I just wanted to hurry up and mention this here before there's a furor of other people talking about how this is the end of the world.

I have absolutely no problem with this change and I think it shows that FFG is beginning to take the organized play programs for these games just a teensy bit more seriously.

It makes perfect sense. Gencon is just gaming convention, that it has emerged as the proverbial "Mecca" of gaming is a classic example of adhocracy at work.

I've got no problems with doing the "World Championships" at the Event Center. I actually like it better because I think there will be fewer people dropping after losing the first 2 rounds to go see the rest of GenCon.

But I have to say, the logic of how it better enables FFG to make the "Worlds" truly global escapes me. How is Roseville in November more "outside North America"-friendly than Indianapolis in August?

Had they announced it at GenCon last year I wouldn't care. Had they announced it a month before GenCon tickets went on sale I wouldn't care. Had they announced it today for 2013 I wouldn't care.

But no. After people have purchased tickets and booked rooms/flights to Indianapolis this is a terrible choice. Anyone who was on the ball and purchased their stuff in advance is now out money if they wanted to go to Worlds at GenCon. Even if this only effects one person I think it's an awful thing to do. Even though I still plan on going to GenCon (although with this notice I will not be able to attend "Worlds" to defend my title) and playing in the Continental Championship I am very upset with the choice FFG made in this scenario and cannot be ok with it.

Intentionally Anonymous said:

I have no problem with this amount of notice. 6 months is a long time. If you pre-booked flights and rooms more than 6 months in advance that puts you in the category of ultra preplanner. Yes some people will be disappointed, but lets not make this out like it is six weeks beforehand.

dh098017 said:

When I booked my GenCon room at 8 o'clock CST (rooms had been on sale for ~9 hours) there were three hotels in downtown Indianapolis that had rooms for four people left. I'll assume the thousands of people who made that happen are all "ultra preplanners".

~You ultra-planners are all mad, I tell you!

That's really not responsible from FFG ... I was planning on coming all the way from Switzerland with a friend of mine and I know for a fact that there are other EU players in the same crappy situation.

A six months notice really isn't enough for international players... I, for once, have already bought my plane ticket a couple weeks ago. Luckily, the GenCon was only a small part of my four weeks road trip across the US and I can easily cross it out of my itinerary, but I'm not sure things will end up so well for other people. It would have been easier for all of us if we had known a couple of months ago.

Also, I don't really see how Rooseville in the middle of November could somehow be a better place and date than Indianapolis in August. It will be right in the middle of my winter semester...

Not only will it be impossible for college students to attend the event but FFG perfectly knows that November is one of the busiest month for anyone who has a job remotely connected to the economy; it simply is harder to get a week off work right before Christmas.

Anyway, I'm a little bit disappointed , mostly because I do not see why they would suddenly postpone the World Championship to November when it seemed to work out just fine in August at the GenCon for the past 10 years or so, and also because I was eagerly looking forward to finally meeting all of the great US players I talk to on AGOTcards or read about on this forum.

-Chris

Flying the Euro champs in by the droves may be slightly cheaper to do on the month of November than August.

-

First of all, I agree with mardukch and ¿brett?(IA) about not being enough notice time. My friends and I, from south america already bought tickets (plane and badges) to go as part of our trip to the US, so It's a bummer.

But, if everyone that was going before is going now too, i don't really mind how this is called. All we are interested in is trying to see if we can compete against cahmps, chumps, and championship level players; meeting some of the people from the forums, the internationally ¿famous? (see what i did there xD) people from 2c1c, and having a fun time in the US.

So for better or for worst, i hope you guys can make it to the gencon, even if its called "the pit" (like the rejects arena in spartacus), "worlds", "continental" or whatever.

Mathias Fricot said:

The article doesn't say anything about Gencon. Will there be a tournament at Gencon this year? Will it be considered a regional or just a scheduled event for Gencon?

I guess there will be an opportunity for more regionals now since we've added about 3 months to the regional season.

Not sure what I think yet, but I'm sure this will be a hot topic for discussion

Ya what is going on at GenCon. Should i be canceling my flights and hotel and eating the 70 badge cost? Will their still be three days of AGoT tournaments at least?

darknoj said:

"The addition of this new top-tier event to our yearly schedule finally affords us the chance to add another premiere competition to our North American Championship events at Gen Con Indy..."

Granted, it doesn't say anything outright, but the implication is that GenCon is going to stay GenCon. There's probably no reason to cancel travel plans, even if the only reason you were coming was for AGoT, unless the "World Champion design-a-card" prize possibility was the only thing making the trip worthwhile for you.

In fact, my guess is that the thing most likely to ruin the AGoT experience at GenCon 2012 is if everyone does start canceling travel plans in response to this announcement.

ktom said:

Well it would help if I read the right article. . I had read the regional announcement which links to a shortened version of the World's Best announcement.

From the article

"The addition of this new top-tier event to our yearly schedule finally affords us the chance to add another premiere competition to our North American Championship events at Gen Con Indy and the numerous Championship tournaments held across Europe."

So we might be able to infer that

1. Regional Season will remain the same. April - July culmunating in...

2. National Championship which for North America will be at GenCon and

3. World's championship in November at FFG

i agree with the sentiments above about the lack of sufficient notice. the fact is hotels must already be booked at this point in order to stay in indianapolis, gencon badges have been on sale for a month, and many people have flights already all expecting to play at worlds. it feels a little like the bait and switch that i have put out this money to play at worlds and now, oops, worlds no longer is at gencon. i know i will still play in whatever tourney ffg runs at gencon and still have fun at the tourney and rest of the con. right now, the announcement is a let down because my plans were made specifically to attend worlds.

someone mentioned people dropping after a couple rounds. if it is only the north american tournament then more people will be likely to drop.

as to logistics, i agree nov is harder for people to get a weekend off. also, is there enough space to support 6 world championships at the event center. this is replacing days of ice and fire. the agot crowd should be larger if it is worlds. we took up about half the space for days. how will 5 other games also have room for their worlds at the same time

I can only assume that the World Championship Weekend will be held somewhere other than the Event Center. I agree that there's no way all of these games can possibly fit there.

Also, though there wasn't any announcement about it, I certainly wouldn't be surprised if the winner of the GenCon tournament was still able to design a card as their grand prize along with the European and World Champions. I could, however, see them changing to only the overall Champ at each event, so that in the end there are still three cards created total. That seems like a relatively fair way to do things.

I will, however, admit that one thing Intentionally Anonymous mentioned to me last night does indeed worry me- how close this new tournament is scheduled to when Stahleck traditionally is. What does this do for our European members who want to attend? I may be quite difficult to get enough time off for two large events just a few weeks apart.

I think your gone see a lot o people not playing at GenCon this year even if they have a tournament, which I think they will by the hints in the article. With out a defiant tournament schedule you cant make plans and most of us need four months to arrange things between the people you are traveling with all of their families and your own...to ensure you can all make the date.

The other big issue is most of us can only aford both cash wise and time wise one trip like this a year. Its costing you 2k+ to play cards and your away from you family (3 kids in my case)....so if you gone do that you want it to be the biggest tournament you can get to which is worlds. This means some of us will be going to worlds instead of GenCon while others will still go to Gen but not the worlds since other things are going on...and in the end what you get is way less people at any one of the tournaments...which is too bad.

HoyaLawya said:

It's not unusual to lose 25% of the field by the last rounds of the GenCon Joust. Whether or not that number increases when the event is "only" the North American Championship, instead of the World Championship, remains to be seen. But the original comment hypothesized less dropping out at a non-GenCon event - and that being a good thing.

Kennon said:

I get the argument that the FFG support for the tournament will undoubtedly be better because that is all they are focused on that weekend (and not diluted by all the other demands GenCon makes on a game company). So the AGoT experience should be better (if not the general gaming experience), but I'm still not seeing how the change encourages and/or promotes a more international player base for the event.

ktom said:

I have been to the Days of Ice and Fire, which this seems to be replacing. It was a serious blizzard the first year. The hotels are...pretty meh. Roseville is pretty meh, if that is where they are having it. Compare that to arguably the biggest gaming weekend with tons of other fun and restuarants/bars, and I feel attendance will be seriously down, especially from what was maybe going to be a decent sized foriegn contingent. It MAYBE solves dropping, while just taking more than that 25% and just doesn't enter them in the first place.

Add that to the fact that many people already booked GenCon (like Z said, hotels were basically booked a couple of days after it opened - you have to be on the ball) and the fact that OP has been pretty yucky for 2-3 years...just weird to me *shrug*

If they would have beefed up OP to 2004 levels for a year, and then announced it the day/month after GenCon, then fantastic. I really have no problem with the basic logic, just the timing.

But, I will be going to both Nationals and Worlds now, so it doesn't affect me much - just peeps who don't live in the Midwest US.

ktom said:

I think the idea might be that plane tickets in November will be cheaper, and the date will be technically after the Nationals dates in France, Germany, and Spain. Others have pointed out the problems with that logic including the possibility of inclement weather, and the relatively close timeline with other Nationals dates, such as Stahleck. It's an interesting idea, but I think there are just too many factors to take into account, we won't know if it's successful until it is attempted, and even then there will be a rough transition period. Ultimately, if FFG can provide better support by having it at their center, I think it's worth a shot.

I do agree that the timing of this announcement was ill conceived. They should have planned this for next year.

One thing that has been mentioned is this is a good change because less people will drop? I don't understand how changing the date and the location of the tournament will decrease the number of players that will drop.

SirDuck said:

In Minnesota you are a captive auidiance, what else are yougong to do? At GenCon, the allure of other stuff makes the 0-2 drop more tantalizing.