FFG gave a pretty significant advantage to anyone playing on the second or third day 1, and Worlds should all be about a level playing field. While some may enjoy this hot-take meta game, I think its a far more fair system to have all players submit a decklist before play begins on the first day 1. With day 1 spread over 3 days and deck lists only due at your day 1 registration, it was far too easy and compelling to tech in cards or entire decks against the upcoming field. The amount of night before teching was just too real at this year's Worlds. Not Collecting Decklists Before Day 1 Began I understand you can't ban a player without solid evidence, but when you have a known player who has been reported multiple times, maybe put them on a "judge must watch every game" list and not wait until they get accused again. Weak Stance on Cheating and Bad SportsmanshipįFG's stance against cheating and bad sportsmanship is just ridiculously weak. Both the North American Championships and the US National Championship use the standard Swiss/cut ratio, why FFG short-changes its own biggest event is a real head-scratcher. Having an undefeated day 2 player miss the cut is an AWFUL system and needs remedied. That feels bad, man, but not nearly as bad as the multiple people who went 4-2 on day 1 and 3-0 on day 2 and STILL didn't make the cut. My minor heart break story was going 7-2 and missing top 16 by placing 18th - nine other 7-2s made the cut and ten other 7-2s didn't.
That extra day 1 turned into kind of a cluster with how the day 2 top cut shook out. Digging into this too much airs a bit of dirty laundry so I won't go into details, but FFG went from an F to an A in just one year on this one. Fortunately FFG did a number of fixes that vastly decreased the wait time and line size.įFG's treatment of the media was markedly improved over last year and you could see the quality of coverage improvement that went along with it. The real culprit was limited available quantities and FFG stubbornly keeping the prize wall closed until noon each day. If you attended last year's Worlds then you know how terrible waiting in line to get those prizes were. The only thing that could have spiced up the prize wall even more would have been some marbled or sparkly Destiny dice. I earned quite a few tickets last year, and didn't walk away with a single Destiny related prize. Those prize tickets could be turned into MUCH better Destiny prizes this year. Drafting, trilogy, standard, sealed, multiplayer free-for-all, and build-from-box were all on offer, and you could find Destiny to do every hour of the day every day to get those tickets. If you were so inclined, you could grind tickets until your wrist cramped up from rolling dice. The extra Destiny players added this year needed something to do and FFG stepped up to the challenge with a bevy of side event options. The good news here is that it was announced during the Hyperspace Report that X-Wing is getting its own Worlds, which makes a bigger Worlds and more space possible for Destiny. Last year's North American Championship had around 400 players - FFG has the space to accommodate at least that many if they didn't run their event concurrently with X-Wing. This is a big step in the right direction but I think there is still room for improvement. More people means more party, right? Both World Championships were played in the same space, but this year FFG added an entire extra day 1 to the main event allowing around 330 players to attend. The most noticeable improvement was the extra Destiny players FFG squeezed into the main schedule. I will also be referring to FFG throughout most of the article, but most of the feedback is directed at OP. Most other events at the Games Center are run by the store management and staff. Chief among them is that unlike other events run at Fantasy Flight Games Center, Worlds is organized and operated by Organized Play (OP). I was fortunate enough to attend the first Worlds and was happy to see that Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) had made many improvements with very few steps taken backwards.īefore I dig into the Good and the Bad of Worlds, I want to make a few clarifications. It was a fantastic time, bringing together players from all over the world. The second World Championship for Star Wars: Destiny just wrapped up.