To whom it may Concern,

I, like many others, am highly dissatisfied with the procedure used for the 2015 Fantasy Flight Worlds Championships registration. My chief complaints are that the registration process was: overly complicated, slow, and ticket sales opened at the least logical time. The choice to have a player cap on these events, while I understand if to be a necessity of logistical constraints, has also complicated matters of event availability this year; and when coupled with the inefficient process one must complete for registration, has cost many players seats in their game of choice.

Your company has perennially touted this event as a gather of the best of the best to determine which players of you games deserve to hold the title of “World Champion”. I fear this year the championship event will not host ‘the best of the best’; rather it has accidentally catered to the lucky few who were able to login in and complete the unnecessarily complicated process first. With hard caps and reserved seats for events players looking to enter their event of choice are left with extra event tickets they have purchased if that game has sold its all of its open seats, and these players will likely use those tickets to enter other events that they may be less interested in; thus eliminating that seat from someone who truly wishes to compete in their favorite game. The long period between purchasing a badge and event tickets, and receiving the confirmation and coupon code has further exacerbated this issue. Like several other players I have spoken to, I waited nearly half an hour between paying for my badge and receiving my confirmation e-mail and the ability to enroll in events. In the time I had to wait, two of the three events I intended to play in had filled, leaving me with additional tickets with no games to play. In this situation I had one of three choices: to register for another game that I am not overly interested in and thus removing someone else’s ability to enter that championship, to wait and see if a seat opens later in August and go through this atrocious process once again, or to say “forget it” ask for a refund, and not attend an event that I truly enjoy going to. This is unacceptable. Had I known that what I was buying was sold out before I paid for it I would not paid for it; and in doing so saved both parties a lot of time, and your company money. I would feel much less disenfranchised if when I went to pay for my ticket I would have known my events were sold out rather than finding out ex post facto.

The decision to open your ticket sales in the middle of business hours on a Monday is also one that vexes me. The majority of your Worlds participants, me included, are grown adults with jobs. It was impossible for me and many others to be able to login at 12 noon sharp to start the process of registering for events. While there is no single time that would accommodate your entire player base, I feel that a weekday at noon was considerably more inconvenient than midmorning on a weekend.

As I have stated, I do understand the logistical need to cap event seats, however this cap needs to be high enough to accommodate enough of your players. With how fast several of the events have sold out this year I fear this cap was not nearly high enough, which has just added fuel to the fire. I understand the need to hold seats for Regional and National winners, as well as former World Champions; I feel with the limited player space and the desire to find the best of the best these seats need to include Store Champions as well. These players have proven their skill and including them in your reserved seats you would ensure that your best players are able to show up and fight for the title of “World Champion”.

The ubiquitous statement of “If you don’t get in to your main event, don’t worry, there will be side events to play” that has been circulating since the full schedule has been announced is by far the most ludicrous aspect of this fiasco. While we as players do enjoy side events, there is no reason to think that a side event is enough of a replacement to missing out on the main event. I don’t care that there is a two person team tournament for x-wing, or a winter tournament for Conquest, or a NetRunner draft; while those events are fun, what I care about is the shot at the title of “World Champion”. The whole idea of this statement is like showing up at the World Series of Poker and having the dealer say “Hey little buddy, I’m sorry you can’t play in the big game, but there is a game of Crazy Eights in the corner for you.”

In closing I would like to impart a simple request for next year: fix this .

Matt Froom

Link to PDF of the letter.

Speaking as someone who did get into the activities I wanted to get in, I have to respectfully agree with most of the above. I have observed much of the same from others. The timing of the registration window and the two-step process created problems for many people.

I got home from work Monday to discover everything I wanted to play was sold out. Great job ffg (and by that I mean I hate you). So glad I took the first week of November off for nothing. Such great games with such horse **** service I don't get it. I thought Score Entertainment ran things poorly but Fantasy Flight has set the new bar.

so...they limited the entire five day event to 250 people?
that doesn't sound right...250 people for all the events...Netrunner +X-wing +GoT+every other game = no more than 250 people?

No. Each event had its own separate cap. There will be rather more than 250 attendees total.

I'm fortunate in that I am employed in a way that allowed me to navigate the challenging process of registering for Worlds exactly on time, and managed to get into all of the events I wanted. But having a friend who was denied this opportunity because of work and an unfortunate time zone, I can completely understand the frustration. I am a bit of a solutions kind of guy, so here would be my suggestion:

- Set a pre-registration window of a couple of weeks or a month, or some other significantly long period of time, where anyone who wants to go can put in a credit card number and a request for the games they want to play, ranked in order of preference.

- Set a day to run a lottery for spots at Worlds. Guarantee Regional and National Champions spots, but require them to be pre-registered with everyone else.

- Run the lottery, running each lottery according to preference: ie the first round of X-Wing would only be of players for whom X-Wing is their #1 choice. After the first round, run another round for #2 choices, etc. Establish waiting lists for each event based upon these rounds.

- Everyone who gets into an event receives an email that gives them a limited amount of time (say 48 hours) to confirm their purchase. If they confirm, then their ticket is purchased and they are in. If there is some kind of problem with their card, this will give them enough time to fix it. If they decide they don't want to come after all (perhaps didn't get into enough games, etc), they can decline the purchase and the tickets go to the first person on the waiting list.

- If Regional or National Championships are conducted after the lottery, then if the player already has a ticket the reserved one goes to the first on the waiting list. If they are held before the lottery, then these tickets would already be set aside and the champions would not have to enter the lottery for their game.

- If cancelations or other issues come up, the freed tickets again go to the wait list, all the way to the actual event.

This accomplishes a number of things: First it gives the widest range of people a chance to play and an equal chance at getting an admission. Second it guarantees that those who are most passionate about a particular system are in each event. Personally, I have a ticket to X-Wing, but do not consider myself to be a World class player of that game, so I am likely taking up a spot of someone who is more interested in (and better qualified for) attending that event. Third, it allows people to know exactly what they will get, and how likely they are to get into sold out events through their place on the wait list, before buying. They can make travel and vacation plans accordingly.

I don't think this would be terribly complicated technically: it's the kind of thing computers are excellent at doing. But if someone who knows more about programming has a different idea, please chime in.

Thank you for reading, and I'm definitely looking forward to attending Worlds this year and in years to come.

I just posted another subject, although for some reason, it has been posted yet. Anyway, just tried to register again and wasn't able to get in. You can read my other post for the details.

Two thoughts: If the events are going to be limited to the best in the world, don't open them up to the public. Just make it an invite/qualifier only type of thing. Second, run side events for the rest of us who want to support FFG's products at a competitive level. Even work with the other retailers in the area to host said side events. Other retailers in the area host Magic Pro Tour Qualifiers, Grand Prix's and other high profile tournaments.

Chris, I came up with pretty much the same idea while sitting anxiously at my computer and waiting for the clock to tick over to midnight tonight. A lottery just makes so much more sense, especially given the problems that rush of registration caused tonight. At least one event sold out and then opened up almost two dozen more tickets a handful of minutes later, and a number of people were kicked out midway through (or even after) completing their orders.

What they should do is to have the World Championships be qualifier only. Then have a "World Championship Weekend" that is open to anyone. The Championships could be held at scheduled times with all kinds of side events running parallel. They could even tap other retailers in the area to host some of the side events.

This would allow all fans to take part in the Championship weekend and enjoy the spirit of the event, if not actually take part in the Championship tournament itself. Maybe even set up an area with streams or seating for people to come watch the championship rounds.

Also, maybe I simply am missing it, but it would be nice if they posted a list of retailers who participates in their organized play program on their website...

C'mon FFG! Help us spend more money on you!

<Nevermind.>

I was able to work with Fantasy Flight Games and get my issues resolved. Thank you very much FFG!