One of my local gaming stores is trying to build an X-wing player base. He wants to eventually run tournaments, but I suggested starting a league first. Since this store has little to no experience with X-wing, they need some assistance in getting things going. So I was hoping I could pick the brains of those of you out there, who have ran and played in X-wing leagues. Thanks, in advance, for any and all advice and input.

1.How much do you charge? Per league? Per week? Per game?

2.How many weeks do they run?

3.What formats have you used?

4.Do you change up the format week by week?

5.How do you determine and distribute prize support?

6.Do you limit the number of games per week? Per opponent?

7.How do you score the games? W/L? Tournament points? MOV?

8.What do you use for tie breakers?

9.Are there specific requests that players have made that should be included/excluded from leagues?

10.What is the biggest NO-NO of running a league?

Keep it simple.

2 games a week, usually on a specified night.

Win counts as 2 points, loss as 1. No MOV.

after 4-6 weeks, crack open a kit. Distribute prizes. 1-4 pay $5 for their (typically better) prizes.

Our store runs a relatively casual league. Due to the opening hours (it is in a big shopping centre) there is generally only time for one game on league night (unless you have a short game or get there super early). The league runs for 6 weeks and you can play up to 10 games (you can play games at other times in the week) the only limit is that you can only play a person 3 times. End of league prize's are generally a prize kit + store credit.

Whether we use games won then points destroyed for ranking the league or just points destroyed has changed between the leagues. Really depends on the whim of the manager of the store Personally I think wins then kill points is fairer.

I was hoping for a few more responses. Anyone else?

Similar situation at my flgs though they do have x-wing experience they want to expand the player base.

Our LGS gets anywhere from 4 to 6 kits per season. One of those kits is set aside for an actual tournment. The rest are used for league play. All kits are opened and sorted by either a rare prize or a participation prize. League night happens every Friday between 5pm and store close. A league sheet costs $5. Every win = 2 pts. Every loss = 1 pts. Play as many games as you want on a Friday but only 2 of your matches count toward league. We count the first two games because we don't play a time limit so usually only two games get played. Every 4 points earned gets you a participation prize. Earn 12 points and collect a rare prize. First come first serve as far a prize distribution. And always try and play someone different each week if you can. We usually get anywhere from 8 - 14 players each week. It's still competitive because your trying to get to 12 pts but yet it's fly casual to a certain point.

Keep it simple.

2 games a week, usually on a specified night.

Win counts as 2 points, loss as 1. No MOV.

after 4-6 weeks, crack open a kit. Distribute prizes. 1-4 pay $5 for their (typically better) prizes.

I would go down to once a week. Not may people have 2 nights/days a week to spend on X-wing.

At the end of a league you can through a store tournament, the tournament doesn't have to be on a league night/day.

Keep it simple.

2 games a week, usually on a specified night.

Win counts as 2 points, loss as 1. No MOV.

after 4-6 weeks, crack open a kit. Distribute prizes. 1-4 pay $5 for their (typically better) prizes.

I would go down to once a week. Not may people have 2 nights/days a week to spend on X-wing.

At the end of a league you can through a store tournament, the tournament doesn't have to be on a league night/day.

You misunderstand.

Two games in one night, typically a designated league night. You don't have to play two, that's just the suggestion. Just show up on league for as long as you can, and you'll get points.

just my two cents but if you want to BUILD a base make it a comfortable and inviting place to play.. 4x8 tables that support TWO games.. No cheapo plastic tables with a chunk of foam on them to make them bigger!! and space them apart so that its easy to get up and down while playing the game... seems many stores use the "Magic game" spacing and try to squeeze x-wing into the same space...

I'd also say that make sure everyone gets a prize. Sure top players get the nice ones, but everyone should get something. One place I played the person who finished last for the day got a card box.

This isn't really a participation prize, more just a way to make everyone feel like they got something extra for their money.

Run monthly leagues. 1 game a week and start over again every month. Make the entry fee a purchase or $3.

Honestly, I'm not sure a league is the way to start. Hold a Star Wars day. Break out a few copies of X-wing and teach people how to play. Put the X-wing Core on sale. Advertise the first X-wing even/tournament during this Star Wars day. This is how I got my local X-wing community together and it's been running strong for years.

This thread may be of help...

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/141266-new-to-seeking-advicehelp/

One of my local gaming stores is trying to build an X-wing player base. He wants to eventually run tournaments, but I suggested starting a league first. Since this store has little to no experience with X-wing, they need some assistance in getting things going. So I was hoping I could pick the brains of those of you out there, who have ran and played in X-wing leagues. Thanks, in advance, for any and all advice and input.

1.How much do you charge? Per league? Per week? Per game?

We do a monthly league, Monday nights, $5 for the month

2.How many weeks do they run?

However many Monday's there are in the month

3.What formats have you used?

100 pt, 60 mins, 5 pts for for a win. We used to have 3 pts for a modified. Obviously, that is out the door.

4.Do you change up the format week by week?

No

5.How do you determine and distribute prize support?

Based on the point totals.

6.Do you limit the number of games per week? Per opponent?

Yes and No. You can play up to 3 games on a league night. No limits on opponent, but it rarely happens, we like to mix it up.

7.How do you score the games? W/L? Tournament points? MOV?

Win points then MOV

8.What do you use for tie breakers?

Hasn't happened yet. Not sure what we would do.

9.Are there specific requests that players have made that should be included/excluded from leagues?

Have fun, be nice to new players.

10.What is the biggest NO-NO of running a league?

Showing favor for one group over another.

Prize support, each monthly league prize is a tournament kit. It's given out the last game of the month and you have to be present. You get to choose which prize, so of course, if you are first, you go for the pilot card. Store credit ($5) is also part of the prize pool. There is an expiration date on the credit.

My LGS started with a Learn to Play night, $5 which you got back in store credit. After the Learn to Play, they announced the league would start. Saturday tournaments are run throughout the year, with different formats, like escalation.

Hope this helps.

My store has a leauge every Thursday, 3 bucks for each night with one game a night and each month the leauge starts over again.

Only points destroyed are used for rankings (one time they broke a tie with mov, but that sucks when your playing for points destroyed all month).

Each week you are randomly matched regardless of rank, accept for the final week when the top 4 or so play each other.

Prize support is just store credit, but increases based on attendance.

There's also a large group of us who show up early or stay late to play x wing or armada so try and pick a time people can be flexible around.

Been playing in the leauge for 5 months since when they started and it still gets a pretty good attendance (12 to sometimes even over 20)

At my LGS we're nearing the close of a Ladder League. Starts with a one day tournie, very casual 3 games. Wins and MoV determines your placement on the ladder. It's set up on a triangle board like bowling pins; 1 top spot, then 2 below, then 3below that and 4 below that etc... You can challenge anyone above you and they have 2 weeks to play the challenge or swap positions.

As an additional incentive you can challenge laterally as we have a prize for most games played. The winner is determined by whomever eld the top spot for the most challenge games cumulatively. We charged 10 bucks a head.

We went from 4 players to 16...

Eric J

We went in a very different direction with our local league and it was a resounding success!

Here are the basics:

• Play whenever, wherever you want (at home, on VASSAL, or in one of 5 FLGS)
  • This has the advantage of not limiting players to a specific night. Which means more people sign up. And more X-Wing is played. Which makes everyone happy!
• W/D/L = 3/2/1 points +1 point if played in store
  • Points just for playing, and an extra incentive to play in stores
• League season lasts 12 weeks, goal is to play at least 12 games (maximum 2 games per opponent)
  • This is so people don't just play against each other over and over - and draws people to the league nights/days to meet new players
• Single elimination bracket with everyone who played their 12+ games
  • A player's score is ONLY used for initial seeding in the elimination rounds. This means people are not incentivized to be super competitive, as winning has very little impact. It also encourages players to get out and play as much as possible!
• We charged 10$ for league signup and it was all used for prize support. We had some custom acrylics made up and bought gift cards at the FLGS with the rest.
  • Everyone who got their 12 games in got the custom acrylics. There were some gift cards set aside for top 4 of elimination, but only a very small amount - a LOT more was given out as participation prizes.
  • Everyone who got their 12 games in was eligible for the participation prizes. We had some stores kick in FFG promos and even some players who contributed to the prize pool (a set of full custom acrylic maneuver templates, Imperial Aces, a custom storage box, promos, and more).
• We held some "league days" at certain stores, which made it easy for people to play against different opponents.

If you're curious, here's our league document with everything explained in detail - but it's in french
http://xwing.rebelleagues.com/doc_ligue.pdf

Some stats about how it went:

• 25 players signed up - including many who hadn't been to any of our local tournaments
• 23 got their 12 games in
• 210 total games were played - 158 of them in stores (75%!)

We're looking at starting season 2 this fall!

One of my local gaming stores is trying to build an X-wing player base. He wants to eventually run tournaments, but I suggested starting a league first. Since this store has little to no experience with X-wing, they need some assistance in getting things going. So I was hoping I could pick the brains of those of you out there, who have ran and played in X-wing leagues. Thanks, in advance, for any and all advice and input.

1.How much do you charge? Per league? Per week? Per game?

Charged £10 with all proceeds going towards prize support

2.How many weeks do they run?

12

3.What formats have you used?

At the start of the season, everyone drafted a unique pilot. That pilot could only be used by that player (It also eliminated unique upgrades with the same name - no Boba crew, etc)

That unique pilot had to be in every list used throughout the league - Standard 100pt rules applied, though objectives were involved - 1st kill, kill drafted pilot, get drafted pilot into enemy deployment zone, keep drafted pilot alive - this was based off a die roll before each game

12 week league, while everyone who paid an entry fee got a participation prize, 16 games were required to be eligible for the bonus prizes

4.Do you change up the format week by week?

no

5.How do you determine and distribute prize support?

rankings were determined by averaging the victory points against games played, with average points destroyed being used as a tie breaker

6.Do you limit the number of games per week? Per opponent?

No limits, though in hindsight, I would have lowered the number of games required and added a "no playing the same opponent more than twice" rule

7.How do you score the games? W/L? Tournament points? MOV?

Wins are worth 8 points, draws 4, losses 2 - completing your objective gained you an additional 12 points (making it possible to lose the match, but possibly win on points) - points destroyed were recorded, but only used to determine win/loss/draw and as a tie breaker

8.What do you use for tie breakers?

see above

9.Are there specific requests that players have made that should be included/excluded from leagues?

Not at the moment, though I'm going to be sending out an after action report survey for everyone to get feedback to help the next season

10.What is the biggest NO-NO of running a league?

favouritism, though the feeling that you're never progressing is also dangerous - that is a reality in games that take an average score. If a player always loses, and never makes the objective over the course of 16 games, he'll have 2 points. It runs the risk of feeling like there's no progression

If you want to build a community though, tournaments and leagues are all well and good, but they are only one part of a larger picture.

Pick a day and time and stick to it. never waver. If Tuesday night is the only night available? guess what - Tuesday just became your X-Wing night. People that are genuinely curious will make the effort.

Put a sign up. Not on the notice board, maybe by the counter, but definitely by the merch. Something that says "Interested in this wall of amazing plastic spaceships? Like making pewpewpew noises? Did you know there's a group that plays in this store every Tuesday? Want to know more? talk to the guys behind the counter!" If your FLGS is lukewarm on the idea behind x-wing, set up your own xwing email address/FB page and put those details on there

Make yourself available - this league I've been talking about? The one where people need 16 games to be eligible for the big prizes? I'm not going to get my games in.

Why? Because people were having such a good time and making such a noise that other people wanted to know what was going on and what the game was - I carry effectively a spare starter set in my bag and I demo a game for them. When they finish up and ask more questions I can tell them that everything we used to play the demo is available in the start kit.

*boom* instant sale - new players to add to the pool of awesome people already in your community.

Use Social Media - Pimp the hell out of your group on Facebook - got a regional X-Wing group on FB? once a week put up a post letting people know that hey! It's games night coming up - Once you get a handle on things, use the post to let people know about upcoming tournaments, got a league going on at the moment? That's news - just finishing a league? let people know to stay tuned because if you missed the last one, there's a new one coming up. - Tag people who were at the previous group - "Big shout out to John Smith whose dice were on FIRE last night" etc

That's about all I've got right now.

Around here, there's a league at one store on Friday nights. Free, and they tend to occasionally give away cards; last week everyone got their choice of a free Veteran Instincts or a free Predator. Games are scored (win=3, loss=1) and there's more prices given away at the end of a 3-month season to the player with the highest score (though I have no idea what those prizes are).

Another couple stores do tournaments on Saturdays. Probably 1-2 tournaments per month.

I really wish some store would start a league on Sundays.

_{The first thing is to get people playing in the store. I had to work around the stores schedule of all the other games. Finally we started a group on Sundays. Now 5 months later, we are starting to fly some different games. Most of the guys are completely new to X-wing so only have a few ships. Then learning all the rules. Then learning the upgrade cards. I never even thought about tournaments or anything until after the 4th months mark. This past Sunday I talked with the group about creating a paying league so that we could get some prizes and everyone liked the idea. I created an eight week flying calendar of many different games. We did Hunger Games small based last week and then this week was Big Based hunger games. Next week is 75 pts, 2 vs 2. Each of us will bring a 75 point build and we will pair up to fly against each other. I did this since I noticed that even though they have been flying a while, they still don't see the whole board and by having a partner we can talk about what we are going to do.}

_{I will also say that three of us played in the store for at least 3 weeks with out any one else coming over to play, maybe a question here and there. Then I put up a large poster and one person started coming. Then another and another. Slowly we have about 7 showing up regularly. Card games still rule the store, but we have our cut out area for X-Wing. It was a slow going. The owner has ordered a kit for us to use in the January range so we will use that for prize support next. If you want the specific things for the league I can post them another time, but the games are not about the winner or losing. I am using ideas, I think this was the store, from Get Your Fun On in Melbourne Florida which is based on dice rolls and games played or people played, rather than wins and losses. Wins and Losses gets old quick when you are just learning or don't want to play competitive all the time.}

_{Just my two cents. Good luck...}

Depending on the size and experience of your player base. It might be better just to setup a general free game night for X-Wing instead. Someone in our local area did this a couple years ago. Him and I started playing regularly at our LGS on a game night day for a couple months. Some folks got interested by watching us play. Other folks that had X-Wing started coming on by because of a regular game night event. Just grab a buddy and start playing regularly for a bit to see how it takes off.

Setting up a X-Wing Facebook page for your general area might be helpful too; to communicate for events and just players interested in meeting up to play.

League runs on a Monday night for 5 weeks. AU$10 a night entry fee, run as a mini 3 round tournament pairings based on tournament rules. A win is 1 league point, and MOV is tracked over the five weeks to break ties. This lets anyone join at any point in the 5 weeks and rewards the players that are attending everynight.

Store credit prizes are awarding to 1st / 2nd / 3rd on the night using 50% of the entry fee. The other 50% goes to 1st / 2nd / 3rd overall and to a handful of door prizes for people who attended the league, usually to the value of a small base ship. We hand out kit prize support when we can get them.

We've been running standard 100pt dogfights but starting to look into changing it up a bit. For us it's a good format to test lists and practice tournament formats. Our experienced players are a fantastic group and help the new players along. The tournament format supports this from the pretty random round 1 and round 2 pairings, followed by a definite split based on skill in round 3. So you get to learn something at the start then have a game based on strength at the end of the night.

oh and one more thing.... START GAMES ON TIME!!!! if the start time is advertised as 1200 then start at 12!!! really tired of going to games and the advertised start time seems to be just a recommendation. Particularly when it seems like its the same folks who are always late!!!