Massachusetts is probably going to do a 2-day event. We're going to rent a space to run the event as we did last year, and generally venues don't like you renting their space until 3 a.m. We can do the elimination rounds at the store next day. It's still to be determined, and I can't speak for the store, but they did a fantastic job at running the event last year.

If we were to do it one day, and one of the NYC guys makes it to the final table like they did last year, then they're not getting home until around 7 a.m. the next day. And if they want to avoid a hotel entirely, they would have to leave NYC around 5-6 a.m. on tournament day. That's a 25-26 hour day not including the time to actually get up and get ready in the morning, I'm not sure that's safe to be driving anyway.

Store Championships are already not limited events. At this point it is simply a matter of applying on time. It's fairly rare for a venue to be denied a kit. It is not as if FFG gives then out for free so FFG has little to no interest in limiting that level of event.

Also if you want people to read your post I'd suggest inserting paragraphs. You've just wall of texted us.

Applying in time. A local store opened up their Reg at 930 PM. Another event was in progress at a different store. 1 person got an alert text. Within 15 minutes that store had 90 percent of their capacity filled by everyone at the running event calling in and pre-reging their spots. By the time those who were sleeping woke up and saw the event, it was filled.

Not quite as bad a ComicCon tickets...but its getting their.

And yes, FFG does limit stores. A regional store with a pretty decent sized home base and close enough to attract players from 2 major west coast cities applied for and was denied a Store Champs kit. This left the players in this town having to drive an hour+ (freeway travel) to attend any events they could sign up for. And this store is pretty large. They could easily support 50 to 60 players. Some stores that got kits in the same geographic area had to limit participation to a dozen or so due to their very small size.

It's important to note, that I'm not trying to call anyone out or sway opinion etc. here, just wanted to get more of a poll of opinions of sorts. I would prefer the one day, but understand the other side of things. I think it would be nice if the events could just start really early like 9, possibly even 8 in order to get it all in, but if that isn't that popular of an opinion either, then so be it.

I would prefer the one day, but understand the other side of things.

Here's how I think it's likely to break down...

People who are an hour or less from the venue are likely ok with a 2 day event. Anyone much farther away is likely to prefer a one day event.

If I have to drive 3+ hours I don't want to turn a 6 hour round trip into a 12 hour one. I also most likely don't want to fork out for a hotel... But if it's a 20 minute drive then even if I make the cut it's not like it's that much of a burden for me to show up the next day. So I'd rather see the day end at say 8 or 9pm then 2am

It's important to note, that I'm not trying to call anyone out or sway opinion etc. here, just wanted to get more of a poll of opinions of sorts. I would prefer the one day, but understand the other side of things. I think it would be nice if the events could just start really early like 9, possibly even 8 in order to get it all in, but if that isn't that popular of an opinion either, then so be it.

Starting at 8am sounds horrible.

People who can't spend a whole playing X-Wing don't actually like the game that much. Just deal with it.

I've seen this argument pop up in the other thread too. It blows my mind. You can just as easily say:

"People who can't plan for two days of X-Wing don't actually like the game that much. Just deal with it."

When you are as heavily invested into something, like most of us are with X-Wing, willing to travel hours for an event, spend upwards of 16 hours playing in one sitting, spend your free time discussing the merits of different tournaments formats on the internet.... Your hobby has become a lifestyle!

Spend a little extra money for a hotel room, or shoot, make some friends and crash with them, spend the money on beer. Insist on the venues and organizers that you are made aware of tournaments dates asap, and schedule a holiday around something you enjoy, and have fun.

There are no regionals so far that have said anything about 2 days.

You are wrong the Florida regional is going to be 2 days

So is Chicago.

So is Pittsburgh (Monroeville)

So is SoCal.

I would prefer the one day, but understand the other side of things.

Here's how I think it's likely to break down...

People who are an hour or less from the venue are likely ok with a 2 day event. Anyone much farther away is likely to prefer a one day event.

If I have to drive 3+ hours I don't want to turn a 6 hour round trip into a 12 hour one. I also most likely don't want to fork out for a hotel... But if it's a 20 minute drive then even if I make the cut it's not like it's that much of a burden for me to show up the next day. So I'd rather see the day end at say 8 or 9pm then 2am

If you have more than 77 players show up it's going to be a minimum of a 10 round day event if you start at 8 am the event still isn't going to finish until at least midnight and that's if the event is run extremely efficiently. Also players would have to show up close to 7 am for registration and such.

They just need to have more regional locations.

And it would be ideal if all the regional tournaments were held on the same weekend, but I know that is impossible.

They just need to have more regional locations.

And it would be ideal if all the regional tournaments were held on the same weekend, but I know that is impossible.

I agree, more of them would be the best thing. They don't all need to be on the same day, but by doing a little analysis of past attendance they could strategically overlap some to meet demand better.

Having them all on the same day sounds horrible. You eliminate the chance of anyone getting to play in more than one. Which would hurt the businesses running the tourneys. Plus TOs would have no chance to play.

Two day events are pretty standard for many wargames.

But gambling the costs of accommodation and time away from work and family, on whether or not you'd make the top 8 or 16 players is not really cool.

At Ease Games, San Diego is a 2 day Regional. There's a 100 person cap, and all spots were filled within 5 hours of pre-registration. Doesn't appear people have an issue with a 2 day tournament.

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the number of regional tournaments. Does anyone know the number of regionals this year compared to last year?

I was one of the 90 participants at last year's Chicago regional. This year they are doing the two day tourney, with day 2 having the top 16, as well as a revenge tourney for those who didn't make the cut.

I probably won't do it because of the added expense of the overnight accommodations. I could see this dividing the classes of players even more. It used to be those who could afford to attend the elite events and the rest of us who attended the midlevel and local events. Now it will be those who afford the elite and mid level events, followed by those of us who can only attend local events. It will only serve to drive your average players away from the tournament scene.

My personal opinion is that it should be a one day tourney unless it's being hosted by a multiday convention. I wonder if they are going to expand the GENCON tourney across more than one day as well.

Of the 8 U.S. regions, 6 of the 8 I believe have an additional regional this year. So a noticeable, but not huge boost. Don't think it's related.

Glen Burnie regional is 108 people sold out in less then 48 hours. 2 days with a catered lunch. It'll be a much more enjoyable play experience. And I think they're trying to work out a deal with local hotels too.

But I'd rather have enjoyable play experience then a marathon day. I've done both and I'd rather play this game for fun

Sounds nice indeed, but Nova area stuff is a whole different world compared to us common folk.

As I saw posted somewhere else, maybe they should increase the number of regional tournaments and put a cap on attendance.

Then you would just have people move these complaints to Nationals and Worlds.

Not at all. I'm not saying a 2 day regional is the end of the world, but if you're making a trip to gen con or world's, you've already made a week of it (or something similar). Completely different animal.

It seems to me that people advocating that various championship events should be by invitation or qualified by winning previous tournaments do not really understand the purpose of tournaments from the perspective of FFG.

The purpose of all these tournaments and support by FFG is to promote the game, support stores selling X-Wing and to build player communities. I really do not think that FFG is trying to sift through the community and discover who the best players are. While I can understand that a section of the community would like the structure of various tournaments to reflect some hierarchical reflection of player skill and success, that really does not make any sense from the perspective of FFG.

Not a fan of a true qualifier system at all. Many things I could say against it, but one of them is that, believe it or not, this game ISN'T big enough for that sort of thing. This game is growing like wildfire for sure, but it still doesn't compare to the MILLIONS of people around the world playing a game like magic that this system works for. Also not really the same demographic. The byes earned for events is about as far as this should go.

Last year, our national was over two days. The Top Cut and finals played on the second day. For the other participants, (some 60ish people from memory), the store ran 'side pod' events, where the remaining players were broken down into their corresponding cut of 4 and played swiss rounds. I.E. If the Top Cut was players 1-8, players 9-12 played three rounds between themselves, 13-16 played three rounds, etc. Prize support was included and it meant those who had put the weekend aside didn't lose a day of play.

Looks like two day Regionals will become standard. I believe that will be good for the game. Just watched a Store championship on Twitch.tv that had 3 people drop from the top 8 because it was too much for one day.

If Regionals are going to start drawing 124+ there are going to start to be more two day Regionals. And while that may turn some players off, to others it's a boon, irregardless it isn't like events won't be filled to capacity whether it is run over one or two days.

FFG should look into allow stores to seperate Swiss into flights for these essentially con-sized Regionals. I mean some of these X-wing events are going to draw better at Regionals then say Warmachine will at Gencon, or even better then every non-Netrunner LCG event at Gencon.

Another, probably better, alternative would be to allow players to attend one regional. Their choice which one, but if they go to one - that's it, that's their 'X-Wing Regionals' experience.

I mean, yeah, Tacoma had 120+ people last year...but 1/4 of them had also been at the Portland-area regional. And who knows how many others.

Capping the number of regionals a player can attend to just one would allow a lot more slots in the regional locations that are already identified. (Which is to say - my gut feeling is that the current number of regional events is good...it's just a problem that A LOT of players hit up multiple events, which artificially inflates the player counts at those events)

This. Oh so much of this.

It wouldn't be about finding a "true winner" because as people have pointed out that's not really the point (well, maybe worlds), but stopping people playing 2-3 regionals (or more) would make it easier for more people to participate.

I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the number of regional tournaments. Does anyone know the number of regionals this year compared to last year?

I was one of the 90 participants at last year's Chicago regional. This year they are doing the two day tourney, with day 2 having the top 16, as well as a revenge tourney for those who didn't make the cut.

I probably won't do it because of the added expense of the overnight accommodations. My personal opinion is that it should be a one day tourney unless it's being hosted by a multiday convention. I wonder if they are going to expand the GENCON tourney across more than one day as well.

Gencon is already across two days. FFG does not run the Top Cuts same day as thier qualifying rounds at conventions.

Gencon had like 256 players, way more than your typical regional.

I'm not buying the two day excuse. I've seen 7 rounds with a top cut to 8 before and that was about 14 hours. I just don't see the reason to break it up over 2 days, especially since you have to have 150 players to have 7 rounds now. No, keep it to one day and don't wait to start until 1pm.

All big events should be two days, IMO. Playing too many games in one day takes the fun out of it.

All big events should be two days, IMO. Playing too many games in one day takes the fun out of it.

Yeah, it's a good thing marathons are run over 2 days, it really takes the fun out of running if you had to do it all at once.

Adding more regionals with better distribution would solve the driving problems and the attendance problems in one fell swoop.
I can't tell you how annoying the Long Island one is. I don't know about the store or venue, I just mean putting a big northeast regional on the east end of an island which requires you to drive though one of the worst traffic Choke points in the nation and no good way to get there through public transit is absurd. I know that the Boston DC corridor ia brutal too, does that effect you regional attendance?

There are no regionals so far that have said anything about 2 days.

San Diego is two days.

All big events should be two days, IMO. Playing too many games in one day takes the fun out of it.

Yeah, it's a good thing marathons are run over 2 days, it really takes the fun out of running if you had to do it all at once.

Apples and supernovas.