Hey everybody! Adam, from TFG Radio, here to sell you some possible future beach front property!*
As we all know, the game of 40K is ever growing. We see new people playing and hear about new events popping up all over the place. We aren’t just seeing competitive events pop up either. We are also seeing a rise in casual and narrative events at stores. With all the different ways to play, there are plenty of ways for players to immerse themselves into the 40K Universe. With all these new competitive events springing up, especially on the Friendly Local Game Store(FLGS) level, it allows new people to experience competitive play. There are, however, some store, or a community of gamers, who play in tournaments but don’t want to be part of the ITC. My questions is, Why? What are you afraid of?
Full disclosure, I have been running ITC events at our local store since almost the beginning, late 2014. That being said, there is really no good reason for a store not to run a tournament as an ITC event. The event is very open on how you can run your event. Although there is a set of 6 missions, you are not required to any of them. you can easily use missions from the main rulebook, either of the Chapter Approved, the Open War deck, or missions that you made up. There is no set way to set up the tables. If you want every table to be planet bowling ball, then have at it. You don’t even need to score the tournament the same way the Frontline Gaming does. You can use whatever metric you want. Want to base it on battle points only? Do you want to go old school GW and use a combined batlle points, paint, and sportsmanship score to determine who is first in ITC ranks? Go right ahead. Even creating and reporting your scpres to the ITC is simple. Just download the TO app from Best Coast Pairings and you can easily create, record, and report your events. They even allow you to run a league and report the results for ITC, if you can make the local RTTs. How much easier can it be?
I have heard a few concerns from some owners, and players. For some, it seems that they may be a bit technologically challenged. I’m sure there is someone locally that know their way around a computer, or phone, and could easily help the store owner, or budding tournament organizer, with getting it set up. There also seems to be an issue with players that come into a local area to farm points by preying on the poor defenseless local players. that shouldn’t be an issue. The local players should see it as a way to gauge their own strengths and weakness with their quality of play, and use it as a learning experience to make themselves better. many times it may be a vocal local player, usually the one that is better than the rest, that champions the push-back against having their local event be an ITC event. This is simply a big fish in a small pond that wants to remain the big fish and is scared of the other big fish that may be attracted to the event. In that case, that player just needs to grow a pair and accept the challenge of these other big fish. Another common issue is that the store doesn’t want to attract the types of players that are, speaking plainly, assholes. That really isn’t a valid excuse as you could have them already in your local area. Even so, it is the right of both the store owner and the tournament organizer to get rid of those types of players is they cause a disturbance. this goes for those that are from out of town as well as local players. So, as you can see, there is really no good excuse to not have your event listed as an ITC event. It will help both your FLGS and your local player skill in the long run.**
That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed the read. Let me know your thoughts, and how you convinced your FLGS to run ITC events, 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!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
*We are just one “THE BIG ONE!” away
**I swear FLG did not pay me in real money for this article