To start Off, I have had to stop and breath deeply before making this post. There is so much I would like to say but feel it would make someone cry so I will stick to the main issues.

As an Avid supporter of X wing and FFG in our local North West community placing the Regional in Spokane WA (350 miles ) from any major city " Seattle WA pop 5 million " Portland Oregon Pop 2 million and place it as far as you could and still be in the state of Washington is an insult to the players of X wing in the NW. I have personally spoken to 80 + player and NOT one is happy about this. A 6 hour drive one way and the need to rent a room just so you don't die on the drive home makes the cost to go to a " Local " regional impossible for 90% of the players here in the NW.

If they had a 2nd event say in Seattle, Olympia, or the Greater "Portland Oregon, Vancouver Wa" Would have given 95% of the players in the Northwest a local place to show up and play.

I would point out how the USA is in the lowest rankings when it comes to geography, but this would be more of a rant than making a point.

I hope someone at FFG talks a leadership roll and looks to add a 2nd Regional in the Northwest that would closer than for 90% of the players to drive to Canada than to show up and play in Spokane WA. Vegas would have been a good spot for the NW games due to flights are very cheep and so would be the rooms.

Agreed. "Not happy," is an exceedingly generous way to put it, too.

If the goal of the regionals / nationals / worlds is to filter down to the best of the best, this is garbage.

If the goal is to filter down to the best [of the 10% that are actually able to participate], then bravo.

Total and complete bull that Region 1 is shorted and is only getting one Regional. What the hell, FFG?

JIM

Hi all, I am the manager of the Spokane Uncle's Games and we are incredibly excited to be hosting the event. I am also surprised that FFG has not announced another location in the NW for players, as I always assumed the region would be hosting 2 and I have no idea why they would not eventually have two regional tournaments in Region 1. I am an avid X-Wing player myself and I am very much interested and invested in making the Regional Tournament that I am hosting the best that it can be. Any and all suggestions or input is welcome so that I can make the event a great experience for all involved.

On the issue of Spokane as the location, there are a several benefits. First, flights in-between Spokane and Seattle and Portland are frequent and generally inexpensive if one chooses not to drive. Also, Spokane is geographically well situated for Montana and Idaho players, which is why it is sometimes referred to as the heart of the "inland northwest" in addition to it being Washington's second largest city. Granted, I think everyone assumed that either a Seattle or Portland area store would be hosting an event (as they are large metropolitan areas and reasonably close to one another) and I would not be surprised if FFG announced a second Regional tournament somewhere on the coast. Even so, accommodations in Spokane are inexpensive and the city is, in general, visitor and tourist friendly. Again, I am open to suggestions and willing to help in anyway possible including inquiring about group rates or other information that the X-Wing community would like to have. We are very excited to be hosting this event and hope to see you there.

Hi all, I am the manager of the Spokane Uncle's Games and we are incredibly excited to be hosting the event.

I tried to address specific misconceptions about Spokane that I read in another thread, so here is a link to that post if it will help anyone.

Note, that like you, I assumed either Seattle or Portland/Vancouver would be a 2nd site for the region. I'm not sure why FFG only assigned one event to the entire region. [Edit: Boise ID has been added to the list of X-Wing events.]

Nothing against the spokane store but yes it is very far for alot of players in the nw area. I was hoping the store boarderlands games in salem would be able to host as they have plenty of room to accomidate players. Maybe ffg will still add another store for nw, and borderlands can share the honor with spokane of hosting regionals. Otherwise many of us need to save a fortune to go to Uncles Games, or just opt out. But congrats to Uncles and good luck to everyone who can make it

CONGRADULATIONS UNCLE'S GAMES!!!!!!

unfortunetly I can't make it your in the wrong part of the state.

Most of the NW Players are Big supporters of Uncles Games in the Bellevue WA " Seattle " store. But due to the 6 hour drive have not had the pleasure to visit your Great store in Spokane WA.

It would be faster to get to Boise ID as we can now see how FFG feels about the NW players, where 90% of the players are located in the Seattle and PDX greater areas. And they are looking to support the 20+ players on that side of the country vs the 1000's of players here in the NW. I know the local store owners don't like to support a game that has now blow up in a major disappointment with the local clubs and stores that have strongly supported this game for the past 2 years.

Note that Boise ID has been added to the list of event locations. Still no joy for the PNW metro region. I have a hunch that Boise was supposed to be on the list all along and was just an oversight that it wasn't there initially. But that still doesn't explain the odd distribution in Region 1.

I drive from Seattle to PDX ever week. Unless you leave at Rush hour it is only 3 hours. As fro Spokane.. I see you don't make that drive much.

The main issue is i5 zone. Why out off 14 Million people did we not get one Store here where people live? But 6 hours away for most people who drive the speed limit. Every other zone like TX had to setup 8 hour apart to get a good spread. We get 2 setup 1 hour apart on the back side of the moon.

DavidWA, I made the commute between Lynnwood (north of Seattle) to Spokane weekly for about 12 months within just the last 6 years. The drive time from Lynnwood to Spokane is exactly 5 hours, at the speed limit, with a stop in Moses Lake for a 10-minute stretch. I cannot understand why you keep saying it is a 6-hour drive from the Seattle area to Spokane. It's not. It hasn't been that long since they upped to speed limits years ago.

Regardless, I still agree that the 2nd event in Region 1 should have been along the I-5 corridor.

When FFG announced store championships they said ...

"Retailers who run successful Store Championship tournaments will earn priority when we determine who will host our spotlighted Regional Championship tournaments later in the year."

So what is that supposed to mean when the store championship season is still in progress?!?

Portland area still has 2 more to go ... Are more regionals to be announced after proven attendance?

First off,

Congrats to Uncles Games in Spokane for getting the Regional event. I am sure you all worked very hard to gain such an event and I am sure it will be a grand event. :-)

Second,

Being from the Seattle area, yea the drive is going to suck. No doubt. But those of us who want to go are going to go. Think about all the players close to that area that would be complaining about driving this way. If I am also not mistaken, last years event was in Olympia, which makes sense the moved it to the other side as to not be biased. Rotation is good and I applaud FFG for doing that. I have gone to several Store Champs events in the Seattle area and max participation has been 21 players. Most events have been on average 16 players. If Spokane has been able to gain more than that, then they deserve it.

I would be attending except the date is bad. I leave for a vacation on the 20th. Otherwise, I would be making the 5 hour drive to attend. I wish everyone luck though who is able to go!!! :-)

As an Avid supporter of X wing and FFG in our local North West community placing the Regional in Spokane WA (350 miles ) from any major city " Seattle WA pop 12 million " Portland Oregon Pop 2 million and place it as far as you could and still be in the state of Washington is an insult to the players of X wing in the NW.

I'm in the Seattle area and was very disappointed to hear there wouldn't be a Regional nearby. I felt certain they would be in the population centers of Seattle and Portland. However, your numbers are WAY off. Both of these cities have around 600,000 people, not the millions you claim. Spokane and Boise, by comparison, have around 200,000.

Where I think FFG really erred was in overlooking the relative emptiness of Eastern Washington, which has roughly 1.5 million inhabitants to Western Washington's 5 million. Oregon boasts another 4 million, while Idaho has only 1.5 million and Montana 1 million. So the Regionals are more convenient for 4 million people at the expense of 9 million. Not to mention that the Seattle/Portland area has a very active X-Wing community.

On the issue of Spokane as the location, there are a several benefits. First, flights in-between Spokane and Seattle and Portland are frequent and generally inexpensive if one chooses not to drive.

A flight, round trip, is $194. That is not cheap sir, nor is it convenient since the times are not anywhere close to workable (unless the tournament ended at 3:30). It would be cheaper to drive, although a lot longer haul of course (google maps says 6 hours, and I've had generally accurate results with them).

I am sure you have a very lovely store, but that is asking a lot of the xwing community for not a lot of gains. Isn't it generally one more box of tourney swag FFG has to send out in order for a store to host a regional? If they add a store in Portland and Seattle, they would have two large groups of happy customers who would continue buying their products. This is a good thing and not a costly stretch for FFG I think.

I used to play 40k a lot. I got out of it because the models got stupidly expensive for crap product, but mostly because GW sponsored events were killed off or were in too-far away locations. As a result GW is floundering a bit (at least in the states) causing players to leave the game (and stop purchasing product), and I do not want FFG to see the same woes.

Please FFG, add a couple more stores to the NW cities. Guardian Games in Portland hosted one last year and it was quite good and deserves to do so again. I don't know who hosted in Seattle area but I am sure it was also a good event worthy of another year of regionals hosting.

Help us FFG Event Coordinator, you're our only hope.

Sorry to start an Issue with state Population. Now that we have to look at other points than the main point. I feel very sorry for the X wing community of the Greater NW. Especially the younger players who can not afford to make it to a event like this. These events for every game out there are used to help build excitement and grow the community. For some players this is the 1st time they get to meet other players like the self this is out side of the smaller group they play with. It also allows for people to make new friends and grow the over all community with ideas and fellowship.

When a Good company like FFG has a epic fail like this it not only hurt them, due to sales and loss of players from being disfranchised from the brand they break out to other games that will support them. You see this in the stores too. I know here locally the small group of players we started with made it a point to show up to every game event in the NW. Why? to meet new players and help grow the community so we could have the same excitement you see from 40k players. X wing was a great answer based on price point and heck it's Star Wars.

Now you see now players who liked X wing moving over to games like Star trek Attack wing, and the up and coming D&D Attackwing.( " this should be epic " and cross over to Roll-players, Board gamer's, and miniature gamer's even more than X wing did. )

I could see having one Event in Boise or Spokane but to have both was a slap to the many X wing players in the NW and a major failure for FFG to take 2014 out in a bang vs a crash.

DavidWA, I made the commute between Lynnwood (north of Seattle) to Spokane weekly for about 12 months within just the last 6 years. The drive time from Lynnwood to Spokane is exactly 5 hours, at the speed limit, with a stop in Moses Lake for a 10-minute stretch. I cannot understand why you keep saying it is a 6-hour drive from the Seattle area to Spokane. It's not. It hasn't been that long since they upped to speed limits years ago.

Regardless, I still agree that the 2nd event in Region 1 should have been along the I-5 corridor

So are you going to car pool how many people who can't make the drive? I get around 45 miles to the gallon, So my over all cost is going to be 4 tanks of gas, at $30 a fill up. And then toss in a Room at $50+

What also blows my mind is how many stores had a Store X wing events over the month of March " 2 per weekend " with some at 3 per weekend all over the I-5 zone. And with that much support they didn't think to make sure to have one that didn't take 6.5 hours from PDX or 5 hours from N Seattle. lol.. God help you if your not so lucky to live in Linwood and have to make that extra hour drive both ways. But We can all agree that someone dropped the ball. Big time.

Hello, I'm the Store Manager of Uncle's Games in Bellevue. We did not apply for an X-Wing Regional. There are 2 major reasons why this is the case.

1.)We tried to host a major X-Wing Event in January to "test the waters" for how much interest there was in the X-Wing community and 4 players attended. In addition at last years Regional we had about 12 players attend. Now SINCE then we had a great turnout for our Store Championship, and based on those numbers we likely would of applied, unfortunately the SC was well after the window of time we were able to apply for Regional.

2.)At Bellevue our Saturdays are a premium. Particularly in the months from May-July a host of events and games are competing to use our space for events. Events such as Free RPG Day, Starcity IQs, New Magic Releases, and a variety of other games all compete to utilize our space on Saturdays. Also it is risky for us to lock down a Saturday for an event that we may or may not host based on whether our store is chosen or not. For these reasons we choose to only host an FFG Regional for the game we have the largest turnout for (Netrunner) and support smaller Store Championships for ALL of the FFG Games. Now had I seen the turnout for our January event, that we got in at the Store Championship, I almost definitely would of applied, and WILL apply next year. Sorry about this guys.

3.)The Store Manager of Spokane LOVES LOVES LOVES X-Wing, I really recommend you make the sacrifice to get out there because honestly I can't think of a better host for this event. Maybe next year we'll even bring him to Bellevue to host our Regional as well. But I strongly encourage you support him as he is one of the most vocal voices of support you have in the Board Gaming community.

Thanks everyone, and sorry if we let you down. Hope we do better for you in the future.

3.)The Store Manager of Spokane LOVES LOVES LOVES X-Wing, I really recommend you make the sacrifice to get out there because honestly I can't think of a better host for this event.

I have no doubt that he loves the game. I love the game. I just spent $100 for my sons collection of rebel ships because he watched my friends and I play and he loves it. I don't mind spending the money to buy products or to help encourage others to buy into the game.

However, on a round trip of 720 miles, it would cost three tanks of gas and a hotel stay. Add meals (3) and cost of event to that as well. All told, thats $260. I can buy the acrylic templates and most of the other swag (except the trophy) we get at a regional for far less and save myself the 13 hours of driving and overnight away from my family. Even loading my friends up to share costs doesn't justify spending so much to get so little in return.

On the flip side, driving 20 minutes to Portland or 30 minutes to Vancouver is well within the realm of feasibility and I can spent the other $230 on product.

If someone from Bellevue wanted to spend $230 in your store, would you really tell them to go to Spokane to play? That store would get $10 and you would get nothing. Not a great deal to be honest.

Hello, I'm the Store Manager of Uncle's Games in Bellevue. We did not apply for an X-Wing Regional. There are 2 major reasons why this is the case.

1.)We tried to host a major X-Wing Event in January to "test the waters" for how much interest there was in the X-Wing community and 4 players attended. In addition at last years Regional we had about 12 players attend. Now SINCE then we had a great turnout for our Store Championship, and based on those numbers we likely would of applied, unfortunately the SC was well after the window of time we were able to apply for Regional.

2.)At Bellevue our Saturdays are a premium. Particularly in the months from May-July a host of events and games are competing to use our space for events. Events such as Free RPG Day, Starcity IQs, New Magic Releases, and a variety of other games all compete to utilize our space on Saturdays. Also it is risky for us to lock down a Saturday for an event that we may or may not host based on whether our store is chosen or not. For these reasons we choose to only host an FFG Regional for the game we have the largest turnout for (Netrunner) and support smaller Store Championships for ALL of the FFG Games. Now had I seen the turnout for our January event, that we got in at the Store Championship, I almost definitely would of applied, and WILL apply next year. Sorry about this guys.

3.)The Store Manager of Spokane LOVES LOVES LOVES X-Wing, I really recommend you make the sacrifice to get out there because honestly I can't think of a better host for this event. Maybe next year we'll even bring him to Bellevue to host our Regional as well. But I strongly encourage you support him as he is one of the most vocal voices of support you have in the Board Gaming community.

Thanks everyone, and sorry if we let you down. Hope we do better for you in the future.

I am sorry you are getting such negativity. This should not be the case. I feel horrible you are getting this type of hate.

Everyone,

Lets not make this event such a horrible situation. It is what it is. You can't fault the store. Lets work with the location to make it a positive event.

If I could come I would. I have a vacation I am suppose to leave for on the 20th and yours is the 19th LOL If I can make it, I will. If not, whatever I can do, even at a distance to help make this a positive event, count me in. :-)

I don't think anyone's blaming the store. I'm going to go ahead and assume that it's awesome, even.

Whoever FFG put in charge of handing out the regionals to, on the other hand...

I am not blaming the store. This was the thread I found most relevant to the regional that was (laughably) closest to me. The store, and the owner who spoke up about his store, seems quite nice.

My beef is with the events coordinator for FFG. That person is the one who choose who to allow to host a regional event, and the fault (and public annoyance) is the reason I am upset with FFG at the moment.