Just got back from the North American Championship held at GenCon over the weekend. It felt as though the tournament didn't run quite as smooth as it could have. The split of two flights left some players out of the finals that had a winning record while others with a losing record in.

The first flight had roughly 124 players while the second flight had about 50 players. Both flights moved 32 players into the final round where the 64 total players would start a new Swiss for the championship. Getting into the top 32 of the second flight was far easier than making it in the first due to player turn out. The tournament was run as advertised by FFG and they would have no idea of the lower player turn out in the second flight. As a first flight player you did have the option of joining the second flight if you missed the cut. This left you with a choice to join another day of X-Wing taking yet another day of your GenCon experience. This would be dedicating 3 of your 4 days of GenCon playing X-Wing.

From what I've heard there were many players who dropped in the first round of the finals. These players were only interested in getting the target lock tokens and left to see the other things going on at GenCon. I would be interested to see how many of these dropped players were the 2-3 win/lose record from the second flight.

There seemed to be confusion over filling out the slips after each match with the calculation of Margin Of Victory. This was quickly abandoned after the second round leaving the math to be done by the TO's. There was a larger then expected lag between rounds. I'm not sure if this was a factor in the longer waits for each round to start.

I come from a Magic The Gathering background as far as tournament play. There is a lot we can learn form the operation of how to run a large tournament form MTG. Specifically from the GP's MTG runs. These events are held over a two day period much like X-Wing was over the weekend. They do not split the field into separate flights but rather one large field. They play a set number of rounds and cut the players who have a record of x-3 or lower. This could be done very easily in X-Wing. This would have the event run only two days instead of three. You could open the the first day to a large number of people like 200 and play 6 rounds. After 6 rounds ( one less round then we had on Thursday) you cut the players with a 3-3, 2-4, 1-5 and 0-6 records. The remaining players move onto the next day. The second day would be the final 3 rounds of the players remaining before cutting into a top 8. This would be 12 rounds total for the entire event much easier to handle logistics wise over the 15 rounds they did play..

What do you guys think?

That sounds interesting, but i've never been in a large tournament like that, so, i'm not sure.

It could work. A 4-2 who wins all 3 games in day 2 has a very good shot of making the top eight.

I played in the Thursday event and managed to survive it to make the cut; it was a big field (100+ players), many of them very strong (multiple regional winners, the reigning national champ, the reigning world champ, a batch of Vassal players), and quite long (7 rounds). It was a brutal tourney. The Friday one was much more relaxed - "only" 56 or 57 players, only five rounds - getting into the Saturday event was a smoother road.

In hindsight maybe the change should have been to just take the top 8 or top 16 from Friday's event, given the low turnout. Those spots would have been much more hotly contested.

In terms of alternate formats, I really like just doing a double elimination tourney for the last day. If you lose quickly you can go enjoy Gencon!

Not sure they had the space necessary for a hundred simulateneous tables of X-Wing.

Not sure they had the space necessary for a hundred simulateneous tables of X-Wing.

They could if the event was reduced to just two days. By moving some of the other events around you would need less space to accommodate all the different events. They had to reserve 60+ spots for an event that only had 50 players show up. That is a lot of wasted space that could have been another event.

Just got back from the North American Championship held at GenCon over the weekend. It felt as though the tournament didn't run quite as smooth as it could have. The split of two flights left some players out of the finals that had a winning record while others with a losing record in.

The first flight had roughly 124 players while the second flight had about 50 players. Both flights moved 32 players into the final round where the 64 total players would start a new Swiss for the championship. Getting into the top 32 of the second flight was far easier than making it in the first due to player turn out. The tournament was run as advertised by FFG and they would have no idea of the lower player turn out in the second flight. As a first flight player you did have the option of joining the second flight if you missed the cut. This left you with a choice to join another day of X-Wing taking yet another day of your GenCon experience. This would be dedicating 3 of your 4 days of GenCon playing X-Wing.

Hind sight is always 20-20.

Hopefully next time they will simply let the top 25% Advance from each flight, regardless of attendance. That seems fair.

It will be interesting to see how many players show up at Worlds 2014.

Worlds 2012: 40

Worlds 2013: 100+

Worlds 2014: ???

Perhaps it's time for the game to graduate from the Modified win result. This separation of two point values helps keep the standings confusing especially after the Margin of Victory is put in. We have such a low point differential from a draw to full win. 12 points is next to nothing in the game as only 2 ships fit into that point slot. There is no reasonable outcome that can be predicted from the 12 points and less mark. I believe this 12 point barrier so only be used to determine a draw as neither player has a clear advantage at that point.

I would reduce the Victory Points for a win down to 3, a draw is worth 1 and a lose is 0. The first tie breaker being head to head matches verses the tied player. Second, would be points destroyed and third tie breaker being points lost. points lost would be the lowest score wins the breaker.

Draws are not a bad thing and at this point very rarely happen in this game. It could have an effect of making the player who is holding onto a thread decide to run to get that draw point. We already have a situation where the winner can run to protect a full win so I see it as a wash.

I've meet and talked with the Organized Play guys at GenCon and they are a solid group of guys. Finding a stable ground to rest the Tournament play on will only make it easier for us the players. Keep everything simple so the players come to understand what to expect at an event. MTG has had a very good system for their events, it would not be a mistake to mirror this process when possible as it just works.

This would be dedicating 3 of your 4 days of GenCon playing X-Wing.

You say that like it's a bad thing... What's the fourth day for then? Wandering around aimlessly?

MOAR X-WINGZ! At least for me.

I've never played in a huge tournament like that yet, so I can't actually comment either way. I can totally see why it'd suck if you had a better record from the first day than some of the players on the second day, and didn't make the cut.

Here is the issue with your plan. They are not just running X-wing. They are also running Netrunner, whose playerbase is likely larger than X-wings. They also have to have room for the various side events and other championships they are running. An issue that will likely only get worse next year. The two flight system may have issues, but it allows them to have the room and time to run all the games they need to.

The reason there was such a difference between the two Day 1 flights was that they only allowed people to prepurchase tickets for the Thursday Day 1 flight. That meant that anyone who was serious about playing in the Xwing tournament had to buy tickets for Thursday. No one wanted to risk not getting a ticket for Friday. It turned out that it wasn't an issue to get Friday tickets, but no one knew that when the tickets when on sale. So, that meant that the Regional winners with byes played on Thursday, along with anyone else that came to GenCon specifically to play Xwing. Friday had the leftovers, and far fewer people. If they allow preselling tickets to both days next year, this problem may solve itself. Have two flights of 128 player on Thursday and Friday, and presell 64 seats from each day, leaving 64 seats open for walkups. Doing that should create a more even distribution of players and talent.

I think ultimately the structure worked. The best players were in the top 8/16. And that's the purpose, to get the best to the top, not to worry as much about ranking the middle.