Greetings Doomies! In full transparency and in an effort to maintain our promise to be fully interactive with the community, I’d like to discuss the World Championship and Evil Is A Choice event to get some feedback from the community. A full list of outfit breakdown and deck list links are pending. We welcome all constructive criticism. I’ll start by discussing some of our own analysis and plans for the future.
-Floor Rules. The move to 55 minute rounds was great. Many games were finished that otherwise would have gone to time at 50 minutes. 3 points for a timed win encouraged players to make moves to finish as well; I’ve heard positive feedback on this, but welcome a discussion.
-10 minute warning. We did a much better job on this Saturday than Friday and will continue to ensure each table gets an individual warning rather than a general announcement; this will also be done for announcing when you may begin playing.
-Staff: we were understaffed, but this was mitigated primarily by the amazing efforts of Scott Wisely and Heidi Cook, whom without we would not have had success. There will be 7 staff minimum for future events with a volunteer only promo provided to these helpers and judges going up and down the aisle routinely.
-While there were some logistical issues with the location of the HQ table and event tables being in separate areas, this ended up being a great opportunity to promote Doomtown due to the amount of foot traffic approaching us to inquire about the game. There was genuine excitement and I have no doubt we’ll have a successful Kickstarter. Next year we plan on having preorders for pickup for Doomtown product for sale.
-People appeared to like the custom bottlecap tokens and we intend to order them for future kits and events.
Let us know what you think and thank you all GenCon attendees! We have a lot more in plan for next year, future conventions, and this Fall’s upcoming tournaments, which I shall now announce will be called the Servitor Series!
I think the events were both run very well, and were an absolute blast! Thanks to all the organizers, judges, and support folks who made this happen.
-Floor rules: I was initially concerned about the 55 minute rule because of the lack of any noon actions at the end. The 3 points for winning at time was a huge concern for me going into both tournaments, and my decks were edited accordingly. It worked well, as thankfully for me I only went to time once in all 15 of my tournament games. Still, it feels very sudden when time ends, and its a feeling of helplessness with no chance to respond if you happen to be the one behind on points.
I’m not sure how to fix that, but I did find that many of my games ended within the 10 minute warning (my game vs Hammond was done within the final minute, I think), so 55 minutes does seem to be a pretty good sweet spot. Ending a game at time will always suck, but maybe one noon action each will at least give someone a chance for one last action, if they’ve potentially been waiting against an opponent who was taking a lot of time to think toward the end of a game?
-Staff: It never felt understaffed to me, and during the very few times my opponent had a rules question a rules team member was fast to respond.
Overall it was a great time, and I wish I could have made more ‘after hours’ events. 11pm on Saturday was just too late, but I was able to make the Wednesday meet and greet and that was a great way to kick off the Con! I was able to have some great conversations, and I’m more excited about Doomtown than ever before - thanks to the Pinebox crew and to our awesome community!
EDIT: Oh, almost forgot: We decided on Discord that next year we need to have tags added onto our badges with our forum usernames on them!
Firstly, the very existence of this thread is a good thing. Plus the events were great (including the social games) and the organisers did a great job.
As a participant I thought the staffing was fine, but appreciate you lot had demos to run, the stall to man and Servitor challenge matches too.
The individual “start your game”/“ten minute warning” is a good idea - it was sometimes a bit hard to hear in the hall due to the noise/high ceilings.
I think having a food break was a good idea but ideally we should announce this at the beginning of the day? Appreciate we were pleasantly surprised by the number of participants. Similar with announcing having to move the T4 to Sunday morning, which forced me to choose between two events. I didn’t mind this at all (I could have cancelled Arkham and played Doomtown instead if I wanted) but it might irk someone in the future? May well be that this was announced as soon as the decision was made. That said, if I’d been able to make the T4 I’d probably have ended up losing my match.
I like the 55 minute rounds and five points for a normal win, three points for a timed win as I think this encourages interactive decks. None of my matches on either day went to time (albeit I was playing Sloane town square blitz on Saturday!), but I’ve lost a knckout game in a previous sheriff when I had a Steven Wiles that would have won me the game, so I know how it feels to lose on time, but generally I play quickly and I’m happy to take the punches when they occur.
I think I marginally prefer the immediate end when time is called, as otherwise whoever gets the final actions (and knows it is the final action) gets a significant advantage as they can take control of a deed, often creating a 2CP swing or even a 4CP swing if they seize an opposing 2CP deed.
I think the event desk being in the “Town Square” was a sacrifice worth making for the good of the game and you still managed to coordinate pairings etc well. The main table was still fairly nearby so it wasn’t a huge issue.
The bottlecap tokens were good and I look forward to them showing up in future event kits.
Can we get pictures of the various deck-backers that were given out as prizes too please? People have asked about accessories in the past and these might prove popular. They looked cool and would be nice to see what the broader community thinks of them.
Seconding (thirding?) the suggestion of forum names on badges. Might even be tempted to make some with the appropriate avatars next time.
Thanks @Harlath! I will openly admit the break was not something I had factored in. This will be openly clarified in the event thread next year and at the event before Round 1 begins. It will also be clarified that Top 8 will be on Sunday. I am very hopeful that the community grows to where we would potentially have enough participants for a Top 16 on Saturday after Swiss.
We will make Badges for Participants to write in their forum name. Given the positive feedback, we are moving forward with the deckbackers and our contact ordering them I will request the images from.
Cheers guys, I’ve never run a tournament and the extended running time was for a very welcome reason! I was glad to at least be able to play my T8 game as further useful evidence on the viability of Sloane blitz (while remaining conscious that the plural of anecdote is not data!). No harm, no foul in this case, just a chance to improve things for next year.
The above sounds like sensible minor improvements to next year as we hopefully start to grow the game again. Lunch break was sensible too.
There is one additional change we are making next year that requires an apology to the Classic players.
In GenCon 2016, the reason the Classic event was able to occur was because the Friday Sheriff event did not have a cut. It is clear everyone was pretty drained by the Top 8 that the Classic Event did not receive the attention it deserved. In anticipation of increased attendance, next year’s Friday event will be straight swiss rounds, allowing more time for other things at the convention and general shenanigans amongst the playerbase. We will not be hosting a Thursday event; us Pine Box folks need a day to enjoy the convention too
so, just throwing this idea out for the pondering - Thursday Classic? I know thursday attendance is always a little lower, but say plan for 6pm and encourage folks to eat before then?
(The warlord community used to have a standing Fogo de Chao thursday lunch feast [cheaper] and Thursday evening throw down as a way to get the convention rolling.)
Several members of the community, seeing how tirelessly we were working, ran to get me water, coffee, energy drink, etc. throughout the weekend. Thank you so much for your generosity and assistance. Zac, Max, Jevon, I know were among the few and with a week that was mainly a blur I apologize if I’m blanking on any other names at the moment, but you truly showed how awesome this community is!
Also, we ended up not having the PBE team/bounty event - dinner went long and the Hilton 12th Floor was already mobbed w/ the L5R/Gaming crew. We had open play, faction shots, and general gaming.
I’d like to try running the team bounty event as a formal Gencon event - giving up my Thus to do so if needed.
I do know folks came up and told me they missed this on while understanding scheduling got the best of us.
Following up on the Deckbacher photos. I have them for PAX Unplugged as well and should have photos up soon. Maria Kingsford, alt art Soul Blast, Tin Star , and Holly Roller are amongst those this go around.
