Coming from a long background of playing in tournaments, Warhammer, LCGS, and others. I find two day tournaments much more relaxing and enjoyable. Has X-wing grown enough that these tournaments need to be two days now?
Just wondering?
Eagletsi111
Is it time to have Regional's and other big tournaments over two days?
Come to Paris next week! The regional is over 2 days, 5 rounds of swiss on saturday and top 16 on sunday.
Depends on how big of a room you can get.
For the Regionals at the FFG event center, there was over 80 people there. I stuck around to see who got prizes, because I had done well enough that it was possible I could gotten something, but left before they started the finals. It's an hour drive, but I was still home by 7:30pm I think.
So unless regionals get a lot bigger, like say 160+ big, I don't think there's a need for it.
Edited by VanorDMProbably not yet, but if the game community doubles again next year then you should bring it up again.
The Tacoma, WA regional this weekend is over two days. Two flights Saturday and the finals Sunday. Unfortunately, the schedule isn't all that friendly for travelers. If you make the cut, you have to come back Sunday at 5pm for the final rounds.
It will kind of suck to come back Sunday and get knocked out after 1 round. That's the only problem with a two day format.
I had to travel nearly 4 hours to get to the closest Regional. I wouldn't want it spread over 2 days.
I will probably be able to attend a couple of store champs and 1-2 regionals every year. I would never be able to attend regionals that were 2-day events.
I'd prefer more regionals at more locations to larger regionals over two days. I think I'm not the outlier in this either.
I think Regionals would be hurt by being 2 days more than helped.
Say NO to two day events unless they are part of something bigger which would give a person a reason to plan for two days even if they don't make it far into day two.
If X-Wing is going to be the primary draw then stick to one day events. Maybe there should be more of them although that can have issues when people show up to multiple events or when officiating suffers because too many events are held the same day. If you really think there should be a multiple day event then I'd say you should just put in more preliminary events leading up to the main event, the equivalent of that second day, and have the main event be invitation only.
2 days makes sense, and will make more sense as game popularity grows. However, I do think a losers bracket tournament needs to take place or something like that, so players who get 2-3 losses right away, but still rented hotel rooms for the entire weekend have a reason to come back the next day.
An 8 round tourney, with 75 minute rounds and some breaks can be accomplished in 12-13 hours. That's doable, but is a really long day. Further, how many of these battle reports end with one player losing due to fatigue? Plenty. Ideally, running 5 rounds of Swiss with the top 8 the following day would be good for maintaining high quality, and you're only looking at having 8 (maybe 16, depending on size) having to come back the following day. Assuming they don't pull a **** move like apparently Tacoma is doing and have day 2 at 5 PM, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. I'd be ok with it, and that possibility would be part of my travel plans were I going further than a regular drive.
2 days makes sense, and will make more sense as game popularity grows. However, I do think a losers bracket tournament needs to take place or something like that, so players who get 2-3 losses right away, but still rented hotel rooms for the entire weekend have a reason to come back the next day.
A losers bracket is a really good idea for any event, especially for those who just barely make the cut.
Edited by Jo Jo
2 days makes sense, and will make more sense as game popularity grows. However, I do think a losers bracket tournament needs to take place or something like that, so players who get 2-3 losses right away, but still rented hotel rooms for the entire weekend have a reason to come back the next day.
A losers bracket is a really good idea for any event.
If there is elmination, sure. But with Swiss, you are still playing. Granted, there should be something for people in the lower brackets.
Many venues would not be willing to run a two day event.
I will probably be able to attend a couple of store champs and 1-2 regionals every year. I would never be able to attend regionals that were 2-day events.
I'd prefer more regionals at more locations to larger regionals over two days. I think I'm not the outlier in this either.
I'm in the exact same boat as both of you. I don't mind taking one really long day to play a bunch of X-wing against top competition. I have a family, though. Dropping a whole weekend isn't something I'm really able to do. Let alone vacation time/losing productivity at work because I got back late Sunday.
If only x wing had been around for 25-year old bachelor me. That guy would have loved 2-day tournaments.
UK Nationals was over two days this year. Top 16 did a cut on the second day. 6-round Swiss the first.
I've been an advocate over the need to expand FFG's rounds by at least 1 for awhile now. The way they have it setup, (5 swiss and cut to top 8 for 64 people, 6 swiss and cut to top 8 for 128 people) ends up having half the folks with 1 loss making the cut and the other half going home packing. THIS is why the MOV discussion is even relevant.
IMO, it should either be 5 rounds cut to top 16 or 6 rounds cut to top 8 (which is essentially the same thing where the 6th round of swiss = 1st round of elimination for those on the bubble, but they're playing "equal" skilled instead of top seeded). This way, everyone with 1 loss makes the cut, and a SELECT few with 2 losses make the cut.
The only reason to not play an additional round is the additional 90 minutes required to make it happen. That said, I'm not an advocate of making regionals 2 day events. If we take my recommended change of 6 rounds + cut to top 16 for a 128 player tourney, you're talking about 10 total games. The first 6 are 90 minutes each essentially, requiring 9 hrs. The next 3 are <75min, so 3hr:45min. Now we're at 13hrs total, and we have an untimed final match (that either goes for like 45min or 2hrs). If it's started at 10am, with a 30min break between round 3 and 4 for food, 112 players are done by 7:30pm. Then another 30min break for dinner. And 14 of the remaining 16 are done by midnight. Only the final two (and the TO) have to stay past midnight, which is totally reasonable imo.
This year seems to be going much smoother regarding down time between rounds, and registration beforehand. Smaller tourneys last year were taking more time than the larger ones this year, and were actually going later into the night than my proposed schedule.
As such, until you start eclipsing the 128 player mark, two day events are not needed. And at that point, a structural change could be explored (such as pods of 32 players or something). So, I'm of the opinion that regionals so never be two day events.
But Nats and Worlds, I'm all for that. I'm very disappointed at the limited number of slots for both Gencon and Worlds this year. It seems like they should be able to run two flights of 256 with a cut to top 32 from each, and then double elimination on a 3rd day for the top 64.
Many venues would not be willing to run a two day event.
Why? Not sure I understand why you would think this. Most venues that run 1 day regionals the owners have said how hard it is to run since they always end late. In fact two of the owners told me there were closing the store the next day, due to the regional. So it would easily be better to have it across two days. IMO.
Plus you could expand the time limit of games to 90 minutes, should help thin the Phat ship builds too and help with MOV also.
Thanks
Edited by eagletsi111I have never understood venues that close at very specific times, regardless of player turn out or tournament completion.
You know what you signed up for when you applied for the regional, or the store championship. Businesses that don't see that to the end are weak.
Maybe I'm spoiled, as Atlanta's gaming community is easily one of the most accomodating and understanding group.
My old haunt would stay open to the wee hours practically every day, but especially on weekends because the owner/prime-employee just loved gaming (and making money). When I moved and found out that other game stores ran their businesses like businesses with closing times and such, I was initially confused.
2 day events are a lot harder for people to make. For worlds and nationals it makes sense since you can only have 1 event by definition (So sometimes you need two days just to get enough games in for the whole crowd), but regionals would be much better served by increasing the number of events
2-day events are hard. Sure, it's easier on the players, but think about all the support required. If it's at a store, then the store is pretty much closed double the amount of time. 1 day isn't a big deal, but then you have to consider: well, if you can do it for X-Wing, why not do it for the Magic tournament? Or Armada? If not tightly managed, you start to play favorites to certain games/communities and that can be alienating.
If it's at some venue like a convention center, you just doubled (and maybe some extra) the operating costs. That, at take a look at the responses here. Several people are mentioning how 2 days isn't do-able for them. Plus, a 1 night stay at a hotel turned into 2, plus food and incidentals, plus extra taxi/parking fees, plus increased ticket prices. You could, potentially, see a large drop in participation.
I believe that you'll really only see the dedicated people stick around...which, in that case, is probably only 1 day's worth of people (in tournament/event time). I hate to be exclusive, but maybe the top level events need to be invitational?