Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Tournaments and Events => Topic started by: Voltaire on March 13, 2015, 11:38:26 am
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Howdy all. I'm quite pleased to announce that Cat & Mouse Games (http://cat-n-mouse.com/ocart/) (one of the hosts of the Chicago f.ds meetup (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=11078.0)) is hosting a TableTop Day Dominion tournament run by yours truly! I'm quite excited for this one and would love to see some f.ds representation! Here's the details:
Date: April 11, 2015 (TableTop Day) @ 1 PM
Location: Cat & Mouse Bucktown Game Store, Chicago IL
Players: 16 total
Style: 4-player games, Swiss with a final
Cards: all of 'em, including promos!, random sets
Registration: required, click here (http://www.eventbrite.com/e/tabletop-day-dominion-tournament-bucktown-tickets-15256090377)
Cost: $15 (money goes toward prize support)
Prizes:
- all participants: Prince (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Prince) promo
- 4th - $25 gift card
- 3rd - $30 gift card
- 2nd - $40 gift card
- 1st - $75 gift card, Broken Token Dominion box kit (http://www.thebrokentoken.com/kit-for-humanity-dominion/), RGG Treasure box, pre-qualified for World Masters at GenCon
I was really hoping Adventures would be out before this (the cards wouldn't be in the tournament no matter what) and it could dual-function as a release party, so fingers crossed the printer is quicker than RGG is expecting.
Also, if there is sufficient interest, I'm open to hosting f.ds people (whether you played in the tournament or not) at my apartment (~4 miles away) afterwards for more Dominion/gaming.
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Will cards be provided, or do you need people to bring cards they own?
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I would love to go, can't justify the trip this year though. Hoping to go to Chicago a few days next year, though.
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Will cards be provided, or do you need people to bring cards they own?
Cards will be provided.
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That is very, very tempting... but I suspect I can't justify it to the wife.
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In!
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So much going on here I forgot to mention - winner is pre-qualified for the World Masters at GenCon! Updated OP.
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I'll be there for 4-player nonsense. Especially tempting because I already have plans to go to GenCon.
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*begins to salivate*
Let's see if we can make this happen.
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Also, if there is sufficient interest, I'm open to hosting f.ds people (whether you played in the tournament or not) at my apartment (~4 miles away) afterwards for more Dominion/gaming.
Temporum?
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Temporum?
Sure!
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*sigh* Alas, I'll be away on a business trip that week. :-(
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If not for Microsoft College Puzzle Challenge I already registered, I'd love to go :'(
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How is registration looking, Voltaire?
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How is registration looking, Voltaire?
We've still got space left for you to bring friends! (so long as they register)
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How is registration looking, Voltaire?
We need to sell 5 more tickets for running this event to make sense for the store (which would be a 12-person tournament). If you're procrastinating on registering, do it today! Right now! If we don't get 12 tickets reserved by April 9 (the Thursday before the tournament), we'll have to cancel.
If this event doesn't happen (and it's still on as of right now), I will a) post here immediately with more details (refunds etc) for anyone who did register, and b) I will still host people for in-person Dominion/Temporum/games at my apartment!
(nothing in this post is an April Fools joke, fyi)
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Okay, looks like we've got plenty of participants now, we might even sell out, so this is 100% on, no doubt about it, and I'll see y'all Saturday. ;D
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I just registered. Can't wait!
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Polk and I are going to be brushing up on our 4-player game tonight if anyone wants to meet in Outpost around 8:30 CDT.
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What's the parking situation like around there?
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What's the parking situation like around there?
The store doesn't have a parking lot, but Armitage (the street it's on) has free parking. You can usually find a space within a block or two of the store without any difficulty, though this might be slightly more difficult on a weekend. At any rate, it's way easier than parking almost anywhere else in Chicago.
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Is checkin at noon and the games start promptly at 1? Or as soon as everyone is there?
I am wondering if I have to be there well before 12 or can I show up at 12:30?
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Is checkin at noon and the games start promptly at 1? Or as soon as everyone is there?
I am wondering if I have to be there well before 12 or can I show up at 12:30?
I'm going to send an e-mail out to all participants this morning, but check-in begins at 12:30, overview/tournament rules at 1, games at 1:15 or when everyone is here, whichever is first. (We had to push back the start time to 1 PM due to a standing event ending at 12:30 I thought wouldn't be happening this week).
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Whew! The tournament, at least in my eyes, is over and was a huge success!
The tournmanet sold out on Friday night, but we ended up with a cancellation, a no-show, and a player who showed up just in case any of the previous things happened, so we played with a field of 15. It required some three-player games, and not everyone got the same number of those, but I think we did the best given the circumstances.
I can't say enough good things about the competitors we had. I was having nightmares the day before the tournament about what I'd need to do if people didn't shuffle properly, if someone claimed a game should be null and void if someone revealed cards at an incorrect moment, etc, but absolutely none of that came up. Everyone was a good sport and competed fairly, and it looked like everyone had tons of fun. The only problem we had was when a player bought the second-to-last province at his table, only to reveal an estate below it. They called me over, explained the problem (they had no idea if the stack had originally contained 11 or 12 provinces), and asked what to do, since they knew they couldn't look through their own decks to check. I ended up doing that for them (without changing any orders), discovered they had 12 Provinces already bought (that estate belonged in the supply and was just in the wrong stack), and all players agreed that meant the game was over. Another moment where I was impressed with the players.
The kingdoms we played were as follows:
Round 1: Native Village, Crossroads, Watchtower, Trader, Talisman, Monument, Scout*, Moneylender, Contraband, Expand
Round 2: Moat, Courtyard, Village, Smugglers, Treasure Map, Pirate Ship, Navigator, Mining Village, Mint, Council Room
Round 3: Transmute*, Fools Gold, Woodcutter, Shanty Town, Oasis, Loan, Bureaucrat, Bishop, Venture, Fairgrounds
Round 4: University, Workshop, Worker's Village, Throne Room, Remodel, Quarry, Baron, Trading Post, Embassy, Bazaar
Finals: Herbalist, Sage, Lookout, Coppersmith, Soothsayer, Horn of Plenty, Graverobber, Baker, Border Village, Farmland
*I saw both these cards purchased at least once
We ended up with a three-way tie for the 3rd and 4th spots in the finals that came down to the second tiebreaker (most 1st-place finishes), which gave a little extra thrill to the proceedings.
And when it was all said and done, f.ds's own ADK took home the gold. Congrats! ;D
I learned a lot as an organizer and look forward to (hopefully) running another Dominion tournament in the near future (likely with a different format). Thanks again to all who came out!
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If anyone wants tips on how to run a tournament, I'd certainly ask Voltaire. This went extremely smoothly.
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Hey, I was the guy who came in 2nd during the tournament. I have to agree that it was really fantastically run and everyone I met was great! It was nice to see that after not having played dominion since isotropic went down, I still had some abilities. For random sets I think they worked well and we got a mixture of a few different things. I thought getting to choose 5\2 or 3\4 was nice. I'd be interested to see what people think the best strategies for those sets (as 4 player games, with the understanding that your opponents might not buy pirate ships or embassies) would be.
Your 1st place victory was well deserved and I think it was pretty clear you were the best player there. Good luck at gencon!
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The board I'd be most interested to get input/advice on is the first one. The tournament allowed you to pick your opening split, and I was the only person at my table who opted to open 5/2 on that board, opening Contraband/NV. My thought is that NV provides you with enough pseudo-trashing to justify not getting Moneylender until the second shuffle, and the extra buy from Contraband lets you pick up the cards you need to get the NV/Watchtower/Monument engine going. I ended up getting second, with the player to my left getting first after gaining two Provinces and milling a third in a huge last turn with three Expands (I was third player and he was fourth).
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If anyone wants tips on how to run a tournament, I'd certainly ask Voltaire. This went extremely smoothly.
I concur with this. Nicely run, Voltaire. What really made this format work was that most players were treating it as a fun event with new friends. I especially applaud keeping everything on schedule -- even though being clocked really hurt me in the first game.
I do have a couple of suggestions, though:
1) Have one other person help. Voltaire did really well, but it would have made me feel a little better if there was someone else walking around counting piles and starting hands before each game began, able to answer rules questions, monitor play, etc. There were some slip ups that could have been avoided if there was just a little more help. (Estate in a Province pile, missed curse in the final game, etc.)
I felt like I had to monitor my opponents a lot more than I was expecting and would have liked to have been able to focus more on my own play. (Player tried to buy a card then play an action; another player tried to play more than one action, people forgetting to put cards back for courtyard, etc.) To a great extent this cannot be avoided in an all-cards tournament because so many people are unfamiliar with some of the cards. So them's the breaks, I guess.
2) Give an example at the start of what an acceptable shuffle is and what an unacceptable shuffle is. There were two cases at my tables where people were not really shuffling, but luckily there were enough people at each table who were able to explain what a correct shuffle was, and players were deferential, so it ended up not being a problem, but it could have been.
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What is an acceptable shuffle? People always make fun of me for shuffling for way too long, and I probably do. But I sometimes wonder if my opponents are shuffling enough, but I really an not sure.
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I do have a couple of suggestions, though:
Thank you very much for your feedback - it is extremely helpful. I'll add these suggestions to my own notes. I definitely know that I won't run another tournament this large without an assistant next time - you make good points that having tournament eyes on the games more consistently would have helped. I was honestly a little surprised how many basic rules questions I heard at the tables (but pleased to hear other players politely answering them).
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What is an acceptable shuffle? People always make fun of me for shuffling for way too long, and I probably do. But I sometimes wonder if my opponents are shuffling enough, but I really an not sure.
Well, I can tell you what is not an acceptable shuffle: Taking your discard pile, dealing piles of three or four, then stacking them.
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Oh, one more thing I forgot to applaud: The curated random kingdoms selection method. Making the executive decision to edit out kingdoms that would take forever to play was absolutely the right call.