24HRS MIDWINTER MADNESS (17-18 JANUARY SINT-NIKLAAS BELGIUM)

[Da_Great_MC]

24 HRS MIDWINTER MADNESS – 17/18 JANUARY 2015

Where? HQ Gaming Club.
Gasmeterstraat 19. 9100 Sint-Niklaas. Belgium.

What? NAF Sanctioned Blood Bowl resurrection tournament
TV 110
Blood Bowl Competition Rules
Swiss Pairings

Registration Fee? 14 Euros (early registration) / 16 euros (on site registration)
Lunch (sandwiches) + Dinner (hot dogs all you can eat) + Breakfast are included

Early Registration? Possible until January 5th

How?
Deposit 14 euros on IBAN BE87 0631 9604 2994, BIC: GKCCBEBB (Mats Clays). Please mention who you are paying for.
Use Pay Pal (mark payment as a gift). Please mention who you are paying for. Mats_Clays at Yahoo dot com
Pay me cash @ Brassbowl or when you see me

TIME TABLE

SATURDAY
09u15 Doors + Registration
10u00 - 12u00 Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
...
SUNDAY ...
08u00-10u00 Round 11
10u00 Prize ceremony

PRIZES

Winner gets a NAF trophy and a GW Chaos Dwarf team (basic team + 2 Chaos Dwarfs + 3 Bull Centaurs). All new in box / blister.

If we have 16+ coaches, a randomly determined coach will win a GW Dark Elf team, new in box. Draw will be during round 1.

If we have 26+ coaches, a randomly determined coach will win a full option GW Skaven team (basic team + 2x Linerat + Thrower + Gutter Runner + Rat Ogre). All new in box/blister. Draw will be during round 11.

We will provide small prizes for most casualties, most touchdowns and wooden spoon.

24 HRS MIDWINTER MADNESS RULES PACKAGE

Halflings can buy a Master Chef, Goblins can buy 0-3 Bribes.
No other inducements or Star Players are allowed.

To encourage even more team variety, I used more tiers and tinkered with the golden skill.

TIER 0,5 TEAMS - Dark Elves, Undead, Wood Elves

SKILL SET A

9 skills, no golden skill  you will lose your last skill after round 9 and play rounds 10 and 11 without skills

SKILL SET B

11 unique skills (you can assign each skill only once), no golden skill  you will play round 11 with only one skill left

TIER 1 TEAMS - Amazons, Chaos Dwarves, Dwarves, Lizardmen, Norse, Orcs, Skaven

SKILL SET A

9 skills, 1 golden skill  you will lose your golden skill after round 9 and play rounds 10 and 11 without skills

SKILL SET B

11 unique skills (you can assign each skill only once), 1 golden skill  you will play round 11 with only your golden skill left

TIER 1,5 TEAMS - Elves, High Elves, Humans, Necromantic

SKILL SET A

10 skills, 1 golden skill  you will lose your golden skill after round 10 and play round 11 without skills

SKILL SET B

12 unique skills (you can assign each skill only once), 1 golden skill  you will play round 11 with two skills left

TIER 2 TEAMS - Chaos, Chaos Pact, Khemri, Nurgle, Slann

SKILL SET A

10 skills, 2 golden skills  you will lose your golden skills after rounds 9 and 10 and play round 11 without skills

SKILL SET B

12 unique skills (you can assign each skill only once), 2 golden skills  you will play round 11 with your two golden skills left

TIER 3 TEAMS - Goblins, Halflings, Ogres, Vampires, Underworld

SKILL SET A

11 skills, 2 golden skills  you will lose a golden skill after round 10 and play round 11 with only one golden skill left

SKILL SET B

13 unique skills (you can assign each skill only once), 2 golden skills  you will play round 11 with three skills left, you need at least 12 players on your roster to use this skill set

Both skill sets have following limitations:
- Tier 0,5 and tier 1 teams can assign two ‘double’ skills
- Tier 1,5 and tier 2 teams can assign three ‘double’ skills
- Tier 3 teams can assign four ‘double’ skills
- One player (only one!) can have two skills assigned
- All other players can have only one skill assigned

After each round, you will lose a randomly decided skill. When your match ends your opponent rolls a dice to see which skill you lose.

When you assign your skills before the tournament, you can mark one or two ‘golden skill’, depending on your team tier. You can’t lose this skill when you lose a randomly decided skill.

ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE, BUT THE WEAK ALSO GET TO PLAY

We will allow players to join the tournament, even if they can’t/won’t play for 24hrs. If you decide to join as a ‘weakling player’ please let us know before the tournament.

- You have to enter the tournament in round 1 and play a minimum of three rounds
- You have to exit the tournament two by two, please make arrangements before the tournament. Round 3 will end around 16u30, round 4 18u30, round 5 20u30...
- Registration fee will be the same. Lunch and dinner are included and you will have a chance to win the team that is given away in round 1.
- If you wish to re-enter the tournament (for example: after four rounds of sleep), you will be able to do so on a two by two basis, please make clear arrangements with another player if you wish to do so. If you do so, you will be able to win the team that is given away in round 11.

[Da_Great_MC]

Registered players
0. The_Tyser (reserve player) - paid
1. Da Great MC - paid
2. Simon_MLF - paid (95% won't be there)
3. zahiko - paid
4. Elyoukey
5. Flabbergasted (exit together w/ dude)
6. Zoror - paid
7. Philip HQ - paid
8. Moute - paid
9. Kirou - paid
10. floyd - paid
11. magictobe - paid
12. StefK - paid
13. Phoenix11
14. Nielsdb - paid
15. Gubta - paid
16. Araznaroth
17. dude (exit together w/ Flabbergasted)
18. gninocker - paid
19. PeterD (maybe)

[Da_Great_MC]

!!! Last call !!!

We need at least twelve players to organise an eleven round tournament, so far only seven players (including the reserve player) have confirmed. Strange, since previous editions of this tournament had 30+ players and mostly positive feedback.

I don't mind last minute deciders, but this year I could really use some early confirmations. I'll give it untill January 4th, if we don't have enough players to guarantee eleven rounds, we'll have to do something...

Regards,

Mats

[Da_Great_MC]

Updated participants

[PeterD]

Hey Da Great MC!
I`m not sure, but perhaps I can make it (if the weather was also fine without snow or storm again).
Is it possible to pay at arriving on saturday morning?
Greetings Peterd, Germany

[Da_Great_MC]

Hey Da Great MC!
I`m not sure, but perhaps I can make it (if the weather was also fine without snow or storm again).
Is it possible to pay at arriving on saturday morning?
Greetings Peterd, Germany

Hi Peter, I hope you can make it. We have a spare player, so you can make this a last minute decision.

Regards,

Mats

[Da_Great_MC]

A big thank you to all who made this another very succesfull edition. All 16 full participants made it to the end of the tournament.

Congratz to Philip on his second tournament victory. Next mission: win a title outside the HQ

Results have been mailed to Driesfield.

Some afterthoughts (as a reminder for me, when I organise next year's edition, but I thought I'd share them here)

- Having food available for longer periods was an improvement.

- Tier 0.5 and tier 1 teams were still too strong. Especially late in the tournament when tier 1,5/2/3 teams lost their important skills. Possible solutions: lowering tier 0,5/1 team value to 105. Give them more skills to start with, but randomly remove some of those skills before the tournament starts.

- Tier 2 teams were too weak, especially late in the tournament, when they lost their key skills. Possible solution: allowing tier 2 teams to give more skills without having to be unique skills.

- The Royal Rumble (3rd largest tournament in Italy) moved from 4th weekend of January to 3rd weekend, which cost us like 6 Italian players. I will possibly try and avoid that weekend next year. At least if this will still be a 24hrs tournament, because they won't make the trip if we change the formula)

- I originally moved this tournament to create a two week gap with the Dutch Open. But for the last two years not a single Dutch player attended. So I won't take the Dutch Open into account anymore.

- People asked to change starting hours. That is up for debate. However, a poll on TFF shows that most people prefer to start on Saturday morning.

- People asked to change the formula. That is also up for debate. On the drawing board is a one day (15hrs), seven round tournament. This would be held on Saturday, starting at 10am, probably ending around 1.30am on Sunday morning.

- Changing starting hours / the tournament formula is going to cost players. I am not sure if it's going to gain us as many players. I am afraid that if I change the starting hours / the tournament formula next year, the people that didn't compete in previous editions wouldn't attend either.

!!! You are all very welcome to give me some feedback !!!

[mepmuff]

- I originally moved this tournament to create a two week gap with the Dutch Open. But for the last two years not a single Dutch player attended. So I won't take the Dutch Open into account anymore.

Even if no dutch players attended the past two years, there are still players attending both tournaments.

[Vinz D.]

Personally, as a Dutch coach, as well as someone who attended the first edition in 2010 up to the fourth edition two years ago; The timeframe in between this tournament and the Dutch Open never was an issue for me... Actually, besides me, Jelmer and whoever travelled with us at that time (which in my case was due to the fact I own a car), there haven't been any other Dutch coaches visiting the HQ for the 24 hours tournament.
The only time you genuinely won't be seeing any Dutch coaches is unless you plan on holding the 24 hours during the Dutch Open, but I do hope that's not something you're considering...

As for my absence the past two years; I certainly enjoyed the tournament, which is well-organized and certainly one to visit for those that wish to try out 24 hours of Blood Bowl (tiring, but fair enough...), as well as those who wish to visit Belgium (always a good idea!). However, after the last one I played (which was the fifth in four years time, including the tenth madhobbit), the return trip was genuinely tiring (slept on a parking stop for an hour, somewhere around Breda), and the lack of sleep in the days afterwards still had its effect... I like the tournament as a concept, but simply don't fancy playing 24 hours in a row anymore.

In terms of feedback:
- Starting at a different time might be helpful for those travelling from further away. 10AM is really early for a 24 hour haul. Perhaps 1PM to 1PM might be a more suitable timeframe? Start after lunch, depart after lunch? Have a bit of a meal in your stomach, before stepping behind the whell.
- Don't think the formula needs changing. 24 hours is a useful timeframe, as it's easier to skip a night then start in the morning / early afternoon and finish in the dead of the night.
- The amount of skills / golden skills / losing skills is nice on paper, but not something that you pay attention to after game six or seven or eight, etc. It's not something that bothers me, or should be changed, but perhaps making it a less extensive rulespack might help attracting (new?) coaches... If I have to use more then half an hour thinking up my skill choices, something isn't going too well.

Hopefully some thoughts that you can do something with... Or not...

[Da_Great_MC]

Thank you both for your feedback. Vinz, you know you are always very welcome to come over on Friday evening. We could also arrange you a place to get some sleep on Sunday to crash a few hours after the tournament.