[guillaume]

Not sure whether this belongs here but anyways I'll post it and the mods can decide.

There has been a lot of talk on the demise of GW (high price, possible closure of shops in the US), but what if warhammer turned pro?

The idea came to me when i realised that people who play Magic the Card Game can attend pro tournament where the cash prizes are thousands of dollars...
Given, not every single Magic player is a professional, the possibility is there for them to take if they wish to.

I Have met some serious tournament gamers, and they spend a fortune on travel and registration.

Now do you think GW could propose pro-tournaments (the likes of conflict in the UK) with some cash prizes (and other goodies)? I still think it would be seen as a hobby for most players, but it would interesting that every so often, one could enter a pro tournament and make a few bucks with luck!

Could it be a viable option for GW?

[Oniyoh]

That is possible. It could be actually pretty good, but honestly alot of geeks will be coming out to the open about the grand game of Warhammer. (I am a class "A" Geek.) But hey it happened in Magic, (whew I played that game since I was what, nine years old?) It can happen, and GW may consider it. But they obviously are going to put a entree fee. May give some people more of a reason to enjoy the game. But there is of coruse a negative side, some people may only play for money, and not in the good way. (Good way meaning like they are not exactly too rich, maybe they scarped together a nice army after a weeks/months of penny-squeezing.. not saying I know those people : ) It may also give a new arise or a futher infestation of people-playing-unfairly-with-unbalanced- list. But I am in support of a pro tournament.

[MechTau]

These pro tournaments would be a beard-fest. They would also be killer lists... somewhat unfair ones that took advantage of the rules for unfair combanations the designers did not intend.

[guillaume]

well, I suppose GW could say things like:

You may only use the "standard" army lists.

Some tournaments could be very restricitive in terms of army composition and others could be a bit more open.
I think the Magic tournaments have "deck" restrictions as well, so that you can't do whatever you want.

obviously it would be very beardy and ridiculously cheesy, but it would have to be controlled, and I think GW could do a good job at that.

Originally Posted by Oniyoh

some people may only play for money, and not in the good way.

well, if people start to want to play for money outside of tournaments, then they'll quickly find themselves withouth playing partners, partners that would be crucial to "practice" for the next big game

[gundamfan]

I'd say it'd be a good idea. See when everybody has a cheesy army list, then they're all less cheesy in contrast. Plus most of the lists are still "standard", depending on your definition of that. They are legal, after all.

[guillaume]

I think it would a fun idea, i would probably try 1 or 2 to see what pro-tourny would be like, and you never know, the dice gods could be on your side. Although I expect the entry fees to be pretty high if you consider how high they are now for non-pro event!

45 pounds for the Dark stars campaign in Nottingham...that is pretty ridiculous when you start facturing hotels and travel...you are quickly running into the 100's that's half of an army there!

[Calaban]

I see a few problems with this. Since MTG pro tournaments are already established, I'll compare the problems by using MTG as an example.

• The Price of the Hobby

An army costs a lot. A MTG pro deck can be assembled for about $500, but this will rarely get you an effective 1500 point army. This means that fewer actual players will ever show up to a nation or worldwide event.

• Non-Ready to Play Pieces

In MTG, there are giveaways that are immediately playable, tradeable, sellable. Not so with 40K. If, say, GW promoters gave away a unique miniature as event prizes.. there are plenty of problems: The model may not be for your Army's Race, The model is unassembled, and unpainted. Give a prize winner a prize mini, and then start a stopwatch: the guy may be able to play the mini in a day or two. minimum.

• Long Games

Normally, in MTG tournaments, a competitor will play around 40 games in a long series of matches, both preliminary and finals. Whew! imagine doing that with average GW games of over an hour and a half! You'd be competing for weeks! simply NOT doable...


Those are the problems of having a Pro series with 40K. MTG is just better designed for it. We do have Rogue Trader Competitions, though... Ive been to a few of those (just looking around though), and those event DO have some things that MTG pro events dont:

• Non-Game related awards

I really like these! A player who loses every game may still win a trophy or prize! There are Sportsmanship awards, Army Composition awards, etc... Armies that are built too powergamey takes a hit, players that are too abusive of rules and legalities take a hit, etc... this is something I wish was in MTG events, to better the gaming community in general

• Photo Opportunities

Not you, your army and miniatures! No one cares how a killer Prosper-Bloom deck (am I showing my gamer age here??) looks laid out on a tabletop mid-game, but a pair of well painted armies will get you photos taken, certainly posted on the internet, maybe even featured in a WD magazine, or on GW sites. Although I've never heard of a Conversion GAWD getting a job with the company, maybe its like really good computer hackers, and its just no one hears about it!


so, I guess RTT is about all we're gonna get. I dont see anything changing anytime soon, GW hitting it big/going bankrupt or not.

[Oniyoh]

Originally Posted by Oniyoh

some people may only play for money, and not in the good way.

well, if people start to want to play for money outside of tournaments, then they'll quickly find themselves without playing partners, partners that would be crucial to "practice" for the next big game
[/quote]

I worded things wrong, people would start the hobby just to play in tournaments. Just for the money, it ruins the spirit of the game. (That's I do follow the ways of the spirit of the game, good sportsmanship.)

Calban you have a great point, that sticks out in my mind the most, hours upon hours of playing, magic games go by real quick (My longest ever was like one hour.) It sucks but it may be possible, they just have to tone it down alot, maybe a two day tournament, something like that. Not likely, but possible.

And yes our wonderful tournaments would become eventually, a powergameing ten foot long bearded saturated with cheese. Sad but true, but I love the idea, there is ways to crush people abusing it, simply: by playing the game.

a pro league sounds good but then we would have a giant amount of things to sort out and we would probably increase the amount of players at the hobbycenter which in turn would give us more opponents who dont understand the game and then violence would insue due to insults and then people would start breaking models and uugghhh not a pretty sight but hey maybe a bit of advertising would help get a few more select people join and we would gain some odd 1-3 people for each store and i would,for once be happy

[Earlydawn]

I'd support pro-tournies if they proposed a system that restricted beardy lists. Wargamer had a pretty good classification system in his House Rules thread for 40K Fifth Edition. Check that out.