Friday, September 10, 2010

Cool new tournament news

Well, I just got finished with Tacticon, and tournament season is basically over until Feb. when Genghis Con gets here.  However, in one weekend, three somewhat exciting/intriguing pieces of news found their way to me.
I'll list them in order of least excitement:

1)  YTTH Con, aka 'Yeti Con' is going to be happening in Salt Lake, where I live about 6 or 7 hours from.  I grew up about 2 hours from SLC so I have plenty of friends I can even stay the night on Thursday or Friday (whenever I went down).  Sounds cool, with the W/L format.  That being said, I'm not a fan of the 'Stelek persona' that that website cultivates.  I don't have any qualms with him on a personal level, but I guess I'll just say I'm leery of any event he runs.  I think if I didn't live so close I wouldn't end up going.  Hopefully I'll enjoy it. The structure seems to be to my liking, though I haven't seen the missions yet.  I'll for sure keep an open mind.  /shrug

2)  Genghis Con is going to have a 2-day Warhammer 40k event next year.  I already spoke to the TO, and he told me it's going to be 2 games Friday night (since it'll start later in the day, for people who need to get off work to go) and 3 games on Saturday.  That means I'll be able to play a 5-game event and then rock Fantasy as well.  Pretty cool, if you ask me.  I've always thought more games was better for any big tournament, and it looks like they're doing that with Genghis (which is the biggest tournament in the state, that I know of).

3)  Adepticon... has changed its ways.  The players championship was entirely restructured, to a much better format.  Could it be better?  Yeah, for sure.  Take out draws, and it would be a heckofalot better.  Still, I think the best news is that they've changed it to an event that is actually winnable by the 'best' player there.  After I had gone last year, I talked (somewhat briefly) about why I would most likely not go back.  Here's the post, if you're interested.

I had basically said that the events were unwinnable, since there were too many people with too few missions (making this the 3rd time I've said that in this post, lol).  A W/L/D format is in my opinion far far better than a battle points system, since in a big tournament, even a minor win is basically a loss.  At least at this tournament, a win is a win.  Plus, it gives me incentive to make it to the '2nd round' on Sunday, since that's when Gladiator is, and I hate hate hate Gladiator :)

That being said, I did send them some feedback for their tournament and they basically said 'Hey!  We REALLY really really REALLY appreciate your feedback! But we're going to do it a different way, cuz that's what we feel is best.  But thanks for the feedback!'  heh... don't ask for feedback if you're already set in your ways, dicks.

Still, it looks like I'll be going to Chi-town again this April.  My team we took last year is already buzzing about what we're going to take- and it looks like so far, the verdict is:  Orks.

So, expect lots of articles about orks coming soon.  I've played pretty extensively against them, and feel like I know them pretty well, but since making army lists for the team has been deemed solely my responsibility, it'll be a whole new monster.

What tournaments are you excited about for next year?  I'd like to hear, since I'll have enough to go to a few out of town this summer...

6 comments:

Chumbalaya said...

I was concerned about the Stelek persona at Nova, but meeting the guy in person alleviated all my concerns. Andy's like us, a nerd passionate about his hobby. Yeti is high up on my "To Do" list, along with Nova next year.

I've got DaBoyz GT coming up in November. It's my local group so I really couldn't stay away if I wanted to :P It's leans heavily towards the comp side, but should be an amusing time.

Matthias said...

Your paraphrasing of my response to your feedback is incredibly disingenuous. I gave you explanations on where we stood based on our experience and the feedback of 100's of other people. We are incredibly open to suggestions, in fact feedback has fundamentally changed AdeptiCon every year for close to a decade now.

The 40K Championships in particular have been formed by feedback, observation, inspiration and experience. It is our opinion, as well as a majority of our attendees, that draws have their place and/or are an integral component to both the war simulation and game aspects of a 'wargame'.

If we were so 'set in our ways', or did not value feedback, do you really think the 40K Championships would have changed at all? Or the Team Tournament? Two small examples in the grand scheme of attendee influenced change.

Dicks? Really? Incredibly disappointing.

Xaereth said...

And how did you expect me to respond? I mean, that's essentially what was said. The response you gave me certainly didn't make me feel my opinion was respected. You basically just told me I was part of the YTTH group, and that 'we' weren't right, by popular demand.

I'm not even part of that 'group'- I go to YTTH occationally, but don't even post there.

I think it's cool you base your decisions on feedback- you guys are doing it right if you're listening to people. I even appreciate the response telling me why you do what you do.

You can't tell me that email was designed to make me feel like I was helpful and had in any way contributed though. Or if it was, it didn't do it's job.

Sorry if calling you guys dicks was a little strong- I really do think what you do is generally good. The email you sent though... not my favorite, heh.

Matthias said...

I am simply not sure how you can make a statement like "I would LOVE it if they switched the championships to a 5 or 7 game GT. That would be best, if you ask me." or take issue with the Battle Points P/S/T system scoring not producing the 'best player', then see the 40K Championships change and not feel like you have a voice....

Additionally, I'd suggest re-reading the 40K Championships draft from October 1st. The Finals do not have a draw condition. Changes made due to feedback, yours included.

I apologize for the lack of instant gratification in my response. The purpose of us collecting feedback is to get a feel for the majority and then sort out what makes sense, not to make immediate decisions/changes based on a single email or Dev Blog post.

Xaereth said...

Well, it's cool you changed it :)

I never said you guys don't take feedback, just that mine wasn't respected. If you had said something simple like 'your idea is under consideration' or something like that, I'm basically sure we wouldn't be having this conversation. As it was, I felt disregarded/dismissed (whether I actually was or not) and posted it here.

As for the stuff I said in the post you linked, I did have quite a few issues with the last Adepticon. I didn't submit that as feedback however, so I guess I don't see how I had a voice in your decision, unless you guys actually read it.

I think we're having a disagreement over somewhat of a miscommunication- and I'm willing to admit that what I got from the email wasn't received in the spirit in which it was sent. No hard feelings man.

People want to know you're listening to them- and sometimes we need you to spell it out. That's all I'm saying, heh.

Matthias said...

No hard feelings. This is pretty tame in the grand scheme of things!

Feedback is an evaluative response, one that deserves an evaluative response in and of itself. Nothing is dismissed.

With 100+ volunteers involved with this convention - there isn't much we miss on the internet in the 11 months between conventions. Your critiques are part of a larger voice that helped us to restructure the 40K Championships. Without question, we knew this event needed attention due to the sign up numbers well before 2009 was over and we were ready, willing and able to seek out new ideas, information and suggestions as far back as January 1st, 2010. It was a long process, and how much any one person contributed to the changes is questionable, but in the end, make no doubt we listened and did our best to retool the 40K Championships, the 40K Team Tournament and the 40K Sportsmanship system based on attendee feedback...ultimately not all attendees will want the same thing and therefore the old adage that begins, "You can please some of the people some of the time..." is always in effect.