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North America - Which Tourney sould I attend and why

daloonieshaman - Dec 05, 2007 - 04:49 PM
Post subject: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

I will be attending 1 or 2 tourneys next year and traveling from the Los Angeles Area.
In North America which tournament(s) should I attend. Please also note as to why I should attend that tourney. This is a $600 decision for me so please bear with me if I am a little picky.

Spazzfist - Dec 05, 2007 - 08:09 PM
Post subject: RE: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

The question is awfully vague!

How far are you willing to travel? What kind of tournament are you looking for? (number of games, style of tournament, projected attendance), are you looking to go to a more touristy city to please Mrs. Looonie?

Try to give more ideas of what you want in a tourney. I can only speak for those in Ontario, but there are some pretty darn fine ones up here! Smile

Spazz

Notorious_jtb - Dec 05, 2007 - 08:19 PM
Post subject: RE: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

Wow, you're offering you're attendance to the Tournament organiser who can impress you the most!

I would say it depends on what you want out of the experience.

Different tournaments offer different things.

Gencon bowl (Indianapolis) is probably the biggest tournament with the most coaches attending. This means that there are more ranking points available there than at most other tournaments.

The Chaos cup (Chicago) is a major, and has a good attendance too, not as many as Gencon though. Being a major you get good ranking points here as well.

Of the Canadian tournaments, of which I can speak from personal experience, there is a bit of variety
(disclaimer: I help run the tournaments in ottawa Wink

)

The Deathbowl (Ottawa, ON) offers games of 4 way bloodbowl which is quite a different experience with very different game play. It is well attended, but is not a major so there are less ranking points here than at the Chaos cup or Gencon bowl. It also allows coaches to spend 1.25 Million GP on their teams and buy multiple improvements for their players before the tournament.

The Capital City Kick Off (Ottawa, ON) is a new tournament which has middling attendance and features regular games of bloodbowl, but has a novel method of improving players where the coaches get to draft skills half way through the tournament. The coach who is bottom of the standings gets to pick first and so has more chance of getting good skills than the coaches near the top of the standings.

The Canadian Open (Toronto, ON) is a well attended tournament, often the highest attendance in Canada. It also features the skills draft, that thief Tusim stole it from the Ottawa crowd Wink

The Challenge of Q'ermitt (Toronto, ON) is a tournament that is all about the custom boards with all sorts of special rules. If playing bloodbowl on boats, in sewers, or in a crazy slann temples is your thing this one could be your bag.

The Niaggaroth Bowl (Niagara Falls) is another interesting varient tournament where you bring two teams and contest two seperate tournaments, one with each team. The results from both tournament are joined together to determine the overall winner.

The Spike tournament is the major which is held in Canada. This is quite an erratic tournament which can have good and bad years as it has recieved varying levels of support from GW. In 2006 it was just one day in Toronto, but this year it was apparently very good and held out west. Although the results have not yet been entered into the rankings so question marks about next years event still exist. It is probably not one to plan a big trip for.

All of these tournies are far from LA though.

daloonieshaman - Dec 05, 2007 - 10:56 PM
Post subject: RE: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

Well I can travel (hence the $600 price tag figuring hotel and airfare)
I am looking for a good batch of skilled players where I can both learn and have fun. The majors have a certain appeal as I would get to meet and greet but I do not want to be distracted by a Convention setting (I would much rather go to an event that is mostly or just the BB tourney), don't want the AdD to flare up (lol)
I am also looking at the event itself as we would like to start a west coaster and build it to a major
OTTAWA is too soon as I have the whole time off request thingy at work to deal with.
I would say min of 25 players but would prefer 50-100(or more)
I have been to 12 Warhammer GT's and enjoyed them I am just starting my Tourney BloodBowl training so I can make it to England in 2-3 years

the ideal would be to get to 2 in the same year for under $800 (figuring airfare in the US would be $400-$500 for both)
too bad I do not know anyone in the midwest/Canada that can pick me up at the airport, taxi-me around, and crash at their place, That would save a ton of cash then I would have to just fly and eat (and play of course)

Clan_Skaven - Dec 06, 2007 - 02:47 AM
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The Death-Bowl just past was 20 people, I think last years Canadian Open was between 20-30 . I run the NBBO in Niagara Falls my 1st tourney had 12 but it was 12 awsome guys .....

You will be hard pressed to find tournies with 50+ attending, 25+ is not to out of the question.

In Ontario I'd say our few tourney's (mention above) average between 15-30 people per tourney. Mine was low at 12, but also a few last minute cancles will do that.

My tourney will be next September.

Rod

SolarFlare - Dec 06, 2007 - 05:57 AM
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The ZlurpeeBowl is one of the best tourneys out there. Xtreme had a special figure cast for the giveaway last year (along with specially made tourney dice). Last year we had 37 players, and it was a blast. This year, the stated goal if 50 players, and players have been recruiting new attendees from their home leagues. Go to zlurpeebowl.com for more info.

After that, I recommend Chaos Cup (because it's a "Major") or GenConBowl (if you like all the other stuff you could do at a con).

Notorious_jtb - Dec 06, 2007 - 08:11 AM
Post subject: Re: RE: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

daloonieshaman wrote:

yeah the numbers game is a tough one. I went to 4 warhammer GTs in nottingham and there is a huge difference between a bloodbowl tournie and a GT. IBecause there are less players you really get to know the people involved, so if you go to one tournament its likely you'll have somewhere to crash for the next one. The only roughly 50 coach tournie in north america is gencon bowl. Although I didn't realise how successful the zlurpee bowl was! Good work there lads.

The deathbowl and the canadian open average between 20 to mid 30s. They do both feature custom tournament dice, and various prizes. The deathbowl has custom trophies too. There will be alot more tournaments with custom figures now with the support from IMPACT on that line.

Colin - Dec 06, 2007 - 09:15 AM
Post subject: RE: Re: RE: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

I have to disagree with the statement that the Spike! tourney isn't worth planning a big trip for. I attended the one held this year in Calgary and it was a great tourney. It is a major and attracts people from all over western Canada. (over 30 coaches this past July, which is pretty good for a NA tourney). Lots of good players there and competition was great. Contact ToppyT at the abbba.org website for more info.

A big plus is that flying into Calgary is alot cheaper from LA than to any city in eastern Canada or eastern US.

I will like to add that if travel isn't a big concern for you, check out the Three Kingdoms Challenge in Tampa, FL, a smaller tourney (averaging around 20 coaches) but a great tourney that attracts people from all over (including players from Europe). Wink

Notorious_jtb - Dec 06, 2007 - 09:32 AM
Post subject: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

Torg wrote:

I have to disagree right back torg.

I did say that this years tournament went well, which is great. However, due to the links with GW last years tournament was a 1 day disaster. There is also no evidence that this won't happen again. Also, the results from this years tournament have not been entered into the database, which speaks to organisational issues surrounding this event.

Whilst it may be a great time, these doubts will prevent myself from planning a big trip to attend the spike. I am not willing to gamble limited travel funs on a maybe. I feel it only fair to share my doubts with others, who do not know the history. It would be a much "safer" use of funds to go to a well established event, like Gencon bowl or The Chaos Cup.

If you live close, or can get there for cheap then of course go to the spike. I hope it continues to do well and if it does then maybe the east will come to the west for the party.

Notorious_jtb - Dec 06, 2007 - 09:50 AM
Post subject: Re: RE: Re: RE: Which Tourney sould I attend and why

Torg wrote:

I will like to add that if travel isn't a big concern for you, check out the Three Kingdoms Challenge in Tampa, FL, a smaller tourney (averaging around 20 coaches) but a great tourney that attracts people from all over (including players from Europe). Wink

Oh yeah, the Chaos cup also gets some of the best European coaches coming over regularly too. In 2008 there is a plan to have the Chaos cup in Chicago, hopefully on the 4/5 of october and then the following weekend to hold the Deathbowl in Ottawa.

There are maybe half a dozen euro coaches who want to try and play both in 2008. A bunch of the eastern canada coaches are thinking of heading down to the chaos cup for the first time too. This could increase attendances at both tournies. It could be a good 1.5 week trip to the east, two great tournies and only 1 cross continent trip.

Xtreme - Dec 06, 2007 - 12:48 PM
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SolarFlare wrote:

I say the Zlurpee Bowl, though I may be bias. There always have been, and always will be a lot of free stuff for everyone that attends the ZB. Attendance has really jumped, with the closeness of several Midwest leagues now, and the activity on the zlurpee bowl forums. We are hoping to hit 50 coaches this year and it does seem like a realistic goal. If you are interested at all I encourage you to poke around the zlurpee bowl forum and see what is going on. Its still early for next years discussion, but it is getting started already. It will be June 21, 22nd in '08. www.ZlurpeeBowl.com

That being said, if you want to spend more money and play other games, everyone should see GenCon at least once. It is expensive, but it is 4 days of great gaming. And one of the largest BB tournies in the US.

DarkOrk20 - Dec 06, 2007 - 03:15 PM
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I will have to second everything Xtreme just said. I am running a tourney this year also but I would much rather attend Zlurpee Bowl. Besides that, where else can you play BB and drink your free Zlurpee.

There will be 50 coaches there this year. Even if we have to go out and club a few over the head and sit them in a chair. (Don't worry about them, they will still win some games. The guys I bring from my home league know how to play and still can't win a game).

daloonieshaman - Dec 06, 2007 - 09:11 PM
Post subject:

Can't go to Gencon (Alaska Cruise with my wifes family)
Zlurpee Bowl sounds fun (is the Zlurpee fermented ?!?)
I am seriously considering the Stupor Bowl (the date works VERY well for me)
Chaos Cup (maybe)

1 big thing I am looking at is the nuts and bolts of the tourney (and I will be talking with the organizers about stuff like advertising and costs).
One huge goal is to gather tourney info (what the players liked , did not like ect. how the event ran.) So I can run a tourney here is Los Angeles.

The other is to build my skills as a Tourney player (rather than a League coach) so that I can go to England and do as well as the dice let me.

SolarFlare - Dec 07, 2007 - 07:16 AM
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daloonieshaman wrote:

I am seriously considering the Stupor Bowl (the date works VERY well for me)

Yeah. I forgot about that one. We're looking to go to the Stupor Bowl as well. It looks like JP is putting some nice effort into it.

Colin - Dec 07, 2007 - 09:10 AM
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Notorious, you base your opinion on the Spike! not doing well in Toronto and being moved to Calgary that it is somehow an unstable event that may be moved around from year to year or not held at all. The fact that it did so poorly in Toronto was the whole reason it was moved to Calgary and the fact that it did well there means there is no reason for it to be moved somewhere else. The people who attended from Vancouver were so impressed that they expressed the desire to hopefully host the Spike! in Vancouver one year in the not so distant future. Nothing to do with instabllity, more to do with popularity, others want a chance to host it because it's a well run and fun tourney. I'm sure it's possible that there may be people in Toronto lobbying GW Canada to get the tourney back there, but as long as it is doing well in Calgary, there's no reason for it to more. As far as rankings go, if that's the reason you go to tounrnies, so be it, but I go to have fun, socialise with other coaches, and play some good games of BB, don't really care how long it takes to get the results entered as I don't look at the rankings anyway.
This isn't a personal attack, no need for a flame war to get started, you are intitled to your opionion as I said before, but I wanted to offer my own as a couterpoint to yours which was that the Spike! wasn't worth planning to attend as it will be shuffled and moved around without anyone knowing where it will be held from one year to the next. The Spike! isn't going anywhere, it did well in Calgary this year and will be a fixture in the western Canada tourney scene for some time to come.
But like I said, that's my opinion, so no need for a flame war.

Oh and BTW, I do agree that GenCon is a tourney that everyone should try atleast once, been there twice myself, a really good time. One of these years I'll check out the Chaos Cup as well (and maybe the Zlurpee Bowl) Wink

Daggers - Dec 07, 2007 - 11:10 AM
Post subject:

Although I never went to the Spike! I would say it looked like a well run tournament from all I saw. The fact that the stats took a while to get posted (they still aren't there btw) is probably to do with the fact that NAF seems to have a hard time keeping up with demand of everyone (that is not a knock on the NAF, I am sure they are more busy then everyone realizes, keep up the good work guys). I would say the reason it didn't survive in Toronto is because GW was running it, and did not put alot of effort into it.
I have been to a variety of tournaments, mostly in Ontario, and have yet to have a bad experience at any one of them. I would agree with Torg that my main reason to play in tournaments is to meet new people who enjoy playing BB like I do. On the same note, everyone wants to win the tournament, or get better so they can win next time. If you don't, then why pay the money to play, when you can do it with friends for free.
Either way, which ever tournament you decide on, I am sure you will enjoy. As well as gain some knowledge for running your own, so more people can join the blood-thirsty Blood Bowl family.
PS I agree that if you want a big, well run tournament GenCon and Chaos Cup are sure bets pretty much. I am hoping to make Chaos next year, and maybe GenCon that year or year after.

Punkpogoer - Dec 07, 2007 - 11:51 AM
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I hope I can throw another question in the mix here, how important is your experience factor when you want to participate in one of the larger tourys?

Xtreme - Dec 07, 2007 - 12:27 PM
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Dwarfrunner wrote:

Has nothing to do with the NAF. Its the tournament organizers responsibility to report results, and as far as I know the Spike this year was never entered into the NAF site as a tournament.

Daggers - Dec 07, 2007 - 02:01 PM
Post subject:

Punkpogoer wrote:

I hope I can throw another question in the mix here, how important is your experience factor when you want to participate in one of the larger tourys?

Experience helps with strategy, but it all comes down to dice rolls. Anyone can win a tournament if they roll 6's all night long. And a bad dice-rape can bring the best coach to his knees. Just remember it all equals out in the end, and keep a positive outlook. Nothing more annoying then a coach who starts bitching and throwing dice because he is losing.

Xtreme wrote:

Dwarfrunner wrote:

Has nothing to do with the NAF. Its the tournament organizers responsibility to report results, and as far as I know the Spike this year was never entered into the NAF site as a tournament.

Interesting, any reason why? Was it NAF sanctioned? I assumed it was mandatory if it was to input results. Oh well.

daloonieshaman - Dec 08, 2007 - 03:02 AM
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I am not ruling out Gen Con (this year yes because of other obligations) for future visit(s)
I enjoy "away" tourneys because I get away from my busy life and submerge myself in the culture of the game and event. I usually take a buddy and from the moment we get into the car to travel to the airport to the time we are driving home we are talking about the game and the event (not to mention the prep getting ready for the event). Meeting people from around the world and exchanging ideas about the games, models, ect it a HUGE part of it for me. Playing 3 games and going out to dinner afterward with people just just met that day are super bonuses. Then getting ready for the next day.
Win or loose it is all about total submersion for me.

Tonight in fact I lost a game because I could not get a die roll to save my life. Sure I had fun. and yes it sucks that one of my causalities got the MVP lost a Str and I got no skill rolls. Oh well I had fun playing

Xtreme - Dec 08, 2007 - 05:44 AM
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Dwarfrunner wrote:

Interesting, any reason why? Was it NAF sanctioned? I assumed it was mandatory if it was to input results. Oh well.

The tournament organizer never put it in the database to be approved. But that would be two years in a row for the Spike, so I guess like last year it could be done retroactively, if the organizer stepped up with the results.

Notorious_jtb - Dec 08, 2007 - 12:52 PM
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Xtreme wrote:

Dwarfrunner wrote:

Interesting, any reason why? Was it NAF sanctioned? I assumed it was mandatory if it was to input results. Oh well.

This is exactly why I couldn't recomend someone plan a big trip for the spike.

KarlLagerbottom - Dec 09, 2007 - 07:58 AM
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As someone who travelled to the Spike! in 2004 I also want to weigh-in here.

In 2004 the Spike! attracted 30+ coaches from accross Canada, the US, and brought some folks from Europe. I had a great time and it was very well supported by GW. In 2005 there was no official Spike! and all GW did by way of explanation was to say:

"..well...the last SPike! was the 2004-2005 Spike! and the one that will be held in 2006 is the 2005-2006 Spike!..."

That's complete nonsense...there was no Spike! in 2005...there fore the 2006 even saw attendance drop to like 10 people for a one-day event. (Actually two one-day events if that makes sense.)

I was encouraged by the promise of the 2007 event, but will need to see the results of another before I risk the trip to Western Canada based on GW's luke warm support for one of their "flagship" Blood Bowl events.

(Furthermore...given the fact that besides Calgary, apparently Vancouver or Toronto are in the mix as possible venues? I think that might hurt attandence numbers as well as people are waiting to see where it is...they may decide to spend their BB $$$ elsewhere.)

nyarlathotep - Dec 11, 2007 - 10:35 PM
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There is no choice but Zlurpeebowl for your budget.

Unless you're willing to double your budget and hit Gencon. But that's more for the "Gencon Experience".

daloonieshaman - Dec 11, 2007 - 11:27 PM
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Can't go to GENCON this year I will be taking a Family cruise to Alaska for my MiL 90th b-day
I am Very interested in Zlurpee and I am trying to get a plane ticket for my Christmas present so I can attend 2

daloonieshaman - Dec 18, 2007 - 11:42 AM
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I am going to Zlurpee IV (50 or bust) and a 95% chance on the Stupor Bowl!

daloonieshaman - Dec 18, 2007 - 11:42 AM
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I am also gonna bring home a trophy (or spoon)!!!!

daloonieshaman - Dec 18, 2007 - 11:43 AM
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THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR GREAT INPUT!!!!!
The feedback give me great ideas for 2009

Xtreme - Dec 18, 2007 - 03:54 PM
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daloonieshaman wrote:

I am going to Zlurpee IV (50 or bust) and a 95% chance on the Stupor Bowl!

I'll be at both of those tournaments, and expect both to be great.

daloonieshaman - Dec 18, 2007 - 07:42 PM
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so after me meet at Stupor I will have a place to crash for Zlurpee .....

GalakStarscraper - Dec 18, 2007 - 08:06 PM
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Xtreme wrote:

That being said, if you want to spend more money and play other games, everyone should see GenCon at least once. It is expensive, but it is 4 days of great gaming. And one of the largest BB tournies in the US.

Always hoping that someone grows large enough to take this crown but the GenCon Bowl has been the largest tournament in North America for the last 5 years .

(not "one of" ... "the"). Wink

And if you beat me in 2008 Bryan ... I'll be the first one to congratulate you. I love seeing the hobby grow!

Galak

Xtreme - Dec 19, 2007 - 05:27 AM
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The day is coming soon. Wink

Jonny_P - Dec 26, 2007 - 08:34 AM
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Hey guys.....I have not been on the forums for awhile. School and work have been kicking my ass!

Everyone is welcome to attend the Stupor Bowl, including Da Loonie Shaman! I will do my best to put on a quality event with great prizes and giveaways and try not to disappaoint.

In January, I'll be updated the rulespack with any changes or corrections (nothing major, just some feedback I got from others). I'll make another post when that is done. Da Freezer figure is still in production.....I gotta get a few painted up beforehand in case anyone happens to want to use him on their team.

daloonieshaman - Dec 26, 2007 - 06:29 PM
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Guess what I got for Christmas ....
Airline frequent flyer passes
So I am going to Stupor in March and Zlurpee in June
I AM GONNA BRING BACK AN AWARD!!!!!

Jonny
you know Anyone that is coming can pick me up at O'hera Friday night??? and drop me off Sunday so I don't have to rent a car??? I can throw in gas/beer$$

Jonny_P - Dec 27, 2007 - 01:14 PM
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Send me a PM. As of right now, I don't have any confirmations from anyone else flying in, but maybe we can work something out. Maybe someone that lives locally here, but in the O'Hare area would not mind. Let me know where you are staying in your PM too. Thanks.