Northern Virginia players/tournament interest?

Hey all. Looking for players in the Northern Virginia area. One of the stores in the area (The Island Games, in Centreville) is open to the possibility of running events (possibly monthly), with store credit/play mats or other potential prizes on the line.

So, figured I’d post on here, and see who says anything. As for tournament system, the 3v3 is obvious, and I assume it’s best of one, since some Codex games can go pretty long. As for the rest of it, I assume the Swiss structure would be ideal, but round length would be tricky. Anyone have any suggestions on other ideas?

On the old forum @Sirlin listed the default tournament structure. It was 3x3 with no switching teams for the duration of the tournament. I don’t remember the round structure though. Was it round robin with 2 best records facing off in best 2 out of 3 (sumo basho style)?

Interesting. Thanks!

Round robin is not a good tournament format in general. It takes way too long and it’s especially prone to corruption.

  • Single elimination. Fast and problem-free.
  • Double elimination. Slow, but people get to play more games.
  • Swiss. People get to play the most games, but no exciting finals.
  • Swiss, then cut to single elimination finals. Our recommended format, but see below for issues.
  • Round robin. Crazy because it takes too long and is riddled with corruption issues.

There has to be a balance of letting people play enough, yet also making the tournament EXCITING, and not take forever. If you want pure speed, single elimination is the best. If you want to have everyone play the most, swiss is best, but it’s really boring because there’s no “finals” for anyone to watch. The best balance of these factors is swiss for several rounds, then cut to top X single elim (X = 2 or 4 or 8 depending on how big the tournament is).

Magic the Gathering came to this same conclusion. But you have to be aware that “Swiss then cut to top X” inherently has corruption problems and a horrible problem where people “intentionally draw” all the time instead of actually playing. MtG tournaments are plagued by corruption and intentional draw. In our tournaments, we don’t have that because we don’t accept match draws at all (a game draw is ok, but not a MATCH draw). There’s a tie-breaker procedure (which hasn’t been established for Codex, but surely it’s remaining HP as the first tie-breaker and probably sudden death turns until anyone’s HP goes down after that). And intentional draw by both players is not a thing either because it counts as 0 points for both players, so there is no reason to ever do it. This doesn’t solve all corruption problems with the format, but it greatly minimizes them (far more than in MtG!) and the result is you get to have the hype of a finals everyone watches and the fun of all players getting to play several games in early rounds.

Be aware that this system does add hours to an event though. If you cut to top 8, that means 3 more rounds (3 more hours, because a round is 50 minute + 10 minute break). If you cut to top 4 that is ALSO 3 more hours because it’s 2 more rounds (+2 hours) and ALSO there must be an additional round of swiss before the cut. Cutting to top 2 for a finals is, again, 3 more rounds. 1 round for the finals, but you must do TWO more rounds of swiss before the cut, for it to even mathematically work. This part is a standard, not special to my rules.

This document is old, but still gives correct info on how “swiss then cut to top X for single elim” works.

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I think Huzzah Hobbies in Ashburn would also be open to doing something.

Thanks for the advice, Sirlin. It’s almost like you think about this for a living😛

I think both venues should be pursued. I have the delux set, but I don’t really have a venue or player base to tap into, and have no idea how to get players heavily invested in MtG/etc. to try Codex, beyond having regular gameplay in the same spaces.

Huzzah would likely be open to hosting a monthly event, so I can ask about it next week. They certainly have plenty of space, but like many stores, the main competition is MtG players… Particularly as MtG is such a huge source of revenue for any store. I think any approach needs to keep this in mind, and potentially consider a space rental fee, or a higher participation fee.

@Deep6er When would you like to play Codex at Island Games? Forming a regular plat-group seems like step 1.

DC is a little far for me to drive regularly, but if you have a “big” event I could potentially make it up there.

I agree with that. I could probably do bi-weekly, or something like that. Weekends are ideal for me. I actually live closer to Curio Cavern in Springfield, but talking to Ian at The Island, he’s interested in running events. Curio might be interested in running events, but I haven’t talked with them about it.

So, weekends are ideal, and Curio is significantly easier for me to get to than The Island. Either way, I’d love to start up a play group!

How does the weekend of 16-17 Oct sound? Saturday evening I’m busy, so my vote is either Saturday morning, or anytime Sunday. I might be able to round up one or two more players… Maybe.

Just to clarify, you mean October fifteenth and sixteenth, right? The seventeenth is a Monday.

I’d be down to meet up earlier on Saturday, and can also bring a friend or two. Meet at The Island, or Curio?

Oops, you’re right. 15/16

Both venues are equally too far away, and I’m unfamiliar with both, so either is fine with me.

Okay, why don’t we aim for the fifteenth, at Curio. It looks like I can bring more people if it’s there. How does meeting up at one sound to you?

That should work for a couple hours.

My Deluxe set should be here this weekend. My home store is Dream Wizards up in Rockville, MD. However I’ve been down to Island a few times. I’d be happy to travel down there for tournaments. Have not heard of/been to Curio tho.

Also sadly 10/15 is not great for me as I have commitments for a SW: Armada tournament at my store. If someone wanted to do something 10/22 I likely would be free as of now.

I’m near Dream-Wizards; with two Delux sets, we could probably set something up.

I got my deluxe set today. Spend the last 3-4 hours sleeving and organizing everything. Quite happy. Wednesday typically is gaming night @ Dream Wizards, I’ll be in earlier in the afternoon Wednesday. Tho I’m possibly available tomorrow (10/9) to play a bit.

I might be able to swing by today for an hour or two, as I don’t have specific plans. What time were you thinking?

Just so I can get a head count, how many people are coming down this Saturday?

I’ll be there.