The System Open has provided an interesting new structure for 2 days events. It seems to me that it might be a good option for adopting at other major events, like, Gencon or even Worlds.

The format is that you play 6 games during qualifying (possibly one or two days depending on numbers). Anyone that (pretty much) gets 4-2 or better advances to the final day. Players that advance play 3 more games for a total of 9 (I am assuming here that scores carry over which makes some sense but is still unclear). Then after 9 games you play the top 8 cut.

Advantages,

The second day is reasonably inclusive, I.e. You don't have to win all your games to advance. 2 losses and modified is 18 points and enough to squeak in.

MoV doesn't matter for making the final day (it probably will for the top 8 though).

Only 6 rounds per day! No ridiculous 7 or 8 games days.

No one and done on the final day, you still get 3 games no matter what.

With 9 rounds of Swiss the players that make the cut will have fought a ton of rounds versus the very toughest competition making it only the best of the best making the top 8.

It scales fairly well with increasing numbers since the number of rounds doesn't change only the number of players who advance. For example, 200 total players (Gencon) would see approx. 68 advance, 300 (approximate count for worlds this year) would see 103 advance, and the presumptive maximum of 512 would see 176 make it in. With that many people a 4-2 record going in and a loss would mathematically eliminate you from contention for 300 and 512, but not for 200 players.

In theory for larger tournaments moving to a top 6 (say for worlds) only adds one game to the event in terms of time, so 6 games day 1 and max of 7 games for the finalists on finals day.

Disadvantages,

I don't really have any thing much here at this point.

It reminds me a lot of the grinders in large L5R tournaments where you play your way in the finals and have a full tournament on the final day though in this case scores would carry over across the days. If you go 4-2 it will still be an uphill battle to make the cut, but not impossible.

I travelled 8000 miles to play at Gencon last year and really did not like the format. I'm sure some at worlds felt the same way, too many rounds and too little cuts made it feel super elitist. I would have been much more excited about playing the System Open format as for me the pride of making the cut/final day is more important than winning the whole thing.

I'm not sure it will work for Regionals since is predicated by having 2 days to operate, but do you think this is a better format for large events than what we have been using?

Thoughts?

I love the system format for gencon. 8 games is too much, plus for me X wing is the main reason I go, so having hopefully two days of it would double the flavor.... And double the fun!

I think it structures well around a larger event like a convention that lasts for multiple days. Making your trip out for a badge not just about x-wing. People will have their own opinions but I vote yes for multi-day events.

The issue for FFG is getting gaming space in the gaming hall. They have a lot of games that have tournaments. So compacting the schedule gets all games in. I know GenCon is still growing year after year and there is only so many square feet that can be used. Tough for FFG and GenCon alike to get everyone a chance at tournaments.

Id like to see some indepent larger events similer to a ycs (yugioh)

I think it structures well around a larger event like a convention that lasts for multiple days. Making your trip out for a badge not just about x-wing. People will have their own opinions but I vote yes for multi-day events.

Yeah I agree, for something like Gencon there is so much going on that you don't want to be stuck playing X-wing for half of the con. But in some ways at Gencon I was disappointed the X-wing wasn't longer, I actually just watched the final matches on the Friday anyway. That may have been more since X-wing was the reason I was there and I travelled a long day to do so. It would be nice to be able to commit knowing that making the final day is only 3 rounds so plenty of time to do other stuff, and if you make the the actual top cut at Gencon well you don't have much to complain about.

It seems like a nice hybrid of being inclusive and still highly competitive without being a massive time sink for everyone involved.

If regionals ever (formally) shift to two day events I would not be opposed to using this format, but I'm not sure that will ever be officially mandated and it potentially causes havoc with those travelling long distances/flying out.

Id like to see some indepent larger events similer to a ycs (yugioh)

Large events can happen for card games because you can easily fit 4-6 people in the space it takes for one x-wing game for 2 people.

So now we have 4 major X-Wing events in the US. And they are all geographically co-located within a few hundred miles of each other.

You know, their are 2 major coastal areas with a significant population of players saying WTF?