As someone totally unfamiliar with the tourney scene, allow me to ask a silly question. Let's assume that I am a game store owner who would love to sponsor a Store Championship. Let's also assume that I can comfortably seat 8 players at my store. Yet I want to give as many a people as possible a chance to participate (to a max of 32). Is there any reason why I couldn't run the tourney over several days? Could a multi-day tourney work at the SC level?

Thanks for humoring me.

I think the best way to cater for locals first, is to put tickets up for sale in store only for a week or two before making them available online

Or just to make the prereg handled in person, period. It's pretty easy for the FLGS to say, "Hey, are you coming to the event?" at their regular league night.

That makes it unlikely that someone 2 hours away will come though. No-one should have to have to risk travelling with no guarantee they can play.

Wouldn't that kind of be the point of only doing preregistration in person?

As someone totally unfamiliar with the tourney scene, allow me to ask a silly question. Let's assume that I am a game store owner who would love to sponsor a Store Championship. Let's also assume that I can comfortably seat 8 players at my store. Yet I want to give as many a people as possible a chance to participate (to a max of 32). Is there any reason why I couldn't run the tourney over several days? Could a multi-day tourney work at the SC level?

Thanks for humoring me.

Each round of a 32-man tournament is 16 individual games. There are 5 rounds, so that's 16 * 5 = 80 games of X-wing to be played.

If you only have space for 8 players, that means you can only run 4 games at once, so you'd have to cycle through each set of games in a round. 80 / 4 = 20 lots of games to fit in. If you can force 6 of those into a day, that means your tournament would run over 4 days. Minimum.

So theoretically, yes it can be done. But in real life, where people have jobs and families and pursuits other than X-wing, it's not ever going to work.

I think the best way to cater for locals first, is to put tickets up for sale in store only for a week or two before making them available online

Or just to make the prereg handled in person, period. It's pretty easy for the FLGS to say, "Hey, are you coming to the event?" at their regular league night.

That makes it unlikely that someone 2 hours away will come though. No-one should have to have to risk travelling with no guarantee they can play.

Wouldn't that kind of be the point of only doing preregistration in person?

Yes but if a store owner cant fill his available spots with locals, he will want people from outside the area to be able to play

I'm also a KC player and this year will be my first store championships. I'm going to the hometown games SC and hopefully the one in Warrensburg. I don't get to make it to regular game nights at local stores because I work evening shifts and getting time off to get to a store is tough. I had to switch shifts just to get the Saturdays off to go to these two store championships. I have to work while the closest shop to me is having their SC (Game Cafe).

I try to support every store I go to, local or not by purchasing something there. Hopefully I won't be shunned because I'm not a local player at these stores.

I'm just thankful here in Kansas City that we have so many stores that even with a crazy work schedule I can make one or two.

To the OP, hopefully you can get to one, as there are a ton of store championships around. Some people aren't that lucky.

Fly casual!

I'm also a KC player and this year will be my first store championships. I'm going to the hometown games SC and hopefully the one in Warrensburg. I don't get to make it to regular game nights at local stores because I work evening shifts and getting time off to get to a store is tough. I had to switch shifts just to get the Saturdays off to go to these two store championships. I have to work while the closest shop to me is having their SC (Game Cafe).

I try to support every store I go to, local or not by purchasing something there. Hopefully I won't be shunned because I'm not a local player at these stores.

I'm just thankful here in Kansas City that we have so many stores that even with a crazy work schedule I can make one or two.

To the OP, hopefully you can get to one, as there are a ton of store championships around. Some people aren't that lucky.

Fly casual!

Goblin Games in Manhattan, KS is hosting a Store Championship on Feb. 13. It's not a bad drive--at least, not from the west side of KC.

I'm also a KC player and this year will be my first store championships. I'm going to the hometown games SC and hopefully the one in Warrensburg. I don't get to make it to regular game nights at local stores because I work evening shifts and getting time off to get to a store is tough. I had to switch shifts just to get the Saturdays off to go to these two store championships. I have to work while the closest shop to me is having their SC (Game Cafe).

I try to support every store I go to, local or not by purchasing something there. Hopefully I won't be shunned because I'm not a local player at these stores.

I'm just thankful here in Kansas City that we have so many stores that even with a crazy work schedule I can make one or two.

To the OP, hopefully you can get to one, as there are a ton of store championships around. Some people aren't that lucky.

Fly casual!

Goblin Games in Manhattan, KS is hosting a Store Championship on Feb. 13. It's not a bad drive--at least, not from the west side of KC.

That's the same day as the Game Cafe one that I cannot get off work that day. Working nights and weekends kind of sucks.

There is a local store that announced their SC only to regulars a week before everyone else to ensure that they got to play. That's not a bad idea.

I have seen some people bitter after SC's and mumble that everyone in the top spots were people from out of town and no one had ever seen them before.

I'm still waiting for them to make some sort of announcement about organized events. They stated that there would be changes coming. I'm hoping for some sort of mission based events. Even if it's a completely different event from the regular ones. I'd be much more interested in those.

I'm not sure I see the big deal here.

The way my LGS is doing it is they have an event on Facebook, people can sign up there, or call the store. It's limited to 24 slots so the 6 or so of us regulars get the first 6 slots automatically. So effectively it's limited to 18 slots.

But those 18 slots are open to anyone and everyone. Just got to sign up. If you have a larger store with a larger group that the owner may not know by face... There's still ways to do it fairly. As was mentioned above put a signup sheet or something in the store a week or so in advance of taking sign ups online or some other way.

Honestly no one should ever drive 2 hours to be turned away. They should know if they can get in or not before they leave home. Assuming of course they actually bothered to check with the store before they left.

To hear some of you guys talk maybe FFG should make World's locals only.

I think it should be locals only. I think it's highly unfair for someone from another planet to come and snipe the prizes that are clearly meant for people local to this world...

I have seen some people bitter after SC's and mumble that everyone in the top spots were people from out of town and no one had ever seen them before.

I think that a lot of people see Store Championships as a purely local event that determines who that particular store's champ is. When you've got strangers showing up who have already played in 5-6 SCs (and maybe made top 4 in most of them) showing up at your tournament it definitely changes the feel of things.

I don't know about making an event private. That seems like it would be a violation of the spirit of a gaming store but then again what do I know. However, I can completely understand people being bothered by someone coming from another area to compete at a store for the store championship only. The idea of a store championship seems to me to imply that it's for those that are local to the store and/or attend the store at least semi-regularly. I mean we get 8ish in my regular store for our monthly tournament but we already have 20 preregistered for the store championship with a cap at 36. Meaning 4 people won't be getting even the promo card for the event. Most likely it will be the newer players to the store who started in the last month or two and could actually use a C-3P0.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the idea of having a store champion? Not to say I won't go to the other local stores to play because it's permitted now but it wouldn't bother me too much if some of the stores wanted the champion to actually, you know, be a someone who regularly supports the store.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the idea of having a store champion?

Depends on how much weight you give that name. Store Championships just as easily be called Regional Prelims, or even Tier 3 tournaments, with Regionals being Tier 2, and Worlds being Tier 1.

I don't think Store Championships are actually intended to be limited only to those people who normally play at that store to find out who the best player there is.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the idea of having a store champion?

Depends on how much weight you give that name. Store Championships just as easily be called Regional Prelims, or even Tier 3 tournaments, with Regionals being Tier 2, and Worlds being Tier 1.

I don't think Store Championships are actually intended to be limited only to those people who normally play at that store to find out who the best player there is.

I echo this, and would add that they are perhaps intended to draw players that may not otherwise go to a tournament. It's a relatively low-stress way to get their feet wet in the competitive scene.

For the SC in our FLGS, I have a situation where the store still isn't entirely convinced that this is a good idea, at least among all the staff. The manager agrees with me and ordered the kits for X-Wing and Armada, along with the winter tournament kits.

To make this work I, personally, am going to shell out my own money out of my pocket for extra 4'x8' plywood boards, along with fabric to cover them, to put over the top of the store's 30" wide tables. They have a few 4' x 6' tables that we're using in part of the store, but if we just used those we'd need to cap the event at 12 people. I would love to pack the store, and with buying the extra plywood, we can expand it to 32 player cap.

We have about 8-10 local players who are interested in coming and I could very comfortably keep the event at 12 people, and know all my locals will get a chance to play. But I like being inclusive to the community outside of our town, even if it'll cost me a few bucks personally to do it.

As someone totally unfamiliar with the tourney scene, allow me to ask a silly question. Let's assume that I am a game store owner who would love to sponsor a Store Championship. Let's also assume that I can comfortably seat 8 players at my store. Yet I want to give as many a people as possible a chance to participate (to a max of 32). Is there any reason why I couldn't run the tourney over several days? Could a multi-day tourney work at the SC level?

Thanks for humoring me.

Each round of a 32-man tournament is 16 individual games. There are 5 rounds, so that's 16 * 5 = 80 games of X-wing to be played.

If you only have space for 8 players, that means you can only run 4 games at once, so you'd have to cycle through each set of games in a round. 80 / 4 = 20 lots of games to fit in. If you can force 6 of those into a day, that means your tournament would run over 4 days. Minimum.

So theoretically, yes it can be done. But in real life, where people have jobs and families and pursuits other than X-wing, it's not ever going to work.

Thanks for doing the math. That makes sense now that I've stopped and thought more about it.

Like a few others have mentioned, I think that some of the problem may be with the name Store Championship. I come from a racing background so let me use that as an analogy.

Most local tracks have one or more "premier" events throughout the season. These usually have much better prize purses and may serve as a qualifier to a touring series championship towards the end of the season. These races always draw out-of-towners. While it makes the local guys gripe, the end result is better racing. There is no limit on how few or many of these type races you enter during the season.

OTOH, each track has a Track Champion. This is done by accumulating points at that track throughout the entire season. This rewards consistently showing up every week and placing well enough to earn points. Many race teams try to maximize both purses and chances by competing at two different "home" tracks. Some can't afford to do that and others chase the money and rarely race at the same track more than 2-3 times a season.

Obviously our tourney set up is much different. IFAIK, winning a Store Championship does not come with a qualifier or invite to Regionals, Worlds, or any other higher level play. It is merely a larger event with prizes for those who place. While it leads to better competition, that is about as far as it goes. There really is no mechanism to crown a Store Champion that rewards loyal and consistent play at 1 or a few stores. In that vein, I can understand some players and store owners wanting a private or invitational Store Championship but I don't like the vibe of that. Using SC as a qualifier for either Regionals or Worlds would help some but not eliminate the road warriors from invading local turf every game.

Thanks for listening to my rambling.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the idea of having a store champion?

Depends on how much weight you give that name. Store Championships just as easily be called Regional Prelims, or even Tier 3 tournaments, with Regionals being Tier 2, and Worlds being Tier 1.

I don't think Store Championships are actually intended to be limited only to those people who normally play at that store to find out who the best player there is.

Don't forget Nationals.

I like that so many stores get events. I'd rather have limited events than no event. And here's how I think they should be ran...

1) Figure out your player limit.

2) Have preregistration for your locals

3) Have preregistration open to everyone a day or two after that

4) Make sure people know the limit and how many are preregistered so they don't drive a long way for nothing

I think it's a travesty if a local is blocked out of a local event. They should be given a slight advantage in my opinion.

I'm all for more competition, but I'm not a big fan of some of the people who go to every store championship in their region and hog up all the prizes. Even having 3 store championships in my city I plan on only accepting one acrylic range ruler if I make top 8 in more than one. Give it to someone else and spread the love. More prizes for all makes for happier players and a better community. If you end this tournament season with a fist full of range rulers and challenge coins then you lose a little respect in my book. Just a personal belief.

I like that so many stores get events. I'd rather have limited events than no event. And here's how I think they should be ran...

1) Figure out your player limit.

2) Have preregistration for your locals

3) Have preregistration open to everyone a day or two after that

4) Make sure people know the limit and how many are preregistered so they don't drive a long way for nothing

I think it's a travesty if a local is blocked out of a local event. They should be given a slight advantage in my opinion.

I'm all for more competition, but I'm not a big fan of some of the people who go to every store championship in their region and hog up all the prizes. Even having 3 store championships in my city I plan on only accepting one acrylic range ruler if I make top 8 in more than one. Give it to someone else and spread the love. More prizes for all makes for happier players and a better community. If you end this tournament season with a fist full of range rulers and challenge coins then you lose a little respect in my book. Just a personal belief.

So as an update. The store that decided they'd only allow regulars also withheld the regionals bye from the winner (he made it in despite not being a true regular) until he can prove he's going to regionals. This seems incredibly shady

Please, for the love of Vader, have that person contact FFG about that store.

until he can prove he's going to regionals.

How do you prove you're going to regionals? You don't need to buy a ticket or anything... If he can't prove he's going what are they going to do, give it to 2nd place? Nowhere in the Store Champ rules does it say the regionals bye needs to actually be used...

I agree with Scottie, that person needs to contact FFG and tell them what's going on. Stores have been put on a blacklist before for Store Championship kits and it seems like this may be another one that needs to be on that list.

Thats basically the conclusion our community here came to. It's total nonsense

This is why FFG needs to require a bit more from the venues running events.

This is why FFG needs to require a bit more from the venues running events.

Such as? What's required is fairly well laid out already, and it's not like you can buy a Store Championship kit at Cool Stuff inc...

If a store wants to do something shady there's not much FFG can do about it until after the fact. I mean maybe if they lay out what's expected before they send the kit it may help. Perhaps some stores get them and truly don't understand how they should run. But I'm fairly sure that any place that's going to do something like the above is doing so intentionally and not just out of ignorance.

This is why FFG needs to require a bit more from the venues running events.

Such as? What's required is fairly well laid out already, and it's not like you can buy a Store Championship kit at Cool Stuff inc...If a store wants to do something shady there's not much FFG can do about it until after the fact. I mean maybe if they lay out what's expected before they send the kit it may help. Perhaps some stores get them and truly don't understand how they should run. But I'm fairly sure that any place that's going to do something like the above is doing so intentionally and not just out of ignorance.

Orginally when FFG announced that Regionals would be allocated by Region along with the creation Store Championships they stated that running a successful Store Championship would be key to being allocated a Regional. Except that has never been the case. They have alot of stats available that they could be using but they just aren't diligent about collecting them.

FFG is not proactive when it comes to thier OP. This store is being super shady, but FFG is the one handing out the events so they need to hold stores to standards. They are too hands off.