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Just curious why you go.

Seems to be a lot of hate for tournaments but for me its the easiest way to get three guaranteed games. Sure we have some nasty lists that you have to get through but curious on how this is split.

I put "to get games" but it's really to play people and armies outside of my normal group

Yeah exactly. My normal guys have space marines x3 and ad mech. Not much variety.

Just me? I'M the douchecanoe?

I go to competitive games to win. I love the thrill of full tilt competition in the forum of a clearly defined set of rules and boundaries but within, an infinite number of possibilities. I love bringing something unconventional. I love losing to an opponent and seeing them doing the mental calculations on how the combination I brought could have wrecked their whole day. I especially love seeing an opponent who thinks he has this whole event in the bag come up against a list he didn't anticipate. I love seeing that moment in their eyes when it clicks that they've already lost. I love getting absolutely steamrolled and asking my opponent, "How do you think I could have beaten you?" More than anything else, I love a knockdown, drag-out free-for-all where me and my opponent are so evenly matched that the final victor isn't determined until the last roll of the last turn as the clock runs out.

I'm not athletic enough to enjoy sports, not charismatic or manipulative enough to be good at cards, and not intelligent enough to be good at chess. But I am competent enough to do 40k competitively, and it's the first competitive setting where I've been able to understand what makes people want to seek a career in those other competitive endeavors.

To hobby. I just like seeing a lot of people play the game. Walk around and check out their armies. Talk shop. That kind of stuff.

I usually never play an army that can win the tournament. I play spoilers. Like if I was playing a tournament during the full flyer meta, I'd probably come in rocking 6 dunecrawlers with anti air. There is no way it would win, but I'd crush any flyer spam if I happened to come up against it. I just like giving the netlists their one loss.

I go to get experience playing other people.

I have fun playing in competitive environments

I voted "To get games" as it is my number one reason for attending a tournament. I also like looking at nicely painted armies and gathering with other 40k enthusiasts to talk about the game, the fluff, and the hobby. It's well worth the price of admission to me.

To meet and play against people not in my gaming circle. To experience new things.

Missing: For fun.

To pwn some n00bs.

Git gud loozers

 Jimsolo wrote:
Just me? I'M the douchecanoe?

I go to competitive games to win. I love the thrill of full tilt competition in the forum of a clearly defined set of rules and boundaries but within, an infinite number of possibilities. I love bringing something unconventional. I love losing to an opponent and seeing them doing the mental calculations on how the combination I brought could have wrecked their whole day. I especially love seeing an opponent who thinks he has this whole event in the bag come up against a list he didn't anticipate. I love seeing that moment in their eyes when it clicks that they've already lost. I love getting absolutely steamrolled and asking my opponent, "How do you think I could have beaten you?" More than anything else, I love a knockdown, drag-out free-for-all where me and my opponent are so evenly matched that the final victor isn't determined until the last roll of the last turn as the clock runs out.

I'm not athletic enough to enjoy sports, not charismatic or manipulative enough to be good at cards, and not intelligent enough to be good at chess. But I am competent enough to do 40k competitively, and it's the first competitive setting where I've been able to understand what makes people want to seek a career in those other competitive endeavors.

You're not the only one.

I got to a tournament or play in the league to test myself against others.

Really all of it, i guess. I like them because it makes me paint random models i have been slacking on to get to 3 colors, I get to play people I haven't before, and see how good my latest list actually is. But I play every game to win, unless there is some other goal decided before hand (maybe some kind of story) so that should sort of go without saying.

I went with other because I couldn't select them all.
Mostly I like showing off my army and getting competitive with the visitors, it's nice facing armies other than the other regulars' who I tend to find myself building specifically to face.
The fluffy regulars at my FLGS are Lose At All Costs fluff spankers, I build and paint faster than I write so I tend to do my fluffin' in the Dakka Background Forum because it's where I have my phone and no access to anything else but some of the fluffies who only visit for tournaments are great - one usually has a few pages or chapters of fanfiction that are a good read - finding the battle you had with him at the last tournament is a nice touch to boot - could just be me digging the ego stroking but his stories do seem to be popular with everyone...they couldn't all be getting ego strokings could they?

Because I'm basically uncontested in my local environment, medium sized fish in a small pond, but at tournaments I get to enjoy being challenged.

I always play to win, but if I'm repeatedly stomped by awesome looking/interesting armies then that's fine too! I like the environment of everyone playing to win, but the important thing is getting in a few great games, meeting nice people and seeing what cool armies people have created

It's really a combination of getting games and winning. You'll always have douchefucks in the game, but people getting together just to bash each other and have fun...it is totally fun! The bay area is great for that in general to me.

I used to go to win, but after our FLGS started organizing travel to regional events and hosting GT level events, that changed. When we realized the amount of cheating, slow playing, and rules "altering" that goes on, it became exhausting. We were studying every Codex cover to cover to memorize other peoples' rules, trying to watch each other's backs with covert texts when we thought might need a TO but wanted a second opinion, putting up with yelling opponents, and having an overall bad playing experience from top ITC ranked 40k players. Getting annoyed at the after parties when you are swapping war stories and someone chimes in with '. . .but that's not how that works, that relic/system/formation/whatever does something completely different' and you look it up and, sure enough, that cost you from finishing in the money. The first few times we gave players the benefit of the doubt (because, hey, how could you possibly memorize all of 7th?), but after multiple repetitions of the same problem with the same people, you start to see a pattern. We made a collective aggrement that we would stop worrying abut the Best General prizes, we just aren't the type of store to play that sketchy, and go for the areas that TFG can't win: Best Overall, Best Painted, and Best Sportsman. Often when we want a truly friendly event (once or twice a year), we reorganize the prize structure so Best General is not the top prize and ITC points are not at stake. Beginners seem to have a much more positive experience at this type of event, and it really helped to balloon our club. Our big GT event just grew so big that we had to relocate to a bigger venue, which was funny. It's a VFW that was skeptical at first when they heard our pitch, but they agreed. When they saw how much everyone was hitting the bar across three days, they were loving us! Now we draw tons of fun loving, fully painted, fluffy players in addition to the hardcore ITC tryhards, so it's the best of both worlds.