Well, it´s been an intense and thrilling week-end in my city! I am happy I could assist the event (believe it or not this is a personal success due to my diminishing family points), and I could enjoy a full day of gaming and all that is around it. Congratulations to the winner, and to everyone who had fun!
It was great to meet again some of the long-time-friend spanish players I met in other games, stores, events and similar. I could also shake hands with some people from Imperial advisor I have been reading the last couple of months, they were kind and commited in person as in the blog, and I had a whole day of gaming and fun.
The Torii was gorgeous, the place was comfortable, the organization was able to handle 450 people without collapsing (at least at the time I left they were all alive and more or less sane), and they were kind to the last and to the end.
The only black spot I could mention is the initial delay, and I only want to mention it in order to help the organization being aware of it and work to enhance that in the future. I will try to add some ideas for that.
I read in IA that there was some problem with the Underground which delayed like half of the attendants, and the organization had to decide: having an almost blank round 1, which I agree would have ruined the event, or delaying the kick-off. In that case, decision was correct. My experience was: I went by car, was there at 9:00 am, but as the location had a security check-in in a two by two basis, I had to wait a long time since the opening to get in. And there was a long line beyond me so I assume like half the people got inside later than I did.
Considering the best scenario and assuming all 450 players are at 9:00 am at the doors, and each one spends 15 secs entering the place through the 2 security arcs (non-torii), it would have been almost 1 hour to complete. This is unavoidable, unless the organization can negociate an early door opening with the local management, which I doubt was on their hands. All I can say about this is that it could have been anticipated, and schedule adjusted to it.
After that, it took some time to recopilate all decklists and check-in the tournament. I personally am a fan of the online deck registration, the day before. Maybe would have saved half an hour. But as I never discussed this with anyone, I ignore if there are drawbacks to this.
Then, the first roundpairing caused further delay. Again, my proposal would be to anticipate when possible with an online check-in the day before, and have a round one pairing scheduled. Specially when the first round is not published in social media. This would have given a spread player-table check and saved more time in the relocating issue after the chant. The worst scenario for this is a % of players doing the check-in the day before and then not assisting the event. I really think this would be quite a minority of people, and could have produced just a few auto loss in the first round. In case a relevant % of players were not in the place on time, as it seems to have been the case, delaying the kick off could be the sollution, but after that, no further delay would have happened.
My suggestion is an organization schedule as follows: Anticipate online check-in and decklist info the day before, and have a round 1 pairing scheduled. Then, IF 25% (or whatever % is correct based on organization experience) players are not in place at the time, delay the kick off as a measure to avoid diminishing the event. If less than the agreed % of players are out, then going on with first round and when someone is late or is not, it is a win to their rival.
I have no training and little experience in event organization, so I am sure the features of my proposal can be enhanced, but I think some ideas can be used.
Of course, I try to write this all in a constructive way, even when it took most of my post. I would like to clarify that, for what I saw (saturday only) it was a great event, well conducted and organized, and fully competitive at the highest level. And it was, by all means, quite fun.
I played three good matches and missed one round due to being late (my fault). The games where 2 victories vs Crane and Dragon and 1 loss vs Crane. I ended quite happy with my Dragon Monk deck, as my target was qualifying to the 2nd stage and I got it. I take it as a good result as my monks deck is still under construction (centipede tatoo incoming, written in the stars ahead!) and I have only played like 15-16 games of l5r at this time. I knew the spanish kotei would be hard and highly competitive, so any further qualification was out of my scope. The games showed me the potential of my deck and I had the advantage of surprise in one of them. I dropped to play a side event with some friends, and though we had a lot of fun in it, I would have liked to see the performance of the deck in the second stage… but one can not have it all.
That is all. I tried to say thanks to the people who worked in the event for their efforts and for the patience and kindness they showed. I have the feeling I need more of this, maybe I can join another kotei in a country nearby… lets count my family points again…
I suggest following the results in the Imperial Advisor, in
http://imperialadvisor.com/wp/2017/12/02/meta-check-madrid/
They are working on the reports now, more data will come in time.