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Someone told me that Feast of Blades is not happening anymore, is this true?

Moving to Tournament Discussions

Short answer, yes, AFAIK

Yeah, I heard it was a combination of Funds and 7th edition.

I think there were attendance issues leading up to the last year when the winner of the event had an illegal list and the runner up had cheating dice.

Is there a source on the cheating dice thing? That's a pretty serious allegation (much moreso than an illeagal list) and I've never heard of that actually happening at a big event (particularly someone placing high at it, where there is a lot of scrutiny).

 RiTides wrote:
Is there a source on the cheating dice thing? That's a pretty serious allegation (much moreso than an illeagal list) and I've never heard of that actually happening at a big event (particularly someone placing high at it, where there is a lot of scrutiny).

From what I hear, he admitted to it. But he said he bought a giant thing of dice second hand and just used that and like 3 dice in it where modified so the two was a five.
The illegal list from what i remember was someone not understanding how to build detachment.

I heard it was funding/attendance. They had some pretty weird rulings/house faq last year. I guess people didn't like their version of 40k.

That and they aren't up with that there 7th edition that the kids are playing now-a-days.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
Is there a source on the cheating dice thing? That's a pretty serious allegation (much moreso than an illeagal list) and I've never heard of that actually happening at a big event (particularly someone placing high at it, where there is a lot of scrutiny).

From what I hear, he admitted to it. But he said he bought a giant thing of dice second hand and just used that and like 3 dice in it where modified so the two was a five.
The illegal list from what i remember was someone not understanding how to build detachment.

Not true according to the player.

The FoB results thread from last year has the details regarding the dice and the list. Below is the filtered version where Kenny (of the Long War podcast/etc) told his side of the dice issue.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/618866.page?userfilterid=35235

The list issue is a bit more complicated and revolves around how Feast of Blades was allowing IA units but not IA armies, but not clearly communicating how that worked with space marine characters. The player's PoV is below

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/618866.page?userfilterid=90426

As far as FoB, I have heard rumor and have my own speculations but the only clear cut info is they tried to sell the 'business'' awhile back. Not sure how that shook out though.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=849768808422884&id=122912597775179

 Dozer Blades wrote:

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
Is there a source on the cheating dice thing? That's a pretty serious allegation (much moreso than an illeagal list) and I've never heard of that actually happening at a big event (particularly someone placing high at it, where there is a lot of scrutiny).

From what I hear, he admitted to it. But he said he bought a giant thing of dice second hand and just used that and like 3 dice in it where modified so the two was a five.
The illegal list from what i remember was someone not understanding how to build detachment.

Not true according to the player.

Ok, I should have clarified it was hearsay. my bad.

That's all extremely informative and reasonable, thanks winterman!!

Feast of Blades problems were definitely more attendance-oriented than anything to do with the final table problems, that was more likely just the final nail in the coffin; what was previously a ~100 person GT 2 years ago was only attended by like 20 or 30 people last year.

You have to understand FoB's format--they used smaller tournaments all around the country as "qualifiers" to the GT at FoB. It wasn't anything particularly exclusive--pretty much any local tournament could sign up as a qualifier--but it was their gimmick and it worked for them. You had to finish Top 3 in a qualifier to be "invited" to the 40k GT at Feast of Blades.

However, that format put them in a pretty awful position in regards to 7th Edition. When 7th came out and the internet started shouting about the need for some sort of FAQs or extensive house rules to make the game playable (due to superheavies/D weapons/all units scoring/daemon summoning/etc, most of which are already relatively accepted parts of the game), FoB had to step up waaaaay too early and come out with their rulings, because they had to get things in order for their qualifier tournaments.

Except they went way too far--nowadays, about the strictest "large" tournament format we see is ITC with their 2+ re-roll and Invis nerfs. Feast of Blades originally came out saying they were going to do a unit-by-unit, wargear-by-wargear, all-inclusive ban/allow list. Things like the Grimoire and certain units (far beyond Superheavies) would be outright disallowed. This was their first mistake--not just for being too strict, but also for injecting a ton of uncertainty, since it was never finalized. It's very hard to sign up for a tournament when you don't know if they're going to tell you half your army is illegal in a few weeks. People have to make travel plans, take time off work, book hotels, etc etc.

They held this stance for a few months, and it was costing them a ton of signups (including myself, as I'd attended previously, but wasn't going anywhere near it in that state).

Meanwhile, other tournaments were going on and proving that 7th Edition wasn't actually The-Sky-Is-Falling level broken as everyone had feared.

Their second mistake was the far bigger one. Once they saw that the proposed comp rules were costing them signups, they did a complete reversal. They instead became more or less the most open GT of the entire year, with virtually nothing disallowed, even in terms of list construction (the one area where pretty much every tournament imposes some sort of rules).

So, while that's also a rather flawed tournament system that isn't likely going to attract players, it also completely alienated the ones who had signed up, expecting a heavily-comped toned-down version of 7th, to then have the floodgates kicked open and sent headfirst into no-holds-barred 7th Edition.

It was basically bad news all around. I'm not sure if they allowed people to get refunds or what, but even if they didn't, I'm sure a bunch of the people who signed up just decided not to even show once the rules change happened.

Too bad about the FOB. I ran an event for them a few years ago and they seemed to have a good grasp on what they were doing.

 RiTides wrote:
Is there a source on the cheating dice thing? That's a pretty serious allegation (much moreso than an illeagal list) and I've never heard of that actually happening at a big event (particularly someone placing high at it, where there is a lot of scrutiny).

Someone at a Beakycon ( 2011, or 2012 I think) was caught using "Character Builder" Dice. Amazingly, the cheater was not insta-banned IIRC, and I'm not sure that I do, the cheater was connected to something calling itself the 40k wrecking crew.

Here's a Dakka thread for it, http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/480973.page And I suspect a quick Google search will reveal more.

Part of the falling apart may have been due to them charging stores to use their format as qualifier events.

That was always off putting to those of us here in Pasadena.

They also charged higher than average price too. average tournament round here is 5$
20$ was what they where charging. and none of that went to prize support.

I am the TO for the Con with the dice cheat. We have run six events and still going strong while others have folded.