Hey everyone!

I only just registered, but I've been lurking the forums for quite a bit. I run a FLGS in Hungary. Previously, I held a month-long X-Wing event, where the goal was to shoot down as many enemy ships as you could - their point total would be added together and the higher your score, the bigger prizes you got. It was pretty successful in getting a few people to play as much as they could.

In July, I'd like to organize an actual tournament. I'm thinking I'll have about 8 players max. Thing is, I got no idea where to start! I haven't really organized a tournament for any game system before, so I could use your help. For this event, I was thinking 5 rounds of 100-point dogfights.

One thing I'm in trouble with is pairing the players. Frankly, I don't even know where to start...

Help?

TL;DR: I wanna make a tournament, send help

I'm not sure how much you know about other game tournaments so I'll start at the beginning:

X-wing runs on a swiss tournament structure, where you pair players with an equal number of wins against each other. That means that for 8 or less players you only need a maximum of 4 rounds to determine a winner, because there will only be one undefeated player. You can even do it in three if you have serious time constraints. You can do more though, so it's really up to you and your schedule. I would probably advise running a 100 point tournament for the first one, because it's likely what your players are used to.

With 8 players you can do the tournament organising by hand, but it's worth looking at some tournament software like Cryodex to do it automatically. It'll save you some pain. It's pretty easy to get used to, and saves a lot of time between rounds. You should download the most recent X-wing FAQ and read the whole thing. you only have to do it once to get the important stuff, but your players will have questions for you that you'll need to resolve on the spot.

In addition, I'd strongly encourage the non-meta builds (so no Dengar, for example), to encourage a closer, friendlier environment.

And above all, focus on fun.

3 hours ago, Mumblez said:

Hey everyone!

I only just registered, but I've been lurking the forums for quite a bit. I run a FLGS in Hungary. Previously, I held a month-long X-Wing event, where the goal was to shoot down as many enemy ships as you could - their point total would be added together and the higher your score, the bigger prizes you got. It was pretty successful in getting a few people to play as much as they could.

In July, I'd like to organize an actual tournament. I'm thinking I'll have about 8 players max. Thing is, I got no idea where to start! I haven't really organized a tournament for any game system before, so I could use your help. For this event, I was thinking 5 rounds of 100-point dogfights.

One thing I'm in trouble with is pairing the players. Frankly, I don't even know where to start...

Help?

TL;DR: I wanna make a tournament, send help

Ok, so I'm no expert so this is beginner level experience speaking to no experience... I tend to be the event judge for the tournaments at the local shop. Our tournaments run like this:

1. We discuss potential dates and availability between myself, another guy who heads up communication to the local player base, and the local store. Technically, we don't have to have the 'communications officer' but we do like to get word out to our local guys and encourage people to show up.
2. We post the date on facebook, and a few other places. I've posted the event here once or twice, in the upcoming events sub-forum. Communication is key so that players know about your event.
3. Post any special rules. We do 'beginner entry tournaments' that require players to have the ships, dials and correct pilot template on the base, but the upgrade cards are not required. Lists can be printed from a squad builder. It means players don't need to purchase as many ships to compete.
4. Our local store tournament generally has between 8 and 12 players. Entry fee is $10 CDN, but half of that fee goes toward store credit prizes so despite being a bit steep it's generally worth it.
5. Get one of the X-Wing tournament software programs. We use Cryodex. It manages the pairings for you. It's really quite easy, I figured it out in about 30 minutes of playing with it the night before, and learned more on the fly as I go. It's pretty solid.
6. We run 3 rounds in a day. We could likely push and get 4, but it's a solid hard push to achieve it. You have your time required for players to arrive, sign up and prep, three 75 minute rounds, plus time between. Sometimes players appreciate a lunch break. Sometimes we push and get out earlier.
7. Know the rules, or have somebody else who knows the rules step in as judge. Our local shop has a couple of people who like to play, but their experience level is low. As I said, I provide rulings. I'm not perfect, but I've run a lot of events over the years for various games so I'm the best fit locally. If there's an uneven number of players, I'll join in and have a neutral party step in for my own matches.

I'm probably missing a bunch, but that's the rundown!

Thanks for the helpful answers, guys. I'll definitely look into Cryodex! I've already asked the people in our Facebook group about the idea and they seemed to like it. I'll post some pics of the tournament after it's over.

18 hours ago, Astech said:

That means that for 8 or less players you only need a maximum of 4 rounds to determine a winner, because there will only be one undefeated player

For 8 players it would be 3 rounds. That will leave you with 1 guy on 3 wins, 3 on 2, 3 on 1, and 1 on 0.

Round 4 would see the guy on 3 wins playing one of the 2s, potentially ending with 3 people on 3 wins.

FFG have a tournament rules document that gives you a good starting point for figuring out structure.

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/b5/29/b529044b-2703-4ff8-b234-48d8015edb7f/x-wing_tournament_regulations_v21_high_res.pdf

One tournament I was at recently was designed to encourage players to bring three different lists, with no unique pilots duplicated on the lists. They could be all the same faction, they could be all different factions. Just so long as there's no duplicate unique pilot you're good! The structure was set up so that there were six rounds, with a top cut. In theory, each player would play each of their lists twice but that wasn't an official requirement, but many did. Bonus points were given for players that used each of their three lists at least once each, and more bonus points for using each of the lists twice over the six matches. Overall, it made for a fun and non-meta tournament were players were actively trying out different lists.

Well sort of on topic but how are Vassal tournaments organized? I need to get a few games in vassal just to see how it is played but does anyone have experience with hosting one on vassal?