Every meta is different. In my local meta, few players bother with playing the latest meta-list and those that do usually only end up winning a single event. It's not that they get bullied, intimidated or get the stink eye until they get in line. It's nothing like that.

It's simply that when a player (especially a new one), brings a meta list and manages to win, the more experienced of us recognize it, strategize around it and by the next event, we figured out the counters and our local meta changed in a single leap. We plan with the meta in mind, but we usually don't play it because those that do can often start at a disadvantage. Weird, huh?

4 hours ago, gennataos said:

Hmm...yeah, I get that. Having a store championship won by someone you've never seen at your store would be pretty disheartening.

Why?

1 hour ago, JJ48 said:

For some of us introverts with social anxiety, social skills can be quite a bit of a challenge, actually...

In my area we have a lot of veterans who have PTSD, so those are even more challenging for them.

29 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

Why?

Is that a genuine question?

Because they would not be a member of the store's community, yet are walking away with the title of "store champion".

38 minutes ago, Tbetts94 said:

In my area we have a lot of veterans who have PTSD, so those are even more challenging for them.

Shout-out to our vets.

I play with some as well. Glad this game attracts them to not just my area.

2 minutes ago, kris40k said:

Is that a genuine question?

Because they would not be a member of the store's community, yet are walking away with the title of "store champion".

May I suggest a different approach? You can view a store championship as an event designed only for those who ususally play at that store or you can view them as opportunities to have a bigger event, meet new people and get in touch with other communities. So what if a foreigner won the prize? Where does he play? Do they have a strong community or Facebook page that you can join? Can you make an exciting road trip to one of their events and challenge their meta?

In our meta, we have a friendly rivalry with people on the south shore, north shore and with a city that is 3.5 hours away. Some people with more free time carpool together to exciting adventures (and split gas money)! They become big events, fun and you never know what meta you will face.

1 hour ago, kris40k said:

Is that a genuine question?

Because they would not be a member of the store's community, yet are walking away with the title of "store champion".

Yes it is a genuine question.

And I have issues with your explanation, because they obviously are members of that store's community when they come to those store championships. What else should they be? Invaders? ;-)
They literally invest a huge amount of time and a small or sometimes even a huge amount of money to enjoy the company at those events. How could they not be part of the community even when they might not be regulars?

Plenty members of our local community are people which I meet only a few times per year when we meet at the store championships of our region, but we still meet every year at the same places and have a good time together. Now I am not a fan of separating communities based on arbitrary conditions, but at least I feel closer to people who bring competitive lists to competitive events and are part of the competitive scene of a store instead of guys who intentionally bring **** lists and rarely play serious in the first place. It is a store championship after all.

But hey, maybe that just based on our local community which visits basically all stores (with X-Wing SCs) in the country and supports all of those stores financially as well, while playing most of the time in private clubs or at home. Out of the 3 FLGS we have in town only one even has a game area in the first place. ;-)

14 minutes ago, kris40k said:

Is that a genuine question?

Because they would not be a member of the store's community, yet are walking away with the title of "store champion".

Which does have an element of sadness to it, but usually not enough to overcome the enjoyment of having more people at a tournament, in my experience. Now, that is from the perspective of a smallish player base. We play enough on game nights to have a fairly accurate idea of each other's skill level and ship preferences, so getting some less familiar faces in is nice to shake things up. Plus, we also have some out of town "tournament regulars" who are some good guys, thus a pleasure to have when they can make it. I also don't mind "mercs" all that much because even if they are using some high meta list, that means if one of us beats them, there's more glory. And if we lose, there is always next time.

I can understand wanting champion titles staying in house, but for me, the potential loss in the socialization aspect of the game isn't worth it.

4 hours ago, kris40k said:

Yeah, its a little topic drift, but its not a problem that Heaver is showing up and winning a bunch of Store Championships. It is a problem that tryhards that never play at a particular store are showing up with Heaver's list and trying to win a regional buy against a bunch of scrubs who were hoping to decide who was the best player of that particular store.

It certainly isn't the guy that actually walks away with the trophy and the buy. He's not a player of that store, likely never seen again. Well, until maybe next year and the next regional buy is up for grabs.

But that's another topic, not necessarily something that needs to be discussed in this thread.

At risk of equivocation, was the "Store" in "Store Championship" meant to describe the level of play, in that these are Championships held at game stores as a prelude to regional play? The FFG Store Championships are tied into broader events, so if you are a serious player, you are going to travel if you want your biggest leg up possible going into the regional tourney. I had a similar issue arise at my local, where the person that won was an "out of towner" and was "never seen again" because it was the only Store Championship he was able to attend this season. Did he bring a good list? **** yeah! Did I have fun losing to him at the final table? Sure, it was an excellent game. "Tryhards" are not vultures preying on "scrubs."

Maybe if you want a tourney to decide "who is the best player of that particular store" you could work with the owner to organize an invite-only "local regulars championship" that happens annually during FFG's offseason, or something.

(Oh jebus, eight replies too late)

1 hour ago, kris40k said:

Because they would not be a member of the store's community, yet are walking away with the title of "store champion".

But that's not the point of a store championship. It's not, and never has been about competition for the regulars. It's always been intended to open to anyone who wants to play in it.

2 hours ago, Tlfj200 said:

It’s the weird projections about not caring about other people that got people riled up.

That's always been an issue here. The "Fly Casual" types who want to use that and other unwritten rules as a weapon to beat on anyone who disagrees with them. To the point that some people here seem to believe that wanting to win is the same thing as WAAC.

Then they belittle and berate anyone who disagrees with them calling them names and accusing them of curbstomping children.

There's 3 or 4 people (including me) who play normally at my LGS, and we all play competitively even when there's nothing at stake. We generally don't allow take backs, or missed opportunities. When we play we go for the throat, and smack talk because that's how all of us enjoy the game. For us playing against someone not even trying isn't fun. But we all laugh and joke both during and after the games, we are never rude to each other and no one has ever lost their temper. Worse that happens is sometimes we get frustrated by the dice.

Some people enjoy healthy competition even there's no prize on the line. If you don't get that, that's fine but if the moment you look down on someone who does, or insults them, it's you who is being the jerk not us. Just because I like to play competitively doesn't make me a bad person, and shame on those in this thread who have suggested or out out and out said such things.

13 minutes ago, VanorDM said:

Worse that happens is sometimes we get frustrated by the dice.

This! I don't often feel I'd win or lose because of dice, but I certainly have won or lost more because of dice!

#unnecessarytangent