First and foremost, running this tournament was a rewarding experience
for me and for Ru (not sure if he’ll be doing a blog as well.) By trade I’m an
accountant and doing all the admin stuff was second nature to me really.
However when it comes to creativity, I lack in every department. I have a lot of
ideas for efficiencies in terms of game play. The Reference sheet for example
was my idea and the string concerning the vanguard deployment was also my idea.
However in terms of the creative parts of running the tournament, Ru starred in
this. Filming the ‘Feature’ table was one of his ideas.
As a duo we’ve always complimented each other in this way
and we work very well together as a team. But without the other members of our
group none of the tournament woulda been possible.
Steve was the mainstay of ideas when we came to deciding the
rules pack; it was he who came up with hobby champion. Rich did the design for
the rules pack, sorted out the dice and did everything designy. Luke did a lot of
the running around with his car helped with the discussions and did a lot of
heavy lifting.
The above I think really contributed the success of the
event. Being able to split the responsibilities of a tournament to people more
suited to that role and sharing the load. There’s no way just 1 of us woulda
been able to organise this on our own.
Onto the event itself then!
Actually running the event was easy. As we’d kept things
simple, we didn’t have confused tournament goers asking how to do the scoring
or wondering why they only got a few points when they thought they would get
many more and vice versa. Rules queries were at a minimum and 90% coulda been
resolved if someone had used the rulebook.
As a result I had a lot of chances to wander round the hall
and chat to the competitors. Therefore I think this gave a nicer atmosphere to
the room. It didn’t make myself look disinterested in the competitors, I’m sure
I talked to everyone at least once!
The music was well received even the comedy music was
greeted with smiles and in some cases (John Barrowman) with looks of horror.
Giving out lotsa awards meant we had 9 winners from 42
people and everyone who paid got a dice and so had something to remember the
weekend by!
The social event was also fantastic, and it made an
atmosphere as well. We really wanted to promote the social side of gaming and
getting people to come over really meant people could stand and sit discussing
our favourite hobby with strangers who could become tournament friends!
Next time we run the event, we already have some
improvements in mind.
CHAIRS!!!! Was the
comment screamed out at the end of the event! Sorry about that everyone unfortunately
that was the constraint of the hall we had chosen. The new venue I’m sure will
have better seating. We have 2 options for the venue, but it’s my hope we stay
local. Ashtead is nice and easy to get to, but it’s difficult to get a venue
that can host a social event. That is what we’re looking for.
The Hobby master category is something we messed up a bit
on. We should’ve given a heavy waiting for painting and sportsmanship and so we’ve
already got something in mind for this.
The larger the tournament the easier it is to fit in a team
element and so we’ll look at that as well. Team events always bring people
together and add to the social atmosphere of the competition.
Big thanks to everyone who made the event possible. John
Stewart is developing a film about it soon and when it’s available we’ll link
it to here.
Can’t wait to start organising the next one!
Mike
Great overview Mike. It was a very rewarding experience and I am glad we did it. Lots of ideas ready for the next one - Both tournament related and army!
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