juicebox said:

I think I like the original plan better 1 person 1 entry but maybe that's biased as a result of never getting into the top 10 on any arcade game because of the one guy who plays all the time and owns all 10 spots. I'd still give it a shot either way, but I usually only get around playing 1-3 quests a week so I wouldn't have much of a chance in getting to the "All time top 10" I believe you called it which I probably wouldn't anyway but it comes down to the same theory as the 1 guy at the arcade who owns all 10 spots makes it not as fun for everyone else. Just my opinion.

Adding on to what I just said I do think that being able to try the quest again and change your score is a good idea, just everyone gets one entry that can be changed if you do better the next time.

plueschi - I've been thinking more about your feedback, and Avalanche, I appreciate your thoughts as well. I gotta say, even without anyone else weighing in, I think you two have swayed me. Your idea would help to "spread out the glory," while also allowing for the dynamic of competing with both self and others.

I'm for it. So, here's how I'm thinking about revising that piece:

As the week unfolds, I will keep this first post updated with the Top Ten results. (Each participant can occupy a maximum of one Top Ten spot at a time, so you’re welcome to try and best your own result throughout the week).

Does that seem clear? My aim with the introduction is to boil it down to be concise, engaging, and clear.

As always, thoughtful feedback is always welcome. I've really appreciated it so far, and I think your suggestions will help make this a more enjoyable experience. So, thanks!

Seems fine to me.

Have to play Rhosgobel a few times before I shall return to the Anduin.

I know the change has already been made, but I figured I'd add my vote to 1 entry per player. I'd rather see 10 different names in the top 10 than several repeats of the same player.

Hey buddy,

I think I will skip this one and hop onto the next challenge. I think the deck changes I have to make are a little to steep. See, my decks are sleeved. In different colours. Unsleeving them, putting a new deck together and re-building my old decks afterwards would take me like 1 1/2 hours at least. Also I kinda forgot which cards came with the core set. I'd have to look up lots of cards online to confirm that they match the limitation. In short: Its a hell of a lot work to participate :S

Chris

Kiwina said:

Thanks Kiwina. I appreciate your feedback.

UnthoughtKnown said:

Your system sounds amazing. Hope to see you on one of the Top Tens one of these weeks though... the more the merrier.

Well folks,

We're 55.5% of the way through the week for the very first The juicebox LOTR LCG Tournament of the Week!

I'd like to thank everyone who has participated so far, and I'm sure excited to see how the second half of the week plays out.

Plans for the future are in the works - both for the immediate future (The juicebox LOTR LCG Tournament of the Week #2 - which will launch this Sunday) and for the longer term. Likely, just to give you an idea of where things are headed, these first few weeks will focus on revisiting quests from the original Core Set, and then a series of tournaments will be hosted focusing on the quests from the various Mirkwood Adventure Packs. Of course, all this will be unfolding as many of us begin our delight in exploring the deep and the dark of Khazad Dûm. Geez, the future holds so many possibilities! As more tournaments are played, the Top Ten Hall of Fame (yet to be established) will become of greater and greater interest. So, stay tuned! There is much to look forward to in the weeks and months to come.

As always, if any of you have ideas for future tournaments (particular quests, deck building parameters, etc...) or for tournament logistics in general please feel free to post them here in this thread. You're welcome to PM me as well.

Journey Well.

One major thing I think you should do, i try to avoid things being too up-to-date.

I'll expand on that, as it currently makes no sense.

I'm in the UK, we normally get the expansions with the new quests anywhere from 1-4 weeks after the release is announced on the Web. My FLGS is in the process of going bust, so I only got the Dead Marshes Yesterday.

Compared with the US, it sucks. Compared with much of Europe, it's great. From what I've read on here, some countries are still waiting on Emyn Muil (not sure if there's anywhere that doesn't have Rhosgobel)

so, in order to keep it fair, I think that rather than ever having "completely open build" it should be more along the lines of "Core and any expansions up to X" where X is an expansion that was released (according to this site) a couple of months ago.

Obviously, it's great to put the new cards in, and some of them are very cool, but it seems unfair to disadvantage people by where they live.

Please don't take any of that as a criticism - I think the whole thing is a great idea, just my input tot ry and keep things balanced.

(BTW +1 for 1 player, 1 score per week)

Mighty Jim said:

Agree. I'm for Ukraine and I have only Rhosgobel. LGS promised to get all Mirkwood APs (except Hunt for Gollum) this year. Hunt and Osgiliath we'll have only next year.

Thanks Mighty Jim and LEGA. Your thoughts are important to me, as I do hope to craft the tournaments to be as inclusive as possible while also striving to focus on the natural diversity that is built in to the game - there's just so many different ways to enjoy it! While I may not hit the nail on the head every time, especially given the lack of certain cards in certain markets, rest assured that my plan at this point really is to start oldest to newest (and Mighty Jim, your scaling idea for the Mirkwood cycle is almost exactly along the lines of what I've been imagining for this first run through). Also, I had imagined hosting a Massing at Osgiliath tournament sooner than later, but LEGA, to at least help with some of the market delay issues (again, I probably won't be on a satisfactory pace for everyone with all of them), I'm now considering at least delaying that one for a while.

Also, since there are currently 10 quests released (US side of the pond) and the flow of new quests being added to our pool from FFG will be monthly, a weekly tournament will mean getting to revisit quests (with different parameters each time) often (especially here in the early days). So, if someone misses playing a certain quest the first time it appears as a focus for a weekly tournament (either because you are playing the game already but don't have the cards yet or because someone has yet to join the game until next week/month/year), rest assured - that quest will eventually be back. Now, while this won't necessarily help create even parity for the ongoing/living nature of the All Time Top Ten, it will at least (hopefully) allow all players to take a crack at a given quest for a weekly tournament at some point along the way.

Hope this helps... LOVE the international bunch we are, enjoying this game. (Would make Tolkien quite happy, I think.)

As Mighty Jim stated we live in Different countries I want to add something else at this point. As these tournements last one week you should fix a concrete time though we all live in different time zones. While in the US it may be sunday, in Germany we still have saturday or vice versa, honestly I'm not quite sure about it. But the point is. While I write this post it is very late at night where I live while it is afternoon elsewhere.

No critics just a point to keep in mind. Stick to your great work!

Edit: After posting I saw this post was registered 7 PM 26 November. Here in Germany it is 2 AM 27 November, so there may be a delay from posting the scorings from sunday to sunday.

Some ideas for future games:

- players have to play with a given hero combo / a given deck

- players have to start with a given encounter card (instead of drawing randomly)

- players may only use 2 copies of each card

- players may not use Éowyn

- players may not use neutral cards

OnkelZorni said:

Good question OnkelZorni.

Since I live in Seattle, Washington in the United States, the weekly tournament will end at midnight on Saturday night in the Pacific Time Zone. I realize that I'm being egocentric in that sense. I thought about organizing it around the time zone for FFG's headquarters in Minnesota, but I think I'll have more success with being consistent if I stick to my time zone and ask others to accommodate.

I believe Germany is 9 hours ahead (during this time of year - we are on a daylight savings time adjustment), so the end of the week's tournament will be 9am (Sunday morning) your time.

As an aside, every time I update the Top Ten listing I have been posting the time of the update.

Hope that helps.

juicebox said:

Hmmmmm... I find myself thinking some more about the issue of timing. OnkelZorni, your last aside highlights something that might be very useful for us all - the forums ARE set to FFG Headquarters time. Very interesting. Very interesting, indeed. This has me rethinking my statement above about basing these tournaments around Seattle time. IF we all base it around the FFG Headquarters time, we can all see the date and time of our posts right there in the forum threads. (And whose to say I'll always be in Seattle when it's time for the week to turn over anyway?) So, after all, I think it would be simpler for me, and I think it would be simpler for everyone to make the cutoff time each week at midnight FFG time, as marked by the forums themselves.

Since I did not specify this for the first week's tournament, I may have to offer a little wiggle room if any last minute (Seattle time) posts come in for this first week. BUT, from this week on, we can use FFG time, and I'll specify that in the weekly tournament introduction.

Thanks again for bringing this to my attention.

Also, on another note, GOOD STUFF leptokurt! Those are going in the idea bank for sure.

Hi Everybody,

As some of you may be well aware, there has been some meaningful discussion happening over here with regard to these tournaments, and important decisions currently hang in the balance.

In the mean time, I want to offer a spoiler for next week’s tournament...

I’m offering this because I think spoilers are fun, and I think they can help build anticipation. Plus, I figure, if you’re reading this Ideas Thread, you should be rewarded for your curiosity. (I’m quite pro-curiosity.)

So, without further ado, next week’s tournament will feature:

Quest: Passage Through Mirkwood
Deck Parameters: Open Build, Monosphere Deck Only*
Number of Players: Solo Play – 1 Player/1 Deck

*In deck building for next week’s tournament, you may use cards from any number of available sets and adventure packs to construct your minimum 50-card deck. However, you may only use cards from a single sphere of influence + neutral cards.

As always, thanks for playing.

Announcement:

I’ve been learning a lot from hosting these first couple of tournaments. Important questions have been raised, and there have been some helpful discussions along the way. Now, while I imagine that the nature of how these tournaments are hosted will continue to evolve somewhat over time, what follows here are some key decisions that will help give shape to the foreseeable future. More precisely, I’m going to go with the following plan for the next 2 months and evaluate whether I will make any further adjustments to the system toward the end of January 2012.

Decisions:

1) Various Solo Player tournaments will continue to be offered weekly on a Sunday – Saturday basis.

2) There will be occasional planned breaks from the weekly Solo Player tournaments, and anticipated breaks will be announced ahead of time in the Ideas Thread.

3) Various 2 Player tournaments will be offered in the form of a monthly tournament (see here for the current active 2 Player tournament).

4) The frequency of future 2 Player tournaments may be adapted over time to meet the perceived level of interest in 2 Player tournaments, interest being measured by how quickly a competitive Top Ten begins to take shape during a given tournament. (i.e. where one week seemed too short for 2 Player, one month may prove too long.)

5) I am going to start posting weekly announcements (each Wednesday) about upcoming tournaments here to the Ideas Thread. That way, participants can start planning ahead for the next tournament, clarifying questions can be asked, and fine-tuning can be accomplished before the official tournament start date.

6) It is possible that a 3 and/or 4 Player tournament could be hosted at some point in the future. However, logistics have not been thoroughly considered, so plans for hosting such a tournament will likely follow at least a couple of 2 Player events.

7) The juicebox Top Ten Hall of Fame thread will continue to feature one Top Ten Hall of Fame list that highlights the ten highest compiled scores from all completed tournaments. This will serve to benefit those who play in all the various kinds of tournaments (Solo Player, 2 Player, and maybe some day 3 and 4 Player as well).

As always, thanks for playing.

juicebox.

In our play we reveal what kind of people we are.
Ovid
Roman poet
43 BC–17/18 AD

Hi Everybody! It’s time for my first formal Wednesday Announcement!

Announcement:

There have been 3 juicebox LOTR LCG tournaments to hit the forums so far (JDtA and PtM for Solo Player and EfDG for 2 Player), and 2 of those tournaments are still currently active!

For those of you who have been playing/following along, you may have made the astute observation that in these first 3 tournaments we have been/are exploring the original 3 quests from the initial Core Set.

That in mind, for the week of December 11-17, I am going to take a break from hosting a new Solo Player tournament. This break will serve 2 purposes.

1) I want to allow some more focused time to take the active 2 Player tournament for a spin. I know several of you, myself included, have had the desire to play in this tournament but have yet to find the time to enjoy a 2 player gaming session. Well, to that I say… let’s LEEROY JENKINS this bad boy!! Seriously, let’s do this. You can find the thread here, and I encourage each and every one of you (again, myself included) to give this first multiplayer tournament a proper go.

2) I want to allow some breathing room before launching in to the next big block of tournaments. For just around the corner, beginning on December 18th, the next wave of new tournament action will feature… you guessed it, the Shadows of Mirkwood series! For more specifics, check back next Wednesday.

As always, thanks for playing,

juicebox.

People tend to forget that play is serious.
David Hockney
Contemporary British painter

Wednesday Announcement: December 14, 2011

The next planned Solo Player Tournament will help us kick off a cycle of tournaments that will feature the Shadows of Mirkwood series. Beginning on December 18th, this weeklong tournament will feature:

Quest: The Hunt for Gollum
Deck Parameters: 1-3 Core Sets + HfG Adventure Pack
Number of Players: Solo Play – 1 Player/1 Deck

Prepare yourselves!

Also, don’t forget about the current active 2 Player Tournament.

As always, thanks for playing,

juicebox.

Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play.
Henri Matisse
French painter
1869–1954

Hey! Let me know, I'd like to try it out when you do this!

Zjb12 said:

Hi Zjb12.

I'll be posting the new active Solo Player Tournament for the week of December 18-24 in a little over 10 hours.

Look forward to you joining the fray.

As I look to start putting my player deck together, is there an easy way to distinguish the HfG cards from those of the other aps?

Zjb12 said:

All of the Shadows of Mirkwood AP cards have a Set Information symbol and number in the bottom right hand corner of the card.

The Shadows of Mirkwood symbol is a little spiderweb.

In Hunt for Gollum, the Player Deck cards are numbered 1-9.

Good question. Hope that helps.

Also, for a more visual approach, you can go to: http://lotrlcg.com/ and search, filtering for the HfG Expansion.

Thanks, tried a deck out tonight, no success. Try playing with it again tomorrow, and then perhaps rework the deck if no wins!