This info makes me go

Here's my take on it.

X-Wing has taken the lead as the competetive game I enjoy and would most like to go to big events for.

That being said, I used to be a Tournament Commando in 40k, at one point attending up to three a year going as far as Canada (from MD/VA area) back when I was just married. Now I'm married with kids, two events a year for me are pretty much it barring special considerations (first round byes?)

The two closest tournaments to me are in PA, and GA, 7hrs55min and over 10hrs away respectively.

Back in the days of playing in 40k tourney's I wouldnt hesitate. Over 100 players easy and plenty of drinking and carrying on/nerding out after gaming hours with tons of gaming buddies. (old and new) Most of the time this happened in hotel convention areas where all players were isolated from outside non-nerds and it's basically 100's of gamers hanging out for a weekend all in the same area with pickup gaming going on all night long and/or hanging out and just having a great time with all the guys...recipe for awesome? YES!

...however...this concerns me. 64 players? 8 hrs away? 11 hrs????!!

I just don't know if a 64 player tournament is worth a rental car and a long drive like that. Then, after the game store closes, what? Take your butt back to your Motel 6 and pray there are no bedbugs while you pay 8 bucks to watch some cheap motel soft pron and cry in the dark?(disclaimer:that was the funniest thing I could think of to write, not a personal habit, I swear!)...not to mention saddling my wife with the kids for what amounts to an entire weekend. Rough.

I'll give it a try this year (the gaming part, not paying for hotel dirty channels...thats what smart phones are for). Mainly cause I won a store championship and want to see how far I can take it....but it better be something special, or I'm out for 2015. Sadly. I think they badly neglected us guys here in the norfolk/richmond/DC area.

'specially since pheaver is from around here. Seems strange to make this guy drive harder to defend his title. It's obviously a major hub here!

I agree about the attendance comment. But that would require FFG to have the stores report back to FFG who participated and who won, which I'm not against, but just more work for FFG. Furthermore, it would require them to hold off on choosing stores until at least april...

I will say though, as one of those nine players at the monroeville store championship, it was a kick ass store that won't have a problem supporting 32 or even 64 games of X wing. Which not every store can make that claim. And that's something important to keep in mind as well, moreso for X wing than the LCGs since we take more space.

Here is the issue, yes that is more work for FFG, but if FFG want to run their OP this way they have to commit to that additional work.

If FFG wants to section off Regions and limit the number of Regionals, then they better do the work to sort out where major tournaments are being held in order to allocate the Regionals in order to accommodate their player base properly.

I'm not saying the store can't run a good event. I'm saying that when you look at an area, NYC-DC, that does not have an event under 4-5 hours away and look at the number and turnout of events in that area (and general population), and compare it to the turnout in the area of some of the events, specifically the event held by the store, their choices don't make sense.

They should have had the Store Championships report back, and they should have used that as a basis where to put these events. It ensures you Regionals will be held in areas where you have large tournament interested player bases, and encourage people to really gather and support their Store Championships in their area

A pity the WI and OH one are on the same date. So which one to go to? The answer, whichever one my ride is.

Doh... i am the same distance from each of these as well and not sure if i can make the Chicago event. Why did they have to be on the same date?

Before I found out we were going to have a Regional in the Phoenix area, I had pretty much convinced myself that LA and SF would be where folks from AZ, NV, or UT would be heading. Being in the west, where population centers are a long distance from one another relative to the east coast or even Midwest, I was resolved to the idea of driving 5-6 hours to play, getting a group of friends together to split costs and make a fun road trip out of it.

I'm pretty excited that the store in Mesa AZ is six miles from my home - no doubt! I am also fortunate enough to live a life that would allow me to get away for a weekend with friends if I had needed to travel instead. But it feels like t knono matter what choices were made by FFG here, or the reasons behind those decisions, lots of people would be faced with a need to travel several hours away to be able to participate in this awesome gaming event. The gap in the Northwest does seem odd, but without knowing the criteria FFG used or why they felt it was the right criteria to use, it feels premature at best to lash out at them for anything.

This community prides itself on flying casually. I think sending constructive feedback to FFG about their selections is fair, and will hopefully garner a helpful response (they have been exemplary in customer service from most of what I have seen people post and my own experience). I hope we can maintain a civil tone as things get hashed out and we hopefully learn more, is all.

A pity the WI and OH one are on the same date. So which one to go to? The answer, whichever one my ride is.

Doh... i am the same distance from each of these as well and not sure if i can make the Chicago event. Why did they have to be on the same date?

It could be a mistake SWLCG had that issue with two nearby events.

I do imagine they're learning things this year for next, as they learned from last year to try out what they're running now.

I for one am upset about the distance having to be traveled.

How upset? Not enough to "lash out" to be sure...not upset enough to to go ahead and not drive to one either. It's still a weekend of gaming however you slice it.

I just hope this was well thought out and I don't feel like I took a trip far away from my family over the weekend to spend the night at a dive motel and play some silly games of xwing.

As long as there is an "event" feeling more potent than just a weekend 1-day tournament I should be satisfied.

Thats me. I understand what they're trying to do, I just hope the dream is sustainable for those that have to actually put forth effort to travel.

Fly casual indeed! Give it a shot and see if it works out.

Another quote is hovering in the back of my mind however.....

"I've got a bad feeling about this!"

I love this game and love playing in tournaments (which the greater Seattle has A LOT of). I'm really just disappointed that my region only has 1 event! Especially since that event is far away from the very-populated coastal areas that have such vibrant x-wing communities.

I don't suppose I can give my Store Championship Bye to someone who is actually going to Spokane to use, hmm?

EDIT: spelling.

I understand why that region got one event for SWLCG, they barely had any SCs in that area, but X-wing I dunno. Did no stores put in for them?

So just out of curiosity, can anyone come up with a distribution of regionals which wouldn't have had this exact thread?

I don't mean whether YOU'D have the same complaints or not, but whether this thread would be started with someone, with people griping about how THEIR area deserved to host one more than THAT area, and THESE TWO were too close together and that was unfair.

Barring a massive increase in the number of regionals - and, let's face it, that's what we had last year and everyone griped about how bad that was too - what exactly should be done? Other than FFG doing more to accommodate you and your friends personally, that is...

So....the Northwest....one of the BIGGEST Player bases gets 1 event? And the event is in Spokane? Many have stated their point here and a few have defied the groundswell of displeasure over the locations of venues....but seriously..this shows that the planners did no better than throw darts at a dartboard for some of these locations. Some of the regions got more than their fair share...and some got less.

In my region....the PNW...with it's large player base...gets one regional...in a city that is basically in the middle of no where. Who ever came up with that bit of brilliance did a major disservice to their customer base. The demographics of that customer base alone should have dictated locations...but instead we have some tripe about wanting to make the regionals "mean" more. Yeah..your regionals may mean something...but when your sales tank because you piss off a good chunk of your player base...then where will that leave you? And before the advocates jump on this I think everyone should consider that the game remains as popular as it is because FFG was doing things the right way.

So what if the first worlds was a bit of a mess because of so many first round buys. Did it REALLY hurt the event? Not that I saw from the videos or heard from attendees...though a few of those who got handed their heads by one of those buys may be casting sour grapes..but that is the way things go.

My final point is that Spokane was not the optimum choice with only 1 regional in my area. And since you have not allowed us the same 2+ that most of the country seems to have...then you REALLY should have looked at the reports from the various venues who held tournaments over the last year and chosen a location that had lots of attendees. I think it is a SERIOUS mistake to stay the course on this...but that is FFGs call. They will be the ones who have to live with the consequences when their sales take a hit...and events stop being run because they failed to take into consideration just how much credibility loss they will have by taking this course.

Just as an exercise, I took at look at the distances between neighboring events. Looking at the map, they seem to be "well distributed," meaning that if you draw a 7hr circle around each one, you won't have any blind spots, with the exception maybe of NE montana. Not saying well distributed as in they're all equal distance to each other... But here are the driving times between them.

My closest regional is 7hrs 50 min away, that is one, next closest is 10 hours...and I'm within a major wargaming hub that is also the home of the world champ right now, he frequents the area just north of me by about an hour or two driving.

.....................

I don't think a MASSIVE increase in events was needed. Two per region may "work", but obviously the distribution is a bit "off". Personally another event per region so that the total is 3 per might have been more prudent.

Reasoning for this? Who knows, but whatever.

Like I said, I'm an experienced national Tournament-goer. This sort of thing is nothing new to me.

Going to a 64 player tournament 8 hrs away, overnight, held in a game store is not something I would have seen myself doing before....ever.

Like I said though, I've got a 'bye' so I'll give it a shot...THIS time. I'm hoping not to be dreadfully sorry that I went. If the tournament is a dreadful screw up I will be very upset.

WORST CASE SCENARIO

Driving 8 hrs to play in a store setting, after fighting to be one of the illustrious 64 that they have room for only to get there and find the organisers screwing with the results and match ups in order to have their close local buddies have an unfair chance for a bye at the championship.

This sort of thing does happen...OFTEN. If results arent transparent between rounds I will be highly sceptical AND vocal on site.

This is why I would hesitate to drive so far to a store held tournament. They are frequently less professionally run that major events that are trying to grow and grow such as events like Adepticon, Nova, Mechanicon, Wargamescon, etc. Obviously, these regionals are meant to be an important link to worlds.

Store held? Again, worries me...and I know what I'm talking about. Again, I understand the need and the reasoning for making these store held. However I think it may have been prudent to up the regional limit to three to get these more spread out and service a larger area....for a store held tournament with a high likelyhood of "shenanigans" or simple nonchalance about its running by the store owners....just to save us consumers the trouble of driving so far for something not as professionally run as an "adepticon". Something people are used to roadtripping or flying to with good reason.

Again, the major thing here is the drive. If one was closer and pained me less to go...I would probably have little if any complaint. Couple that with the strange spread of these events and there is no reason to begrudge people a little complaining here. It's absolutely warrented.

...for store held tournaments.

The levels of hurt in this thread make me lol. I used to drive 16 hours round trip to be able to go to miniature tournaments four times a year. And those weren't major events, that was to just get to a tournament that wasn't run by myself. Suck it up princesses.

Well thats constructive. Thanks.

So just out of curiosity, can anyone come up with a distribution of regionals which wouldn't have had this exact thread?

I don't mean whether YOU'D have the same complaints or not, but whether this thread would be started with someone, with people griping about how THEIR area deserved to host one more than THAT area, and THESE TWO were too close together and that was unfair.

Barring a massive increase in the number of regionals - and, let's face it, that's what we had last year and everyone griped about how bad that was too - what exactly should be done? Other than FFG doing more to accommodate you and your friends personally, that is...

Well said. And very accurate.

I doubt FFG will use the same locations (other than their own MN store) every year. A year from now we'll have people flipping their thoughts.

Regionals are an EXTRA layer/step of competition and many people are complaining. We should be doing the opposite. There are more chances to play and participate. No, all of us can't get to all of them. Oh well. Play where you can, grow your player base, and go next year.

Regionals should all be on the same day so there is no region jumping.

Feel free to join us at the Dice Dojo in Chicago ! :-)

(...cause you'll probably be seeing me in Wisconsin)

Not worried about how they set these up, that is FFG's choice. I love this game, but sadly not enough to drive 4 hours from VA to one. Oh well.

So I can't complain about regionals placement from my own perspective — there are two within three hours of me, and a third that's five hours away (and a fourth that's six hours away!) so I guess living in the Midwest works out for once. But I'll agree that the locations could have been more evenly distributed. I'll also concede that this may not have been possible considering FFG didn't set up these locations; the stores reached out to FFG and had to meet certain criteria. But if I were to play Monday morning tournament organizer and could have ideal stores in any city I wanted, I'd make these changes:

• Move Houston to San Antonio
• Move Omaha to Kansas City
• Move Chicago to Washington, D.C.
• Move Dayton to Indianapolis
• Move pittsburgh to Buffalo
• Add Portland (giving Region 1 two tournaments)
• Remove Milwaukee (leaving Region 3 with one centralized tournament at FFG's headquarters)

And here's what that hypothetical map would look like:

Seems a bit more distributed.

Either that...or a touch more total events should do it. Like I said, even three per region is scaling back from last year adding to the exclusivity.

Ill be driving the 8hrs though. Im hard core like that. I just hope im no rewarded with a poorly/indifferently/unfairly/non-transparent run event in PA.

Are regionals only open to those who win Store Championships?

Wouldnt be much point of a "round 1" if that were the case now would there?

Kublacon? SWEEET!!!! That's in my backyard (I live in San Jose, 35 miles to the south) and gives me a reason to pre-register and go. At least I'll be able to get the Luke alternate art card without resorting to E-Bay.

where is the 16th location? I only see 15