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[ednever]

As someone new to the gaming world, I have two questions for you all:

(1) What are the best conventions to go to to play Dominion? Obviously Gen Con this year with the world championships, but what else? Origins? Something in Europe? PAX? I looked at the set-up for something called the World Board Game Championships somewhere in PA, but the Dominion "rounds" looked pretty weak (only one set per round for example). If you could go to any tournaments in the next 12 months to play Dominion, where would you go?

(2) I understand that for the Dominion World Championships there will be:
     (a) Qualifying Tournaments for the US Championship
     (b) Qualifying Tournaments for the World Championship (around the world + the US Championship)
     I also read somewhere that if you win these qualifiers you get subsidized somehow to attend the next level.
     My Question: Is playing in the qualifiers the only way to play "at the next level"? OR does playing in the qualifiers just get you a free ride to the next level? In other words, can anyone show up at the US Championships in Chicago and play? Or do you have to win a qualifying round first?

     So far I've only heard of ~3 qualifying tournaments (all in MI/IL area). Unless something changes fast, that seems to be a really small US Championships.

     And: Can anyone show up at GenCon and enter the World Championships? Or is there just going to be one person representing each country?


Thanks,

Ed

[dondon151]

I can answer a couple of these. Jay informed me via e-mail that there's maybe going to be ~12 participants in the US finals and that only 1 player will advance to the WM tournament at GenCon.

[jsh357]

(1) I can only speak for PAX, but so far it has not attracted a super-competitive crowd.  I played a lot of people new to the game there, and in general it's a more casual group playing.  Maybe in the future, but as most of their more serious organization seems to be aimed at Magic The Gathering (which will pretty much always be the juggernaut at bigger conventions), it's unlikely.

At other conventions I have been to, the organizers only used the Base set, which I personally think kinda ruins the experience.  Overall, the most competitive tournament is going to be the Dominion Strategy one in all likelihood.  It's all online, of course.

[WanderingWinder]

I've not been to an IRL tournament. Having said that, as far as I'm aware, none of them, including the world championships, are very competitive.

[rspeer]

I can answer a couple of these. Jay informed me via e-mail that there's maybe going to be ~12 participants in the US finals and that only 1 player will advance to the WM tournament at GenCon.

Not that I'm likely to have a shot at it no matter what, but: how would one become a participant in the US finals?

Do the "regional" tournaments being held in Chicago lead into it? What about people who don't live anywhere near Chicago?

The information on how to qualify for these tournaments is so sketchy. It seems like the tournaments are limited to people who happen to be in the right place at the right time, which kind of undermines the goal of finding a world champion of Dominion.

[WanderingWinder]

The information on how to qualify for these tournaments is so sketchy. It seems like the tournaments are limited to people who happen to be in the right place at the right time, which kind of undermines the goal of finding a world champion of Dominion.

They (and by 'they' I mean Jay) apparently don't really care about a world championship competition, so your assessment shouldn't really be surprising...:

in a Dominion tournament I want the results to reflect, as accurately as possible taking into account the inherent randomness of the game, who is the best Dominion player (or n-player Dominion player).

At it happens, this is not what Jay wants. Jay wants people to enjoy the tournament as much as possible. And you can only maximize one variable.

For sure two-player games are more skill-based. No argument there.

Are three-player games more fun? Well this will vary by player, but I think they are more fun for the players who aren't the best players. The top players would prefer the more skill-based format, so they had a better chance of winning. They want to play best 4 of 7 and so forth; leave nothing to chance. But most people aren't the top players.

There are no such plans; Jay prefers 3 players, itself a compromise from 4 players.

However I hope and expect (though cannot guarantee) to have tournaments with 2-player games for the online version.

What does Donald prefer?  Does the "compromise" above mean you prefer 4 players?

I just want to know so I can get all elitist and tell my friends that the best way to play is how the creator intended.

The compromise is, Jay preferred 4 players, but agreed to 3.

I personally enjoy Dominion the most with 3 players, then 4, then 2, then 5. I avoid 5 but will do it; I don't play with 6. I put 5 last because it's slower; I put 3 and 4 ahead of 2 because I like the increased interaction and social atmosphere. I put 3 ahead of 4 because it's faster and there are more Provinces per player. I personally would have supported 2-5 in the main set and would never have supported 6. This is just the way of the world though, many games support one more player than is reasonable, and they do it because of the people who actually want to play with that many players.

For a tournament I would have 2-player games. It's a tournament, it's supposed to be competitive. I would for sure sometimes have multiplayer tournaments, because people like those too, but I would default to 2-player.

This is not something I have argued with Jay about though. I am fine with his stance on the number of players, for tournaments irl anyway. He sees it as about promoting the game and people enjoying games, rather than as a competition. I shouldn't speak extensively for him but you know, that is the impression I get. And that's fine; Dominion can't have a serious tournament scene without some work that no-one is going to put into that, I'm certainly not. Jay initially thought he would never run tournaments, so we have more tournaments than we were planning.

It's different online. Online someone else will actually do that work and probably small tournaments will run frequently, so there I think it matters enough that we should have 2-player rounds be the norm, and like I said, that is what I hope for and expect, but I haven't actually discussed this with Jay.

[Forge!!!]

I can answer a couple of these. Jay informed me via e-mail that there's maybe going to be ~12 participants in the US finals and that only 1 player will advance to the WM tournament at GenCon.

Not that I'm likely to have a shot at it no matter what, but: how would one become a participant in the US finals?

Do the "regional" tournaments being held in Chicago lead into it? What about people who don't live anywhere near Chicago?

The information on how to qualify for these tournaments is so sketchy. It seems like the tournaments are limited to people who happen to be in the right place at the right time, which kind of undermines the goal of finding a world champion of Dominion.

Yes, those regional tournaments are the ones leading into it. I am assuming that they are trying to set up tournaments all around the U.S. I know the people who ran the one Dondon and I went to said they were doing it earlier than everyone else, so there is hope that other regional tournaments will be popping up soon. They were also a little worried that everyone else was going to slack off and not get tournaments in on time. They really better be getting around to it soon.

[lespeutere]

At least last year there was one participant from every country in the "world championships" at Spiel in Essen.
Speaking for some European countries I know about (Netherlands, Sweden, Germany) there are qualifying tournaments to find this participant (you can find a summary of the Dutch by Geronimoo in the T&E section).
This year we have a series of 20 qualifying tournaments for the German championships. At least at these qualifying tournaments the level of play is rather low. On the other hand there are not THAT many level 30+ players on iso fom Germany so having 2 of them on such a qualifying tournament might be average.

[Geronimoo]

I was dumb enough to ask Stef if he was going to the Dutch championship this year. He didn't even know there was one. No way I'm winning that one anymore

[lespeutere]

I'm not joining in some "Stef is playing well, but not THAT well" choir, but... ;-)
I assume it will also be more than 2 players and then you might get (un-)/lucky with starting hands, seats, draws etc. + it's one game, only..
When I was in the final of the qualifying tournament I started 3rd. I got lucky and could open trading post/courtyard, though while the others had 3/4 starts, my strongest opponent starting 4th (and being the only one starting masquerade/silver which was clearly the only reasonable starting option for 3/4). So, all I want to say, is: keep trying! :-)