So last weekend I traveled to Wisconsin to play for the second year in a row at Board Game Barrister's regional X-Wing Tournament. Let me say that these guys are great tournament organizers. Some of the highlights:

1. Well organized and sufficient parking - thank you light saber dude!

2. Sufficient time for registration and list submission, with a final check to see who was missing to avoid first round mis-pairing.

3. Well staffed store with at least three knowledgeable judges who were not tied up running the registers.

4. Clean restrooms throughout the day.

5. A food truck right out front!

6. On-line pairing and standing lists - wow, checking on your phone is so much better than crowding around a piece of paper. :-)

7. Creative, non-traditional events on the second day for those not making the cut, including a painting competition - I wish more stores had prizes for well painted ships.

8. Custom range rulers for all participants. Nice touch!

9. Additional store prizes for the side events and top tournament players - those custom wooden trays were beautiful!

10. A live feed on the top table throughout the day.

In sum, Board Game Barrister did a lot to cater to players and support the X-Wing community. It was obvious that they put significant effort into organizing the tournament. Thank you and I look forward to coming back next year!

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, we do put a ton of planning and effort into making Regionals a great experience for everyone.

My takeaways from this event:

- The pre-first-round attendance check should have been smoother. I felt I did not execute this as well as I envisioned.

- We delayed announcements by 15 minutes to wait for no-shows due to the traffic accident on the freeway, but no new players arrived. I think it was the right call, but it was a needless delay in actuality.

- We would put the single-elimination Sunday side-event first so that more people could join the other side-events. This seems to be better reasoning than putting the single-elimination event last so that people could leave earlier if they chose.

- I was really happy how the wooden squad trays turned out. We'll do something like that again, if we are fortunate enough to be selected for future Regionals.

Thanks, and see you next time!

-G

Some good stuff indeed. I was super impressed with the online pairings. I know I shouldn't be in today's modern world, but my socks were blown off by that. Michigan NEEDS to implement that. The one suggestion I would add to that would be to include points/MoV in that. Especially with the statement that any mistakes over 1 round ago would not be corrected. Perhaps I missed it, but I believe the physical standings were only posted after round 4.