Now, I posted the fact that Calgary had secured the Regionals for 2017 on January 7 only a few minutes ago, but already, there's been some questions asked........... So, let me help FFG Clarify by Relaying information.

ESSENTIALLY.

For the 2016-2017 Season, we're being messed up. Completely and utterly. That's because FFG has a whole bunch of competitive games that they, essentially, have to do a Worlds' Championship for all at the same time, and it sucks, because no-one gets the attention they deserve...

Solution?

Split stuff up by 6 months. Games are being tossed into "Star Wars" and "Not Star Wars".... Anything under the "Not Star Wars" header will be Business as Usual...... Worlds Champs in November, Regionals leading up to that, etc...

But for STAR WARS:

Our NEW Worlds Tournament for 2017 (and years after that), will be in MAY...

That means Regionals will run from NOVEMBER to FEBRUARY in most cases...

NATIONAL Championships will be held on a more Floating Schedule, to intersect with Cons and such...

And STORE championships will run from MAY to OCTOBER, Effectively....... But that means, we have NO STORE CHAMPIONSHIPS for the 2016-17 Season...... But we will, after May, for the 2017-18 Season...

Here's a Handy-Dandy pair of Images for this Year:

And Star Wars and Non-Star Wars showing their Ultimately Mirrored Schedules:


And here's the FULL Article for People to read if they missed it the first time...

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/3/15/the-next-step-in-organized-play/

(Perhaps I've been on this since my business is registered as a retailer and I get email reminders to order kits and such....)

Yeah the switch in schedule will hopefully be a long term gain, but in the short term its pretty chaotic. Thanks for the image of the schedule. It isn't secret, they have it posted in their organized play section cause I have seen it and had to double check it a few times.

Always good to have a reminder of this, a bunch of us were talking about it at UK Nationals and I was going to dig out that link and the timelines you posted there since my memory on them was a bit vague.

Yeah the switch in schedule will hopefully be a long term gain, but in the short term its pretty chaotic. Thanks for the image of the schedule. It isn't secret, they have it posted in their organized play section cause I have seen it and had to double check it a few times.

yeah, its not secret, and it was part of the News... But I think it was either forgotten, ignored or dismissed by a lot of people when it was out... because, lets face it, it was Origins at the time, pretty much..........

But with constant reminders, I have direct links

A Bump for Bump's sake.

I'm a little annoyed here.

First off, no convention season. Cons were easy to plan around, you could guess that FFG was hosting an event at GenCon or wherever and purchase tickets and hotels months in advance (seem to recall Norm Weir suggesting that he's already made hotel reservations for GenCon next year, for example). I think that this is going to severely limit the growth of FFG Star Wars games. You could almost count on tripping over the X-Wing models at most recent gaming cons I've been to or seen photos of, even outside of the tournament events.

Second, is the uneven distribution of regional events. Yes, the population of the USA and Armada player's isn't uniform. However, it's really telling that west coast players in the regions of San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, and the Oregon border have to choose between two options that are as far as a thousand miles apart. Even players in the Los Angeles region can count on a 4 hour drive to San Diego in only moderate local traffic.

Third, and this is a little more frustrating, is that I'm hearing from the local X-Wing community in the Bay Area (which is HUGE) that local stores which previously hosted regional events submitted paperwork which was reportedly never received by FFG. It's hard enough to get these events when a store does everything right, losing submitted documentation is just not a good sign for anyone hoping to get a regional in their area.

First off, no convention season. Cons were easy to plan around, you could guess that FFG was hosting an event at GenCon or wherever and purchase tickets and hotels months in advance (seem to recall Norm Weir suggesting that he's already made hotel reservations for GenCon next year, for example). I think that this is going to severely limit the growth of FFG Star Wars games. You could almost count on tripping over the X-Wing models at most recent gaming cons I've been to or seen photos of, even outside of the tournament events.

I can't answer the rest, but I can point this out:

You\ll notice that North American Championships are at GenCon time and will be at GenCon again... Furthermore, Nationals are much wider open floating, they're wanting to get MORE Cons in with big Tournaments - and this allows them to de-shackle them from Regionals and look instead of bigger events, especially with nationals and such...

WIth X-Wing having such things as the System Open, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Armada started to get similar as well as they work through, to hit those Convention-Season things.

First off, no convention season. Cons were easy to plan around, you could guess that FFG was hosting an event at GenCon or wherever and purchase tickets and hotels months in advance (seem to recall Norm Weir suggesting that he's already made hotel reservations for GenCon next year, for example). I think that this is going to severely limit the growth of FFG Star Wars games. You could almost count on tripping over the X-Wing models at most recent gaming cons I've been to or seen photos of, even outside of the tournament events.

I can't answer the rest, but I can point this out:

You\ll notice that North American Championships are at GenCon time and will be at GenCon again... Furthermore, Nationals are much wider open floating, they're wanting to get MORE Cons in with big Tournaments - and this allows them to de-shackle them from Regionals and look instead of bigger events, especially with nationals and such...

WIth X-Wing having such things as the System Open, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Armada started to get similar as well as they work through, to hit those Convention-Season things.

So you win GenCon in July/Aug for an entry into world's 10 months later? It's all good in the long run.

First off, no convention season. Cons were easy to plan around, you could guess that FFG was hosting an event at GenCon or wherever and purchase tickets and hotels months in advance (seem to recall Norm Weir suggesting that he's already made hotel reservations for GenCon next year, for example). I think that this is going to severely limit the growth of FFG Star Wars games. You could almost count on tripping over the X-Wing models at most recent gaming cons I've been to or seen photos of, even outside of the tournament events.

I can't answer the rest, but I can point this out:

You\ll notice that North American Championships are at GenCon time and will be at GenCon again... Furthermore, Nationals are much wider open floating, they're wanting to get MORE Cons in with big Tournaments - and this allows them to de-shackle them from Regionals and look instead of bigger events, especially with nationals and such...

WIth X-Wing having such things as the System Open, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Armada started to get similar as well as they work through, to hit those Convention-Season things.

So you win GenCon in July/Aug for an entry into world's 10 months later? It's all good in the long run.

That is if the North American Championships keeps their "Entry to Worlds" prize, yes.

Second, is the uneven distribution of regional events. Yes, the population of the USA and Armada player's isn't uniform. However, it's really telling that west coast players in the regions of San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, and the Oregon border have to choose between two options that are as far as a thousand miles apart. Even players in the Los Angeles region can count on a 4 hour drive to San Diego in only moderate local traffic.

Third, and this is a little more frustrating, is that I'm hearing from the local X-Wing community in the Bay Area (which is HUGE) that local stores which previously hosted regional events submitted paperwork which was reportedly never received by FFG. It's hard enough to get these events when a store does everything right, losing submitted documentation is just not a good sign for anyone hoping to get a regional in their area.

Right.

This is something FFG should address. If anyone from FFG or Organized play is reading this, let me submit the following data for Armada on the top 10 US Metro Areas:

Metro Area / Regional in Area / if no, is there a Regional within 2 Hours:

NYC / NJ: No, No¹

LA / LB / Anaheim: No, No

Chicago Area: Yes

Dallas / Ft. Worth: No, No

Houston Area: Yes

Washington DC / Alexandria: No, Yes

Philadelphia / Camden: No, No

Miami / Palm Beach Area: No, No

Atlanta Area: Yes

Boston Area: Yes

This means that on a population weighted basis, FFG has missed about 20% of the U.S. by simply not having 4ish more regional events. I don't know if stores were not able to deliver paperwork and/or FFG didn't receive it and/or this was just not contemplated in whatever FFG was doing to assign Regionals, but it seems like a pretty massive oversight if Organized Play is intended to support the gaming community in most areas.

It should be an easy problem to fix if anyone from FFG is looking, as you can add a scant handful of Regional events and cover roughly 50mm in population.

1 - Newington CT is technically just under ~2 hours by car from the north end of NYC, inclusive of standard traffic, but much longer from NJ or the south end of NYC, ignoring the fact that most NYCers don't have cars and the real trip time is 4hrs+ by train.

When I lived in LA, depending on the will of the traffic gods, sometimes I could make it to San Diego in 2 hours. But that is cause I drive like a Californian (as fast as possible given traffic conditions and the mechanical limits of my car). On some random Saturdays, traffic south in San Diego is going to be worse than most workday commutes people living in other parts of the country, as a fairly large portion of our population heads down to visit loved ones south of the border, so the freeways in that direction can get quite slammed. It's not every Saturday, but it means that for my closest regional I will probably end up heading down late late Friday and staying in a hotel.

I am so Jaded by living in Australia...

Australia day, I used to have to make a tough choice...

Do I drive to Melbourne (6 Hours each way) for a 2 Day 40k Tournament.

Or do I drive to Canberra (8 hours each way) for anything else...

When they were both on the same weekend.

And Really, that was it for gaming. In the Year.

I am so Jaded by living in Australia...

Australia day, I used to have to make a tough choice...

Do I drive to Melbourne (6 Hours each way) for a 2 Day 40k Tournament.

Or do I drive to Canberra (8 hours each way) for anything else...

When they were both on the same weekend.

And Really, that was it for gaming. In the Year.

I know, I hesitate to complain because really compared to some we are absolutely spoilt for options. You always have the right to completely ignore me, and/or take everything said with a grain of salt. It's mostly still just disappointment that I was moving right in the middle of last regionals, and missed them entirely. And now there is a chance it may happen again, since a weekend trip to San Diego away from my pregnant wife and toddler is a hard sell to say the least.

We're all spoiled by the fact that its regionals right again.

I'm sure this is temporary, to shake off the new start...

But once Worlds is over the second time in May, we'll settle into something like we had previously - Store Champs, which set scenes for regionals.

Just because someone else has it worse doesn't mean you have it good.

Indeed, indeed.

Like I said, very personally biased and jaded on it

But I;m allowed to be. As is everyone.

Just because someone else has it worse doesn't mean you have it good.

But it does mean you have it better, which also means the problem to solve first, is not yours but theirs.

A lesson the modern world appears unaware of.

I'd also like to mention that running events during the November-December-January time frame is most unwise. This is peak holiday season.

Well, I think in that one, its done, and its going to be continue to be done...

But at least there's a lack of "directly around Christmas" dates.