After that post in your favorite Mini, I'm almost tempted to work on something Thon centered for this event for myself.

Weeks' Thon Bomb squad on bloomilk (http://www.bloomilk.com/Squad/109761/thon-bomb) looks really viable, as does pretty much every squad Weeks makes. It's got lots of tricks - Jedi Mind Trick 3, Force Absorb, Sever Force, and Repulse 4. I'm keen to take it for a spin in a serious game sometime:
65 Master Kavar
64 Master Thon
33 Bastila Shan, Jedi Master
14 Old Republic Senator
8 R7 Astromech Droid
9 Mouse Droid x3
6 Ugnaught Demolitionist x2
(199pts. 10 activations)

In my book, Thon is just about as good as Grand Master Luke Skywalker - he just lacks the Djem So Style Mastery and needs Kavar to make up the stats difference - and he costs 50 points less and is better at doing damage on the move.

That looks like a ton of fun and certainly something I'm going to run a playtest of for the event. Dumb question.. How important are the mouse droids?? My area has ten total and they are used by two players so needless to say I don't own a mouse droid LOL. I know that sounds incredibly stupid for a player that has been around as long myself but mine all got sold off when I got rid of my collection around Dark Times.

Ok, so my wife and I crunched some number last night and this looks like the worst weekend for me to be laying down 50$ +.

half a tank of gas=25$. I could easily reduce this to 5-10 via carpooling, so Chicago guys?

Food: 15ish (I know we'll want to go to the Mongolian place in K-zoo as usual? and I AM ALL FOR THAT)-this will pretty much be resolved by above and below. I'll bring a sack lunch for Saturday.

Entry 10$: Likely absorbed by 1, though with 2 there...I could always just judge. It's not like I ever play anymore anyway. I find half the time I do thiese things is for everything and everyone surround the actual tourney. If no judge is needed, I'll just hang.

So it primarily lies on 1. Who's all planning on going from Chicago and hanging out at Eric's?

Also this would also be resolved in could find a FULL-time teaching job lol. So any help there would be great!

Kindoff a dumb question but does the store where this event is happening sell SWM singles? If so how are they in comparison price wise to online dealers and such??

I think they have a few singles, but nothing that you would really like to own. I think my trade box is better stocked than their store.

I just printed out copies of the squad registration sheets and noticed they have a section for reserves/reinforcements. Does that mean you can only have 5 different figures for your Reinforcements for the entire tourney? Or is that just there to be helpful but you can add more if you are going to keep the figures on hand.