For a measure that will help curb the tournament lists, this is what I'd consider: make a list of all the pilots in the highest-performing meta squads, and allow people to only bring one pilot from that list in their squads.

Nothing is banned; players can still fly any individual ship/pilot they want to. Some players will still try to optimize lists within the limitations, because that's how some people play, but at least you'll be fostering some innovation.

Also maybe be a little bit more clear about what constitutes a 'beginner', and tell people that if they're a bit more experienced they're still welcome but if they do come please please please bring a silly/thematic list, or else maybe open a side table so they can play games and give pointers to the less experienced players. Or even just run a split tournament with a beginner's bracket and a tryhard bracket, if that's the kind of thing you can pull off.

17 hours ago, Kijaucey said:

Wow that sounds super fun. The vets would have to build something they can beat with what their newbie opponent 'might' be bringing. I really like this idea. Random list swap.

I did when I was a Press ganger for PP we called it swap the caster, you could do the same thing just don't tell anyone, everyone show's up, pair folks off, then tell them to swap list's and ships. The over completive guys will freak, but hey since it casual it will be a lot of fun. Another option is (if you want to do the work) make up list yourself and hand them out to the players after you have matched them up. At the end of the game take the list shuffle them, next round hand out lists again, done that before too...always fun. The one thing you should stress to you payers it a casual event, no meta no super over the top completive lists.

Bottom line you need to make all your players a wear that this is a casual event...meant to have fun. good luck.

18 hours ago, Babaganoosh said:

Before each match, players flip a coin.

It doesn't have a cool name at the moment

Flips and Ships!

If snacks are provided, now it's

Flips and Ships with Chips!

3 hours ago, Kijaucey said:

Alliteration with casual

I like the point switch up ideas and the objective based ones a lot, especially the good sportsman vote someone else mentioned. Sometimes I can be a pretty sore loser and that would help me reprogram myself in a way.

Or make the grand prize "most original list" by vote. That should knock meta right off the pedestal immediately.

And what's with crafted being weird? It would be weird if people started referring to you as their shipmonger.

After reading about how cut-throat some of these groups seem to be, I'm very happy that most of mine aren't so annoying.

E.g. at the last themed event I went to, there were a pair of top UK players present. Whilst they were fiercely competitive, they had fully embraced the theme and appreciated that the main challenge was to do as well as they could with a restricted ship list.

The event was won by 5 alpha squadron interceptors with autothrusters, flown by someone who rarely attends tournaments. And a great time was had by all.

Child's Play? or Sibling Rivalry?

Based, as you say, on the concept where; If you have two children and one brownie, you let one kid cut the brownie and the other one gets to choose first. You know that the kid cutting the brownie is going to cut it as evenly as humanly possible.

That's exactly where I got this idea from

Really the most interesting thing about my format (Child's Play?) is that you can field any list you want to. The only limitation is your ability to balance the two lists you want to field.

Brings an alternate name idea to mind: "No meta except the one we make"

Reverse Hangar Bay: bring two lists from two factions, your opponent chooses which list you fly.

No Uniques, No Duplicates.

Theme (Original Trilogy Only, New Trilogy Only, etc)

Add missions/objectives (Political Escort tournament?)

Thank you everyone for your replies and the great conversation! There are so many ideas that I can try. Of course, we will still have competitive tournaments but it is certainly refreshing to have different formats from time to time to break meta monotony.

On 3/1/2018 at 2:10 PM, Kaptin Krunch said:

Congrats- You've created Wookiee Cancer world.

Half of the suggestions in this thread are terrible. Restricting a bunch of upgrades based on what you feel is gamewarping isn't a good idea- everyone lives in their own local enviroment. Nspace has some terrible ideas that do nothing to actually address most problems, and the best suggestions are LagJ and the 2 drink minimum.

Hey, if you post the event as a big casual one and someone brings cancer, then that's all them. Of course, we can add no more than one Wookie Gunship to the vs. List if it makes you feel better. What happens if someone wins it all with a cancer List? It's not like 1st place will win that much prizes. They will earn the disrespect of all players.

I still say the best tool is TO's discretion to ban ships.

On ‎01‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 5:30 PM, LagJanson said:

I find scenario play shifts things pretty nicely since it changes things up... team play and still that competitive beat the other guys....

https://goo.gl/photos/WHmXm9WWRKzfisTAA

Definitely. Mixing up scenarios makes it hard to win by list-building.

On 3/1/2018 at 2:06 PM, __underscore__ said:

50/50 rules worked pretty well at my club - each player brings two 50 point lists and picks one of their opponent's lists to fly.

You have peaked my curiosity with this.

21 minutes ago, AT Leader said:

You have peaked my curiosity with this.

It's a nice variation of Hangar Bay, but with that slight little bit of self doubt involved . These are the rules we used:

1) Players each bring two different 50pt lists, labelling them list 1 and list 2. The following list building restrictions take place:
a) Unique upgrades and pilots will only be allowed once in either list (e.g. a player is only allowed Vader Pilot or Vader crew in one list. The other would must be Vader free).
b) Both of a player's lists cannot contain any of the same ships (e.g. T-65 X-Wings can only be in one of a player's lists, not the other, regardless of which pilots are being used).
c) Each list must be a minimum 47 points.

2) When pairings are announced, both players share their 50pt lists with one another.

3) Players select which of their opponent's lists they want to use in secret. They do this by taking a manuveur dial and choose either a 1 speed manuveur if they choose list 1 or a 2 speed manuveur if they choose list 2 and place their dial facedown on the gaming mat.

4) Once both players have placed dials the dials are revealed similtaneously. Each player plays with the 50pt list they have chosen plus the 50pt list their opponent has chosen not to use to give a 100pt list.

5) The game then follows the same rules as standard 100pt dogfight with a 75 minute time limit

Try 77+ format, it's a variant from last year Coruscant Open Series and we have a ton of fun when we don't want classic 100/6 games and since we are a small community it's a good format.

1 ) Each player come with a 77 pts squad

2) They have a random ship , each faction have 8 choices (Official FFG)

3) to get the ship each player roll a 1d8 after choosing their faction. (local variant)

4) If the player is not happy about the roll, the player may reroll but must keep the result (local variant)

5) Players can play !

Can't be anymore casual than showing up naked!

19 minutes ago, JediSamurai said:

Can't be anymore casual than showing up naked!

Too casual. TOO CASUAL!!!!

5 minutes ago, LagJanson said:

Too casual. TOO CASUAL!!!!

nah bro, nah.

Sry double post

That's no moon.... Oh wait... It is ?

One format we did here which saw a huge turnout for was called Dueces Wild.

simple rules.

1. No ship with a native pilot skill above 2.

2. TLT is limited to 1 per list.

the sheer amount of variety we saw was great.

It forces out some of the biggest abusers, while still having a lot of options. And you can always cap something else if you expect abuse like Harpoons.

One tournament idea I've been cooking up (and will test out soon) is a "There can only be one: Draft Edition"

Here's how it works:

1. Every player draws a number out of a hat depending on number of players.

2. The highest number player chooses a ship to draft. Then down the line.

3. After the lowest numbered person drafts, they draft again, snaking backwards.

4. After you've drafted a Pilot, you may either draft an upgrade to go on a pilot already in your possession, or may draft another pilot.

5. No upgrade/pilot may ever be drafted twice by anyone, meaning there will only be 1 PTL in the entire tournament.

6. Auto-Include Titles (excluding X7, which I am making unique) are non-unique and avaliable to anyone who drafts a ship of that type and they acquire it immediately without needing to waste a draft pick.

7. After Drafting, if you have left over points in your squad, you may 'purchase' 1 Shield upgrade and/or 1 Hull upgrade, ignoring restrictions (but staying under 100 points).

Tell you one thing, you will be lucky to come out of this with a meta-ship. Most meta-ships have 4-5 upgrades on them, so if you want to get a Poe with everything, well, it's not going to happen. It'll be interesting to see what craziness comes out of it!