Hosting a Tiered Competitive Tournament and a Non-Competitive Event: Part 1

Non-Competitive Event:

So, in response to the introductory article, Nathan Fluger posted up a non-competitive event idea which I think was an excellent example of exactly what we are looking for in this area. Recall that a non-competitive event is an event designed to provide a game play feel but involve no real competition. The suggestion was a 40K scavenger hunt. The idea here is that a big list of “events” are created and handed to each player. The goal for each play in the event is to play as many games of 40K as they can stand across the event with as many players as possible. As “events” occur in those games, they can get their list checked off for the event having occurred.

Example: One item on the check list might be “rolled a Snake Eyes to pass a Morale Check”. If that occurs during your game, you can get it signed off on that it occurred.

I want to examine why this is a fantastic set-up so we can use it as a basis to describe some core components of what I think make for a great Non-Competitive Event.

1) The format is designed to get people to play games. This is critical as the intent is to have a “game play” event not a convention. In fact, the more games you play, the more chances you have of checking items off your list! This could encourage people to play all day and all night!

2) The format has no relationship to winning or losing your games. Thus, you no longer need be concerned with the list you bring, the tactics you will use, etc.

3) “Winning” is a matter of randomness throughout your games. It can’t be controlled and thusly no need for competitive attitudes at the table. Also, no need for competitive lists or feeling like you got “crushed” if you lose.

4) It doesn’t require any tactical skill to participate!

5) Others?

These are exact qualities you look for in a non-competitive event. The above idea does have a few flaws in it which can potentially be gamed, but this is an excellent descriptor of exactly what we are looking to find. Perhaps he can use a concept like this to design a system which promotes game play not winning?

Amateur Competitive Event:

Similarly, I want to come up with a list of things that I think will make for a good amateur competitive event. From there, perhaps we can distill those ideas into a good format.

1) Don’t offer crutches or handicaps. I don’t think that anyone really wants to feel like they are being “helped” to win.

2) Refrain from a scenario in which players will feel like they are being “crushed” by a competitor who is out of their league.

3) No comp. I really don’t want Comp. The reason is that preferably, you shouldn’t have to tell anyone what they are or are not allowed to field.

4) Others?

I have a lot of thoughts on this topic, but so far, I’m not sure they are well formed or even feasible. The point of the exercise then is to make them well formed and determine feasibility or alternatives. Hopefully we can then construct a list things we want to see and lastly a system which will fulfill them.
Somehow, as described by the “tiered competitive” portion of the title, it would be ideal to have tournaments for amateur competitors be tiered such that you are putting “like skilled” players in the same brackets. This is similar to how we put Heavy Weight fighters and Light Weight fighters in different brackets. How do you do this? Some sort of pre-qualifier rounds? Based on armies? Vet decisions? I’m not sure! This would be ideal though as it would help considerably with alleviating a player’s feeling that he didn’t have a chance. Truth be told, we can’t fix “whining about losing”, but we can make steps towards making sure that we aren’t putting the seals in with the sharks. Not to mention, this would seriously help competitive players find what they are looking for which is not (shouldn’t be anyways) playing against weaker players.

I really want to refrain from artificially handicapping or boosting players. By this I mean that I don’t want systems like comp which attempt to give advantage to one player or another. There are lots of reasons why comp is both good and bad, but in all, I don’t want to be telling people what they should or should not have in their lists. So, how do you make something more competitive when it simply isn’t? If it comes to this, I have much less of a problem boosting a codex than I do trying to “comp down” a codex. This is simply a design strategy. Don’t take away, just give in equal amounts! People in general will be much happier that way.

I realize that you can’t stop people from whining about losing. That’s life. However, don’t get hung up on that. I do believe that you can create a system where people will at least recognize it as trying to be as fair as possible to them. Currently, most amateur competitors just find tournaments as frustrating because they feel like they didn’t have a chance or were not given a fair shake. The perception here could at least be remedied. The truth is, it's not whining about losing if you really were handed a knife and told to go participate in a gun battle. Real sports recognize this (as alluded to by Heavy/Light Weight boxing). There should be a way we can recognize this as well.