The_Celestial_Warrior wrote:
Whether or not the 200 needs to be in the Jedi Challenge is NOT another topic...It's exactly what this topic is about.
Okay, fair enough. If that's the discussion, then I'd go with Buttcabbge's suggestion of 100, 150, and TW as the 3 parts of the JC. Either that or 150, TW, and 250/300 (since I’m not a huge fan of 100pts).
The_Celestial_Warrior wrote:
People brought the same 200 point squad to THREE different events last year (Mystery Map, JC 200 and Championships). C'mon guys, we can do better.
I was one of the people who brought my championship squad (Skybuck) to all 3 of the 200pt events last year. I can do better? Better how? What would be better? Comments like this only serve 1 purpose, and that is to shame those at whom they’re aimed.
As I (and others) have commented in the other thread, it will not be helpful to build a culture of shame around what squads people bring. I'm not ashamed of bringing Skybuck to 3 tournies at Gencon this year, for these reasons:
1) I wanted to do well (and hopefully win the prize). If you would've grappled with my comments in my above post (Whenever you tie rewards to winning, you are creating a competitive atmosphere), you would see why I brought my best squad to the Jedi Challenge, and why I'll do it again.
2) Despite the fact that SOME players had a lot of opportunity to prepare themselves against the best of the best, I didn’t. There was no Vassal Regional in 2010, and my local Regional had less than 10 players, only 3 of which would be considered strong players. I still needed lots of practice, and yes, that practice made a huge difference in my performance in the Championship; I am sure that I would
not have made the Top 8 this year without the extra practice that the MM and JC tournaments provided.
3) If I’m travelling a long way and paying a lot of money to play in a tournament, I’m not going to play a sub-par squad. This is especially true since I don’t see a real distinction between “fun” and “competitive.”
4) I simply enjoy playing Skybuck. It’s truly fun, while also being highly competitive. It’s probably the most enjoyable squad I’ve ever played at 200pts, for a number of reasons that I don’t need to go into here.
I really don't see any good reason why any player should be insulted for his choice of squads. If you want different squads to show up, then change the format; a new format creates a new meta (ie, TW). But you can be sure that a meta will emerge, and that players will still play the top-tier squads of that meta.
I've always enjoyed the Jedi Challenge, and I hope that we'll continue to have one at Gencon every year. I do like the suggestions of shortening the duration of the smaller-pt events, and I do see some benefit to dropping the 200pt leg of the Challenge in favor of another format (see above in this post).