Cactus Game Design Message Boards
Redemption® Collectible Trading Card Game HQ => Playgroup and Tournament Central => Redemption® Official Tournaments => Topic started by: Captain Kirk on June 04, 2009, 12:43:57 AM
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Has anyone else noticed the significant decrease in the number of district tournaments this year? I was thinking about that and it led me to tally the number of local and district tournaments since Nationals the tournament season switched to run from Aug-Aug insead of Oct-Oct.
District Tournaments
04-05: 43
05-06: 79
06-07: 71
07-08: 61
08-09: 45 (the 45th is stiil to happen)
On the other hand, local tournaments remained almost identical to the previous year, but are way off previous years.
Local Tournaments
04-05: 186
05-06: 168
06-07: 184
07-08: 142
08-09: 139, but I'm sure 1-2 more might appear on the schedule before the season is over
State Touraments
04-05: 19
05-06: 23
06-07: 19
07-08: 24
08-09: 21
Regional Tournaments
04-05: 8
05-06: 7
06-07: 7
07-08: 8
08-09: 7
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. However, I think that we all need to step up our efforts and host more tournaments and encourage more friends to play. I know I certainly haven't done my part over the past two years, and it is probably a hypocritical thing for me to say such a thing, as a result. However, the point remains that we should all seriously look into putting more of an effort into getting more players to play, which naturally increases the demand for tournaments, and hosting tournaments ourselves. If we want Redemption to grow and continue to exist for our enjoyment as a fellowship of believers, we should take some actions.
Just my two cents.
Kirk
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Texas has only had one local this tournament season, and no districts. I will be doing my best to host a tournament once a month next season, depending on the amount of school/work I'll have going on.
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Yeah Georgia had nothing. After I saw this I hosted state and rtegionals. Next year I will be hosting tournaments all the time.
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I knows that overall attendance of CA tournaments has been up over the last year or two. Perhaps tournaments are somewhat consolidating now that gas prices aren't so insane? It could also be that more informal playgroups are forming.
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This is really quite simple, and I predicted it a long time ago when it was decided to change the prize support (http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/index.php?topic=12852.msg195997#msg195997) for District tournaments. It is simply a matter of economics.
Local tournament with all 6 events = $40
District tournament with all 6 events = $60
Prizes are identical.
People just aren't willing to pay the extra $20 just for RNRS points (because that's the only difference).
When Rob changed the prizes he said, "let's try it this way for a while and see what impact, if any, it has on applications and player participation...Moreover, I am not sure that it would be a bad thing if we had more local tournaments and fewer district tournaments."
So hopefully he'll take a look at these numbers of tournaments and decide whether the drop in Districts is what he wanted, or whether perhaps it would be good to make another change to the prizes.
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I'm not convinced that's the determining factor. Given the timing of the drop in tournaments and how drastic it is, I think the single biggest reason begins with "e" and ends with "conomy".
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To be quite honest, the change in prize structure had absolutely no bearing in my tournament scheduling this past year. I did host 2 less districts this year (5 to 3) but there was an increase in the Reno/Susanville area. So our small local group still had the same district opportunities from last year to this year.
The main factors I use to schedule districts (in order of importance):
1. Weather (Julia, I gotta go. We got mountains.)
2. My financial health
3. My work schedule
4. My family schedule
5. The ability for out-of-towners to attend
Unfortunately, there will be a continued decrease in tournaments I host this next year. Again, prize structure and the type of new set will have no bearing. We will be buying a house. I imagine it won't be until we receive our tax refund next year that I will host my first tournament of the next season.
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This is really quite simple, and I predicted it a long time ago when it was decided to change the prize support (http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/index.php?topic=12852.msg195997#msg195997) for District tournaments. It is simply a matter of economics.
Well yes, I did want to reduce District events. The reason was abuse. Hosts were paying a little more and getting a great deal more in prize support and RNRS points. The result was that hosts were essentially running a local event and yet calling it a District because the prizes and points were so much better.
Still $60.00 in cash (or $10 in cash and $50 in Redemption Cash) net the host $108 in prizes plus promo cards and points. That is I think more than reasonable.
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Well that makes sense about the districts, but the drop is locals is quite surprising. I understand the economy is bad, but it still seems like there should be more of them happening if there are indeed more players playing the game now...
Kirk
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Kirk, could you make a list of the number of State and Regional tournaments for the same years that you did Local and Districts?
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Updated my first post. I thought about counting the national tournaments during those years as well, but I decided against it, as it would take too long. ::)
Kirk
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Well if Redemption can hang on till the second generation of Redemption players kicks in their will be plenty of tournaments. It seems that alot of tournament host have kids that played. So when Kirk gets married and his kids are about 7 years old, I'm sure he will be hosting tournaments.
When are you getting married Kirk? Hurry up.
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Tournaments in MD went down because of lack of declining interest.
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Which will hopefully change as my graduate program allows...
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Tournies in PA went down because...
~The ongoing struggle of the Pittsburgh playgroup
~The southcentral PA playgroup had one leader graduating and the other in her first year of graduate school. Fail.
I know that Nathan and I plan to try to have tourneys monthly, and at the very least, I will be supporting new ventures in MD.
~Marti
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Going back to what Scott was saying, the level of prizes didn't affect my decision to host or not host tourneys. I know I used to host tons of locals but I stopped for one main reason, I moved. When I moved I lost my previous play group (I was the only adult player for the most part), and at the church I moved too it took along time to get any interest in the game. I think tournament numbers is based around the availability of the hosts. We are all volunteers and hosting tourneys does take some and money that we don't always have. I think the fees and prizes are just fine, and I think this upcoming year touney numbers may go back up a little as the economy increases.
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For me, I'm trying to get my second local tournament set up two weeks before Natz. However, due to financial needs, I have been unable to visit the So Cal group for their tournaments. Luckly for me, since I am using Redemption as a ministry to bring churches together and not just a fun past time, my church is reimbursing me for the hosting cost (though I'm not planning any districs and I only have two catagories in Local).
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I declared this year for me as a year of teaching Redemption® to new people here on Long Island NY and other areas near it, plus continuously promoting the game to an ever hard-headed bunch of Christian bookstore owners who'd rather sell poker cards at their store (so to speak).
I should expect to host more locals and a few districts next year in the Bronx and Seaford areas. I also know that the Walsh Conley Store is always there as an instant venue anytime I need to host a tourney in Hempstead. As soon as the gaming store in Seaford is finally independent of my assistance, I aim to let them loose as a stand-alone regular Redemption® gaming venue.
A major breakthrough with the above projects: a school in the Bronx will formally launch a Redemption® club at their school next school year, with the pioneers (composed of incoming Sophomore and Senior high school students) aimed at promoting Redemption® as an inter-school activity for the first time in Redemption® gaming history.
FYI, prize support changes have never been a reason why I had a decline in tourney hosting in my particular NY area.
I will not be surprised if God blesses the North East with more than 30 players attending regionals 2009. I pray that all players in the area do their utmost best in breaking past years' attendance. Kirk will always be a part of the North East even in spirit.
Godbless, all!
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I have not been able to host more than one or two tournaments in the past few years due to moving to AZ and back to WI. However, starting in April 2009, I am now hosting one every month. At this point, they are only Local tournaments. However, I can see that changing in the future. I know that right now there is no one in the area that wants to play Type 2 due to the cost of making a Type 2 deck, since we've always only played Type 1 here. However, as a couple people from a little farther away have started coming to the tournaments, we may get to the point that we can expand that. I'll also need to have others that are willing to help me out so that I don't do everything on my own for District tournaments. :)
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The Northwest is a really scattered area for players. This makes hosting tournaments difficult. We lost around 20 people when Josh moved and we lost another 10-15 after a host in the Portland area just fell off the map. I'll be moving to SoCal for college next year so I won't be able to host tournaments. Hopefully we can encourage a few of the players here in Washington to do a WA state tournament on their own next year but that may be difficult because they don't have a "playgroup."
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It's always difficult when you can't find a venue too. We (Shipwreckers and Redemption York) merged into Redemption South Central PA because I have been semi-unsuccessful in bringing Redemption into my church. I need the youth ministry to be behind me in order to be successful with it (please pray, I'm considering about talking to Mark and BK, the youth pastors, more about it this summer).
Honestly, it's more exciting than anything else to see new groups pop up around the country. If I didn't let you guys know yet, I feel like the Lord is leading me out to the Philly area to live in the next few years, and one of the things I would love to do is bring Redemption back out there, so pray that God's Will is done in that area of my life.
Sorry, rambling. But yeah, I hope to see our tournies increase as we discover new venues and such.
~Marti
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Also, Western PA, we had our church host burn down. So, Mike Berkenpas has been busy doing various work with that whole situation as he is an elder. Now that they are more stable (they merged wiht another church), we are hosting a state this weekend and hopeuflly will start being bale to have a few tournaments next year.
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I have every Intention of hosting several tournaments in the coming season, just needed to finish getting grounded in MD which I feel I am now. I hope to see a resurgence of players in MD, hopefully in multiple areas. I am blessed that my church is behind the our play group 110%, so I have a venue for hosting a tourney pretty much at will. Our little playgroup has gone from 3 at start to about 5-6 in about two months. I am hopeful for continued growth.