Hey everyone! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to lament being unable to go to BAO. Oh, and talk 40K, I guess.
As mentioned before, there are a lot of tournaments, of varying sizes. Just last week we had about 9 Grand Tournaments of various sizes. I’m sure much fun was had by all and there were no complaints or issues with player’s lists. As you all know, I highly recommend that you attend at least 1 large tournament and see how you like it. Due to the growth of the game, there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of tournaments to go to. So how do you decide?
When I was first starting out, there were not a lot of places for me to play 40K at, let alone play in a tournament. I had a local store that sold GW products but never ran an even and was more of a D&D store. When Games Workshop announced that they will be having a Grand Tournament in Los Angeles, I immediately signed up and ended up going. It was both my first tournament and first Grand Tournament experience and I loved it. Some people may have a similar situation. Whether it’s due to location, time, or personality, some people are unable to make that jump from playing 40K at home, or in the local store, to playing in a large multiple day event. For some, just the number of players attending can seem daunting. Depending on where you live, there can be a number of grand tournaments relatively close by, if you are willing to drive or have a team to help offset travel expenses. In other cases there may be only one big event close by that you are able to attended.
If you are able to choose, I would suggest one of the smaller grand tournaments to get your feet wet. A good size would be around the 28-40 players range. That should give you a good spread of both armies and player skill. Its usually will be a good way to build confidence or learn some new ways to play, without the stress of possibly running into one of the more high end players. I say “usually” because there are some areas, SoCal for example, that have a high concentration of quality players so you may actually run into them at some of these smaller local events. Of you are in such an area, or you happen to be paired with one, try your best but also try to learn from the game as much as possible. Mos of the top tier players are more than willing to help you get better with your game play. If you feel confident in your skills, or just want to experience the grandeur that is one of the larger 40K events(LVO, NoVA, Adepticon) then you may want to go to one of these as your first experience. You will get the same experience as the smaller events but have a better chance to see top tier 40K in person. The downside is that tickets for the main event usually go fast and there can be expensive to travel to them, if you don’t live nearby. Whatever the case, I think you go to each of the big 3 (LVO, NoVA, Adepticon) at least once. So good luck in whatever event you choose to go to as your first, and I’ll just go back to watching the BAO on stream and making fun of my teammate for agreeing that ruins are craters.
That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts, and your experience at your first grand tournament, in the comments section. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!
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The other thing about when you run into one of the high end players is that you know there’s no shame in that loss. I find that takes a lot of the pressure off, for me at least.
I go to Warzone Atlanta each year and have a blast. I do not worry about high end players. They put their pants on the same as me. My goal in tourneys is to play a fair clean game of 40K and the results will take care of themselves.