There is no doubt that the major shake-up in the 40k rankings is down to my activities – or lack of them. Last year I organised four 40k events in Wellington – Warpstorm, Maelstrom, Fields of Blood Grand Tournament and the NZ Masters. This year I have and am likely to organise none.
This has had a massive effect on the Rankings as the FOB GT was NZ’s biggest event and the other events provided the necessary weight of results for Wellington (and Central Districts) players to place high in the Rankings and thus qualify for the Masters.
Why the change?
Really it came down to a lack of engagement with the tournament scene. My interest had waned since I stopped playing competitively mid-2006 and the last tournament I had played was Liber Animus in 2008. This was partly my increasing interest in Fantasy but also my disillusionment with what I saw as the sterilisation of Codexes covering the armies I enjoy – Chaos Legions, Craftworld Eldar and Ork Klans. As a result I ran 40k events for the “community” (yep, I was really that much of a philanthropist), with a view to deliver consistent, structured and appealing tournaments. As a secondary objective, because this work was appreciated I had a number of locals who were willing to umpire Fantasy events that then allowed me to play.
At the end of last year I noticed a decline in the attendance at my events versus 2009. I decided that it might be time for an injection of new blood/ideas into the 40k TO scene. To that end I indicated I wouldn’t be organising events in 2011 however I did offer my resources to any aspiring TO who wished to take up the mantle.
Unfortunately nobody has taken up the opportunity and as a result – as it currently stands – call to Arms will be the only 40k event in Wellington this year.
I’m not sure why there were no takers. As I said I offered any aspirants the opportunity to use my resources – software, forms, email lists, bank accounts and twenty full tables of terrain. I even offered to financially underwrite it. The only required input would be time on the part of the organiser.
I put it down to Gen Y & Z.
The offer is still there.
It may take them some time to raise the energy and motivation to reply...
ReplyDeleteOne of the subjects I was hoping to talk to you about over the weekend, I'd like to step up next year, I just need to not be dumping 80 hours into a working week like I'm doing this year.
ReplyDeleteThere is a selfish motivation behind it though, I hope that by being the first to step forward, others from the "someone should do something" crowd take that as their que and the end result is good things happening :)
It's a shame that it comes to this. Especially with such a generous offer! I really hope that more people take you up on it.
ReplyDeleteit may not be much, but I'm still planning a one day tournie either late sept early october using an alternate structure (1500 point core, 2x250 sidebars, one of which is chosen at the beginning of the game)
ReplyDeletebut yes, the loss of your tournies + the real lives of many of our routine players has been felt.
First of all, I should say thanks Pete for running all the tournaments. You did do an amazing job for about two years so I can totally understand wanting to take a backseat.
ReplyDeleteI do think though that one of the reasons for the eventual decline in numbers was that everything got a bit samey (same in fantasy tbh). It was the same points, same basic comp system, same people with the same lists, and this ain't their fault but the same guy(s) winning every tournament. This led to the excitement not being there for more tournaments.
I think if we want Wellington to have a consistently thriving tournament environment, there needs to be variety in tournaments. Ie No comp, doubles, Blaise idea of sidebars, etc to make sure that everything stays fresh and interesting. This is why I think your Campaign weekends are doing well. Pete.
I personally will be endeavouring to run a doubles tourney in Welly when I get back next year. They are so much fun.
James, agree 100%.
ReplyDeleteI think where we collectively as a community have gone wrong is striving to perfect one singular system.
I'm looking forward to the next 12 months, a doubles event coming up in October, no comp on the horizon sometimes, and I think ive convinced Haydn to run a BOTCH style event (2x1500 point games, 2x1750, 2x2000), and Blaise is looking at running something with sideboards.
In saying that, there are some good things that have come out of all that has gone on so far; we've established a fairly wide range of enjoyable missions that don't compromise the integrity of the result (LOOKING AT YOU DAEMONWORLDS!) and have pretty comfortably ruled out a few insanely terrible ideas (e.g CTA 2011's take on comp).
Pete ran some fabulous tournaments in Wellington but i don't think the fact that these tournaments are missing is the reason "no one" from Wellington is qualifying for Masters.
ReplyDeleteThe best Wellington players have all either "retired" or taken the year off from active gaming, other than Charlie.
Let's look at last year's Masters crowd:
Hagen? moved and taking care of father and new baby
Dave Eagles? moved to ChCh and doesn't play much anymore
Jason? got fit and got a girl
Alan? (think he was on the invite list) quit and sold/selling everything
Bryn? (don't think he was on that list but was good enough to be) quit
James? (if i squeaked a spot, he could have too) moved to UK
I moved to ChCh
that's 7 people who were at or could easily have been at Masters to saying nothing of Jack (an Aucklander now) or Pete (now a Fantasy player)
yes, Wellington had some of the absolute best tournaments, and their loss is keenly felt. but saying that it's the reason no one from Wellington is in the top 15 anymore is nonsense.
Wes
Disagree Wes,
ReplyDeletePersonally I suspect that if the events had been run - Hagen, Jack, David E would be there - along with Peter Rundlett, Glen B, Wil Hoverd, Craig S, Ryan Stuart all attending and therefore higher in RHQ contention.
You have given laudable service in the past Pete, but this matter echoes one of your more recent posts - if GW was worth a dang, given they have shafted us over price etc recently, if they were so good, shouldnt they be organising the tournaments??? Customer service, support etc??? They're a big company, isn't that what they should be doing, and not leaving it to folks like you to do off their own bat?
ReplyDelete