[Plainville MA] Battleground 500 Point 40k Singles - November 5th

[Chase]

I myself had some confusion about the brackets and maybe it will get cleared up when the Results are posted. With the 2 People dropping out it seemed like 2 people with 0 wins got moved up from the 4th bracket to the 3rd and maybe It just wasn't clear to me but it seemed like it had been stated the only way to win 2nd or 3rd bracket was to have previously won a match in the placement rounds to make it so you go 4-1. This may just be my confusion but wouldnt that have made it impossible for those people to place in the bracket at all even if they won all 3 matches?

I just got in for the weekend. 

I have reviewed the results and while theoretically possible for the two 0-2's to take 1st and 2nd in bracket 3, it was made impossible by pairings we posted for that round, which put the two 0-2's against each other.

Even after round 3 it was still theoretically possible for Steve to win the bracket, but funny things would have had to happen with the pairings and VPs.

I will say that "preserving" the 0-2's chances in bracket 3 was not something I had considered and I'm not sure how (if) I think it should be handled in future win / loss events.  I'm not super interested in discussing it because I think it's opinion based.  It boils down to "Does it compromise the integrity of the event in any respect to preserve the 0-2's chances by purposely pairing people down if need be, or not."  My thoughts are, "Yes.  It does." And as it stands I will most likely not be doing it in the future.

Results late tonight or tomorrow, depending on how bored I am later.

[Benjamin]

My interest in continuing the conversation is simply to figure out the lessons and apply them to the future. I have a few ideas in the works, far more casual, so there are good, constructive reasons at work.

Any wonkiness that could occur is pretty much a result of the system's inflexibility in dealing with those last-minute drops. (Thank goodness there was at least an even number of players and no need to hand out byes.)

One solution for not-32-players may be fewer, bigger brackets. But that takes work and time, neither of which last minute drops afford. And it seems like they're the nature of the beast. Pressing forward, I'll have to consider that an active factor, because this time I was overly optimistic in that regard.

[Loranus]

Just to re-affirm I do not think anything went wrong. Truth be told I was the real winner because I had Space Marines on Motorcycles  as an army list .

[Chase]

After some thought, handling last minute drops and a less than ideal number of players is actually pretty easy.  I just didn't account for the fact that the 0-2's that got moved up would be at a significant disadvantage.  Winning out isn't always good enough for them if they get bumped up.  Some would argue that's okay, some wouldn't.

When the nature of the event is casual and the prizes are paid out in each bracket, I see it as a small issue.

Anyways, it was a learning experience and I have a couple sound ways to handle things next time.

Small issues / complaints are still issues and complaints.  It's best to hear them and get them worked out.  

I'm very confident that this "issue", if it were a problem at all, will never be a problem again.

[KestrelM1]

I'd just like to thank Ben for organizing this tourney and the entire Battlegrounds staff for hosting yet another awesome event. I had a blast and I'd really like to see the event full size (i.e., 2000 points over 2 days) at some point. Looking forward to the doubles!

[Frosthydra]

I thought the event was a blast!  And trying to see people deal with a Hive Tyrant was a lot of fun too.

That being said, and since I was mentioned before, I really didn't have a problem with the pairings / bracket breakdown.  Sure it would have been hard for me to win out the bracket if I won all three... but seeing as how I went into the tournament expecting on going 0-5 and playing for fun... I'm ok with that.

I'm glad that everyone I played against had fun with the games, most of the matches had each player laughing and really peacefully discussing any rules questions / clarifications... to me I think the atmosphere of the tournament was far better than expected (and I didn't expect it to be bad anyway).

I know of very few tournaments where both players can look at a scenario and go "how about we just kill each other instead?" and then actually do so while laughing the entire time... which is truly awesome.

All in all, I'd say the tournament was a great success, and I'm hoping for more along those lines in the future!

-Steve