Several of us local players are looking at attending the regionals event, but we have one big question:
With the swiss rounds lasting 1 hour each, will this be best 2 out of 3 matches, or just a single win? An hour seems like a long time, especailly based on the average length of games in our local tournaments, and we'd like to know what the official rules are going to be.
I would hope either you get a set number of games (like 5) or else best of 3 (more preferred). 
You've gotta be running some speedy deck to get 5 games in in an hour.
No, I'm referring to playing Swiss Rounds of 5. With, say, 45 minutes to an Hour for each match. 
People need to stop worrying so darn much about how long a tournament might take. The answer is: They take as long as is necessary. It's not like they aren't a bunch of fun, anyway.
Considering the cool location for this one, a longer tournament wouldn't be all that terrible anyway.
This is not a game I want to play best of 3. I liked raw deal being one match and our tournaments lasted about 10 hours
The event description says one hour rounds, that's why we're trying to figure out if its one match or best 2 of 3. We assume one match, as some match-up can take awhile, but we've also played 10-15 minutes games.
For most tournaments, the number of swiss rounds is based on the number of players. A 16 player event is usually 4, 32 is 5, etc. with top 8 or higher playoffs. Don't think FFG has an official stance on what their thresholds are at present, so it would be nice to know, just for planning. I won't be able to make the Warhammer event anyway (I'll be working, and hope to get done in time for the Thrones regional), but several of our players are looking at attending, and want to play in both if possible. Or out if they are doing poorly and won't make finals anyway.
JerusalemJones said:
The event description says one hour rounds, that's why we're trying to figure out if its one match or best 2 of 3. We assume one match, as some match-up can take awhile, but we've also played 10-15 minutes games.
While it is very true that some match-ups can take 45 minutes, those are more the exception ranther than the rule. Usually those types of matches are seen in later rounds of tournaments when you get the really good decks playing each other. I am pretty sure it will be best 2 of 3.
Moreover, 2 of 3 is really how it should be. Having one match is hugely weighted on starting hands and who goes first. At that point, you should just roll dice to see who wins because its more about luck than stategy.
If people are made aware of the time remaining in a round, and FFG have some sort of official way of determining who wins/draws/loses if it goes to time, it would be quite easy to have best two out of three rounds; we play this format at our monthly tournaments due to having a relatively small play group ~8-10 players and unless its a deathly slow match up with interruptions it can be finished in one hour no problem. Hopefully the Bolt Throwers have given stall decks a better way to win over decking, so this should help to make the games with the slow decks not as bad as they were during the Coreset / Coreset +1 / Coreset +2 environment.
Toberk said:
Moreover, 2 of 3 is really how it should be. Having one match is hugely weighted on starting hands and who goes first. At that point, you should just roll dice to see who wins because its more about luck than stategy.
If that is the case then your players are exceptionally evenly matched both in skill and deck design (in which case you are still essentially just rolling a dice two or three times rather than once, exact same chance each time) be it very good or very bad. When I lose against someone it is rarely because of luck. One of us is just a better player or has a better deck. The Godhand/Craphand loss is so rare because of the ability mulligan and our ability to control how many cards we draw that I find when it does happen it is almost always because someone's deck is just significantly better than the other person's.