FFG has a Organized Play division which focuses entirely on competitive scene. But as Alex said on the S&V podcast they are in charge of more than just X-wing. They have to also focus on Netrunner, Armada, Conquest, Imperial Assault and all the tournament kits that go into those games.

I think many player make the mistake of assuming that there is a dedicated X-wing organized play branch and that is false. Now should FFG make an dedicated X-wing organized play sub-division? Might not be necessary at the time, even if X-wing has become the biggest tabletop miniature game.

That division should actually know the games they're writing rules for. I'm willing to cut them a bit of slack after hearing Alex Davy's defence of them and how spread thin they are (my favourite example of card sleeving in X-Wing was no doubt a mistake), but now they're defending this and again broadly as if every game they have is the same.

I'll wait for this article of theirs, but if it's not utterly convincing it'll produce a much bigger storm than there is already.

Why does everyone think this is official? Why would a stream get an official communication and no-one else? Doesn't make sense to me. Did I miss something?

I'd be surprised to see a change to the tournament rules until the end of this Regionals season at the earliest, as it would set a potentially problematic precedent to change the rules mid-way through. However, after that (or after Nationals, or Worlds), I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the removal of draws from X-Wing. They're a pretty uncommon occurrence (entirely anecdotally, I've only seen one in the 18 months I've been playing), so going for something like the player with initiative gets a modified win in the case of a tie for points destroyed would make sense.

Maybe its my 6 years of competitive MTG speaking but I don't see any evil in intentional draws, and consider FFG rulling to be correct. If two people, after long tournament found themselves in position, that playing eath other would only worsen their standings (ok, one of them), why should they be forced to do it. I see it as reward for playing well all day and getting themselves in position for some brief respite before cut.

Winning is more important than competing, these are regionals for the top miniatures game.

That is indeed apparently how FFG want some people to feel about their little plastic star wars toys.

Well I think this is enough for me. All my xwing stuff is now listed on eBay

The auction runs for six days but after day 5 I'm going to let the current highest bidders intentionally draw with your bids so they will end up winning but feel free to waste your time bidding on the sixth day anyway.

(By the way, for those lacking in humour this is a joke poking some fun at a very disturbing issue. It's a coping mechanism for us Brits)

Why does everyone think this is official? Why would a stream get an official communication and no-one else? Doesn't make sense to me. Did I miss something?

My thoughts too.

Eager to see heir explanation of "fair"... in the upcoming article...

Yikes!

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

The incentive is real. You can prohibit the practice and deal with all sorts of complex and subjective judgement calls or you can just allow it and deal with it as a trade off of the Swiss format.

I don't think non Swiss formats will be a viable answer because this is largely about playing as entertainment where as other formats are better for spectating as entertainment.

If you are playing for the joy of playing then nothing has changed for you. Play your games and enjoy yourself who cares what the ranks are at the end of the day. If you are playing to win at all costs than great your life is easier. If you don't make the cut because some top 8 players took a draw? Better luck next time stop paying attention to how you could possibly rank higher at plastic space ships if some outside factors go your way.

Play your games and have fun. Nothing has changed

This is bullshite, if true.

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

Simply tell people who want to ID and who still have the chance to drop out of the top 8 (in this case) that they have to play. Period. If they don't want to, DQ them.

Let me bottom line it

Stop hoping other people lose in games your not playing so you can rank better. Swiss is already a format that's for fun times. You can't have Swiss without this problem. Live with reality.

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

Simply tell people who want to ID and who still have the chance to drop out of the top 8 (in this case) that they have to play. Period. If they don't want to, DQ them.

Ok so they then spend all their turns not shooting at each other

Don't know if it's been posted already, but there is a widely known incident of intentional result fixing in a football world cup:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgrace_of_Gij%C3%B3n

The bad thing about it, you can only blame the parties involved for poor sportsmanship, nothing else.

If you view it as one of the parties involved, it makes total sense. Why engage your opponent if there is no benefit to be gained?

Don't know if it's been posted already, but there is a widely known incident of intentional result fixing in a football world cup:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disgrace_of_Gij%C3%B3n

The bad thing about it, you can only blame the parties involved for poor sportsmanship, nothing else.

If you view it as one of the parties involved, it makes total sense. Why engage your opponent if there is no benefit to be gained?

The thing is, they didn't just blame the parties, they changed the way they scheduled the game to reduce the chances of it happening again.

Yikes!

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

By not having draws. When was the last time you saw an unintentional draw in X-Wing?

no points for no play

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

Simply tell people who want to ID and who still have the chance to drop out of the top 8 (in this case) that they have to play. Period. If they don't want to, DQ them.

Ok so they then spend all their turns not shooting at each other

This was possible before they changed the rules to allow IDs, and to my knowledge has never been an issue

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

Remove draws from X-Wing. The game does not need them. No more IDs.

Yikes!

...

Play your games and have fun. Nothing has changed

But something has changed. The playing field is no longer level. People can now exclude other people by not playing!

Do we have confirmation from FFG that this is officially their statement on this matter?

Yikes!

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

By not having draws. When was the last time you saw an unintentional draw in X-Wing?

Last Store Champ I attended. Watched Soontir and Whisper nuked each other at range 1.

Racked up 3 myself in other events. Two Wes's killing each other, two Dash's killing each other, and Feedbacking my own Bot to death to kill the last enemy Bot.

They do happen every now and then. But getting them intentionally under any circumstances should grounds for an immediate DQ.

Do we have confirmation from FFG that this is officially their statement on this matter?

We are waiting for them to put up the "official" official one, this was from where it was reported, they double checked it with 2 sources from an email from FFG itself https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/217038-official-statement-from-ffg/?p=2164467

Yikes!

...

Play your games and have fun. Nothing has changed

But something has changed. The playing field is no longer level. People can now exclude other people by not playing!

But you can be that person. The only thing that changed is that being undefeated up to final swiss round is now promoted. Still, if you are very close to top 8, are x-1, have good mov and win last match you should be able to get there because in proper number of swiss rounds only half of top 8 should be locked.

The incident when full top8 got in with id's is a problem of wrong number of swiss rounds not the system itself.

Yikes!

How would you officiate and judge when players collude to a draw?

By not having draws. When was the last time you saw an unintentional draw in X-Wing?

2 weeks ago was my last one in a store championship, my IG88C versus his IG88B, I had 2 hull and him 1, he shot first and destroyed me, I shot back and managed to squeak through and destroy him - very tough but fun match