I also wanted to jump back in and give a big thanks to Reece and the crew for putting on an exceptional first event (better late than never). I know tons and tons of things can go wrong when you're trying to put on something of this size for the first time in a location, and to their credit everything ran really, really smoothly all things considered.
I kept telling everyone all weekend that Reece had peer-pressured me into coming (and its true
), but I definitely had a great time and never regretted it for a second. I had 7 great games of
40K with some quality individuals and even faced some interesting army builds that I'm not accustomed to seeing in tournaments which is always a nice and refreshing.
Anyway, Reece asked me to post my review of the event, so here it is (and yes, I stole much of the 'review' format from Janthkin's review post):
Venue: The good was that the venue was generally spacious with tall ceilings, and there was no issues with, or cost for parking.
The bad would be that the floor was bare concrete (hard on the feet after many hours), the temperature was quite hot (although as has been said, a change to March should help that quite a bit), and despite the overall high ceiling, it was still quite loud to the point where I could certainly hear Reece on his blowhorn, but I usually couldn't tell what he was saying. The other big problem with the venue was that it isn't adjacent to anything, which means if you do finish your games early, you're pretty much stuck with nothing to do but watch other games in progress & if you don't want pizza for lunch, then I hope you brought something along with you!
I know cost dictates that this is the place to be at least for one more year, but as with Janthkin I would gladly pay more for my ticket if the venue was nicer overall...but again, I think the venue was great for the first year (or first few years) of the event.
Hotel: What can I say...its a Days Inn. After staying at actual hotels for Adepticon & Throne of Skulls, going back to a Days Inn was definitely a change. Of course, I don't need that many amenities and the complementary breakfast was nice. The only real 'problem' was again that the hotel was a drive from the venue, which is obviously not as nice as having the venue be within walking distance of your room so you can go take a nap when you finish early.
Overall the hotel was fine and again, totally acceptable for a first time event.
Terrain & Tables: I want to give you major props on this. Your terrain coverage was much better than many tournaments that have been doing it for years. I know that must have been a major undertaking, so I can only say: Great job! And a big thanks to the SCGWL (did I get all the letters?) for bringing their terrain to add to the mix as well.
With that said, I definitely think that there still wasn't quite enough terrain...but that's the issue that pretty much every tournament struggles with, and I think you guys got off to a fantastic start on this front. I did see a couple of tables where it seemed like the largest line of sight blocking terrain
wasn't in the center of the table (like a Bastion, which
IMHO should always be right in the center of the table), which was odd, but overall I think you did a great job of arranging the terrain you did have in a fair and competitive way.
Missions: Book missions, while perhaps not my favorite style for tournament missions, totally work for me. I'm always glad to see Capture & Control not paired with Dawn of War, as I personally think that's worse than with Spearhead (but I know some disagree),...so I had nothing but a good time with all the missions selected.
As for the bracket points, I always believe it is a mistake to allow both players to achieve the same points in the same game. Because bracket points don't affect the outcome of any individual game and because both players can achieve the same goals simultaneously, I personally saw in several instances in both mine and other games where players were freely willing to 'fudge' the facts a little bit to allow their opponent to 'claim' a certain bracket point they technically didn't get. I think it would be a better idea to make these goals be only achievable by one side or the other to really make the people who earned more bracket points stand out.
Off the top of my head I think you could do stuff like:
1) Killed the highest point enemy
HQ while keeping your own alive (if both sides have their highest pt
HQ alive or both are dead then neither player gets this point).
2) Whichever player has the highest percentage of scoring units remaining at the end of the game (so if you started with 5 scoring units and had 3 remaining your percentage would be 3/5=.60, where as if you started with 2 scoring units and had 1 remaining your percentage would be 1/2=.50, so the first player would get the bracket point)...although this may be too difficult a concept, I'm not sure.
3) Whichever player controls the center of the table (or the most table quarters, you can really do either), but make it so you actually have to have a scoring unit within range to do it and not have an opposing unit within range at the same time (like a normal objective), that way only one player can get this point at a time.
Whatever the case, I think sticking with the concept that bracket points can only ever be achieved by one player or the other is always the better way to go.
Organization: Another big massive props to you guys on this one. Everything stuck to the schedule, pairings were up quickly and I had absolutely zero problems the whole time with finding the table/opponents on time to start my games.
I love projected timers...I think they're hugely helpful in getting your games done in time. But in order for them to work you need to be able to see them from your table. Because of the layout of the hall, only a very small percentage of the tables could actually see the projection, so I think that could definitely be improved on...exactly how I'm not sure, but it would be helpful if the time was visible to more tables. Perhaps look into getting a screen to project onto so you can angle it towards more of the tables instead of just the dead-zone in front of the judges tables?
The bullhorn was a great concept in theory, but although I could hear you using it, I couldn't actually hear what you were saying 95% of the time. Maybe if you had a bigger/louder bullhorn then the problem would be solved?
Tournament Structure: I'm a big fan of playing a wide variety of tournament structures, I don't think there is one 'right' way, so I certainly can appreciate the pureness of the pretty much straight-up W/L/D format. I don't think I would want to play that format exclusively (but I'd say that about *any* format), but I did enjoy it for what it was and would look forward to it again.
The one thing that kind of concerns me (and correct me if I'm wrong on any of the details here), but I think if you're going to do a W/L/D format like
NOVA, then you really need to have a strong 'Renaissance Man' in place to counterbalance the feeling that you have knowing that once you lose one game you're likely out of the hunt for the rest of the tournament.
I know you *did* have a 'Renaissance Man' award, but from what I can tell it was just the 3rd place finisher via W/L/D using hobby scores for a tiebreaker?
If I'm correct about this, there are several issues with this:
1) Looking at your 'prizes' page, this doesn't seem to match quite how you said it would be determined ahead of time:
This award will go to the player with the highest combination of Hobbiest points and W/L record.
That makes it sound like it will be an even combination of Hobby scores and W/L/D record.
2) More importantly, by making it essentially 3rd place W/L/D with only hobby as tiebreaker again means that players who lose their first few games will
feel like they have no hope of winning the tournament anymore (whether that is strictly true or not).
I think it is absolutely imperative if you are using a W/L/D system that you include a whole bunch of other secondary means for people to win awards/prizes. I know you don't have the same resources (yet) as the
NOVA, but I think they utilize all sorts of other methods to make sure that players who lose their first games still feel like they have a reason to keep playing. Looking at the results, it looks like you had 7 players not come back for day 2? I'd be curious to know how that compares to other tournaments, but it seems like having nearly 10% of the field drop after day 1 might be a bit indicative of how brutal the format is in relation to the types of awards/prizes available.
I know for my money, I did definitely have a feeling once I lost a game or two that my destiny was completely out of control and that only catastrophic failures on the part of others could allow me any chance to win something. Having you come up to me on day 2 and asking if I'd be offended if you didn't paint judge my army pretty much let me know I had no chance to win anything, even though I went a respectable 5-2 for the tournament. I really think adding in some sort of 'favorite opponent' award along with paint judging that counts equally towards 'Renaissance Man' could really help to make players feel like they have a shot at something even though they've racked up a loss or two.
Finally, as for the number of games...7 games ain't my thing. I did enjoy each and every game and I know that if I had a little more time vs. point values being played I'd probably enjoy it even more, but that many games in a weekend has never been my thing and there is literally nothing much you could do to alleviate this (except perhaps providing some complimentary lady masseuses and hot tubs
). At the end of the day I think I had about as much fun as I could playing that number of games and I would definitely come again if I'm up for that challenge. If I don't come next year it would ONLY be because I don't particularly care to play that many games of
40K in 2 days. Everything you and your crew did was absolutely phenomenal for the first year and you deserve a great big pat on the back and a cold beer for everything you did manage to achieve!
