The NY Regional in NYC got moved from the NYU venue to the Nu Brand game store, going from 128 players to 64 players. As of this post they have less than 20 spots left to pre-reg, which you can find here https://squareup.com/store/nu-brand-gaming

That said it's pretty unacceptable for a TO to promise a venue and then have to change it way after the event was confirmed and schedule posted to a place that's HALF the size, and causing local players on Cyber Monday to panic pre-reg to make sure they go to the one event they would be able to go to, or drive at least 6 hours not including traffic to go to the next one. There are other TOs in the NY/LI/NJ/CT area that have held Regionals before, very successful regional, and could fit more and have held more than the 64 that Nu Brand now offers.

Edit: Now its a 1 day only event. Bring energy drinks for those who plan to attend.

FYI none of the posts online or the website have the date on them.

When is this?

If it didn't pass 64 already then I would say it is fine. Was this change made out of emergency or some other necessity?

Until more info comes out, I'd hold judgement. There may have been an issue on the venue's end that forced the move (double booked, unsatisfactory environment to the needs of the tournament, infested with carnivorous mole men). I mean, yes, the whole situation sucks, but what they did is far better than outright cancelling the tournament.

6 minutes ago, 6ixorganizer said:

FYI none of the posts online or the website have the date on them.

When is this?

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/op/events/2017-regional-championships/x-wing/

This used to say 128 for Nu Brand, but has been updated 11/27 for today's change

6 minutes ago, Skargoth said:

If it didn't pass 64 already then I would say it is fine. Was this change made out of emergency or some other necessity?

It was changed because the venue double booked an annually held event. The problem is that this event would and will easily hit 64 players, and could have been as high as 90 or 100. It's caused a panic pre-reg from the local communities to make sure the local players can attend on Cyber Monday, no less. The TO should of crossed their Ts and dotted their Is when confirming this event with FFG. If the good fellows in Massachusetts can hold regionals reliably in a hotel and have no issues because they did all the homework property then there's no reason this should have happened. It's not fair to the local players, and it isn't fair to the greater community who are traveling to NYC, and have booked hotels and such near the venue, which is not cheap or easy because its NYC.

4 minutes ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

Until more info comes out, I'd hold judgement. There may have been an issue on the venue's end that forced the move (double booked, unsatisfactory environment to the needs of the tournament, infested with carnivorous mole men). I mean, yes, the whole situation sucks, but what they did is far better than outright cancelling the tournament.

It's better than cancelling the regional but on the same token its pretty unacceptable they promised one thing, and confirmed it weeks and weeks and weeks ago, weeks before FFG put the announcement out about Regionals, and now the venue is no good, and there doesn't seem to be any plan to deliver a venue thats matches advertised, instead providing one thats half the size.

This is not fair to local TOs in the area who can reliably hold more than 64 players, have held regionals in the past that held more than 64 players that every player walked away from smiling knowing they had fun and didn't leave feeling they wasted time and money. This is the only regional within the area that isn't 6+ hours away not including traffic.

It doesn't feel like regionals were very, regional this year.

FFG is done.

1 minute ago, Rinzler in a Tie said:

FFG is done.

This wasn't to flame FFG, who are pretty blameless in this other than maybe not vetting the TO enough to verify the event will happen as applied for and advertised. This is more of an advisement to the players of the event and to the community as a whole about what has happened. If you can't bring what you promised in your application, and pull all of this after the date has been announced for almost two weeks, then you shouldn't be applying AND you should verify. cross Ts and dot Is, and guarantee that venue and time are locked for the regional before any formal announcement be made.

What if they were literally informed now I f the double book, and had been told they were confirmed on every enquirer until then?

i know I’ve been shafted on 6 days notice by a hired hall before...

10 hours ago, Kehl_Aecea said:

There may have been an issue on the venue's end that forced the move (double booked, unsatisfactory environment to the needs of the tournament, infested with carnivorous mole men )

...is this a common problem State-side? Or just localised to the New York area?

It’s a game with plastic toy spaceships, we shouldn’t be so upset over it. It takes a lot to run an event that’s regional size and some things are out of people’s control.

3 minutes ago, Tbetts94 said:

It’s a game with plastic toy spaceships, we shouldn’t be so upset over it. It takes a lot to run an event that’s regional size and some things are out of people’s control.

I AM FURIUS! Plastic toy ships?!? This is the fate of the Galaxy we are talking about! I expect Lord Vader to force choke this TO anytime now..

*Scans list: nothing in New Jersey, nothing on Long Island. 64 slots for the tournament...*

You're upset. We get it. But blaming the TO for a venue problem is plain wrong. Venues DO NOT care if they end up double booked. They make money either way. It's a **** way to do business, but it happens much more frequently than you'd think. Saying Nu Brand should have "crossed their T's and dotted their I's" and shouldn't have applied unless they could guarantee everything they promised is a pretty ignorant statement to make. Have you considered they have a contract? Have you considered that most venues include a cancellation clause and the right to move your event?

Frankly I'd rather play in cramped Nu Brand than the alternatives, which would be a small, hot, stinky store on Long Island or a super small, not really X wing-centric store in Jersey.

6 hours ago, FTS Gecko said:

...is this a common problem State-side? Or just localised to the New York area?

I wouldn't say common, but according to a friend in event planning it's not usual for a venue to "forget" about a small revenue event and book a wedding, banquet or convention on the same date. Guess which event gets bumped. It's a crappy way to do business.

With venues this stuff happens. Even with contracts, double bookings can happen, and that means one event gets bumped (This happened to the Steele Open, which is why the event for 2018 was cancelled).

To say the TO should have "crossed their Ts and dotted their Is", while having no knowledge of the details, is a pretty ignorant statement to make.

27 minutes ago, Scottishgigolo said:

You're upset. We get it. But blaming the TO for a venue problem is plain wrong. Venues DO NOT care if they end up double booked. They make money either way. It's a **** way to do business, but it happens much more frequently than you'd think. Saying Nu Brand should have "crossed their T's and dotted their I's" and shouldn't have applied unless they could guarantee everything they promised is a pretty ignorant statement to make. Have you considered they have a contract? Have you considered that most venues include a cancellation clause and the right to move your event?

Frankly I'd rather play in cramped Nu Brand than the alternatives, which would be a small, hot, stinky store on Long Island or a super small, not really X wing-centric store in Jersey.

Well there is another option. That is that NYC doesn't get a regional next year.

I definitely don't blame the organizers here for this happening. Seems like a **** thing on NYU's part and I sympathize having had that happen to me myself.

That said, having a regional for X-Wing miniatures downtown in a major city seems like a bad idea. That stinky store on Long Island or in Connecticut/Jersey would be cheaper and easier for those who don't live in the city.

Last year's Connecticut regional was great and had plenty of space and was about an hour outside the city.

Once again, not blaming the organizers here just more airing my frustration with the idea of holding these in a downtown venue in general.

True. CT's regional was great, but I think FFG likes the idea of having one closer to Boston and one closer to NYC. I too think it was dumb to try and do a regional in the heart of New York as well. I have to wonder if there are no decent game stores in the Hudson Valley that would like an event.

1 hour ago, Scottishgigolo said:

Frankly I'd rather play in cramped Nu Brand than the alternatives, which would be a small, hot, stinky store on Long Island or a super small, not really X wing-centric store in Jersey .

Just to be clear, there are a bunch of stores in NJ (north, central, and south) that would have handled the Regional well. Another bunch if you also include the Philadelphia metro area section of PA.

South Jersey/Philly has one of the most active and organized X-Wing playgroups in the US.

I was thinking about signing up for this. Is there a reference out there that describes how the main event and the hanger bay event works?

I think the biggest issue is that regionals are too sparse in our area. Last season Poland had 5 easily drivable regionals and that's not even including going out of the country in an area about the size of NY state.

I don't think adding another 25-50% would make the events less prestigious or affect attendance as many people would go to multiple events.

3 hours ago, Xmage said:

I think the biggest issue is that regionals are too sparse in our area. Last season Poland had 5 easily drivable regionals and that's not even including going out of the country in an area about the size of NY state.

I don't think adding another 25-50% would make the events less prestigious or affect attendance as many people would go to multiple events.

Just for the record, Poland is over twice the size of New York state. I'll also point out that "easily driveable" means something very different in Europe.

Which isn't to say the situation is necessarily fair. Just pointing out some possible explanations.

10 hours ago, mightyspacepope said:

Just to be clear, there are a bunch of stores in NJ (north, central, and south) that would have handled the Regional well. Another bunch if you also include the Philadelphia metro area section of PA.

South Jersey/Philly has one of the most active and organized X-Wing playgroups in the US.

There are plenty of alternatives other than the "hot stinky long island store." SJPA is huge. I saw a fair number of their members at PAX and I assume there are many more of them that didn't show.

As said before there are a handful of other stores in the region that could handle 100 people without going outside the venue. It's upsetting that for such a populated region that the only game in town is now half as big as advertised and booked full with a waiting list.

Yes, SJPA is huge. Thats the problem. You’re talking about a Regional in New York. You move it to even Essex County, New Jersey and your talking about a minimum hour commute from the largest city in the world.

But SJPA certainly deserves its own Regional in that area as well. IMO NYC, Boston and Philly should have one as close to the city each year. There’s just that large of a population in each city.

2 hours ago, Scottishgigolo said:

Yes, SJPA is huge. Thats the problem. You’re talking about a Regional in New York. You move it to even Essex County, New Jersey and your talking about a minimum hour commute from the largest city in the world.

Just for the record, Tokyo is over twice the size of New York.