Where and when are the Canadian nationals?
Canadian nationals
Info being put out is by Lions Rampant Imports and they plan to run it at Fan Expo in Toronto September 3-6. Look for Eastern Event (they broke the National FFG events that they got into a West and East event with X-wing in the East event). Many players are upset that the entrance fee for the Expo will have to be paid to attend the tournament.
Saturday cost will be $65 plus tourney entrance fee. The con goes from 10 am to 7 PM so I have no idea how they are going to run this event in time unless their turnout is extremely low. They plan on capping it at 60 players, and if they get that amount, that works out to 6 rounds of Swiss for a 11.75 hours of time in a 9 hour gaming window with 60 min rounds (cause they don't have enough time to do 75 mins). This means the meta will be, if they are resourceful players, nothing but large ship squads. Oh, and the finals would not be untimed (because they won't have the time unless they break it out into another day), a violation of Organized Play rules.
This leads me to believe that they will have to make it a 2 day affair, with the Sunday being the other day. So $65 for Saturday + $45 for Sunday + Entrance fee. They may try for a Friday ($40) + Saturday ($65) setup but that is even worse because people would have to take time off from work to do it then which would hurt local players more.
The costs involved and the compressed round time will make it unfun before it even begins. I know of many Ottawa/Gatineau area players who are not going to be attending, including the current Canadian Champion.
Links:
I don't get how FFG can not hold these venues to a higher standard. The capping of tournaments is getting rediculous. Venues submit applications. How hard is it to design your questions to ensure your venues can properly run your events. Put some of your employees at these events to ensure consistency. I'm sure they have the resources to hire some people to organize and coordinate events.
Oh well at least I will get to play for a summer kit.
Lions Rampart to the... Hmm... Better not say more. They've been messing with games I play for over a decade and it's sad to see that they've got control of the Nationals. I will not be attending.
Will be tough with Saturdays getting busier and busier every year. I was fortunate enough to have a premium pass last year, but anyone entering with a regular ticket/admission may not make it into the building in any hurry (unless you plan to get to the doors very early Saturday morning).
Will be tough with Saturdays getting busier and busier every year. I was fortunate enough to have a premium pass last year, but anyone entering with a regular ticket/admission may not make it into the building in any hurry (unless you plan to get to the doors very early Saturday morning).
Interesting insight. I haven't been in a number of years and I never purchased tickets ahead of time. Do you feel that even with tickets purchased and mailed would you expect a player to be able to have much issue getting in on time?
This seems like a disaster in the making and would be a total shame, the flight crew who ran Nationals last year did an admirable and competent job.
It does seems as if FFG should be sending an envoy to Toronto. Did I not see an Alex Davy sighting at the U.K. nationals? Check the bloak who posted up a fine batrep on his impressive 2nd place finish, could have sworn I saw Alex as a Judge.
If so, then our neighbors in the Great White North should receive the same IMHO, it is the National after all....
Edited by Darph NaderWill be tough with Saturdays getting busier and busier every year. I was fortunate enough to have a premium pass last year, but anyone entering with a regular ticket/admission may not make it into the building in any hurry (unless you plan to get to the doors very early Saturday morning).
Interesting insight. I haven't been in a number of years and I never purchased tickets ahead of time. Do you feel that even with tickets purchased and mailed would you expect a player to be able to have much issue getting in on time?
The biggest problem with FanExpo is getting in the door. The line goes around the block, and that's people with tickets already.
Second biggest problem is lack of value for that wait and price of ticket...
Will be tough with Saturdays getting busier and busier every year. I was fortunate enough to have a premium pass last year, but anyone entering with a regular ticket/admission may not make it into the building in any hurry (unless you plan to get to the doors very early Saturday morning).
Interesting insight. I haven't been in a number of years and I never purchased tickets ahead of time. Do you feel that even with tickets purchased and mailed would you expect a player to be able to have much issue getting in on time?
As LagJanson said, biggest problem I've found is the lineup. Last year the line to enter on Saturday, even with preordered and mailed wristbands was huge. Premium and VIP ticket holders get a different entrance, that seems to be about the only way to get inside in a timely fashion on the weekend.
And these days, if you aren't VIP, you aren't likely to get into a lot of the most popular panels/screenings, etc unless you spend most of the day lining up for it. I recall last year the line for the world premier of Star Wars Rebels started at the top of an escalator and extended outside the building and down Front St.
I was in Toronto last year the weekend of Fan Expo for a Blue Jays game and those lines were crazy. I'm not sure if this is any more or less crazy than being at Gencon and getting to the preliminary rounds by 9 AM in the US though.
I can't imagine how players will enter the expo in time for the tournament.
Wife wants to go to Spain that week anyhow so I guess this year's PA regional will have to be the equivalent of last year's Canadian Nationals for me.
Lion Rampant is sadly in charge of all OP for Canada, including Game night kits, Store championships, Regionals and Nationals. They have bungled pretty much all of them. Especially Nationals.
Vancouver is entirely too distant for most of Canada to make the attendance for SW LCG, netrunner, IA, and AGoT.
Toronto while a much cheaper destination due to the insane amount of flights in and out will be at an event that will probably be insane from what I have read here. Never been to Fan Expo myself.
I'd rather FFG take over or give it to a different company. This is not working at all. Two years in a row, two years of screw ups.
Lion Rampant is sadly in charge of all OP for Canada, including Game night kits, Store championships, Regionals and Nationals. They have bungled pretty much all of them. Especially Nationals.
Vancouver is entirely too distant for most of Canada to make the attendance for SW LCG, netrunner, IA, and AGoT.
Toronto while a much cheaper destination due to the insane amount of flights in and out will be at an event that will probably be insane from what I have read here. Never been to Fan Expo myself.
I'd rather FFG take over or give it to a different company. This is not working at all. Two years in a row, two years of screw ups.
As a person who attended the X wing Nationals last year, I'd hardly call that a screw up. While I did not participate in the Store Wars, I thought it was a great way to lead up to the nationals. And the event itself (while kind of weird being at a Veteran's lodge type place) was run rather smoothly. Furthermore, the costs were reasonable, and there was enough space to not feel cramped.
Lion Rampant is sadly in charge of all OP for Canada, including Game night kits, Store championships, Regionals and Nationals. They have bungled pretty much all of them. Especially Nationals.
Vancouver is entirely too distant for most of Canada to make the attendance for SW LCG, netrunner, IA, and AGoT.
Toronto while a much cheaper destination due to the insane amount of flights in and out will be at an event that will probably be insane from what I have read here. Never been to Fan Expo myself.
I'd rather FFG take over or give it to a different company. This is not working at all. Two years in a row, two years of screw ups.
As a person who attended the X wing Nationals last year, I'd hardly call that a screw up. While I did not participate in the Store Wars, I thought it was a great way to lead up to the nationals. And the event itself (while kind of weird being at a Veteran's lodge type place) was run rather smoothly. Furthermore, the costs were reasonable, and there was enough space to not feel cramped.
You will note i said pretty much all of them. Not all of them. And I did not refer to any specific events in 2014. I have no idea what Store Wars is.
However, this year the locations they chose are not good for a large amount of people. We are the second largest country in the world. There has to be a better way of doing things. And if this East/West rotation is gonna be a thing then do it every year including this year.
To be fair, FanExpo is a massive convention that actually has more people attend than GenCon. My experiences however have been that the gaming groups have been shoved into corners and have had low attendance. Toronto is rather central when thinking population terms, not geographical.
My reasons for not attending are not one simple dislike for Lions Rampant but that is one.
FanExpo is expensive and tends to be disorganized. I've had to fight to get in to setup events when they deemed our event running passes insufficient to get in early.
Need to find a babysitter to attend
The schedule seems optimistic to get the number of intended rounds in... Worryingly so.
I'm going to GenCon anyway
Edited by LagJansonVuud announced at a store tournament last night that on Saturday, September 5th, he will host a tournament with Wave 7 as prizes. He IS going to Gen Con this year and will be picking up pre-releases of wave 7 while there (maybe a Raider too). He also has bits and pieces of other store kits that have accumulated to give out as prizes. He said he will hold it in a larger than normal venue and hinted that it is to be a counter-tournament to those not attending the Canadian nationals. It will be held in Ottawa, not sure on location as of yet. I'll post more info as I get it.
Facebook announcement by Vuud.
https://www.facebook.com/events/901687479868140/
He also just put up a link here:
Edited by Sergovan
I attended Nationals last year, and while it had it's own issues, especially time available, it was well run. I was planning to attend this year but as soon as it was announced it was tied up with FanExpo, that was a no go for me. Meanwhile, I got offered the opportunity to organize a tournament at CGO, Canadian Gaming Open, which is a miniature event here in ottawa mainly focused on Warmahordes. I would have preferred a date that was not the same as Nationals, but since nobody want to suffer FanExpo, I won't see any loss in attendance. At CGO, no entry fee, just tournament fee, which are a very low 15$.
Heh, I might be heading that way. No promises though.
Upcoming this Saturday but likely to be a bit of a flop. I mean, if you can't get your national champ to even try to defend his title something is wrong. Most casual players will skip the event because of the venue issues and a lot of the great regular tournament players will do the same. I'll be surprised if they reach 50 people.
Apparently, there were just 24 players that showed up for the Canadian Nationals. I believe there was another tournament running the same day in Ottawa (about 3-4 hours drive away from Toronto) which had something like 26 players.
I wasn't at either event, and I live 90 minutes outside of Toronto, and had no desire to go to FanExpo to try to play. Just too many people and too expensive to get in.