Anyone who follows my posts knows I'm pretty much an FFG fanboy. However, the limited spots and terrible registration system for X-Wing Worlds this year needs to be called out.

Even IF the actual registration had gone smoothly (which it most certainly did not), the process eliminated pretty much everyone who couldn't get an hour free at exactly noon on a Monday. X-Wing is enormously popular, and this is THE premier event taking place in a large, beautiful play space at FFG Headquarters. It needs to be large enough to reasonably accommodate the interest, selling out in 45 minutes is truly unacceptable.

Worlds has become by far the favorite game event of the year for my group, and X-Wing the main focus of Worlds. The community and play of the weekend has surpassed all other game events, including GenCon, for those of us who can attend. This year, half of our group won't be going, mostly because they are so frustrated with being excluded from their main game because they couldn't take an hour off work at noon today to babysit the computer.

This really isn't OK, at all, especially with the extra day that Worlds has been extended to. You put the most popular game you have on Wednesday? Really? I'm guessing there are more players expected for Netrunner, so that might make some sense, but is it unreasonable to ask that you find the facilities to accommodate a second flight on Wednesday, seeing as there isn't anything else going on? 256 more players on Wednesday in a parallel flight, add one more round Thursday (top 32, 16 from each flight) and you have the ability to take care of the people who support you.

It isn't like we couldn't see this coming. Last year only had 256 spots, and was very nearly full. Day 1 WAS full. Now this year tournament participation has skyrocketed worldwide, with several times more attendance at events despite the much larger number of tournaments. Literally, Denver went from 20 something players last year to what, 60 something? Same thing everywhere.

I have a Regional win, so I can go regardless. This isn't some sort of personal butt-hurt because I can't play. But the X-Wing community is what makes the game so good, and this process has crapped all over the casual guys who support the game and make these events fun. If FFG insists on creating artificial scarcity, like some other games and other game companies, it will push Fly Casual aside in favor of the WAAC crew (and I'm not talking about people who play by the rules, I'm talking about WAAC). I have seen "competitive gaming", and I can assure you that while it is not actually any more competitive it is certainly a LOT less pleasant to be around.

Just my $.02, but I feel very strongly about this. I hope FFG Organized Play takes a good look at this, and makes some adjustments so that the people who want to play, can.

- Aaron

This is the general train of thought in the Indianapolis area as well.

With both Gencon/Nationals and Worlds limited so quickly and violently, it pales in comparison to previous years and events. To which however a few points need to be made in understanding why FFG has gone with their current.

FFG now has a wide variety of products each receiving their own worlds event, from a gamer's standpoint being able to participate in multiple events over the course of the weekend(s) allows for a much more diverse experience than say loosing two matches then dropping. The new setup gives a wider option to more players. It also allows for more free time at conventions (nationals) and less time off work (worlds) if you only plan on one event.

It is important to note that I have had multiple discussion and have heard multiple complaints on how last years events were ran. Having Two-flights allowed everyone who didn't make it to try again in the second flight for worlds. At nationals almost everyone made it into the top cut due to low attendance. These are issues that were clearly tried and addressed this year, and almost would have had no impact IF the x wing competitive numbers were the same.

Since last year attendance has clearly gone up for many locations, new players have been involved in LGS, and many more showed up for the store championship level of play.

Besides sales, FFG has no real way to track attendance before a year of Organized play. It would be safe to assume that if they were to implement a system similar to DCI (something many people would use) FFG would be able to much more easily track and project turnouts for specific events, planning accordingly, and allowing the maximum number of players to attend that seems reasonable to both FFG and the health of the competitive scene.

I plan to win nationals so ill be OK

I'll be at college during Worlds but that does sound like a pretty s***y deal...anyone know if USA nationals has sold out yet?

Is this a self righteous brag?

I see FFG as wanting to push their other games, and the lack of pursuit in regards to X Wing's players' happiness seems like a pat on the back and an intentional grab at getting their X wing base into their other games.

I plan to win nationals so ill be OK

Not if I can help it

I plan to abuse FFG's hospitality and ask all my opponents to forfeit to me, so that FFG has to pay to fly me to Worlds from New Zealand. I jest of course.

But on a more serious note. Having been through the somewhat arduous task of being awake at 4am to secure a ticket to Nationals since I am coming over to Gencon from New Zealand and didn't want to miss out, it was clear that the system and procedures were woefully inadequate for supporting Worlds. That had cluster fudge written all over it. Gencon's system is bad enough, but double form filling and expired browsers and of course the odd timing. Giving forward notice of a bad system is not much help, when it remains a bad system.

I am not sure that twice as many tickets available for X-wing would have even been enough to be honest, and I hazard that it would have sold out much quicker had the system not been so crummy.

To be clear, I never intended to attend Worlds, so this is not a sour grapes post, I chose Gencon for obvious reasons. But I really feel for those who planned to attend that now cannot.

Next year I see one of two things needing to happen. FFG needs to split up its major World Championships, or hold it somewhere that can fulfil their obvious need for more space.

As an aside, I would like FFG to embrace World championship weekend by creating a global event weekend where us folks at home get to play alongside the Worlds in our home stores. Set aside World Championship weekend for a finale to the tournament season where all us can compete in a smaller scale but still be able to access the exclusive World Championship cards/prizes etc. Make the event inclusive for those of us too far away to participate, rather than exclusive.

I'll be at college during Worlds but that does sound like a pretty s***y deal...anyone know if USA nationals has sold out yet?

US Nationals sold out in less than an hour as well. Occasionally tickets open up, but they are rare.

I'll be at college during Worlds but that does sound like a pretty s***y deal...anyone know if USA nationals has sold out yet?

US Nationals sold out in less than an hour as well. Occasionally tickets open up, but they are rare.

Bah ok. Now I have an excuse as to why I didn't win nationals..."I couldn't get a ticket man"

Besides sales, FFG has no real way to track attendance before a year of Organized play.

*ahem*

2014

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/105107-2014-regionals-results/

2015

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/174268-2015-regionals-results/

Attendance numbers are included.

2014 total attendance: 1999+ (not a typo, final tally was 1 short of 2000)

2015 attendance through week 7, roughly halfway through (NOT including last weekend): 2222

General attendance is more than doubled. The hardcore crowd that would be willing to travel to Worlds is probably even more than that. If they sold unlimited tickets then a reasonable estimate would be somewhere between 500 - 1000 players, most likely far closer to 1000 (or beyond) than 500.

There - market survey in less than 5 minutes, or 30 seconds if you know where to look.

Edit / P.S. - the fact that the community is better at data collection says something about the root cause problem.

Edit / P.S. - the fact that the community is better at data collection says something about the root cause problem.

I believe that qualifies you for a mic drop, good sir.

Edit / P.S. - the fact that the community is better at data collection says something about the root cause problem.

I believe that qualifies you for a mic drop, good sir.

A Nobel Prize too.

I understand. I absolutely intended to play X-Wing at Gencon this year as well. But since it sold out before I could break free from work for even a second I can't go. I can try to stand at the event, with a crowd of other people I'm sure, hoping they will let me enter. Otherwise I'm simply SOL. I was also going to give it my all, when there will be a large amount of people who play a round and drop after getting their participation prizes. I thought I would be ok and try day two but, alas, no day two this year.

As a side note, this also seems to be the only large game company, or game at all, that has this huge following and won't even be running side events. Where are the 8-man pickup tournaments with some fun prizes? Or absolutely anything like that at all. There are a few events put on by players, not FFG, but they are few and sold out immediately as well.

I was planning on going, but now that choice has been taken out of my hands. I don't go to a lot of events outside my area, so I usually just pick one thing that I can make. For the last couple of years that's been worlds and was going to be this year, but now that's not going to happen. I've very disappointed. I've made a lot of friends at these events and it's one of my only chances to hang out and see them. I guess I should have my browser ready for next year.

Total agree with Kentic.

More of us need to speak out about how this is done if we don't like it or they wont change it. A customer complaint is giving the business a second chance. I'd rather have a customer complain to me and give me a chance to make things right rather then say nothing and never come back.

I would really like to see this stay at the FFG center. The suggestion of splitting up the events over more then one weekend I feel would be the way to go. I'm sure this doesn't go for everyone but if they split of the types of games I think most would be good with it. Star wars stuff one week. Everything else another.

Lets get a lot of replies on this thread and hopefully FFG will take notice.

It was not a fun process and I am not happy with the experience. Limiting the field is by FFG's own design and it make's no sense to do it to a game that has been growing in leaps and bounds to cap it before known interest numbers were known.

I have made points of what should be done regarding registration in the future and I hope Organized Play takes notice.

If it is a manpower issue, limit all game types so you have the people for the more popular games and set aside lesser played games to another date. If it is judges, well, maybe a judges program is needed to fill out your manpower problem.

The numbers show that this year the player numbers have doubled, yet FFG decided to halve their premium play space. This is why Org. Play are getting this kind of bad posts.

1) Create accounts first and allow pre-reg for up to 3 events and that will tell you exactly the kind of numbers you can see for the events you are going to run. No guesswork as you will have the metrics you need to figure out what needs to happen.

2) Ask judges for volunteer service. There are many T.O. on these forums and you could have dozens of judges for all of your events. You just haven't tapped them yet.

One thing in scheduling that I don't think organized play had thought about is that the championship game picks up a fairly size able twitch feed viewing audience. That part of worlds has always been fun to me to talk to people while watch in the best xwing game of the year.

This year we will know our xwing champion before dinner on Thursday?

I am not sure that the X-Wing Miniatures Word Championship will ever grow to match what players expect.

This is a table top game with a limited life span. FFG probably doesn't think that it makes sense to bother creating a large-scale tournament to accomodate 1000 of its most dedicated players. They just want to focus on mass appeal while the game is in the strongest phase of its life cycle.

I am not sure that the X-Wing Miniatures Word Championship will ever grow to match what players expect.

This is a table top game with a limited life span. FFG probably doesn't think that it makes sense to bother creating a large-scale tournament to accomodate 1000 of its most dedicated players. They just want to focus on mass appeal while the game is in the strongest phase of its life cycle.

Maybe it won't ever grow to what the players expect, but I don't believe that should be used as justification not to attempt to make it THE premier event on the X-Wing calendar each and every year.

I also don't subscribe to the idea that this has anything to do with a game's "limited lifespan".

For one, to treat a game as young as X-Wing in that fashion would be extraordinarily short-sighted by FFG, and I don't believe that is a problem they suffer.

For another, it's far, far too early to even attempt to predict what the "lifespan" of a game like X-Wing might be. Consider: Decipher's Star Wars CCG was only in print for 6 years, but nearly 15 years after it went out-of-print there is still a thriving community that continues to support it, designing cards and holding tournaments (even world championships). The X-Wing community is so robust - and the game is so good - it wouldn't surprise me to see something similar occur, even if they quit printing ships and cards today. There would be plenty of room to grow with new pilots and upgrade cards without anyone ever printing another miniature.

Ultimately I think the key message here is that there are many among the community - myself included - that feel like Organized Play missed the boat with X-Wing Worlds this year, and it's important that we express that frustration to them so that the process can be improved upon for next year.

I am not sure that the X-Wing Miniatures Word Championship will ever grow to match what players expect.

This is a table top game with a limited life span. FFG probably doesn't think that it makes sense to bother creating a large-scale tournament to accomodate 1000 of its most dedicated players. They just want to focus on mass appeal while the game is in the strongest phase of its life cycle.

When episode 7 is released it will become stronger (unless JJ royally screws up)

I am not sure that the X-Wing Miniatures Word Championship will ever grow to match what players expect.

This is a table top game with a limited life span. FFG probably doesn't think that it makes sense to bother creating a large-scale tournament to accomodate 1000 of its most dedicated players. They just want to focus on mass appeal while the game is in the strongest phase of its life cycle.

With the next (first of three) Star Wars movie coming out in December, I sincerely doubt your hypothesis.

I was planning on going, but now that choice has been taken out of my hands. I don't go to a lot of events outside my area, so I usually just pick one thing that I can make. For the last couple of years that's been worlds and was going to be this year, but now that's not going to happen. I've very disappointed. I've made a lot of friends at these events and it's one of my only chances to hang out and see them. I guess I should have my browser ready for next year.

Well crap! It isn't going to be the same without you, pal.

As i said in another post. Disney has Star Wars Weekends. Why not have Star Wars separated. I mean if this has become such a problem, which it seems it has, make Worlds over two weekends. I know it would upset some people but for the most part it would do far more good. Have just Star Wars World Weekends. All the games. you could have far more players and have the space. Just have Armada, X-Wing and Star Wars LCG all on one weekend. I would almost guarantee that it would be packed.

I am not sure that the X-Wing Miniatures Word Championship will ever grow to match what players expect.

This is a table top game with a limited life span. FFG probably doesn't think that it makes sense to bother creating a large-scale tournament to accomodate 1000 of its most dedicated players. They just want to focus on mass appeal while the game is in the strongest phase of its life cycle.

With the next (first of three) Star Wars movie coming out in December, I sincerely doubt your hypothesis.

Though I'd bet the first one he made (matching players' expectation) is correct. Not that it couldn't be better than it was this year, but I also won't pretend to know what kinds of constraints FFG is operating under (self-imposed or otherwise) and they did attempt to explain at least some of them along with their rationale in their announcement post.

Also, while improvements for next year are a must improvements for this year are entirely possible and something I think we need to push for. There is plenty of time to set up an alternate play space and a parallel 256 person qualifying event. In all seriousness, this is an absolute train wreck on the part of Organized Play, up to and including moving the premier event for their #1 revenue generating game (by a landslide) to a Wednesday rather than the weekend. Events like Worlds are supposed to drive interest in the game, not infuriate large numbers of customers, including the most visible and vocal of them.

I sent an email to organized play, will continue to voice my concern here, and would encourage others to do so as well. Whether or not they fix this, I want them to understand the scope of the disaster they have authored.

Edit: The rationale of "the best experience possible" only holds water if they follow through. Moving their #1 game to a Wednesday, filling the schedule with lots of 2nd and 3rd tier games rather than accommodate the actual interest level in that game, all of this smacks of poor marketing. The kind of marketing that tries to use a popular game to force interest in other games, rather than supporting the popular game properly in the first place. This reminds me of those (soon failed) stores that would put their worst selling merchandise in their first tier locations (by the register, etc.) to improve their sales, then wonder why store wide sales dropped year on year. Hint, market what sells.

More Edit: I wasn't too worried about GenCon, because I believed that the space constraints forced upon FFG by the venue were the primary driver for the scarcity. But that doesn't apply at an event run entirely by FFG. Any problems here are entirely of their own making.

I agree with the idea of holding it in a location that can support the obvious demand in numbers. Breaking out individual games or genres would lead to a fracture in generating interest in multiple platforms, which as a business is understandably FFG's goal. IMHO there is a win-win solution of moving it to a location that can physically support the sheer numbers. If you get more people physically to the location, you're going to generate interest in other games and gain brand loyalty regardless of hosting site.

My suggestion: Las Vegas.

Huge convention halls

Central location within the U.S. Cheap, frequent airfare from around the world.

Weather is more palatable during that time of year

... And we can bet on the outcomes! (That last one is a bit of a stretch).