Travel costs are a legitimate concern but consider that if the location of the WC's moves to Europe, or Asia, or wherever a fair percentage of competitors will always get dinged. If the concern is fairness then we might as well move the **** thing to Antarctica and everyone can pay a few months' salary to go.

WC's is in Minnesota because FFG is in Minnesota. An added benefit is that Minneapolis is well connected to domestic and international air travel routes and the cost of room and board is relatively low.

If FFG were to look to move the WC's anywhere - I would have to say Vegas might be a good spot. Cheap rooms, cheap flights, lots of space, warm weather.

All that being said, it would be good to see Worlds held in Europe one year...

Obviously, it would be ideal if they could move it around, but can you imagine the cost to FFG for this? They'd have to rent a space for a week (and they may end up doing that in the states anyway, but at least they may still have space available). Then there's the cost of flying and boarding their employees over there along with all their equipment and mats. World's would end up costing like 5x as much for players just to participate.

Yep, Spain and Poland made top 8.

As I have seen in these arguments over the years, it can only a World Championship if it isn't in the US.

You know, like the World Series is the culmination of the MLB season with their 29 U.S. teams and 1 Canadian one. And also the NBA.

World champs woo!!

A pretty large percentage of players in both those leagues are non-US natives. Especially in baseball.

X-wing worlds on The Moon by 2035! C'mon FFG, make it happen!

Just make the next round of Epic ships actual functioning space-ships. You know we'll buy 'em anyway.

All that being said, it would be good to see Worlds held in Europe one year...

Obviously, it would be ideal if they could move it around, but can you imagine the cost to FFG for this? They'd have to rent a space for a week (and they may end up doing that in the states anyway, but at least they may still have space available). Then there's the cost of flying and boarding their employees over there along with all their equipment and mats. World's would end up costing like 5x as much for players just to participate.

You could tack it on at Essen, enough room there and don't forget that they merged with Asmodee. You'd see a lot more Dutch, German and British players then of course, with hardly any Americans.

Not that that'll happen and it's not really a bad thing. Though it'd be nice if the distributors uniformly would send the national champions, instead of some countries will, some won't, even if it is the same distributor.

Maybe a European Championship at Spiel?

It is going to be cheaper for Americans to go to Minneapolis than for Europeans. No biggie.

Don't the national winners from other countries win a trip to Worlds as a part of their prize?

I would not be surprised to see a "European Championship" soon if the game continues to grow. Probably a good idea and could guarantee a full ride to MN for winner.

Travel costs are a legitimate concern but consider that if the location of the WC's moves to Europe, or Asia, or wherever a fair percentage of competitors will always get dinged.

Not convinced by that argument. West of the Atlantic and East of the Pacific there the US and Canada Nationals winners (and the representatives from Central & South America that can make it).

East of the Atlantic, you have the Nationals winners from the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Italy, so forth, so on. FFG currently pay for winners of certain national events to attend Worlds in the United States, but not all, so many of these national winners do not get the opportunity to attend Worlds.

I'm willing to wager you'd get a much higher percentage of actual Nationals winners and qualifying attendees if you held the event outside the US than we currently do by holding the event in the US.

Plus of course, the marketing opportunities for FFG in holding an event like this outside of the US would probably help cover the costs of moving the tournament,and give them a huge opportunity to grow their player base and brands.

They won't even move it to a location that can accommodate the number of people who want to attend. Let alone to make it more "worldly".

Don't the national winners from other countries win a trip to Worlds as a part of their prize?

No, not all of them, that's up to the local distributor.

I would not be surprised to see a "European Championship" soon if the game continues to grow. Probably a good idea and could guarantee a full ride to MN for winner.

You could easily hold a European Championship now, hold it at the biggest boardgame trade fair at Spiel. I'd be there for sure.

Travel costs are a legitimate concern but consider that if the location of the WC's moves to Europe, or Asia, or wherever a fair percentage of competitors will always get dinged.

Not convinced by that argument. West of the Atlantic and East of the Pacific there the US and Canada Nationals winners (and the representatives from Central & South America that can make it).

East of the Atlantic, you have the Nationals winners from the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Italy, so forth, so on. FFG currently pay for winners of certain national events to attend Worlds in the United States, but not all, so many of these national winners do not get the opportunity to attend Worlds.

I'm willing to wager you'd get a much higher percentage of actual Nationals winners and qualifying attendees if you held the event outside the US than we currently do by holding the event in the US.

Yes, there are more Nationals winners in Europe but only because there are more countries in Europe.

In the end, the US most likely represents a significantly larger chunk of X-Wing revenue than Europe does and hosting the event in the country with the largest percentage of its players just makes the most business sense.

Or we just lobby for X-Wing to be accepted as part of the Olympic Games, and let the Olympic comitee run with the expenses...

They won't even move it to a location that can accommodate the number of people who want to attend. Let alone to make it more "worldly".

Running an event of this size costs a lot. I would be surprised if FFG didn't go a fair bit over budget every year and can only legitimize it by calling it a marketing spend. Moving it somewhere else would dramatically increase the cost and with the number of employees it currently has there is no way they could manage it effectively. FFG will need to be making a lot more money and paying a lot more staff before we see Worlds hosted anywhere else.

I think what he means is that the "world championship" is more like an US championship with some players from other countries. And it is like that.

Exact :-)

True but cost of travel, visa, etc. Its not that simple to go to USA

They won't even move it to a location that can accommodate the number of people who want to attend. Let alone to make it more "worldly".

Running an event of this size costs a lot. I would be surprised if FFG didn't go a fair bit over budget every year and can only legitimize it by calling it a marketing spend. Moving it somewhere else would dramatically increase the cost and with the number of employees it currently has there is no way they could manage it effectively. FFG will need to be making a lot more money and paying a lot more staff before we see Worlds hosted anywhere else.

I'm not getting sucked into that. Economic reasons for it or not, the point remains the same. If they won't move it to accommodate more people, they aren't going to move it overseas to be (potentially more) convenient to international players.

They won't even move it to a location that can accommodate the number of people who want to attend. Let alone to make it more "worldly".

Right, considering one of the reasons for this was the added strain on their relatively limited staffing, I don't see them moving it across the world.

Even if FFG were to pay 100% expenses for all national champions, the event will still be majority US participants due to the location.

That's just how it is. FFG is a US company and so the world championships will likely always be held in the USA.

Yes, it would be nice if it traveled around the world a bit, but I wouldn't ever expect that of them. Just like I wouldn't expect for Games Workshop to ever hold a world championship outside of the UK, for example.

Also correct me if I am wrong but didn't Francisco Berna Menendez make top 8, and isn't he from Spain or something like that?

Then there was this dude in the top 8 Przemyslaw Talach not sure his nationality.

So 2 out of 8 that is like 1 out of 4 which is 25% of the top 8.

Just sayin.

Travis Foss was Top 8 as well - He is Australian so that's makes 3/8 Internationals!

Even if FFG were to pay 100% expenses for all national champions, the event will still be majority US participants due to the location.

Even the Olympics has more host country participation and attendance than all other countries every time. The host gets to enter every single event if they want to (last I checked).

European championships *is* something that needs to happen, though

Think it would be cool to host the tournament at the winners country of origin. That's just me. On the other haND, does FFG have the game pieces in other languages? Want to pick me up some Deutsch fel.

Players from 4 countries during the Belgian National Championship

http://www.tabletoptournaments.net/be/t3_tournament_results.php?tid=14542