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I'm just curious on how high the stakes can get these days.

Well its not for gaming but the overall winner of the crystal brush at adepticon is $10000

IIRC the RENEGADE open gave out $200 to the top shmoe, paid out the top 8.

$1000 cash each to undefeated and best overall at nova invitational.

 namiel wrote:
Well its not for gaming but the overall winner of the crystal brush at adepticon is $10000

10 grand for a painting competition? Wowzers!

What Adepticon's 40k tournament prize like?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

MVBrandt wrote:
$1000 cash each to undefeated and best overall at nova invitational.

A very worthy boon. I'll have to look I to it. Thanks.

 FeindusMaximus wrote:
IIRC the RENEGADE open gave out $200 to the top shmoe, paid out the top 8.

Renegade was $400 for first and $200 for second. I got $100 in third, think fourth got $50 and rest was just prizes.

Adepticon gives a ton of stuff for first in the Championships, but it's hard to value since it's all prizes, no cash. It's definitely over $1000 "retail, " but I think most people would value it below the big cash prizes at NOVA.

Our yearly Grand Tournament has prizes of 1000, 500 and 250$.

/e: I mean €. So basically:

1st: 1220$
2nd: 611$
3rd: 305$

Ard Boyz Semi-Finals

3000 Point army of your choice to the semi-finalist winner:
First year I got 3000 points of Sisters of Battle
Two years later I got a 3000 point Imperial Guard army.

Don't know the exact retail, but it was quite a bit. (Especially for the Sisters.)

I was in a tournament in Tampa where the first prize was $1000.00.

 Fedral wrote:
Ard Boyz Semi-Finals

3000 Point army of your choice to the semi-finalist winner:
First year I got 3000 points of Sisters of Battle
Two years later I got a 3000 point Imperial Guard army.

Don't know the exact retail, but it was quite a bit. (Especially for the Sisters.)

Wait. so You wrote a 3000 point list and it was all given to you for being a semi finalist?! :O Wow!

 Fedral wrote:
Ard Boyz Semi-Finals

3000 Point army of your choice to the semi-finalist winner:
First year I got 3000 points of Sisters of Battle
Two years later I got a 3000 point Imperial Guard army.

Don't know the exact retail, but it was quite a bit. (Especially for the Sisters.)

I still think the Ard Boyz semi final round prizes were the best prizes ever offered for any 40k tournament.

 luky7dayz wrote:

 Fedral wrote:
Ard Boyz Semi-Finals

3000 Point army of your choice to the semi-finalist winner:
First year I got 3000 points of Sisters of Battle
Two years later I got a 3000 point Imperial Guard army.

Don't know the exact retail, but it was quite a bit. (Especially for the Sisters.)

Wait. so You wrote a 3000 point list and it was all given to you for being a semi finalist?! :O Wow!

Hah, not quite.

The rewards at Ard Boys semi-finals were 2500 point armies (which is the point level the tournament was played at). It was a giant box of minis they'd mail you that could hypothetically be made into a 2500 point army. The only say you had in it was what army you wanted, i.e. "Necrons."

Most of the prizes ended up being huge disappointments. It was like "well, if every model buys every potential upgrade, this could MAYBE be 2500 points" and you tended to get a bunch of crap that wasn't selling well at the time. People would try to game it by asking for an expensive army like Sisters and you wouldn't get anywhere near 2500 points on that case.

Usually there would be one great army and word would get around to select that one--usually a recent Codex release. That way they'd have new, useful models sitting around the warehouse instead of just old crap.

Most of the stories you hear about amazing Ard Boys prizes come from the next-to-last year they did it, which was right after IG came out in 5th. The IG prize box was absurd and easily $1500-2000 worth of models. It was like 5 Leman Russes, 5 Valkyries, 5 Chimeras, 3 Basilisks, and a metric ton of infantry boxes.

Several years back we had a Warlord tournament (Reaper's game, and they provided the prizes). Best Painted was a set of Reaper's Master Series Paints (108 paints plus plastic case for them).

I still use those paints to this day.

I won a Fortress of Redemption once.

My son won an airbrush, compressor, paints, and cleaning supplies at Adepti-con. Advertised value was $1400+. He was a happy camper.

The first Kings of War Tourney in the UK had £1000 as the first place prize. The next year the top prize was a 1800 or 2000(not sure which) point army with models of your choice. Those were some pretty spectacular prizes.

Best I've seen is one of GW's vortex grenade cases which I won. Worth about $150 if i remember right. It's a pretty cool case since it has a whole bunch of fluff on it about how it's not to be handled without Inquisitorial consent and stuff like that. Definitely looks like a bomb case.

The most lucrative prize I've seen and actually won in a GW tournament was about 15 medium to large buildings, hand crafted by the employees working at the store, which was used for the store displays. All custom kit bashed and painted immaculately. The terrain/buildings together, made a 6×4 table look like a dense city ideal for a necromunda/mordheim game.

 LordOfSmurfs wrote:
The first Kings of War Tourney in the UK had £1000 as the first place prize. The next year the top prize was a 1800 or 2000(not sure which) point army with models of your choice. Those were some pretty spectacular prizes.

They did this in the US as well--the Kings of War tournament at Adepticon had a $1000 prize two years ago.

Sadly, despite the huge prize, six whole people signed up.

In 2007 I won this for the Ard Boyz Semi's

I picked Cadian Mechanized Guard and got my shipment yesterday. Needless to say I am impressed. I priced out the stuff at $1503 and rough estimate of points at 5200. 9 Boxes of troops, 4 boxes of heavy weapon teams, 7 Chimera's, 2 Russ', 2 Hellhounds, 6 Sentinals, 4 Commisars, 2 HQ boxes, 14 new Ogryn, Karskin box, and a Baneblade.

So, what you should get from this thread - this isn't poker . There is the very rare $1K prize, while most large events give a several hundred (or the equivalent) for top prizes. Given the cost of making a relevant army and keeping current, you should definitely not be attending warhammer tournies for the loot alone!

I've been to a bunch of events (US) that give out weapons of some kind to the winner. A massive hammer or sword or somesuch.

Yup, I have a couple of those in the closet. They're about the only thing from the hobby that the fiancee ever gives a funny eye toward.

RiTides, you hit a good point and kind of a whiffed point at the same time. Nobody should ponder trying to make serious profit off 40K tournaments, nor is it very financially feasible for TOs (the NOVA is entering its 6th year, and you don't want to know what the net "profit" is from which money can be pulled; half the Invitational prize comes from sponsors - so $1,000 of the $2,000 given away).

That said, I've witnessed / heard that a lot of players find it validating for them. There are still plenty of passionate wargamers who "get gak" from their family / friends / whatever regarding their hobby, and I know I've had folks at NOVA thank me for the Invitational prize's existence who aren't even playing in it ... aforementioned [douchey] family/friends/etc. are not interested enough to be aware that they aren't making any money compared to the cost to participate and attend, but having a 4 figure cash prize to say is awarded at the tournament or con you're attending seems to have a confidence-boosting or bolstering effect on some folks, even those who have no desire to compete for it (heh).

The one thing that's also true is that some people DO like competing hard for winnings ... and some people don't.. So, if you can offer a nice cash prize for one of those niches, why not? Further, if you can offer a nice cash or other prize for the flipside of the hobby, you also should (e.g., we're trying to pull together sponsorship/etc. to put up a serious cash prize for the Capital Palette).

Yada yada, it's all about the little things.

MVBrandt wrote:
Yup, I have a couple of those in the closet. They're about the only thing from the hobby that the fiancee ever gives a funny eye toward.

RiTides, you hit a good point and kind of a whiffed point at the same time. Nobody should ponder trying to make serious profit off 40K tournaments, nor is it very financially feasible for TOs (the NOVA is entering its 6th year, and you don't want to know what the net "profit" is from which money can be pulled; half the Invitational prize comes from sponsors - so $1,000 of the $2,000 given away).

That said, I've witnessed / heard that a lot of players find it validating for them. There are still plenty of passionate wargamers who "get gak" from their family / friends / whatever regarding their hobby, and I know I've had folks at NOVA thank me for the Invitational prize's existence who aren't even playing in it ... aforementioned [douchey] family/friends/etc. are not interested enough to be aware that they aren't making any money compared to the cost to participate and attend, but having a 4 figure cash prize to say is awarded at the tournament or con you're attending seems to have a confidence-boosting or bolstering effect on some folks, even those who have no desire to compete for it (heh).

The one thing that's also true is that some people DO like competing hard for winnings ... and some people don't.. So, if you can offer a nice cash prize for one of those niches, why not? Further, if you can offer a nice cash or other prize for the flipside of the hobby, you also should (e.g., we're trying to pull together sponsorship/etc. to put up a serious cash prize for the Capital Palette).

Yada yada, it's all about the little things.

I got a copy of Microsoft Office 2010 at NOVA.

LOL ... gotta love the Lemonade Raffle; it turns up all kinds of goodies. Some people get miniatures, some people get $300 KR cases, some people get weekend vacations, and some people get MS Office 2010!

I think my point stands, Mike! Even a 1K prize does not equal the cost of most armies. Not that anyone said this, but I'm simply noting that it would be a fallacy to think that anyone is actually making money in this hobby!

I am sure competitive players who do well at events might go a ways towards covering their convention costs for the year. But for most serious players, I think it is much more about the game itself, or the camraderie that goes along with it, or the "glory" of winning etc. Once you factor in hotel, airfare, registration, etc... all I said was, this isn't poker, and it sure as heck isn't!

For myself, I prefer a sweet trophy as a prize (still have a plaque from AdeptiCon 2012 displayed proudly, but can't remember what the prizes were that came along with it), but I don't begrudge those who would prefer loot. I just think it's worth noting that the cost of going after that loot is almost always going to exceed the value of it (with the now defunct 'Ard Boyz being a notable exception, since it was so cheap to participate, and heck didn't even have a painting requirement to boot).

 RiTides wrote:
I think my point stands, Mike! Even a 1K prize does not equal the cost of most armies. Not that anyone said this, but I'm simply noting that it would be a fallacy to think that anyone is actually making money in this hobby!

I am sure competitive players who do well at events might go a ways towards covering their convention costs for the year. But for most serious players, I think it is much more about the game itself, or the camraderie that goes along with it, or the "glory" of winning etc. Once you factor in hotel, airfare, registration, etc... all I said was, this isn't poker, and it sure as heck isn't!

For myself, I prefer a sweet trophy as a prize (still have a plaque from AdeptiCon 2012 displayed proudly, but can't remember what the prizes were that came along with it), but I don't begrudge those who would prefer loot. I just think it's worth noting that the cost of going after that loot is almost always going to exceed the value of it (with the now defunct 'Ard Boyz being a notable exception, since it was so cheap to participate, and heck didn't even have a painting requirement to boot).

My counter/add-point, RiTides, was simply that $1k prizes and swank non-gamer rewards seems to actually help some people "justify" or "validate" the hobby among conventionally condescending friends/family. So, while no one should go for the money (your point, which tends to be a little bit contrary to swank cash prizes in a non-negative way), having nice prizes is still meritworthy, as it can help smooth the way for those who still have to deal with skepticism and condescension about the hobby from their loved ones (something I've never personally faced much of, but something I know many gamers DO still face, especially when it comes to "justifying" attendance at a travel-to con full of other dudes to goof off with and get drunk with over a weekend, haha).

That's fair enough . I think both points stand (I wouldn't disagree with yours... I think we're making somewhat tangential observations).

And you're right, my spouse was excited the times I've won a few things . But I think that may have been more for the fact that I was so stoked about it, as she's sharp enough to realize that I still spent way more than that in preparing for and attending these events!

A lot of local stores used to do 100% of pay in to prizes (store credit). With $10-15 a head, it made for a pretty lucrative one day event if you could do well.

I don't know. Offering prizes could be the thing that's missing to nudge this hobby mainstream in the States. I know on my last visit to Ireland, it felt like they had a commercial gaming club every ten blocks in Dublin. A slight embellishment, but the contrast had me kinda curious. There was one point, when I popped in to the GW store, there were more girls than guys...Crazy right?

Prizes for validation definitely paints the hobby in a different light ( no pun intended). It helps relieve the stigma of adults playing with man-dolls or playing with toys. Take MtG for example, as painful as it is, that game had humble beginnings. The game was pretty lax and initially was isolated to the gamer-geek community. Naturally its characteristic kinship to other shady Vegas vices, it slowly graduated to a semi- commercial nerd sport.

Granted, a card community has a different appeal than a hobby driven wargame, that draws artists, sci-fi fanboys, model builders, and gamers alike, the fundamental groundwork is there. Toil over a deck/ army list and get a go at it.

Yes, the early incarnations of GW predate any fantasy card game, but as stated, it's a bit more of an investment of time and money to get hazed with GW than to just pick up a starter deck (which lends to the appeal of card gaming).

We've already been railroaded by GW's new "business model". Might as well kick it up a notch and recover some coin in the process, with sound tournament models too.