With multiple threads from people relating their poor tournament experiences, how about a thread to share our positive experiences?

This Saturday, we had our area's second Store Championship, hosted by a store that had never hosted an X-Wing tournament yet! This is awesome for us, since we've only had tournaments organized by a single store up until now.

We had 14 people turn out, which is close to the most people we've ever had at a tourney! I acted as TO, and had 2 other players officially designated as assistant TOs! I tried to push our tournament organization up a notch (so far, our tourneys have been very casual). I made some little signs for numbering the tables, printed out pairings after each round so people could catch any mistakes from the previous rounds results, posted the rankings during our short lunch break, had people hand in printed squad lists when signing up, etc.

I'm happy to say that everyone seems to have had a great time!

We had many players who have been playing for less than a month, and even had a player make Top 4 in his second tourney ever - with a list straight out of Wave 2 as well (Howl + APs + doom shuttle)! Everyone had a very fly casual attitude, and neither I nor the assistant TOs had to make any calls regarding weird behavior of any kind - only some minor rules questions from newer players. The store owner even bought himself a core set, a falcon and rebel aces at the end of the day - a good sign for things to come! The space we had to play in was great, had more than a few people stopping by as they walked through the mall and ask what the game was.

Everyone is looking forward to the third, and final, Store Championship for our area in 2 weeks!

So, don't get discouraged by the threads about bad tournament experiences. For every tournament that is soured by a single player's behavior (as seems to be the case more often than not), there are 40 others where everyone has a grand old time!

My FLGS was expecting a huge turnout, so they made sure they had prizes even for those who ended up outside of top 8. They ordered a bunch of swag from ThinkGeek and raffled them off to everyone present, including a sweet Star Destroyer plushie that they swear is legal for Imperial Epic play.

The vast majority of people I've played at tournaments have been great, and the games have been a lot of fun.

One particularly memorable game involved my XXXX list against a mini Swarm and Rexler. We both went for it, and it came down to a two hull Wedge and an unscratched Academy TIE in the last round with time running out. A focused Wedge managed to whiff his attacks (hit and two blanks!) and the Academy TIE scored two hits. Wedge rolled blank and focus... couldn't have imagined a closer finish.

the worst part about any of the tournaments I've been to is coming to grips with how salty I get from losing

I love tournaments. They're a great way to gather the community and have a great excuse to do nothing but play x-wing for a few hours

The vast majority of people I've played at tournaments have been great, and the games have been a lot of fun.

One particularly memorable game involved my XXXX list against a mini Swarm and Rexler. We both went for it, and it came down to a two hull Wedge and an unscratched Academy TIE in the last round with time running out. A focused Wedge managed to whiff his attacks (hit and two blanks!) and the Academy TIE scored two hits. Wedge rolled blank and focus... couldn't have imagined a closer finish.

My brother is incredible at engineering those super-close, final-roll-decides-the-game matches.

Example: Game ends with 2 Rookies staring each other down, at range 1, each with a focus. No other ships on the board. Winner of the game makes Top 4. Unfortunately for my brother, he lost.

I've really only been to one tournament, and there was only 5 of us. Me, one of the guys I live with, two guys from out of town, and the employee/TO. I know TOs generally shouldn't play, but he's a very reasonable and unbiased guy. THe two out-of-towners were fantastic guys, and I ended up playing one of them in the finals. I took second (which I was happy to do, since the only things I didn't get were the plaque and regional bye, and I wouldn't have been able to go to regionals). It was a great day, and it's great to play against some non-standard lists. This was back in the days of Wave 3, when I was new to the game. It was before the Phantom/Fatty meta dominated the game, and so it's been one of my favorite times.

Most tournaments have been good in my experience. You get 1 or 2 rotten apples (poor sports, overly competitive guy, occasional cheater, some people who deliberately bend/forget the rules, etc.), but the vast majority of players are decent, regular guys who want to move ships and roll dice to win. They are a good break from the regular game group. The only really poor time I've had (and it wasn't too bad since it was Imdaar and I won) was when a TO left mid-tournament and left another guy, who didn't know X-Wing at all, holding the bag to finish the tourney. That is sort of the exception that proves the rule.

I'd just like to say that as one of the people who posted a bad tourney experience thread which has sort of blossomed a bit, in the interest of balance and fairness, I;d like to relate the positive side of the very same tournament:

Small tourney in a lovely little shop with a friendly atmosphere. Almost every person there (with one obvious exception) was friendly, casual and there for a laugh. A bunch of us including my friend had been in contact pre the tourney (he knew them all I had briefly met one or two) and I had explained during the chatter that I would be wearing my wildly colourful and loud Hawaiian shirt, which I always do whenever I go to a new place in memory of my late cousin who sadly passed away last year. They all said that in light of that, they would all dig out their own most hideously loud shirts to wear for the same reason in solidarity, and they did, which was very touching and a general indication of what a lovely bunch of chaps they were. My FB friends list is several people heavier since, and I have a standing invite to go up to their main haunt (Dark Sphere in London) to play more games. One also offered to give me a spare damage deck upon learning that over the course of the day I had managed to lose one of my damage cards (which never turned up).

I came away having lost every game but having had overall a brilliant day hanging out with some excellent people and playing my favourite game and making lots of new friends. And as far as I am concerned that is what the game and the tourney experience is all about. I never expect to win anything, I count it as a blessing when I do and I always appreciate the benefit of insight that 99% of the more experienced and generally better players than me are prepared to give as to how I could improve my game.

So apologies that my first ever thread was so negative, but hopefully this will redress the balance a bit

I've done the TO bit before for another game, and I must say I'm pretty lucky to have so many good tournaments new me. My only gripes come from TO time management of rounds, and a couple weekends ago we played in one tournament where the TO told everyone 65 minute rounds. A couple people balked, and he looked it up, checked his timeframe, and adjusted it up to 70 with a shorter lunch break. He let everyone know about food delivery, welcomed food in the store, etc so that a full cut to top 8 could be made.

Couldn't have had a better time, even though I lost on the first round of top 8. Pairings posted, sheets filled out, all done according to what I expected from a store champs. He then surprised everyone and gave all the entry fees back in store credit to the top 8 before the cut.

My prize on the day? My nephew used the store credit to get a new scum interceptor from someone that traded him one for a different ship (they sold out partway through the day). Cant say enough that a kid that went 0-4 still had a blast that day! (even before he scored a new ship too)

So what makes a great tournament in my book? Those silly surprises on top of a well timed and well run tournament.

This Saturday, we had our area's second Store Championship, hosted by a store that had never hosted an X-Wing tournament yet! This is awesome for us, since we've only had tournaments organized by a single store up until now.

La Revanche

Donjon

(2)

with a list straight out of Wave 2 as well (Howl + APs + doom shuttle)!

Shuttle is Wave 3.

I went to a tournament and I won. That was pretty sweet.

*dodges rocks and tomatoes*

Fine fine, I went to a large SC the day before that and got 9th place, just barely missing the top 8 cut off, but I won a $25 store credit it what I assumed was a raffle and used it to buy their last neoprene playmat at a discount so I'd finally have my own mat, and another player (that I knew pretty well) was kind enough to give me a ride home so I wouldn't have to take a 2 hour bus/train ride back home.

This Saturday, we had our area's second Store Championship, hosted by a store that had never hosted an X-Wing tournament yet! This is awesome for us, since we've only had tournaments organized by a single store up until now.

La Revanche

Donjon

(2)

Meh, La Revanche organized a single tournament a year ago. Then nothing.

I simplified for the sake of keeping my post short and to the point!

But yes, you are (as usual) technically correct*!

* Technically correct is the best kind of correct!

hey, you correct me on details all the time, thought I'd do it back. It is delicious, thanks for asking ;-)

my last tournament, I was playing a dude for the win and I seen him maneuver a YT-2400 in the corner of the mat for 4 turns and didn't fly off the table, it was an amazing feet of flying!!!!

the tournament before that we played each other and it was down to my Jax and His Coran. we were dodgingand weaving, but I was behind him so I was hard to shake. but those games where we dink and jink for position in the last rounds of the game are the best. I think the flying is most fun part of this game and I am the first to congradulate someone on outstanding flying even if its going to hurt me in the end.

At a recent Store Championship, I witnessed some incredible sportsmanship among some of the players there. The player who would eventually finish second overall, spent a good chunk of time helping the player who he beat in the second round get better at the game, since the latter seemed to be fairly new to X-Wing. Additionally, I was able to discuss with several of my opponents possible strategies and areas where we made mistakes, and things we could've possibly done differently to influence the game in our respective favors. Finally, my last opponent of the day, the only player running a Scum list (double IG-88), a player who I surrendered to in approximately 5 turns, decided to give me an extra Chewie alt art card he had on him, seemingly out of nowhere.

All in all, pretty awesome group of players!