Join Kelvan, Scruffy, Starslinger and several cans of beer as the team discusses Kelvan's recent sucess with Woodchipper, laments the lack of Worlds' tickets and reminisce over the past four years of podcasting.

https://scumvillainy.podbean.com/e/episode-70-salty-about-worlds/

I'm curious... Let me know your favorite moment of our podcast and send it to [email protected]. I'll send you a prize.

As usual, Blair's right about pretty much everything.

I always enjoyed hearing you guys talk to the Dev team. Even when they were shifty in answering, the insights were many and telling.

2 hours ago, Rakky Wistol said:

I always enjoyed hearing you guys talk to the Dev team. Even when they were shifty in answering, the insights were many and telling.

I realized we've had Alex Davy on 4 times.

He may need to be given a crew designation at this point.

-Ship's prisoner?

-Ship's hostage?

-Ship's punching bag?

-Ship's filthy landlubber (very surprised my phone knows the word "landlubber")?

1 hour ago, Sekac said:

He may need to be given a crew designation at this point.

-Ship's prisoner?

-Ship's hostage?

-Ship's punching bag?

-Ship's filthy landlubber (very surprised my phone knows the word "landlubber")?

Argh matey! Talk like a scallywog comes once a year! Yer filthy electronic talkin parrot best know what a landlubber be!

Congrats on the anniversary!

Thanks for the effort and love you guys put out for the game and the community!

Thanks for the episode guys. Sorry about all the salt.

Though I wish Tyler didn't say that the next Worlds winner will have a big asterisk next to his or her win. I understand where he's coming from but preemptive disrespect (and not the krayt kind) is poor form.

If someone like Paul Heaver wins again, are we really going to refuse to acknowledge him as one of the best players in the world? Or is asterisk clause only going to be applied if some relatively unknown person wins like has happened the last 2 years?

Worlds has never been structured to reveal who the best player in the world is, just who had the best weekend of the people who were able to make it in/able to afford to go.

That will be true of this year's event too so I don't think we should be applying asterisks to this year's winner any more than, say, Doug's win due to the low turnout of the first Worlds.

Winning is winning, and we should treat the winner with respect.

Tyler's comment is of course provocative, but I am sure he'll actually consider competitors respectfully as he always does. Yet does not he make a point ?

Indeed the World Championships will not be as competitive as they could be, because of registration issues.

Any solid argument against a Merit-based registration ?

X-wing is now a big game in terms of its competitive scene, and I am still looking for arguments against a merit-based access to the "World Championships".

Why should FFG do it ? Because they would benefit from it! Besides pleasing their player base.

Can we imagine a few appointed live-bloggers taking a lot of pictures and interviews (does not have to be expensive - jut give them a pile of promo cards and a couple privileges), plus 3-5 simultaneous games being streamed and recorded by the top-notch podcasters the community has? But compile them together on a clean, accessible and supported '2018 Worlds coverage' site.

How many thousand players would read and watch that ? Of course this would trigger additional interest and sales. And the player count would not matter (Look at MtG World Champs). But knowing that they're all solid achievers and/or known names would.

It's really not hard to implement (For example, conditions like making X regional top Y cuts this year, being in the top Z at worlds last year, in the top XX of nationals). It could be quite on the generous side if they wish. But I think almost everyone would understand that doing decently well that year (or in last year's biggest tournaments, or hall-of-faming) would have to be a requirement to make it to the single most important tournament of the year.

Everyone who's been at Worlds in the past knows that even if the event is globally very competitive, there is a bit of an awkward 'luck of the draw' at least for the first few rounds.

Being a competitor at World Championships should already be considered as an achievement (for a game as popular as X-wing)

Note : This is not an interested post - I am an example of someone who 'benefits' from this system (I got in thanks to the lottery despite not playing tournaments this year. But I don't even know yet if I will fly as I was not randomly selected for Armada. And Armada could use a higher body count!)

43 minutes ago, Fanfan said:

Any solid argument against a Merit-based registration ?

That's the Coruscant Invitational.

We don't need both major tournaments to follow the same style. Worlds being an open-to-all-comers tournament is a good thing to bring together the wider community.

I've got no problem with a merit-based entrance requirement.

I only have an issue with asserting that this year's winner will have an asterisk by their win when that has never been suggested before.

Size wasn't a factor in "asterisking", nor was the previous luck based entry system, nor has cost ever resulted in an asterisk--despite being the largest continual discriminating factor in every Worlds.

Applying one now is arbitrary and disrespectful.

These are all awesome points.

Honestly I think they need to expand the player count to match the demand. Either by more flights or actually getting a bigger environment.

2 hours ago, Sekac said:

Though I wish Tyler didn't say that the next Worlds winner will have a big asterisk next to his or her win. I understand where he's coming from but preemptive disrespect (and not the krayt kind) is poor form.

Let's be honest though. If come May we still have a good chunk of the competitive community locked out of worlds, the asterisk is going to happen. Will it suck if that person happens to be not as accomplished? Sure. But it's going to be the reality and probably should be acknowledged.

2 hours ago, Sekac said:

Worlds has never been structured to reveal who the best player in the world is, just who had the best weekend of the people who were able to make it in/able to afford to go.

In a technical sense you are correct because it has always been an open event, but for the most part those who've put the effort to get there (which includes making sure they are available for the click-athon) happen to be a lot of the top players. I'm sure you could have said in previous worlds that "Oh it wasn't as competitive field as it could be if maybe X, Y, or Z showed up", but that effect is going to be way more pronounced this year, if there aren't many tickets open in the 2nd or 3rd wave of openings.

I have always liked this podcast. But unfortunetly the later episodes is mostly salt and whine, and it is not very interesting to listen to. There is also quite a bit of cohosts talking at the same time, makes it confusing and sometimes sounds rude. This podcast needs a better structure(again) and more direction.

Sorry to complain... You are still one of the better podcasts, just seem to be slippin and sliding a bit

3 hours ago, miguelj said:

Let's be honest though. If come May we still have a good chunk of the competitive community locked out of worlds, the asterisk is going to happen. Will it suck if that person happens to be not as accomplished? Sure. But it's going to be the reality and probably should be acknowledged.

In a technical sense you are correct because it has always been an open event, but for the most part those who've put the effort to get there (which includes making sure they are available for the click-athon) happen to be a lot of the top players. I'm sure you could have said in previous worlds that "Oh it wasn't as competitive field as it could be if maybe X, Y, or Z showed up", but that effect is going to be way more pronounced this year, if there aren't many tickets open in the 2nd or 3rd wave of openings.

Putting down someones achievment is never a good thing, it just makes people look bad. I can only see it as being jelous tbh, or disappointed. But dont take it out on someone not even responsible...

Winning over a starting field of hundreds of players is always a noteworthy achievment. And Credit, where Credit is due.

35 minutes ago, Fippo said:

Putting down someones achievment is never a good thing, it just makes people look bad. I can only see it as being jelous tbh, or disappointed. But dont take it out on someone not even responsible...

Winning over a starting field of hundreds of players is always a noteworthy achievment. And Credit, where Credit is due.

And that's fine, but if the best competitors are locked out of it, its also not fair to call them the best in the world.

Tbh, that is impossible to know. The next world champion does not have to be an established player internationaly, even with already established players attending. Just because a few "famous" players is not there, does not make anyone else attending less good.

Its all assumptions, bad ones at that. If you are that good this season, you won a Ticket through tornaments running up to worlds.

FFG needs to charge $300+/ticket and rent a facility that can hold whoever wants to go. Worlds shouldnt be "im gonna attend because its fun". It should be "I think Im good enough to win and will make the journey for the cost". Raise the price enough to keep scrubs out. But still affordable for everyone who really wants to go. Keyword: Everyone

Or, have top 8 from all regionals get auto invite. If they dont accept by April 1st, THEN have a lottery system for vacant spaces + reserved # lotto seats.

Having the Worlds be a crapshoot of talent is not what the tourney is there to represent. I think most hold the Coruscant Invitational as the best of the best. Worlds is just another tourney, unfortunately.

As long as it will be held in Roseville, Minnesota and not rotating around the Worlds any discussion about accessability is dwarfed by the fact it's just another North American big tournament with a bunch of dedicated foreigners.

FFG needs to move away from their bloody game center, anything else, while probably being also good improvements, come at a second time

3 hours ago, Nyxen said:

And that's fine, but if the best competitors are locked out of it, its also not fair to call them the best in the world.

This has been true of every worlds tournament they've held. It has never been merit based and it continues to not be. I'll agree we should put an asterisk on this one if we also put it on every other winner.

2 hours ago, Sunitsa said:

FFG needs to move away from their bloody game center, anything else, while probably being also good improvements, come at a second time

At least they've done that with the Opens, but I'll add that moving it doesn't change the problem it just becomes a big tournament in whatever country with dedicated foreigners attending wherever.

The yearly Worlds ticket ****** just added insult to injury. Not only do FFG screw Australia/New Zealand/SE Asia over again with no system open, but they don't even have the common decency to tell me I didn't get a worlds ticket.

27 minutes ago, CRCL said:

The yearly Worlds ticket ****** just added insult to injury. Not only do FFG screw Australia/New Zealand/SE Asia over again with no system open, but they don't even have the common decency to tell me I didn't get a worlds ticket.

You checked your spam folder right? Rejection emails went there. Sorry you didn't get a ticket.

3 hours ago, Sekac said:

This has been true of every worlds tournament they've held. It has never been merit based and it continues to not be. I'll agree we should put an asterisk on this one if we also put it on every other winner.

I'm fine with asterisking them all if you're fine with making this year's asterisk bigger

1 hour ago, AlexW said:

At least they've done that with the Opens, but I'll add that moving it doesn't change the problem it just becomes a big tournament in whatever country with dedicated foreigners attending wherever.

Yeah, but if they rotate locations, it at least doesn't regularly favor North Americans.

To make it a true "best in the world" tournament (which it isn't and never has been) they should:

1) move out of their game center to properly accommodate a greater number of participants without requiring people play a flight of Swiss mid-week.

2) Create an international ranking system.

3) Pay travel expenses/accommodations for the top [X] players in the world.

Until then, it is what it always has been, and no win is more deserving of an asterisk than any other