Since every single event is completely sold out. 64 slots for the North American Championship Tournament was completely insufficient. There should have been a few qualifying events on Thursday and Friday leading up to the Championship on Saturday. I mean, FFG cannot even keep up with putting out enough product. Why would they think a single 64 man tournament would be sufficient?

Of course, I guess it was not as bad as the Edge of the Empire offerings, which totalled a mere 13 slots for the entire convention weekend. Given all of the above, and the Netrunner debacle at last years Gencon, I am really starting to wonder if FFG is the company that I thought they were.

Buy some generics, show up. A lot of no-shows happened at last years' tournament.

I would just show up with 4 generic tickets. Good luck.

I managed to get in with just under 10 slots to go -- whew! I had my "wish list" set up already, and right at 12 noon I jumped on to submit the list, all the while hoping I got in (I was 1459 in line, and there was only 60 slots for the tournament). Now I just need to think of a squad to run, and start practicing, and tweaking the squad . . . . under the premise that Wave 3 will drop at, or before Gen Con.

I do agree with your dilemma. I do wish Fantasy Flight would have opened the tournament up to more players, considering the popularity of the game, itself. I know a lot of my friends who play the game may not have gotten in. We'll see.

Is this your first GenCon? Welcome to the effin' show ;-)

Seriously, show up early with Generics or watch the event pool. People always cancel their early events and stuff opens up all the time. Lastly, not sure what you expect out of FFG… They don't have an unlimited pool of resources to make sure there is an over-abundance of events to suit everyone's needs. X-wing ain't their only game so they have to manage their resources carefully. They're not WotC and have the cash to spend on hiring out a thousand Magic: the Gathering events.

SteveSpikes said:

Remember, those event tickets fluctate wildly during the event circus. A friend of mine got in and there were 10+ tickets an hour after the opening bell.

To the OP: I hope my message didn't turn you off- I think my opinion still stands but I'd totally do a pick up game or 3 if you're interested.

Well, I expect that a company that is the size of FFG, and which is now producing the miniature game with the second highest global sales, to actually provide adequate support for their cash cow. They cannot even keep up with product demand at this point, and yet they somehow think that a 64 slot tournament is sufficient for Gencon? Why are they running all of the dog fight demos? Why not instead use that staff to run actual tournaments? They can demo all they want in the exhibit hall. It just makes no sense to me.

I would also point out that there is another company that does not care about the tournament scene. That company is GW and it is widely believed that they are dying a slow but inevitable death because they do not care about their players. I would hate to see X-wing suffer the same fate.

Finally, WOTC provides no personnel for MTG Gencon events. They have contracted out all of the tournaments to a local company. If FFG cannot find the staff to support their games, then maybe they need to take a page from WOTC and find someone else that will.

spacemonkeymafia said:

Is FFG really that big? I know they're one of the larger hobby game companies but that's kind of like saying "that Dachshund is huge". It still pales beides the Great Danes that are WOTC and Hasbro . I really don't think it's fair to compare the them.

This is probobly more of a GenCon thing then a FFG. They only give you so many tables based on your attendance last year. The best thing they could do is take genarics no matter what and then when they turn in their collected tickets they can complain that GenCon screwed them. I saw other groups do this last year when I turned in tickets for Playroom.

Well if you need an outside game I will be there. Easy to identify.. 6'6", grey hair, and older. (56) With a look that says, "yeah I want to kill something." LOL

It's been 36 years since my last trip to GenCon. That would have been 1977, the year Star Wars came out, we saw it at Lake Geneva Wis. GenCon was held at the Playboy Club Convention Area. And the only CosPlay were actually Playboy Bunnies. Yeah I even still remember everything about that trip.

But I am looking forward to meeting lots of good folks that haunt this location and enjoying the hell out of being at GenCon this year. Yes my wife gave me a huge hall pass. The fun tax will be huge but it's all worth it. I get to go with my son and even now we are playing a ton of X-Wing getting ready for our Regional next weekend. Which is happening on my wedding anniversary which means my fun taxes for the year are Immense. But she just smiles and told me to go ahead and have a good time.

Looking for a great time in August.

I'm in the same boat, so i'll see you at the side tables!

I'm mainly going to GenCon to play HeroClix. X-Wing is second on my list, I'm sure I will try Attack Wing, and then I plan to atleast wander and find somewhere to spend some generic tickets. I only had enough money to secure spots in a few of my desired HeroClix events when tickets went on sale. I returned yesterday after getting paid and saw that EVERY SINGLE EVENT was sold out. WOW. This is my first time going. Who knows. Maybe I will get a chance to play some X-Wing. The X-Wing National Championship is during the HeroClix World Finals though, so hopefully I qualify there and I won't be disappointed I'm not getting my butt kicked in X-Wing. HAHA.

Just wanted to pipe in that I saw FFG added a "warm-up" tournament event for Thursday 1pm-9pm. Looks to be a little more casual and holds about 32 slots (29 left as of this posting). If you're dying to do something official, this may be an option. What I like about this time slot is its early in the Con so people can meet up and maybe get back together later that weekend.

As of this posting, the number of players was raised to 100, and there were 2 spots left.

Sadly, there's too many other things I want to do on Saturday (primarily a Mistborn Adventure Game panel with the designers) for me to make the main tournament... and the "warm-up" event is smack dab in the middle of the SWLCG nationals. I guess that means I'll be looking out for some pick-up games as well.

I'll be at GenCon, and i'll have my X-wing stuff with me. Due to this year's event fiasco, i'll have more "free time" then in years past so i'll gladly get in on some pickup games as well.

if we can get enough "pick-up" games going, we can have our own little event...

As of this posting, the number of players was raised to 100, and there were 2 spots left.

There were 3 until I bought my ticket. . Looking forward to meeting everyone at GenCon!

Organize your own small tournament off to the side. Register as a GM. Sell tickets. Sold. Your own mini event.

Damnit...at the time i wanted to get into the Tourny, it was full. So i went and got me and my group TD tickets. Now i see 2 tickets staring at me.

Oh well, no tourny for me...but i'll gladly still indulge anyone who wants to play some pickups...

Just picked up a ticket. Now that I'm in, I have to go start crafting my greatest blunder yet...er, I mean my winning squad. Yeah, that's it.

RogueMorgan

Looking forward to meeting fellow X-winger's at GenCon...since the timing of the World Championship most likely won't work for me.

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone as well, putting faces to names, swapping stories, ands just having fun. The only question mark is if we're going to be using Wave 3 stuff there or not. I'm guessing not, but I don't know.

I'm under the presumption that Wave 3 will drop at Gen Con.

With that said, I'm glad we, the players (in the NA Tournament), will have an extra day to prepare -- unlike the Inaugural Tournament last year. But we'll see, come Gen Con.

I've come to expect the unexpected where Fantasy Flight is concerned.

I just hope if it does drop at GenCon, their will be enough to go around.

Last year, FFG did NOT ration their sales and everything "good" sold out with the quickness...only to end up on eBay later that evening...

I am bringing my stuff to play with a friend. Where will people play pickup games? Near the tournament location?

Well, without knowing what FFG plans on doing, they have a warm-up tournament on Thursday, then the National Tournament on Saturday. I think, and I could be wrong, that they are going to leave the maps up and we can play on those Friday. But it has been pointed out that they are having another giant tournament for...netrunner? on Friday, so maybe they are going to pull the maps off and use those tables. I don't know. I hope they leave the maps up and have another area assigned for the netrunner tournament. If they leave the maps up, it will be pick up games all day Friday on those.