I’m often amazed at our little world. Thousands of people are out there enjoying our hobby and helping fund its momentum forward to new innovations and growth throughout the years. Through the varied ways that we express our geekdoms, we are constantly finding ways to expand our coverage and bring new people into the fold. Like this past weekend…
Last week I wrote a two-pronged article aimed at pointing out the ways store owners of any kind can behave, such that their businesses either grow, or… don’t. I pointed out mostly that bad customer service is the front line, and that from there you have much to gain or lose. My son and I attended a Bolt Action tournament two weeks ago, that exemplified a local business owners’ passion towards creating the best experience possible for all who attended, and speaking as complete beginners, we did. We also enjoyed the spoils of our top score victory at another locally owned business. Mmmm, Pizza.
Over the last few days in Roseville, Minnesota another tournament took place, and it was substantially larger than ours. Fantasy Flight Games held it’s yearly Worlds tournament extravaganza, playing host to a variety of card and miniatures games including Game of Thrones and Netrunner LCGs, as well as their wide selection of official Star Wars games, like Armada, Imperial Assault and my current fave, X-Wing.
Let’s be clear, I wasn’t there. I don’t know how many attended in total, but I know that each “flight” of preliminary entrants to the X-Wing tourney consisted of around one hundred and fifty players. That’s two days of swiss rounds before the first cut, which was substantial. Approximately three hundred players for X-Wing alone. Isn’t that exciting? I was excited.
There were players from the United States of course, but there were also Canadians (it’s only a fourteen hour drive for me, I checked!), the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and other places, who somehow managed to get their butts across the pond to fly their little space boats on a three by three foot table in the hopes of being the one person left at the end of it all.
I didn’t have a tonne of plans for my weekend. Hanging out with the family, grocery shopping, getting the house ready for the coming winter. We watched the latest Star Trek. There may have been a nap somewhere in there. During all of that though, I was checking my smart phone. Twitter had an excellent selection of attendees who were talking about what was happening. FFG’s main twitter account and their Organised Play team were also using the little blue bird to convey intermittent reports on every tourney and the highlights of each. Pictures of busy tables and customised miniatures, the odd costumed contestant and tired soul were also displayed. They also had a Twitch stream setup for some games, including the semi-finals and final matches. It was very cool!
I felt like a sports fan. If you’ve been reading this for any length of time, you’ll know I am generally not affiliated with any team or even sports organisation. It was just never a thing I was interested in. Like pottery, or bird watching. Yet I felt this bubbling excitement that I can only associate with how sports fans feel during one of their massive events, deciding who gets the pennant or Stanley Cup, or World Cup. I didn’t have a chosen player to root for, even though hosts of the various podcasts I listen to were there, and three time world champion Paul Heaver was in the mix as well. I wanted to know how Zach Bunn and Sable Gryphon were doing, or Duncan Howard. All stellar players whom I knew were there to take a try at the brass ring.
And I continued to marvel at my excitement as the weekend wore on. I researched which lists were popular and who might be flying them. I communicated with my other X-Wing playing compatriots, and we reported back to each other about what we were seeing. And I got caught up in the whole affair, as I imagined people all over the world were doing at those same moments.
I’m not a Magic player, though my son is getting into it in a casual way. I imagine there are massive competitions on a grander scale for such a prevalent and long lasting game that continues to dominate the gaming market every year. It’s argued that many brick and mortar stores are only open because of their Magic community, but that’s an article for another person to write, far more educated than I. I assume that Games Workshop has tournaments for their 40K and Age of Sigmar games, as well as others, and that thousands of players get together to participate and come out on top. And I would guess that just like FFG, fans are tweeting and speculating about outcomes and strategies late into the night.
And when I think about all of that, I marvel at our hobby. I am floored by the amazing ways that we find to come together and express our love for these games. We hold conventions and tournaments to meet up and share this hobby. People develop relationships across the world with other players and build those to the point where meeting up at a con like say, GenCon Indy, is just as much about spending time with each other in person as it is about getting the latest and greatest board game or winning a trophy. I feel in many ways that the social aspect of gaming in general plays a big role.
I play games with my friends while we spend time together. I run a gaming community to bring people together to enjoy a shared hobby. I am a part of a group of X-Wing players who are competing in our first regional tournament in Toronto in January of next year. We will pack into a car in the early morning hours and go on an adventure together for what will likely be a very long day, and share an experience that we won’t soon forget. We all want to do well, maybe even win, but how much fun will we have together rolling down the highway, discussing strategy and tweeking our lists, while the snow flies around us and the engine thrums beneath?
Any passion will drive you to find others who share your interest, but I feel like tabletop gaming is just a little special. That whole experience of sitting across the table, talking and laughing, competing or cooperating until the game is complete, and you start another. You share things in the casual conversations, bring people into your lives. It only makes sense that large scale events like tournaments promote a greater sense of community and participation, of mutual support and commonality.
It’s not to say that there weren’t sore losers and selfish competitors at FFG Worlds 2016 over the weekend. Sadly no matter where you go in this world, there are jerks. Yet I imagine that most people, if fairly beaten by a capable opponent were gracious and polite, offering both the winners and losers a handshake and a well wish in their upcoming matches, gathering their things and moving on to greet their next opponent with a smile and an excited greeting. Or maybe it just seemed that way to me, looking at my screen, wishing I was there.
In the coming weeks, I am going to be covering a variety of topics. The ongoing struggle of my Princes of the Apocalypse campaign, my preparations for my first big fancy tournament, and our efforts to host our first fundraising event. I will be talking about how my son and I are faring spending time together in the land of World War II tabletop gaming, and of course, Christmas.
I love having you all on this journey, and I would love to hear your thoughts on the tournament scene. I know I didn’t cover the bad times, but I was just too happy to be a part of this international community of hobbyists, who are willing to cross oceans to play games and meet friends and heroes alike. Perhaps some of you have your own opinions about what effects a competitive culture can have on our subculture? I would love to hear them, and I’m sure others would, too. Just share in the comments below! Thanks for reading, and Fly Casual!