Remember when Wizkids scrapped the monthly redemptions and one of their big changes included a Junior Event every month? I remember this and we only had one of these and it was a horrible, horrible joke. One of the regular players brought his son, who never played before and who also apparently had no interest in the game as he was about as attentive as a hooker is after doing about eight lines of blow (bad analogy, but you get the point). Two other kids kept asking many times "Am I going to get the fellowship?" They had an adult event going at the same time with no prize support which as you can imagine, left them about as interested in the outcome as they would be with their grandparents bowel functions. Mechwarrior is not a hard game, but it does take a little bit of patience and interest, and the LE's help, sorry to say, but it is true.

well im personally glad they done away with them over here we dont have anyone that meets the age requirement

I have a large group of Jr players up and coming who would really like to participate in something official I am sure. To be honest though, I would rather have Wizkids support the main scenarios and events more and leave Jr events to be venue supported type things. Our game club will host a lot of Jr stuff as the kids get more and more into it I am sure, but I don't need Wizkids to pony up for it even though those little guys are the future of our great game.

Gebus

Well we made a good mid-term solution. Normal tourneys, but the best-ranked under-18 player gets a Prize (usually equal to the champion prize).

Hey, its not right according to WKs rules, but we don't have official battlemasters either...

We have not had any new under 14-year olds playing. The only one who shows up is my son.

The youngest at my venue is my 5th grade brother, but He's played me so much that if we had actually held one of the Jr. Events, he probably would have stomped any of the other little kids. He's even beaten the battlemaster in a skirmish. (I've never lost to him though...)

We loved Junior Events. 14+ "kids" would play Solaris all night with no prize support. We waited till the juniors where done then traded for the LE for elites and other LE we had extra of.
The biggest problem was the juniors who finished in the top 4 any other week kicked the sand in everyone's faces during the junior events.

One of our players has 3 sons who all play, and the oldest (13) regularly makes it to the final rounds and has won against experienced adult players many times (he spanked me more than once, and I've been playing wargames since long before he was born).

We've had a bit of debate here about the Jr League. We run it locally and it generally has a good turnout. The problem is a incorrect in the assumptions that created this event. That 'kids" aren't as good as adults and therefore need their own tournement. It isn't true. Say out of our 20+ players here one of the top five is a 'kid". Since he is a "kid" he can compete in the Jr league and basically takes it everytime.

I think a better idea would have been a "rookie" league in which you can play until you win it X times. Not a perfect solution but not as arbitrary as a Jr league.

Fugu: You are absolutely right about some of the kids being good. One of the "kids" at our venue has a better grasp of the rules and strategy of the game than many of the adults there. He does not need a Junior event. A rookie league would be a better idea.

No, I have not had this experience. Please tell us more. Perhaps you could put together a book of thought povoking analogies. I liked the BM one too.

The Jr. tournaments were hit or miss around here. They were a great idea for some venues. Wizkids should build more flexibility into their support program. Jr., Faction Pure, mega-battles, or whatever the players want.

We are now down to just 3 supported events per month. WK pushed this thru starting in 2004. Not a move in the right direction.

Well they sorta do. It's call Unrestricted where the venues can run any scenario or game they want.

I think part of the problem is WK is trying to keep their ranking system meaning something. This really is a study in futility. The system they use for ranking is actually fairly impressive and it does go towards making a system that actually has relavence. The problem is though that the system requires a more intereaction between world players then you can get. With a city where you have the chance to play most people the system works very well.. when you start to compair players that never come in contact with the same people the system breaks down.

I think WK should just dump the attempt at a world ranking system and be done with it. It's highly inaccurate on a world scale even if it is good on a local.

Having campaigne events cut down to 2 a month sorta defeats their purpose. They orginally kept the hype high from week to week which encouraged play. Down to 2 a month, they loose a lot of their draw.

HtH tourneys are really the driving force. In any game where you're trying to keep hype high you have to create a competative environment. The open HtH does this. The draw back is that it creates a super competative environment where the uber gamer spends his time tweeking the rules and units to min/max his force. Since the design of the factions had weaknesses and streangth built in, this has lead to the cherry forces with the best units of the game form all the different factions put together.

Im really sad that they did away with the junior tournaments, MW is a pretty simple game, so its really the person with the best pieces that wins. And Usually, us kids (eg. Im 14) dont have a salary to be able to buy all those spiffy pieces. Unfortunately, Im the only kid who qualifies for the junior tournaments anyway. bleh.

These tournaments are rare. We need more.

The ranking system inspires some players. HtH are so rare that it hardly matters.

The storyline events have lost much of their punch because nobody really cares about factions anymore. Everybody just plays all star armies. Most folks don't identify with factions anymore. The elimination of the redemption mechs was a mistake as well.

WK should support tournaments at venues every weekend. Like you said the competative environment pushes this game forward. Venues need to make this a weekly ritual. WK should make the system as flexible as possible.

The venue I irregularly attend used to run junior events, but hasn't in the past 4-5 months. I always bring my 9-year old son, and occasionally a friend's 12-year old daughter. Usually, there are 1-3 other kids at the venue, and they all play together while the adults play their matches. Then the winner of the kids matches often plays a game against the winner of the adult match. It's no surprise who typically gets the prize, but the venue owner normally awards a lesser LE prize (often the fellowship prize, but not always) to the junior winner, and then awards other prizes (from his own private collection as far as I can tell) to all the other junior players, providing they've behaved well and tried their best. I think it's a great way to promote the hobby, and gaming in general, to the younger players. It's one of the chief reasons I keep going back to the venue even though I don't particularly like competitive play using the official rules (I far prefer to play 'friendly' games at home with house rules).