Sample size is a part of it as the expectation would be that Regionals would be a larger tournament.

You woukd also be less likely to see new or casual players at a Regional as the competition level is a bit higher.

But really, putting the data together is already plenty of work and I needed some kind of natural cut off.

bah, obviously you must dedicate your time to gather all information from every random AAR i post geeze...people...

You woukd also be less likely to see new or casual players at a Regional as the competition level is a bit higher.

I'm not sure this is true. Of the ~20 people at the regional I attended, I'm aware of at least two (myself and one other) who had exactly three wave 2 games under their belt. I'm aware of a couple other attendees who are super casual and a few who are cutthroat competitors. The rest are unknowns, but I'd assume more likely to be competitive than casual. But still, given the small size of the event to begin with, that's a fairly high proportion of scrubs (yes, I do mean me too ) in the mix.

The earlier massing at sullust event at the same location was, IIRC, better attended and, I think, had a higher level of play (I may be biased because I was pretty good wave 1. Just, you know, didn't play for six months so...).

More generally, the small size of the regionals does, I think, make it difficult to draw strong conclusions from their results. Imperials do appear to be dominant and Reeikan does appear to be the Rebels' best option...but when you're talking about groups of twenty or fewer players, that means something very different than when Palp Aces and Uboats make it into the top 8 of every single 100 person X-Wing regional, you know?

Which is not to say the data isn't useful or that it shouldn't be collected or anything. Just that we need to be cautious because the competitive scene isn't that large and there aren't that many people working on different approaches.

Unlike most attempts to be Scientific in this field, Smitty has actually done the most post-information gathering work, in that he:

Defined his Variables.

For that, I applaud him.

I have no issues with a defined dataset, so long as it does indeed conform to the parameters selected for the Dataset - in this case, Regionals (as they are the first "restricted" tournaments in who gets them... FFG allows any store in good standing to have a Store Championship.)

It would be funny to see the % of top 8 lists that are mikemcmann since he is going to all of the regional tournaments.

How the fluk does one have the time and money and understanding spouse to attend every regional in the world?!?!?!?

We should have a stat to check for whether having significant others increase the likelihood of you not placing well in tournaments due to lack of practice.

We should have a stat to check for whether having significant others increase the likelihood of you not placing well in tournaments due to lack of practice.

He'll destroy that ranking, too... Because he's Happily Married with Children...

Not only that, he's an absolutely fantastic guy, who was able to help out my family come Christmas Last Year when everything was going to hell for us...

So the Dude can win every Regional he goes to, for all I care... I'll keep up my support for him, because he supported me

thanks Dras! Just helping a brother out

As it is, I have an amazing spouse that lets me play to my hearts content as needed. And my lil five year old dude helps me "build" lists. Hehe... "Daddy....use the big ships this time to destroy them....and just a couple fighters..." (This is really something he says!)

We are very fortunate, in that my wife has a great career and I have a military pension. I really don't spend money on anything except my "mini me" and my little "niche" hobby.

So...all that means......is, I am a lucky guy that gets to play with toy spaceships a lot . Add in my OCD for a game once I get into it...and..hehe..voila! Lots of traveling to games and doing my best to be a goodwill ambassador to,wherever I end up

So far, I've been really impressed with all the areas I've visited. Most of you armada dudes are swell people !

thanks Dras! Just helping a brother out

As it is, I have an amazing spouse that lets me play to my hearts content as needed. And my lil five year old dude helps me "build" lists. Hehe... "Daddy....use the big ships this time to destroy them....and just a couple fighters..." (This is really something he says!)

We are very fortunate, in that my wife has a great career and I have a military pension. I really don't spend money on anything except my "mini me" and my little "niche" hobby.

So...all that means......is, I am a lucky guy that gets to play with toy spaceships a lot . Add in my OCD for a game once I get into it...and..hehe..voila! Lots of traveling to games and doing my best to be a goodwill ambassador to,wherever I end up

So far, I've been really impressed with all the areas I've visited. Most of you armada dudes are swell people !

Looks like my may regionals are Indianapolis this Saturday and then likely Phoenix the 28th

My munchkin turns five next weekend and nephew graduation the 21st. So, I only get two regionals this month! Hehe..

I am also going to hit the Georgia regional June 11th, then the origins national torunament in Ohio. And last but not least, gen con is just down the street, so I'll get that North American tourney as well.

At that point, I imagine the wave three will be out and have to do some serious testing before worlds in November!

Looks like my may regionals are Indianapolis this Saturday and then likely Phoenix the 28th

My munchkin turns five next weekend and nephew graduation the 21st. So, I only get two regionals this month! Hehe..

I am also going to hit the Georgia regional June 11th, then the origins national torunament in Ohio. And last but not least, gen con is just down the street, so I'll get that North American tourney as well.

At that point, I imagine the wave three will be out and have to do some serious testing before worlds in November!

I'll keep pimping it - if Wave 3 is a June/July Release, you could use them at the Calgary Regional

Last Regional in the World, People! July 30!

Well then, I will see you in GA. Looking forward to meeting players outside my RDU circle of admirals!

Ok Dras... It wasn't on my radar . I've only been to Calgary once.... Maybe a summer vacation north is in order !

@caldias. I look forward to it! And please forgive me if we've met already. I am horrible with screen name match ups to live humans . That's why (like a Luddite) I just use my name,.....

thanks Dras! Just helping a brother out

As it is, I have an amazing spouse that lets me play to my hearts content as needed. And my lil five year old dude helps me "build" lists. Hehe... "Daddy....use the big ships this time to destroy them....and just a couple fighters..." (This is really something he says!)

We are very fortunate, in that my wife has a great career and I have a military pension. I really don't spend money on anything except my "mini me" and my little "niche" hobby.

So...all that means......is, I am a lucky guy that gets to play with toy spaceships a lot . Add in my OCD for a game once I get into it...and..hehe..voila! Lots of traveling to games and doing my best to be a goodwill ambassador to,wherever I end up

So far, I've been really impressed with all the areas I've visited. Most of you armada dudes are swell people !

Are you coming to Vancouver or Tacoma?

Or Real Vancouver? Ours is in July, and it's usually gorgeous here that time of year!

Ok Dras... It wasn't on my radar . I've only been to Calgary once.... Maybe a summer vacation north is in order !

@caldias. I look forward to it! And please forgive me if we've met already. I am horrible with screen name match ups to live humans . That's why (like a Luddite) I just use my name,.....

I used to make an annual Calgary pilgrimage for the Warhammer GT, back in the day. It's well worth the trip and I recall the locals being a good group of guys.

You should go for it!

Well....

Passport.....check

Time open on social calendar..... Check

Hot as hell in Indiana in July.....check

Wife's comment of "well...guess you can raid and pillage another country..." ...... Check

Frequent flyer government rates...... Check

Let's see if I can make this happen

It would be funny to see the % of top 8 lists that are mikemcmann since he is going to all of the regional tournaments.

According to his signature he's placed 1st, 3rd and 3rd. ****. Why don't you skip Atlanta Mike? The traffic there is bad.

Ok Dras... It wasn't on my radar . I've only been to Calgary once.... Maybe a summer vacation north is in order !

@caldias. I look forward to it! And please forgive me if we've met already. I am horrible with screen name match ups to live humans . That's why (like a Luddite) I just use my name,.....

Don't worry, we haven't. I'm not the social butterfly you are! This is the first mini game I am actually trying to play somewhat competitively. Looking forward to getting smacked!

Sample size is a part of it as the expectation would be that Regionals would be a larger tournament.

You woukd also be less likely to see new or casual players at a Regional as the competition level is a bit higher.

But really, putting the data together is already plenty of work and I needed some kind of natural cut off.

bah, obviously you must dedicate your time to gather all information from every random AAR i post geeze...people...

So I give you a boatload of data AND an interview with Organized Play!

You woukd also be less likely to see new or casual players at a Regional as the competition level is a bit higher.

I'm not sure this is true. Of the ~20 people at the regional I attended, I'm aware of at least two (myself and one other) who had exactly three wave 2 games under their belt. I'm aware of a couple other attendees who are super casual and a few who are cutthroat competitors. The rest are unknowns, but I'd assume more likely to be competitive than casual. But still, given the small size of the event to begin with, that's a fairly high proportion of scrubs (yes, I do mean me too ) in the mix.

The earlier massing at sullust event at the same location was, IIRC, better attended and, I think, had a higher level of play (I may be biased because I was pretty good wave 1. Just, you know, didn't play for six months so...).

More generally, the small size of the regionals does, I think, make it difficult to draw strong conclusions from their results. Imperials do appear to be dominant and Reeikan does appear to be the Rebels' best option...but when you're talking about groups of twenty or fewer players, that means something very different than when Palp Aces and Uboats make it into the top 8 of every single 100 person X-Wing regional, you know?

Which is not to say the data isn't useful or that it shouldn't be collected or anything. Just that we need to be cautious because the competitive scene isn't that large and there aren't that many people working on different approaches.

You are correct of course that the sample sizes are pretty small. The hope is that the regionals will provide a larger sample size than other formats. Really, the best data for this exercise will come from the regionals that run 4 rounds, but so far that has not been the norm. Still for a relatively new game, I feel the turnouts have been pretty solid.

I don't think the data will necessarily be conclusive in any way for the limitations of what is being gathered. I do think that there will be enough of a sample size in the long run to start identifying patterns. I am most interested in the differences between the overall attendance and the top tables. We've seen the beginnings of some patterns there and as the number of data points that we have grows the patterns will either strengthen or regress to the norm. I am really interested to see where it goes. I've been trying to make sure and publish the limits of my sample size along with the data to help folks interpret it better.

Unlike most attempts to be Scientific in this field, Smitty has actually done the most post-information gathering work, in that he:

Defined his Variables.

For that, I applaud him.

Thanks! As an actual science teacher I appreciate that.

It would be funny to see the % of top 8 lists that are mikemcmann since he is going to all of the regional tournaments.

That's an easy one, as he is pretty much the only one playing Vader.

Wife's comment of "well...guess you can raid and pillage another country..." ...... Check

. . Thanks. . .

So no Vancouver WA or Tacoma eh. Sad panda.

Hehe... Glad I could help the commute

Unfortunately, looks like a no. But sometimes I get a wild hair and do something crazy!

I'll make it out there eventually. I traveled the world for 8 years for flames of war going to tournaments

Hehe... Glad I could help the commute

Unfortunately, looks like a no. But sometimes I get a wild hair and do something crazy!

I'll make it out there eventually. I traveled the world for 8 years for flames of war going to tournaments

Do you think another piece of data that we could potentially start tracking is how often rounds go to time? As has been discussed, a three round tournament of this scale doesn't always give us the best result. If FFG were to find that the vast majority of players finished there games well before the 2:15 time limit, I wonder if it would be possible to reduce round time and increase the rounds to four.

This, of course, would have to be tracked manually. The TO would have to write down start/finish times for every pairing every round. Might be easy enough to do at a Store Champ or a smaller Regional.

EDIT - My thinking here is that the two tournaments I've attended came nowhere close. The first was only four people, so we only played two rounds, and the whole tournament was done in about three hours, including unpacking and repacking fleets. At the second, with ten people, only a single table went to time all day. Most people were finished well before the two hour mark, with the average maybe being closer to 1:30/1:45. I'll start another thread to discuss this, so we don't clutter this one further.

Anyone playing in Toronto by any chance?

I'll be going to Sacramento on the 14th. Is there any data that I can get to add to this project while I'm there?