Wednesday 23 May 2018

Double Trouble 3 and other tournament news

Just a reminder that Double Trouble 3 takes place Saturday June 9th and you have until this Saturday to pick up tickets and send in your 875pt army list. I've gone to the last two Double Trouble events and they've been some of the most fun experiences I've had gaming. Alex's events are always run with FAAC [Fun At All Costs] in mind and if you've been seeing some of the worst attitudes of the tournament scene over the last few weeks and feel put off, then DT3 is the complete antithesis of those. You rock up, meet new people have a shared game and then repeat. It's less like a tournament and more like a hobby reunion. Here's Alex's pitch:

Double Trouble is a Warhammer 40,000 doubles tournament with a difference. Instead of writing an army list together with a partner, each player will write their own 875pt army list from a single faction of their choice which becomes their "Force". Before the first round you will be randomly assigned a doubles partner combining your "Force" with theirs to form a 1750pt "Army". You'll then play against another random pairing and their "Army". There are no restrictions on which factions can be paired with each other, even if the fluff might disagree!
At the start of the next two rounds you will be assigned a new random partner. This means you'll get to play three games with 9 different people and hopefully a good variety of factions.
Tickets
Tickets are on sale now and cost £17.50 per person with 48 spaces available. Your ticket entitles you to 3 games of 40K, lunch, free entry into the raffle and, a chance to win spot prizes throughout the day.
Event Location
North West Gaming Centre in Stockport.


With tickets going on sale Monday just gone [and selling out by 12:30] we had to decide if the hobby crew were returning to the Official Warhammer 40k GT this/next year and we booked our tickets for GT4 on the 16th and 17th of February 2019. I'm not entirely sure what I'll take, I had planned an Imperial Knight contingent with some Dark Angels but the points reduction to 1750 might mean I could just switch to Knights and 3 Custodes on bikes, because that's what all the cool kids are using. Reducing my model count is key for me to enjoying the games a bit more - less stress, more fun. It does mean I have to buy figures though...

And on the subject of tournaments I would be remiss for not mentioning the recent London GT. I must admit I was horrified when I saw the pictures coming back of the terrain used and then seeing Mike Corr's experience. Like many I couldn't believe such a high profile event was dropping the ball so badly, I mean GW was filming live there this year and 2017. The London GT was held up by GW as maintaining the Grand Tournament format for all those years GW didn't have one. In fact when GW brought their's back this year I actually felt bad for the organisers, as I envisaged all that effort had been 'gazumped' by the 'official' GT.

However, after my initial shock I did go back and look at some of their terrain vlogs and I'll admit the Herculean task they set themselves - well I wouldn't want to do all that terrain. Cutting, painting, storing and transporting that much 'terrain' for such an event I can't even begin to imagine taking that onboard. Obviously I wasn't there so my opinion is based on what was on the tables, the organisation and facilities are better discussed by the likes of Mike. But the issue of terrain falls back into the same category - planning. As much as I respect the effort they put in and some of the unavoidable problems I'm not sure that excuses the issues that came about. Better organisation, well in advance should have been a priority. How you then store all that terrain is another challenge, but if you've over-extended you need to lower your expectations, particularly when people are handing over significant fees to enter.

The subsequent handling of the invitational final doesn't come across as professional or well considered either. Regardless of the veracity of the claims this should have been handled better - following up with the players involved and then issuing a succint statement that disqualified the player for breaching the rules. The result is a polarised mob of angry gamers who, rightly or wrongly have been incensed, not just by the behaviours that have been pinpointed by the organisers for everyone to see but by the fact it came before any observations regarding how the tournament could have handled been better.

Bottom line I think myself lucky to stick to events that have been well organised and thankfully I'm not a good enough player to ever be on the top table, so winning at all costs isn't an issue. But if you want a fun tournament, I can only repeat - check out Double Trouble 3!

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