-ready replica of the National Mall in Washington, DC!

The NOVA Open is a player-driven event, whose formats and styles are all derived from the input of a global player base. In response to global input and review, our 40k format (for example) has undergone extensive revision and improvement to its missions, scoring, and pairing systems. You are ALL peers, and your input and constructive criticism is always welcome. Post it here, on the Whiskey 40k blog in relevant articles, on our WhiskeyNOVA forums (http://nova.tlsconline.com), or by e-mailing event staff at novaopen@gmail.com or mvbrandt@gmail.com

More information will be forthcoming regularly, so keep your eyes peeled here!

Older / Original Text:
Hello Dakka,

Due to anticipated demand for the NOVA Open 40k GT in 2011, I've opened e-mail pre-registration for slots in JUST THAT EVENT for next year's Open Convention Weekend.
In order to pre-register, e-mail me at mvbrandt@gmail.com and include at least NOVA Open 2011 in your subject line.

We'll have additional team 40k events, Fantasy events, Malifaux events, Warmachine events, and MORE, plus a full on Golden NOVA painting competition, speed painting competitions, seminars, etc. This pre-registration alert is JUST for the 40k GT.

We are finalizing our date and venue for the Open. While still subject to change, anticipate:
The weekend of 8/26-8/28/2011
AT
This Venue: HERE

AS far as rates are concerned, that's still in the works, but anticipate something of a badge + event approach, where your weekend badge will cover access, 24 hour a day open gaming, some minor events and swag bag for somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-40, and where each individual event is available at various lower rates. This should come out well under $100 / person for one "major" event and your badge, in a gorgeous resort-style hotel.

We've also negotiated room blocks that should come in between $100-110/night, which is SUBSTANTIALLY low for the area, in a nice / gorgeous hotel with multiple bars and restaurants, a short free shuttle from Reagan National Airport and located on the metro into Washington, DC.

Additionally, expect us to improve upon our offerings from last year substantially, with vendors, prizes and swag bags all exceeding the past. We gave away over $8,000 in prizes and swag last year for a tournament field of 128 players across 40k and Fantasy. We'll be increasing that this year, including the contents of swag bags ... for $50 in registration fee, last year's attendees received over $35 in prize value in the swag bag alone, with almost every single person also walking out of the door with additional random draw and won prizes.

This will be a swank, full on GT for a reasonable rate in a stellar hotel ALSO offering reasonable room rates.

A couple of quick hits on the format ...

This will be the further revised and improved follow-on to the NOVA Open 2010 GT, where the increasingly popular "NOVA Style" format was christened. If you're not familiar with it, the NOVA "Style" essentially runs two parallel events within the same tournament - the Renaissance Man and Tournament Champion tracks.

Renaissance Man is our "Best Overall." It EQUALLY weights competitive performance with sportsmanship and appearance score, as opposed to the more traditional Best Overall scores that typically weigh Battle Points as closer to 70% of your total.

Tournament Champion is our "Best General" equivalent. The tournament is structured so that the Tournament Champion is literally the sole undefeated at the end of 2 days of gaming, "battle points" being only relevant for establishing seeding and match-ups in each subsequent round.

The pairing of these two styles ensures that attendees experience the more "traditional" air of a battle points + appearance + sports scored tournament in parallel (playing within the same exact field) with a knock-out style bracketed competitive tournament. The best of both worlds, as it were.

Our further revisions in this regard are numerous, including the application of a Kill Points variant (no worries, not one that eschews the visible effect of KP like nominate-5, expect more of a "win-by-x" KP mission that's otherwise just as the rulebook) in some capacity to our tiered goal/mission format, and gaming in ALL ROUNDS for ALL PLAYERS.

Space limitations and budget restrictions prevented us from being able to afford the space for all attendees to game in all rounds this past year; in 2011 all 40k GT players will participate in all rounds; furthermore, the first day of gaming (4 rounds) will be considered "Bracketing Heats." Everyone's record will be zero'ed out at the end of the first day, with all players re-bracketed with opponents who are as close as possible to their performance from the first day. While the undefeated bracket on the 2nd day will be what competes for the Tournament Champion award, ALL brackets will remain in competition for Renaissance Man, and for Bracket Winner prizes. So, even going 0-4 on the first day could yield high caliber prizes and trophies on the 2nd day.

Our initial space offering for the 40k GT is 128 slots. Since opening pre-registration via the Open's affiliated blog, http://whiskey40k.com ... we've received over 40 pre-registrations. Those who pre-register for the 40k side will have a window of time prior to open registration in which to purchase their spot, once registration begins.

Pre registration ensures you a shot at the initial 128 spots we'll offer for the 40k GT at the Open next year. While we may be able to open up more spots, it will require the development of a substantial wait list, so don't miss a shot. There's no commitment to the pre-registration, but it's a wise move.

Finally, please let me know if you are a member or officer of a GAMING CLUB or similar organization. We will be offering substantial discounts to clubs who bring larger numbers of players, scaling up based upon the number of players you register.

Thanks for the read, and let me know if you have any questions,
- Mike B., NOVA Open Founder, 40k GT Organizer
- http://novaopen.com
- http://whiskey40k.com


EDIT 1/3/11
Bump, will edit initial post as well.

I wanted to give people a heads up that NOVA Open GT Registration will begin within a couple of weeks.

Pre-Registrants will receive an e-mail giving them first shots at registering spots.

We have a very small # of spots available still for Pre-Registrants - something I recommend you take advantage of if you intend to attend; most or all of our spots may sell very quickly after opening up.


In other news, the NOVA Invitational is shaping up better, and I wanted to highlight upcoming events that can earn you a spot:

The Invitational will be an intense, 5 round small tournament of 32 happening on the Friday before the 40k GT - itself 8 rounds over 2 days and 256 players.
The Best Overall / Renaissance Man for the Invitational (50% competitive rating, 50% appearance rating) will earn a $1,000 cash prize.
The Best General / Tournament Champion for the Invitational (single 5-0 finisher) will earn a $1,000 cash prize.
Rounds will be proactively refereed, with live and recorded podcasting covering top tables.

For the Invitational, here's the list at present: http://nova.tlsconline.com/showthread.php?t=11
You'll be able to go here and see who has earned an invite so far, and where you can earn the remaining ~20 invites.

There are a couple of spots left, for tournaments that wish to have them. Feel free to let me know and make the case if you're one of those.

New additions to the Invitational list are The Conflict GT and the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.

Additional updates =

The 256 person GT has what we are calling "Incidental Comp."
Effectively, at the end of Day 1's 4 rounds we will split the field into 16 brackets of 16, who will play only amongst each other for the remaining 4 rounds on Sunday.

The result of this is as follows:
Of the 16 people who go 0-4 on Day 1, 1 is guaranteed to go 4-0 on Day 2, and win a Best General prize for his bracket.
Of the 16 people who go 4-0 on Day 1, 1 is guaranteed to go 0-4 on Day 2.

The single person who goes 8-0 will win the Best General/Tournament Champion overall prize.
The single person who goes 0-8 (bummer) will probably win something special.
EVERY bracket of 16 will yield a single 4-0 performance on Day 2 (regardless of Day 1 record), and thus each bracket will earn a Tournament Ace / Bracket Best General award/prize.

Most importantly, you'll be as close as we can get to guaranteed to be playing amongst a bracket of list and skill PEERS on the 2nd day - instead of someone finally eeking out a tough win against a similar opponent after going 0-4 on Day 1 only to be smashed down again ... he'll continue to play amongst PEERS. This ensures that while the integrity of the solo 8-0/Best General track is maintained, EVERYONE has an opportunity to be competitively successful on the 2nd day amongst players with the same combination of skill level and list level.

Finally, this improves everyone's opportunity to recover from a poorer performance on the first day and combine a stronger 2nd day with good painting and sportsmanship to win the Renaissance Man - our Best Overall - on Day 2; an award that is achievable even with a .500 or lower win%.

There's a LOT in the works for the Open next year. We're adding a 40k TT on Friday, our WM/Hordes folks are working hard on their presentation, as is our Malifaux crew. We'll have a larger Fantasy tournament, put on by a veteran crew of Fantasy TO's and Gamers. Finally, we're adding a full on painting competition - both Golden Demon styled and a speed painting competition (Golden NOVA and Iron Painters).

We've also added Forums for some basic topics of interest to us (i.e. Tournament Theory, Appearance Competitions), and also for questions relevant to the Open. Shoutbox and Arcade with Tournament functionality of its own compliments of the house.
http://nova.tlsconline.com

More to come, but I wanted to update everything here.

Bump - Close to 100 pre-registrations for an initial offering of 128 slots already.

While not all pre-registrants will actually pay/register when the time comes, they'll have "first shot" at the registration button.

As long as you got mine I'm good. Sent it via email a few days ago See ya in August Mike!

I got yours.

We're likely bumping to 256. We have 188 pre-registrations at the moment, for an event 9+ months out ...

Wow! An 8 Round Tournament....It's gonna be CRAZY! How are you going to fit in the Invitational if you move up the number of games on Saturday/Sunday? Since your looking at a 5 round ish Invitational?

I can't wait for this year! I'm tweaking and tuning a couple different armies

We're working on that, Brad.

It'll be a full weekend of gaming either way. We'll either

a) Put the Invitational first round Thursday PM, with the final 4 rounds on Friday, then have the Open GT on Sat/Sun, OR we'll

b) have the Invitational on a separate weekend, but that's harder on those traveling to make both ... and I certainly don't want 32 of the best players in the country NOT in the Open.

That said, quite the hardcore/ironman approach for those "bests" ... can YOU handle 13 games of 40k in 4 days?

Plus up to 4 more if you participate also in the Team Campaign/tournament (NOVACALYPSE) we're planning for the Evenings.

I love it! I'm already super stoked for this event and it's still 9 months out. I've said it a few times already but this was the best tournament experience I've had in a very, very long time and I can't wait to head back, meet more people, and hang with some of the people I met on while out there last time.

Definitely looking forward to your return, Brad.

Interestingly, in some other thread I saw some guy say you were terrible for the hobby.

What I can't understand is how someone with a great attitude, who scores almost always high on sportsmanship, who heavily converts and paints his armies to a high standard, who builds strong but still tailored-to-self lists, and who plays well can be anything other than what any "complete" hobbyist would try to be, and can at all be "bad" for the hobby.

Regardless, we should have something for EVERYONE next year, the complete hobbyists who try their best to master every aspect of our hobby ... the folks focused on artistry first ... the folks focused on competition first .... and everyone in between.

I didn't see anything on the site or here, but we don't have to preregister for Fantasy, do we?

No, you do not.

Fantasy will be chiefly run this year by Scooter from the ICGC, working in close conjunction with me and other key personnel in NOVA's "Whiskey Crew" staff. I anticipate we'll have up to 96 slots set aside for Fantasy, but we don't *anticipate* a need for pre-registration at this time.

We'll also have Malifaux and Warmachine, and possibly others (i.e. FOW).

Excellent, thanks. Just wanted to double check. This has a high chance of being my first tourney ever (unless another local one comes up before then that I'm interested in), didn't want to miss out.

Ah don;t worry about what Espa said about Brad or myself, he was mad because he felt like he was attacked. Neither I nor Brad took any of that stuff to heart and I highly doubt anyone else did either.

Looking forward to this event! I was bummed I missed it last time but starting a business ain't cheap.

This year though, it's on!

Once I get the format for the tournament down I'll be posting everything up. It won’t be too much longer 9 months and counting.

Awwww, Mike you says the nicest things bout me

In all seriousness though it's always nice to see that the people who have actually met or played me think good things about me.

@Reece

Split a room if my wife doesn't come?

@Hulk
Yeah, for sure, that would be great.

MVBrandt wrote:No, you do not.

Fantasy will be chiefly run this year by Scooter from the ICGC, working in close conjunction with me and other key personnel in NOVA's "Whiskey Crew" staff. I anticipate we'll have up to 96 slots set aside for Fantasy, but we don't *anticipate* a need for pre-registration at this time.

We'll also have Malifaux and Warmachine, and possibly others (i.e. FOW).

scooters a good guy! I enjoyed my one game vs him at the team event in media... we got to play them first round while he was using his tau.

Sounds like a blast.

spireland wrote:Sounds like a blast.

It was last year, and it looks even better this year. 8 rounds? I think MVB is trying to kill us.

Indeed

It's also almost guaranteed at this point to be 256 players, which will put it at least "tied" with Adepticon for the largest 40k GT in the country. Pre-register while you can, folks.

Mike,

I'll be shooting you an e-mail for pre-registration for my brother and I. Hope to see some of that terrain put to use!

This Nova will be huge in multipul game syestems. It's turning out to be a lot of fun even thou I can't play in it this year.

Last year's Fantasy Nova Open was a blast. My only hope is that its even larger this year.

Our initial plan is to look for up to 96 attendees for the 2011 NOVA Fantasy ... Scooter will be the guy spearheading it, as a veteran tournament organizer (who already runs two GT's on the Indy Circuit, in MD), and veteran successful Fantasy tournament player.

I just gotta work on his spelling

I never said I was perfect at least I mean well!!!

Looks like I am going to go too. With people like Hulk and Reecius going I am sure it will be a fun event... or should I have said in spite of?

BA-Zing!

Bump, will edit initial post as well.

I wanted to give people a heads up that NOVA Open GT Registration will begin within a couple of weeks.

Pre-Registrants will receive an e-mail giving them first shots at registering spots.

We have a very small # of spots available still for Pre-Registrants - something I recommend you take advantage of if you intend to attend; most or all of our spots may sell very quickly after opening up.


In other news, the NOVA Invitational is shaping up better, and I wanted to highlight upcoming events that can earn you a spot:

The Invitational will be an intense, 5 round small tournament of 32 happening on the Friday before the 40k GT - itself 8 rounds over 2 days and 256 players.
The Best Overall / Renaissance Man for the Invitational (50% competitive rating, 50% appearance rating) will earn a $1,000 cash prize.
The Best General / Tournament Champion for the Invitational (single 5-0 finisher) will earn a $1,000 cash prize.
Rounds will be proactively refereed, with live and recorded podcasting covering top tables.

For the Invitational, here's the list at present: http://nova.tlsconline.com/showthread.php?t=11
You'll be able to go here and see who has earned an invite so far, and where you can earn the remaining ~20 invites.

There are a couple of spots left, for tournaments that wish to have them. Feel free to let me know and make the case if you're one of those.

New additions to the Invitational list are The Conflict GT and the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.

Additional updates =

The 256 person GT has what we are calling "Incidental Comp."
Effectively, at the end of Day 1's 4 rounds we will split the field into 16 brackets of 16, who will play only amongst each other for the remaining 4 rounds on Sunday.

The result of this is as follows:
Of the 16 people who go 0-4 on Day 1, 1 is guaranteed to go 4-0 on Day 2, and win a Best General prize for his bracket.
Of the 16 people who go 4-0 on Day 1, 1 is guaranteed to go 0-4 on Day 2.

The single person who goes 8-0 will win the Best General/Tournament Champion overall prize.
The single person who goes 0-8 (bummer) will probably win something special.
EVERY bracket of 16 will yield a single 4-0 performance on Day 2 (regardless of Day 1 record), and thus each bracket will earn a Tournament Ace / Bracket Best General award/prize.

Most importantly, you'll be as close as we can get to guaranteed to be playing amongst a bracket of list and skill PEERS on the 2nd day - instead of someone finally eeking out a tough win against a similar opponent after going 0-4 on Day 1 only to be smashed down again ... he'll continue to play amongst PEERS. This ensures that while the integrity of the solo 8-0/Best General track is maintained, EVERYONE has an opportunity to be competitively successful on the 2nd day amongst players with the same combination of skill level and list level.

Finally, this improves everyone's opportunity to recover from a poorer performance on the first day and combine a stronger 2nd day with good painting and sportsmanship to win the Renaissance Man - our Best Overall - on Day 2; an award that is achievable even with a .500 or lower win%.

There's a LOT in the works for the Open next year. We're adding a 40k TT on Friday, our WM/Hordes folks are working hard on their presentation, as is our Malifaux crew. We'll have a larger Fantasy tournament, put on by a veteran crew of Fantasy TO's and Gamers. Finally, we're adding a full on painting competition - both Golden Demon styled and a speed painting competition (Golden NOVA and Iron Painters).


We've also added Forums for some basic topics of interest to us (i.e. Tournament Theory, Appearance Competitions), and also for questions relevant to the Open. Shoutbox and Arcade with Tournament functionality of its own compliments of the house.
http://nova.tlsconline.com

More to come, but I wanted to update everything here.

AbsoluteBlue wrote:Looks like I am going to go too. With people like Hulk and Reecius going I am sure it will be a fun event... or should I have said in spite of?

Burn!

Awesome... I will probably be coming for for the WarmaHordes (assuming hordes armies are allowed!) event, although I think I will need to choose between that and the fantasy tourney.

Mike, this is shaping up to be a smoker! I am very excited to attend. You have a really great thing going here.