Tournament at Atlantis | Forum

Mike, it sounded earlier like Saturdays were a no go for Flames of War tournaments period, which means no more flames of war tournaments at Atlantis. We don’t usually have big turnouts as it is and not having them on Saturday is a no go, I live here and Inwouldnt be able to do a Sunday tournament. Is this the case or is it just Saturday, May 19th that doesn’t work?

I would like to still have a tourney sometime in May for Mid-War. I think it could make for an interesting time and we haven't really had a mid-war tournament in a long while. I think we could get a good gauge of whats happening up north to get a reasonable headcount before the event and even float the idea of a tournament beforehand. 

But where and when? 

Up until the past week or so we've been more than happy with tournaments on Sundays and we've experienced good turnouts, shoot from what I've gathered from the doom and gloom of the ether we have fantastic tourney turnouts. 

Give Atlantis time to see what they can do, Mike said he'd try to help us figure something out that could work but he needs time to actually figure out what needs to be done or if its even possible. Atlantis is after all a business that has been more than helpful to us over the past year in arranging tournaments, supporting events, and having sales but they are also doing that for other communities as well which I think is worth remembering. Its not just our wants and desires they need to cater to, its multiple different communities of local gamers. 
There are fair few of people on our forum that are from out of town and can give their piece as well in regards to this particular concern. 

When’s the last time you had a Sunday tournament not counting the one we just had during the long weekend? The turnout would be one less already as I wouldn’t be there. 

The last tournament we had on a Sunday would have been on May 22nd of 2016, it looks like we've usually had them on Saturdays otherwise. I can't find turnout numbers for that tournament though. That being said, the fact all other tournaments had happened on Saturdays bodes well for us potentially, we just have to figure out when we can get penciled in. It seems like historically our 2nd quarter tournament has occurred in June as even a Saturday event in May of last year had only a turnout of 10. 

Again, let's give Mike some time and it may just be that May won't be the month where we have a tournament, we can just move the tournament to later on to the Summer proper. 

Checking Atlantis's event calendar, it looks like it may be possible for us to be in and out with a tournament before their card players come in at 6:30. We'd just have to go to 2 hour and 15 minute rounds or just straight 2 hour rounds. That coupled with a slightly lower points value, even with lunch and some fudge factor has us out by 5:30. Giving plenty of time to potentially allow for card table set-up. We could even schedule it during something like Tidewater Comic-con to reduce the stress on the store further. 

What if we did a doubles tournament?! That way you can multiple entries but use minimal tables. I think 1000 or 1200 for each player would be good. All the usual formation restrictions would apply (both teams would have to be from the same book and be historical allies).

I emailed Brian about this and he talked to the store. The store is still agreeable to Saturday tournaments once a quarter which is all we’ve ever asked for. As I mentioned earlier, we usually only have 3 a year. The only caveat is that Mike doesn’t work Saturdays so we may have to TO them. 

This is good news, and I do like the idea of us TOing the tournies. With that in mind, how do we want to go about appointing a saturday TO? 

Let’s see if we have something to TO first.

What's the issue of a Sunday event?   I don't know the history

Sunday touranaments limit how far we can attract participants. Drive two hours to play a tournament, play until 8pm, two hour drive home, have to work the next day?

I don’t like Sunday tournaments and I live 30 minutes from the store! It worked this past tournament because Monday was a holiday.

Too many other adult things happen on Sundays.

That /|\

Quote from Thomas Slopnick Sunday touranaments limit how far we can attract participants. Drive two hours to play a tournament, play until 8pm, two hour drive home, have to work the next day?

I don’t like Sunday tournaments and I live 30 minutes from the store! It worked this past tournament because Monday was a holiday.

Too many other adult things happen on Sundays.

It’s a 5 hour drive for me. 

So I think we've overestablished the problems. What are the solutions?

I think for the moment our solutions are fairly cut and dry, we need to try to have tournaments on Saturdays if at all possible. So, for the moment at least, we've hit the hurry up and wait portion of the planning stages where we need to hear back from the store about when they could do a tournament on a Saturday in the 2nd Quarter of 2018.

Grouped thoughts so far: 

1. Saturday Tournament

2. A Goldilocks Zone amount of Points (1550)

3. The Prospect of a Theatre Tournament instead of an open event. (the theater is yet to be determined though)

4. Potentially a doubles event? 

5. Potentially shortened rounds (I missed it and it was my idea...)

Have I missed anything? 

Boo on doubles and boo on shortened rounds. 2 and a 1/2 hours works. It felt like we were doing 2 hour and 45 minutes rounds last time. I’m not sure.

I think a Theatre Tournament is a great idea! And if we go to shorten rounds, lower points would be the way to go. If we stay with 2.5 hours per round, that could work at 1550. I would say that Road to Rome and Fortress Italy along with Grey Wolf and Red Bear would be the best books to base the thing on. Unless someone wanted to bring Japanese or something like that.

Don't worry, you won't be seeing Japanese from me at a late war tournament ever again haha Ian, I think you hit the nail on the head with your last post. I personally think a doubles would be a lot of fun, but we can always do that on a Sunday so Bill won't be there to complain about anything ;)