@Trubble:

I agree: Free choice of large base ship for last place is a sweet prize.

To bad there was only one guy trying to go for last prize! Imagine two guys trying to "win" last place, LOL! Playing that bad takes skill.

Player A: "Dang I flew off the board again. Ah well, your turn."

Player B: "Oops i've moved inside your firing arc!"

Player A: "I move my Tie bomber right in front of your headhunter, and then it's your turn."

Player B: "You forgot to shoot at my Y-wing!"

Player A:" Did I? oh dear! Ah well it's to late now."

Player B: "No no It's ok I'll let you redo your turn. Fly casual and all that you know. Please shoot at my x-wing!"

Player A: "No no It's your turn. I insist! Don't make my mistake and shoot at my headhunter!"

Player B: "why you..."

There was a 'local' event that five players drove to. About an hour away. One 'regular' player showed up, late. So they had six players total, including the five 'snipers'.

More players are events are a good thing. I know when I go to a new store for an event, I always try to buy something there to support them in some way. If you are worried about getting stomped, play more. More and more and more. Go to events outside your area to get an idea of the meta outside your home store.

Yeeaaah it's not as if being from out of town grants an auto win or anything.

I can't see what the problem is here?

Wait.

Wait for it.

Dey took our jeerrrrbs.

For me, the closest Store Championship is nearly 3.5 to 4 hours away. So I cannot get too angry about it. However, FFG must keep track of store championship winners, and they should know if someone has already won before. They could still allow them to compete, but give the SC reward to the highest ranking no SC player and give the SC winning player some other reward.

For me, the closest Store Championship is nearly 3.5 to 4 hours away. So I cannot get too angry about it. However, FFG must keep track of store championship winners, and they should know if someone has already won before. They could still allow them to compete, but give the SC reward to the highest ranking no SC player and give the SC winning player some other reward.

But why?

Not being sarcastic, this is an honest question.

For me, the closest Store Championship is nearly 3.5 to 4 hours away. So I cannot get too angry about it. However, FFG must keep track of store championship winners, and they should know if someone has already won before. They could still allow them to compete, but give the SC reward to the highest ranking no SC player and give the SC winning player some other reward.

The Regional Bye is supposed to be given to the top player who does not already have one. Only one Bye per player. They do track this. The Plaque and such still goes to the top player (and it should).

Question here as a TO is also often,

Would I rather have 7-15 odd players at the event, or 16-32?

Because lets face it, X-Wing is still the new kid on the block compared to 40K, Warmachine, Infinity, etc.

The Lost Valley

Once, there were some gamers who became trapped in a hidden valley that was filled with jungles and mighty Dinosaurs. It was a Lost World. These gamers soon became trapped and had to live in this enclosed world. Being gamers, they soon learned to ride the dinosaurs and then to battle each other for honor and respect. Dinosaurs were bred for this and All over the Lost Valley you could see many different kinds of dinosaurs fighting each other. Dinosaurs with horns or tails or wings. They had claws and fangs and were all of different colors. People would love to attend these matches just to see what dinosaurs others would bring, as well as try to win in the Circle of Honor.

Eventually, this Lost World was discovered by two groups of people. One was a motorcycle gang (Phantoms) and the other was a military militia (YT's). They wanted to participate in the games. Soon, all the dinosaurs were dead, with the exception of the alligator (Tie Swarms). The jungles were destroyed. All matches were between motorcycles, alligators, or guys with RPGs. Many of the gamers adopted the weapons of the new comers. The new comers laughed and said "You should thank us for showing you modern weapons." Other gamers missed the savage nobility, thrill, and pageantry of the dino fights and crept back into the wild to look for any dinos that might be left.

The arena belongs to the bikers, military, and alligators.

The Lost Valley

Once, there were some gamers who became trapped in a hidden valley that was filled with jungles and mighty Dinosaurs. It was a Lost World. These gamers soon became trapped and had to live in this enclosed world. Being gamers, they soon learned to ride the dinosaurs and then to battle each other for honor and respect. Dinosaurs were bred for this and All over the Lost Valley you could see many different kinds of dinosaurs fighting each other. Dinosaurs with horns or tails or wings. They had claws and fangs and were all of different colors. People would love to attend these matches just to see what dinosaurs others would bring, as well as try to win in the Circle of Honor.

Eventually, this Lost World was discovered by two groups of people. One was a motorcycle gang (Phantoms) and the other was a military militia (YT's). They wanted to participate in the games. Soon, all the dinosaurs were dead, with the exception of the alligator (Tie Swarms). The jungles were destroyed. All matches were between motorcycles, alligators, or guys with RPGs. Many of the gamers adopted the weapons of the new comers. The new comers laughed and said "You should thank us for showing you modern weapons." Other gamers missed the savage nobility, thrill, and pageantry of the dino fights and crept back into the wild to look for any dinos that might be left.

The arena belongs to the bikers, military, and alligators.

It's a game. At tournaments it's a competition. Nobility and honor aren't the goal of competition. What happens at your store when someone decides they want to fly fat Han? Are you guys going to make him uncomfortable and either make him fly a different list or just not play with him?

If you are playing tourney, you bring your A-team. I think that's just the general tournament mentality for pretty much any game ever. With tourney unlike casual play you play to win. With casual play you kinda play to experiment or tell a story... depends who you are I suppose.

If your A-team is phantoms/fat han / TIE Swarm / Crazy frog - whatever is in so be it.

Your opponents can also bring hard counters to them. Maybe making up something new will win.. or here's a thought. Maybe outflying your opponent will win.

in X-wing the list isn't everything. Heck even in 40k it isn't everything (though granted it can be a lot more..)

I maintain that if some lists have overall superiority over others, then they might need fixing.

The Lost Valley

Once, there were some gamers who became trapped in a hidden valley that was filled with jungles and mighty Dinosaurs. It was a Lost World. These gamers soon became trapped and had to live in this enclosed world. Being gamers, they soon learned to ride the dinosaurs and then to battle each other for honor and respect. Dinosaurs were bred for this and All over the Lost Valley you could see many different kinds of dinosaurs fighting each other. Dinosaurs with horns or tails or wings. They had claws and fangs and were all of different colors. People would love to attend these matches just to see what dinosaurs others would bring, as well as try to win in the Circle of Honor.

Eventually, this Lost World was discovered by two groups of people. One was a motorcycle gang (Phantoms) and the other was a military militia (YT's). They wanted to participate in the games. Soon, all the dinosaurs were dead, with the exception of the alligator (Tie Swarms). The jungles were destroyed. All matches were between motorcycles, alligators, or guys with RPGs. Many of the gamers adopted the weapons of the new comers. The new comers laughed and said "You should thank us for showing you modern weapons." Other gamers missed the savage nobility, thrill, and pageantry of the dino fights and crept back into the wild to look for any dinos that might be left.

The arena belongs to the bikers, military, and alligators.

It's a game. At tournaments it's a competition. Nobility and honor aren't the goal of competition. What happens at your store when someone decides they want to fly fat Han? Are you guys going to make him uncomfortable and either make him fly a different list or just not play with him?

If you are playing tourney, you bring your A-team.

If your A-team is phantoms/fat han / crazy frog - whatever is in so be it.

Your opponents can also bring hard counters to them.

I maintain that if some lists have overall superiority over others, then they might need fixing.

I travelled 2 1/2 hours to a tournament no so long ago.

• First hour by train (return ticket cost me, what, £10?)
• Second hour and a half in my friend's car.
• Tournament was £10 entry - I paid for myself and my friend as he was kind enough to drive.
• Played five games, came 4th out of 20, won a small base ship and £10 store credit (which I immediately spent along with another £20 of my own).

Does this make me a "prize sniper"? Should I feel bad about myself?

No, and your sig sums up why.

man this thread gave me an idea...........

STORE WARFARE!!!!!!!

FLGS vs FLGS, that would be wild and cool, I think. each month or two one store travels to another to challenge. the hosting store must supply the loot.

.

edit: you can even have shirts made up for your team, wow, why has no one thought of this before?

http://teamcovenant.com/rinehart/2014/11/10/outryder-cup/

Check out the link we currently have the teams set for Outryder cup II and are planning it for the middle of June.

This has also had the effect of creating a strong store rivalry each store championship in the area had members of all 3 groups not only competing for themselves but also trying to bring glory to their team. Which personally I think is great I go to store championships to be tested but i guess that puts me into the rise to the challenge group.

This is how I see it:

Alternative 1: lots of different people from different areas show up for a tournament. Lots of lists are flown, some good, some bad. People have fun, learn, have their mind blown or curse their green dice. The passionnate players take the time to know the newcomers, maybe find out about other tournaments or communities that are also within their reach. The different lists also spark new ideas, which affect their local meta for weeks to come. They join Facebook groups to learn about other events and may even arrange rides so that a bunch of them can invade another city. In the end, 4 people win plastic pieces. Life is good and the game flourishes.

Alternative 2: only the same local 6 guys show up to the same type of events over and over again. They know each other in advance, their lists and how each of them play. There are fewer surprises, no growing of the community and not much else to be said. The game in the area becomes stale... and those that lose over and over again to the same lists / people will most likely grow bored and leave in due time. In the end, 4 people, probably the same ones that always win the tournaments, win plastic pieces.

My conclusion is that alternative 1 sounds way better... and plastic pieces are overrated. That is all

I'm the in the traveling boat myself, but only because the nearest game stores are an hour and a half away... and even then barely support XWing.

But I do feel for the OP. For events like the Store Championships I think prize sniping is to be expected and encouraged. It cross levels the meta and ensures the highest quality players play at top tables.

For season play it is easy enough for remote game stores to base the rewards for the rarer alt art cards and acrylics to attendance of multiple matches in the season and not a single tournament. If out of towners want to drive hours every Tuesday to participate and dominate a remote scene to get the Tycho Celchu and Vader medal then I'd call them locals...

Store managers run a fine line of promoting the local scene and keeping their doors open. Out of town money is green just like everyone elses, and I hear it spends the same too.

Its always good for out of area players to show up. They bring stuff that runs counter to the local meta and each can probably learn and see something they never considered before (like Expose on a Warthog...BTL Y-Wing...think about that on Kavil; uncancellable <hits> from the Autoblaster turret, +1 for out of arc +1 for Expose...he can 1 shot a cloaked Phantom!).

But, if I were leading the local X-Wing group and go wind of an out of town group coming in to "snipe prizes" I would take that as a challenge to get my own flock together for a road trip to go snipe some of their events.

But to just stay home???? At least show up for the Soontir Fel card (my 10 year old girl has 3 of them...one she actually earned by winning a match and coming in the top 32 at a larger event!).

Its always good for out of area players to show up. They bring stuff that runs counter to the local meta and each can probably learn and see something they never considered before (like Expose on a Warthog...BTL Y-Wing...think about that on Kavil; uncancellable <hits> from the Autoblaster turret, +1 for out of arc +1 for Expose...he can 1 shot a cloaked Phantom!).

Problem being that Expose is for your primary weapon only. And Autoblaster Turret is a secondary weapon.

Also, if you mention BTL Y-Wing and then go on to mention Kavil firing out of arc. Kavil can't fire out of arc with the BTL-A4 title.

They should see it as a challenge to defend their store and try to keep the championship at home. Sounds like the people whining just are not strong players

I once prize sniped. I went down from my big city to this little town with my über list (3x TIE Bombers + 2x Academy TIEs) and reaped the pewter medal from those poor yokels. Then, a friend of mine from my city did the same thing with the same small town.

Regrettably, they got better and one of their aces came up to one of our store championships and took first.

I think we should have stopped him from doing so. After all, smaller towns have no business taking the prizes away from big cities. It's just ... unnatural.

Let's not misconstrue the OP's point because he mentioned that it included going to sparsely populated areas. That wasn't the point, and you likely know it. I'm more willing to accept the premise to the extent that I don't believe we can act like it totally has no issues, so I am biased, but let's not throw up strawmen so we can knock them down.

Oh, come. I wasn't hinting at anything derogatory of the OP, or anything bitter besides.

Official FFG tournaments (Store, Regional, National) should not be restricted to local players only.

I'm all for the casual aspect of the game, but a tournament is there to test skills. If you get beaten by another player, outsider or not, he deserve to win the prize. If you want to win it yourself, practice more. But it's not the fault of the outsider if your local player group is not good enough to compete. Why would the local players be more entitled to the official prizes than someone else who is better? Should FFG start to create different league: Junior, AAA, Senior? I don't think so. If you want some official prizes, earn them.

As for the Store Owner losing buisness because outsiders scare the community. There is an entry fee. More players means more money from the entry fee means more income from the day. If he wants to please his local community, there is nothing stoping the Store Owner to create his own local tournaments. Offical ones like the Store Championship stay open for everyone, local one stay close for the local players only.

People should not forget that the outsider players also pay for transportation and time to get to the tournament. And maybe he don't have a healthy competitive community in his town but love the game enough to travel to other cities to play in a tournament environment.

To be honest, deciding to not attend a tournament just because some guys from out of town will come in and take the prize seems a little immature to me. Take the challenge. Beat them and make them regret coming into your town. If you lose, learn from it. Stop pretending you're the best because no one in your casual community can beat you; prove it by beating those good enough to take the time, money and effort to travel from town to town to play. If I were the store owner and see that all my players would not attend an official tournament, I would stop making official one and just make local one. If they are not competitive enough to go to a local tournament because they're afraid of not winning, why should they care about getting a plaque or trophy they don't really deserve, Give them store credit prizes and be done with it.

One of the stores in my local area has lost interest in hosting X-wing events due to low player turn out so if non-local players help to prevent this then I have no problem with them showing up.

As far as I am concerned it's great getting to meet and play against some of the more well known players on the UK Facebook group.

I'm all for the casual aspect of the game, but a tournament is there to test skills. If you get beaten by another player, outsider or not, he deserve to win the prize. If you want to win it yourself, practice more. But it's not the fault of the outsider if your local player group is not good enough to compete. Why would the local players be more entitled to the official prizes than someone else who is better? Should FFG start to create different league: Junior, AAA, Senior? I don't think so. If you want some official prizes, earn them...

...To be honest, deciding to not attend a tournament just because some guys from out of town will come in and take the prize seems a little immature to me. Take the challenge. Beat them and make them regret coming into your town. If you lose, learn from it. Stop pretending you're the best because no one in your casual community can beat you; prove it by beating those good enough to take the time, money and effort to travel from town to town to play. If I were the store owner and see that all my players would not attend an official tournament, I would stop making official one and just make local one. If they are not competitive enough to go to a local tournament because they're afraid of not winning, why should they care about getting a plaque or trophy they don't really deserve, Give them store credit prizes and be done with it.

This. A thousand times, this.

Also is there a list of all the prize support somewhere? I can't seem to find some of the cooler items (like the dice) in the 'normal' tournament kits. Were they just released in much older kits?

http://kevbelisle.github.io/XWingPromos/

Awesome, thank you

Also it does look like there are a lot of things that aren't available to normal play events. I reinstate my earlier comment that they are not the same thing. To return to my analogy it is like saying that getting a nice set of utensils is the equivalent of the nice set of pots and pans.

It isn't.

I'm all for the casual aspect of the game, but a tournament is there to test skills. If you get beaten by another player, outsider or not, he deserve to win the prize. If you want to win it yourself, practice more. But it's not the fault of the outsider if your local player group is not good enough to compete. Why would the local players be more entitled to the official prizes than someone else who is better? Should FFG start to create different league: Junior, AAA, Senior? I don't think so. If you want some official prizes, earn them...

...To be honest, deciding to not attend a tournament just because some guys from out of town will come in and take the prize seems a little immature to me. Take the challenge. Beat them and make them regret coming into your town. If you lose, learn from it. Stop pretending you're the best because no one in your casual community can beat you; prove it by beating those good enough to take the time, money and effort to travel from town to town to play. If I were the store owner and see that all my players would not attend an official tournament, I would stop making official one and just make local one. If they are not competitive enough to go to a local tournament because they're afraid of not winning, why should they care about getting a plaque or trophy they don't really deserve, Give them store credit prizes and be done with it.

This. A thousand times, this.

You both seem to be missing the point here. As blood thirsty pirates, I don't think you will ever understand what it is like to be a peace loving hippie.

You can repeat over and over again that they should just do the same thing that the snipers do and net deck and play ridiculously 'high stakes' matches with hyper competitive players. That doesn't appeal to some people. It never will.

For them it may not have to do with winning, it probably has to do with the environment. And if you think that a hyper competitive out of towner won't affect the environment, you are mistaken.

So yeah, when a small town group that has been having fun together, that doesn't really care who the biggest fish in the sea is, gets an influx of a large group of vicious hardcore players, they are going to feel negative about it.

I don't know how else to explain it to you. Not everyone is a blood thirsty pirate.

Paul Heaver in every store championship ?

That would be a great thing really

We get that opportunity more often that not in our area. Our area has a healthy competitive spirit though, and welcome so called 'outsiders'