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I think it is absolutely great that stores around where I live seem to be in the habit of running monthly 40K tournaments almost like clockwork. In fact, I can nearly play in a tournament every single weekend if I want to go a different store to play in each.

But here's the weird thing for me. Being a self-described 'completionist' (I tend to feel like I have to unlock EVERY secret in a video game I enjoy, for example, even if the process of unlocking those things is downright mind-numbing to me), I have the urge to attend every single one of these tournaments...just because it feels like I should.

The problem is, I honestly can't possibly make it to every one of these tournaments...I've got things to do on weekends here and there, ya'know? But once I skip a tournament at a particular store one month, I almost feel like I've 'missed out' and when the next iteration of that tournament rolls around I strangely now have slightly less incentive to go because I missed the last one. And if I skip that one too, well then the next I now have even less desire to attend and so on and so forth.


I know that if a tournament is held 'less' often, like every few months, twice a year or especially anually I feel like I absolutely have to make these tournaments because, well, they're only held so seldom that if I miss them, I'll really miss out!

So my question is this: Can the fact that a local tournament is held so often actually hurt your desire to attend? Could it possibly be better to hold a few less tournaments a year in order to make them feel a bit more 'special'? Or do you think it is always a good idea to hold as many tournaments as possible during a year as long as enough people keep showing up to play in them?


Just wondering if its only me, or if anyone else feels the way I do?

I get where you're coming from. It sucks to feel like you're missing out on stuff.

I'd rather have too many going on around me then not enough though.

Monster Rain wrote:I get where you're coming from. It sucks to feel like you're missing out on stuff.

I'd rather have too many going on around me then not enough though.

I totally agree with that too. When I do 'get the urge' to play in a tournie, its really nice to know I don't have to wait months to do so. There's almost assuredly one coming up in in the next weekend or two.

But with that said, I think if I were to pick, I'd have the local stores all drop the schedule down to once every 2-3 months. That way there would always be at least one tournament going on a month at SOME store, but I wouldn't feel like I'm out of the loop missing a bunch of tourneys if I take a month off from playing!

yakface wrote:[But with that said, I think if I were to pick, I'd have the local stores all drop the schedule down to once every 2-3 months. That way there would always be at least one tournament going on a month at SOME store, but I wouldn't feel like I'm out of the loop missing a bunch of tourneys if I take a month off from playing!

I just moved to southern California, so I was a bit overwhelmed at first. In NH I had been able to make it to every tourney, as they were pretty few and far between. I finally just got used to the idea that I wasn't going to make all of them. Hell, I need to take a weekend to paint every once in a while!

I agree that monthly tournaments for a given system can get to feel a bit much. I've known a couple of stores that alternated months between Warhammer & 40k, and that seemed to work well. Each felt a little more special.

My local store runs a 40k tournament every month, but they vary pretty widely. They rotate between doubles and single events, and I think the occasional Apoc, so that means any given type of event has a bit of a wait between.

Mannahnin wrote:I agree that monthly tournaments for a given system can get to feel a bit much. I've known a couple of stores that alternated months between Warhammer & 40k, and that seemed to work well. Each felt a little more special.

My local store runs a 40k tournament every month, but they vary pretty widely. They rotate between doubles and single events, and I think the occasional Apoc, so that means any given type of event has a bit of a wait between.

This is the norm in my area as well, although I'm not able to get to (or have as much desire to) events as I used to. I look forward to a tournament once a month, or every other month, as a way to set a deadline for completing the assembly and painting of a unit. Unfortunately, with a regular DnD game and hosting get-togethers for friends I simply don't get the time to play 40k.

I like monthly store tournaments myself, but then, I am a tournament junkie so hey.

I like to go to two tournaments (1 GT, 1 RTT) a month if I can, but 1 is OK if it is a busy month.

Sounds like some weird OCD, man. From what you wrote, it reads like you know you're talking crazy but still doing it, lol.

Mannahnin wrote:I agree that monthly tournaments for a given system can get to feel a bit much. I've known a couple of stores that alternated months between Warhammer & 40k, and that seemed to work well. Each felt a little more special.

That's what we do in our area.

Yak my opinion is if you're a competitive player the more tourneys you play the better you can hone your skills. I am very lucky and live in a urban area that has tourneys ever weekend. I typically play in two to three a month.

I've been playing for years and never played in a tournament, i was looking forward to my first tournament last weekend. I'd practiced and honed my army list over many weeks of intensive gaming at my local GW, but then they announced that they were closing the battle bunker and all tournaments were cancelled. Sad Face :(

Trying to write this without it being a plug but:

http://snakeyesgaming.blogspot.com/

Snake Eyes has been trying to put on a tournament or campaign/ubergame at least once a quarter for each of the stores in our respective areas. Being that were working on 4 stores that equals about 3-4 tournaments every 3 months. With 5 of us it makes for a very tight schedule if we need to paint up anything special like objectives etc..

My personal opinion and vote is one tournament every 2-3 months. Any sooner and folks get bored or organizers can get burned out. As an added benefit doing tournaments 2-3 months lets the local meta change. It also gives folks a chance to alter their current army and play it a few times before taking it through the ringer. It can also help if the store your running the tourney at has a painting requirement and folks need to expand for the next tournament.

GW prize support is also once a quarter for most independent stores (to my knowledge)

I voted once every 2-3 months but thats just how many I would attend. I don't think it would be a bad thing to have more. There are no tournaments around here and although I'm not a competitive play I do find it a bit annoying as I would like to enter some for fun.

I voted once per month, simply because I rarely am able to attend more than that.

I think it would be fine (nice?) if my FLGS had more; I have no issue missing one and then returning for a later tourney--though I fall into the completionist mold in many other ways.

If you were such a completionist, I'd see you at our events more often!

Seriously though, from a TO's point of view, it's an issue of regularity. Almost every month I see new and different people at the tournament. If we only had a 3-4 events over the course of the year, it would probably be easier for some groups to plan their attendance (and I'd see them more regularly in that sense ), but I'd be losing out on all the people out there who aren't really present when it comes to the 40k community as a whole, but they know that they can come every second Saturday and play in a tournament. Some guys I might see once or twice a year, but I know they're out there and want to throw down once in a while.

Plus, I like running the tournament, so it's probably a little on me that we have such a regular schedule. I like seeing the armies, seeing which armies win, talking shop, staying current with the game and everyone, etc.

-Dis.

disdainful wrote:If you were such a completionist, I'd see you at our events more often!

Seriously though, from a TO's point of view, it's an issue of regularity. Almost every month I see new and different people at the tournament. If we only had a 3-4 events over the course of the year, it would probably be easier for some groups to plan their attendance (and I'd see them more regularly in that sense ), but I'd be losing out on all the people out there who aren't really present when it comes to the 40k community as a whole, but they know that they can come every second Saturday and play in a tournament. Some guys I might see once or twice a year, but I know they're out there and want to throw down once in a while.



-Dis.

QFT. I like monthly tournaments. I actually feel like I need to expand out past the one's Dis runs at GE! More tournaments the better! I also like the monthly format for the variety it brings into my FLGS. I get bored of playing the same army/player over and over. You don't get any benefit from beating your head against the wall, you especially don't learn anything from it imo.

A monthly tournament is great if it is generally low-key and thus not too taxing on the psyche. In fact, the frequency of small, local tournaments is what gave rise to the idea of Grand Tournaments--once a year gala tournaments which afford ultimate bragging rights. Thus in the old days there were many tournaments but very few Grand Tournaments. These day any peasant can put five tables together and call an event a GT. Hmph.

Mannahnin wrote:I agree that monthly tournaments for a given system can get to feel a bit much. I've known a couple of stores that alternated months between Warhammer & 40k, and that seemed to work well. Each felt a little more special.

My local store runs a 40k tournament every month, but they vary pretty widely. They rotate between doubles and single events, and I think the occasional Apoc, so that means any given type of event has a bit of a wait between.

My local store used to run tournaments like your first section mentioned. But they awhile ago switched to running 40k monthly. They always run straight 40k but they change the points values.

So for example Jan would be 1850, Feb 1250, March 1850, April 1500, June 1850, July 1250 etc.

Seems to work out pretty well imo. Having an active 40k scene pushes people to play more games which in turn (hopefully) creates better players through expanded playing experiance. I think this can build confidence in a person and profide a good testing ground for them in reguards to turning around and taking said experiances to a larger tournament and vice versa.

The only issue I have with having a ton of tournaments on the smaller local scale is a constant and continued renforcement of subpar play. Doing well month anfter month with 12-20 people is great locally, but not being able to break so much as top 10 at a major event (for any member of said club(s) ) should show that, that areas view of 40k has a right to be constructivly challenged and has potential to improve. However, this often doesnt happen or is to heavily resisted when attempted and people are all to ready to blame other factors for preformance and continue to preach subpar playing.

That is just a *possible* minor side effect of that level of activity though. Overall I firmly believe it does produce better players and provide a great resource to the new people who come along and pick the game up there bye helping to keep the hobby strong.

I voted for once a month.

Often enough that missing one because you're busy isn't that big a deal because another one is coming up soon.

Seldom enough that you don't feel burned out if you do make them all.

Then again, I'm pretty casual about it now. There was a time where I just had to go to any tournament if it was within a 2 hour drive.

It sounds like all these places are doing a tourney about once a month. Maybe one of them needs to go out of rotation, for a while at least? Or maybe rotate who goes out of rotation? Hit tourneys for A, B, and C this month, B, C, and D next month; etc...

Dok wrote:Sounds like some weird OCD, man. From what you wrote, it reads like you know you're talking crazy but still doing it, lol.

That was confusing, haha. I meant I like one per store per month, but I have generally lived in areas where there are lots of stores in a reasonable distance and so could go to more than one per month if I chose to, which I usually do.

I voted for 3 times a year. Each month my FLGS has a tournament or league going on for one of the many games out there, Fantasy, 40K, Warmachiene, Flames of War etc. So it usually equals out to 3 events for every game/year. Which is great for me because it allows me to catch up on painting and play testing multiple lists.

Monster Rain wrote:

yakface wrote:[But with that said, I think if I were to pick, I'd have the local stores all drop the schedule down to once every 2-3 months. That way there would always be at least one tournament going on a month at SOME store, but I wouldn't feel like I'm out of the loop missing a bunch of tourneys if I take a month off from playing!

I just moved to southern California, so I was a bit overwhelmed at first. In NH I had been able to make it to every tourney, as they were pretty few and far between. I finally just got used to the idea that I wasn't going to make all of them. Hell, I need to take a weekend to paint every once in a while!

Must be nice Arround this way there was the NOVA killers a while back but i seem to either be missing the postings for these things completely or there just aren't any tourney's going on arround my area.

Given the year I've had, I've gladly passed up tournaments to do other stuff. If it
weren't for the fact that I was running events for others, I think I'd be at a
tournament every four or five months.

We do it monthly at our FLGS, but We've been doing 1500 points for like 5 months now ... grr ... so i swap guard/marines ...

I feel that if it happens more than once a month they feel less "special" and it effects my enthusiasm. I'd prefer a big tourney every month rather than a poorly attended short one every week.

My FLGS decided not to run a tourney this month because of the holidays.

<starts scratching like a coke addict>

I NEED MY FIX MAN!!!!

</scratch>

My FLGS (Miniature Market FTW) holds a tournament every month.
LOL Despite the fact that I always seem to have immutable plans on the particular weekends they have them, I think it's awesome.

Eric