I like what I'm hearing in general, but I'm going to play the devil's advocate here, and point out the potential problems I'm seeing at this point. I'm often much better at finding the holes in a plan, rather than coming up with it in the first place. So, these might be a bit random, but just the different thoughts I've had as I read through this thread.
First of all.....why 150 points? As a community, many of us agree that the 200 point game is much more open, often more fun, and even less dependent on dice rolling. I know time-limits are a factor, but the majority of the top players around here will still tell you that it's just as simple to finish a 200 point game in an hour as it is to finish a 150 point game. Just a thought.
I like Fool's comments about catering to the multiple point formats, but especially for our very first shot at this thing, i think we need to choose one and stick to it. To top that off, I honestly don't think there is any way you will get LGS to agree to strict schedules of 100, 150, and a 200 point every month. A good number of the guys at our LGS have been dying to do less competitive stuff for a while now, since all we did were 100/150/200 for 3 straight months leading up to GenCon. They don't want to any sort of high-competitive stuff for probably several months here. There is absolutely no way I'd be able to convince them to do something like this, and we're a somewhat competitive store at ACME. YottaQuest, the other store in the area....absolutely no way. They average 1 DCI event a month, and that's pretty much just to keep their good standing with DCI, as most of the players there are very new or younger and don't give a flip about the high end competitive game. I just don't see that being all that possible.
Besides, I don't really see a 'Season' being the best answer, especially at this stage in the process. We're talking about some pretty big endeavors here, so best to start simple. If a couple years from now it's grown enough that it makes sense to run it as a 'season', then sure, go for it then. For now, I think the qualifiers, plus the Championship would be enough.
If we were to do events at GenCon, you'd have to keep the main 'championship' events on Friday and Saturday to ensure the most people would be able to attend. Too many people either can't get into town on Thursday, or have to leave first thing on Sunday in order for large events to be effective on those days. And I agree with the idea that we really don't want to interfere with any of the events going on at GenCon. Sure, it would be cool to have a big Championship event there, with the public watching, but then it means that the Pasttimes team would likely need to provide a separate event for all the players who can't be in the Championship. Also means you'd probably want to offer a last-chance qualifier at GenCon as well. GenCon is already packed full as it is, and I suspect, regardless of what WOTC does next year, Alan/Jim/Pasttimes will want to run their Jedi Masters event again, and ths would conflict with that. I think the best bet is a wholly separate event.
I see Bill's point about someone who has already qualified getting to play more games. But I do agree with Shawn as well, if a person who has already qualified, shows up to a tourney, and beats somebody in the first couple rounds, and knocks them further down the chain, then it might not really be all that fair. Bill's point of skipping the person if they finish at the top makes sense, but what if the person who got beat early on ends up in 7th or 8th place, a couple away from squeaking in? The only reason they may that far down the chain is because their SOS was a lot easier due to being bumped into the 'loser bracket' early in the competition. Both reasons are certainly valid to entertain though. Maybe the way to do it would be to allow anyone to participate in the last-chance Vassal qualifier, but all the open qualifiers in the other Regions would be limited to people who hadn't already qualified somewhere else. Might be good to let all those people play in the Vassal one anyways, to ensure that the competition level is high enough. If most of the world's best players already qualified earlier in the yeat, then the last-chance Vassal matches might be a lower-caliber player pool, simple due to the fact that the majority of the other top-end players are excluded due to previously qualifying. Allowing them to play, but still skipping them for the final rankings/qualifying, would help ensure the playing field is top-notch, while still giving everyone some more practice. Could even hold more than one Vassal qualifier if people really wanted to.
OK, that's it for now. Maybe later today I'll have more ideas.
_________________ -Aaron Mand'alor "You either die a hero, or you live to see yourself become the villain."
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