This past Saturday, we held a little tournament at 3 Geek. We also used some of the missions I am considering using for SnowCon. I am pretty happy with how the missions played. I am also happy and proud of the guys for the fun, relaxed environment that we had, despite the tough fight we all had going on for the prize money! I managed victories in all three rounds, but finished second in battle points to Will York, who I managed to beat fairly soundly in round two. He tabled his other two opponents and manged to eek out the win in one of the closest top three finishes we've ever had!
I'm very happy with my generalship over all; I can't complain about my 3-0 record on the day. Couple that with the fact that no lead is safe with the battle points system means that almost anyone has a chance at prize support if they put in good games. Will proved that you can have a bad game and rebound to great effect! That reason more than any other is why I enjoy the missions and the points system that we used for the tournament. The missions were designed to allow people to catch up and never really be out of the hunt for the winners podium. Shifting to this style of tournament will probably lead to a better event overall, and better attendance once the word gets out. Most importantly for me, the missions are going to make sure that SnowCon is a lot of fun!
We were missing a few of the tournament regulars, but we also had a couple fresh faces show up. As many of you know, we've had some issues with tournament attendance lately. There are several factors for this: People leaving the hobby, a shift away from competitive play toward the modeling/hobby aspects of Warhammer for many of the more active gamers, and/or basic economics keeping people from wanting to spend the $20 to throw some dice.
All of the above factors are normal over time for any play group. People come and go, their priorities change, or their ability/availability prohibit them from playing in events. I would actually argue that we have more people playing Warhammer than ever in the Greater Bangor Area, but the focus of the group has shifted! Come in to the shop on any random Wednesday around 6 PM. Without fail we will have anywhere from 8-12 guys there, hanging out, playing games, painting, and talking about their armies. We even have a few females painting and playing. That is right boys, our hobby has girls in it! Despite their cooties, it is pretty impressive that they want to/can stand being around that many male nerds in one place. Two years ago, when I first started trying to have a 40k night at the shop, we were lucky to have more than a handful of guys show up. The growth and vitality of our Wednesday group has much to do with the group of guys (and girls, eww!) and their open, welcoming approach to the hobby.
The reverse could be said for our tournament scene. A few years ago, we regularly had 8-10 guys show up for our tournaments. Since then we have lost a regular tournament goer here and there, and for a while it was difficult for us to get more than three or four guys interested in showing up. Maybe, just maybe this trend is turning around! As I said above, we were down at least three of our regular tournament players on Saturday. I hope this is a portent of the future.
Again, thanks to everyone who attended, and I hope to see more of you playing at the shop in the future. And congrats that you made it to the end of this marathon blog post!
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