Saturday, February 24th I'll be hosting our third Armada tournament at Borderlands Comics and Games in Greenville SC. It'll be a great time to get in practice for the NC regionals two weeks after.

This is a standard 400 point tournament with 3 rounds. Registration starts at 11AM dice roll at 11:30AM.
$10 entry fee OP kit and additional prizes including custom 3D printed ships from @melminiatures for first, second, and third place finishers and for best painted fleet.

So, about this "best painted" award, since that isn't an award you see often in pre-painted miniatures games... As a veteran of many miniature games systems that do require painting, I am going to add my 0.02 credits. If you're going to have a painting competition category with a prize I suggest a couple things:

Consider if has to be an entire "fleet" or can it be only one model? Making it have to be the entire fleet is really going to be limiting as many players can't or don't want to paint their entire fleet. Many players find the pre-painted ships a big draw to this game, so having a prize for best painted when painting is not required (vs other miniatures games where the assembly and painting is considered a "part of the hobby") can come across as being a bit excluding. This can make for some bad feelings, especially when players see their entry fee going to support this prize. Not bad enough for many players to speak out initially, but it can fester.

Perhaps with the entry fee all players are allowed to enter (and limited too) a single model into the best painted competition, though you could put stipulations like the model must be included in their fleet list (no pin-up shelf queens). Maybe have players who want to compete for the "best painted" prize can all line their models up during lunch break for review so other players can see them. I also recommend that you require that the ship (or fleet) must belong to the player and have been painted by the player (no commissioned work allowed).

As long as the prize is completely additional, then there should not be resentment.

The main issues with resentment, exclusion and elitism is mostly abounded when common and normal prizes are fated behind a paint system, or overall score factors painting... (or conversely, when generalship affects what is ostensibly a painting prize)

I applaude the addition of it, since the prize is clearly being provided “out of pocket”, as it is not part of the kit parcel.

This means you should and do elect to compete, rather than be forced to, and opting out still allows you to bank on the normal suite of announced prizing.

Nothing is worse than forcing paint on people.

Second to that is refusing to acknowledge those who do regardless.

Thisbis the best way to handle it, and I applaud it.

The additional prize models I provide out of my own pocket not out of the kit so nobody's entry fee goes towards them and the painting prize gets selected last so it's not like anybody who placed first second or third is not getting what they wanted. I just do it purely to encourage people to add some personal flair to their fleets. I do agree that definitely any ships up for consideration be a part of your Fleet. I do immediately rule any ships that I myself painted as ineligible since I'm the one judging them. I wouldn't rule out ships that somebody else had commissioned by someone else because unless they tell me somebody else painted them then I'm not going to know. It's just one of those little extra things I like to throw in there. I don't think, and would certainly hope, that nobody would have their feelings hurt by it.