... I applaud their decision.

While a lot of people who weren't interested in Jin and Astrid have to twiddle their thumbs, at least we can see they're willing to make multiples of those character cards available. Considering that Astrid players will want more than one (up to possibly a playset) to stack on the dotless Astrid, and Jin players will want a full playset and nothing less. When I saw the spoiler they had for the Astrid on the website, I was worried about lack of distribution killing the idea. When Jin was spoiled afterwards, the same thought ran into my head. Now when I heard that the prize support was only two characters and a lot of them, until I realized who they were, I thought we had been shafted. Then I went "OH!" and facepalmed.

I don't think this post will spark much of a discussion but feel free to share your thoughts here.

Its great if you want those characters. But one thing i did hear though, which is only rumour, is that no matter how many tournaments you sign up to run as a scout, you will recieve the exact same amount of prize support. So in this case if you signed up to run 1 tournament this month you would recieve the same number of astrids and jins (12 of each) that you would if you had signed up for 4 tournaments in the month. If other people have info on this, correct or otherwise, please let us know.

Yeah, I still don't understand the way FFG does support, but I do echo your sentiments. If we're going to get tons of copies of the same character at least they were extra copies of characters that benefit from having extra copies. I'd really like to less copies when there are non-stacker-friendly characters and more copies of promo foundations, actions, etc. instead. We received enough Promo Seth's and Felicia's to wallpaper all our apartments.

Also, I heard a rumor about it, but PLEASE put Paid to Protect in prize support!

I had no problem getting so many copies of those characters in my prize support. What I did have a problem with however was gettting a ton of 4 point cards. However I am assuming this will not continue because the letter from FFG stated the the four point cards were "Legal" so I think that that kit was planned before the early rotation announcement.

Paid to Protect is needed. Or more things like it.

Must... block... 17... speed... attacks....

It would be really nice to be able to get more paid to protects...only 4 in the realease kit was kind of crappy. I thought they would be giving us more promos to make up for the fact that there was no Tekken Mats.

I'm kind of miffed about the prize support... We don't have that big of a player base, but even so the dozen of each isn't going to be enough to get everyone the cards they want, even though there are a few people who aren't interested in some of the characters.

aslum said:

id say our player base is big enough though but yeah it bums me out that only 3 or 4 people can get a playset of the characters becuase i know that at least 3 are looking for 4 astrids and 4 want jin.

I gave up on my jin idea becuase i figured i was doing my playgroup a favor by trading mine away

Just some food for thought:

I understand that many of you are probably in a situation where there is only one shop that holds tournaments within a reasonable travelling distance.

However for those of you who have options to travel to other shops, it might suck to have to travel a little, but at least that way you'll have access to more copies of the cards.

As an alternative - is there a second shop that tournaments could be held at, to start generating additional prize support for your area? (Just a suggestion to look at)

I personally like the fact that there is prize support out there that people WANT to trade for. I've got a binder full of extra prize support that I haven't been able to trade most of it in forever. Actually having a healthy secondary market - while it makes no immedate difference to FFG, there are players who will not touch a game unless there is a healthy secondary market.

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RE: Upcoming kits

FFG has noticed that there is a problem with how prize support was being handled previously. Specifically with the random packs of support, shops were complaining "Why aren't we getting X, when other shops are getting Y?"

Additionally there was problems with prize packs being skimmed off of, and a myriad of other issues, including but not limited to the whole "lack of prize support for legacy" and "We don't like being told we're only allowed to run one legacy event per month." <I get that a bunch of you don't like legacy. I totally understand that. At the same time, there are a number of folks/stores who do. Montreal was able to rebuild their player base in part because of legacy, so there can be some benefits to the format. >

What ever solution is implemented, it will not be perfect. Nothing can be. However the upcoming OP "kits" are an attempt to fix as many of the issues as possible.

What Steve Horvath has said in conversation with me is as follows: <And the entire extent of what I know regarding the issue> - "Stores that sign up for OP will all get the exact same kit. We will publish what the contents of the kit are. We won't dictate how the prize support is given out, we won't tell them what type of tournaments they have to run. That way stores/scouts can manage the OP experience for their shops as they see fit.."

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From personal experience having played CCGs for far too long - prize support will wax and wane for different games. They will never be able to please everyone, and there will always be a segment who will complain no matter what is done. If nothing else - give FFG credit - they acknowledged that the current system isn't as effective as the stakeholders of the game would like it to be. Not only did they acknowledge it, but they are trying to do something to fix it.

I just hope we can still get some Jins and Astrids in October. Our old scout forgot to sign up for September tournaments, so we have no support.