What elfhome said.

Another reason for prizes is to attract a large crowd. I love big events and think it would be fun have one that wasn't cutthroat.

Well

My opinion is that a "no-prize" event should be a "free" event (no entry fee)
If there is an entry fee, then there should either be a participation prize or at least a (random) change to win a prize.
As you said, i can play heroclix for fun in my basement. If i go to an event, it's to have fun, meet new people, and i could take the trip to another city just to have that with no prize it's okay. I'm just having fun.
But if the event charge me something to be there, then i want something more than just "fun" in return, else i will just play in my basement.

It's the same with competitive players !
You could make a competitive play in your basement with friends and just rank players and declare the winner.
It's already competitive PER SE.
But you also want a prize.
The prize could be just a medal or a certificate. But NO competitive players want a prize that is as "limited/exclusive" as possible, worth something on the secondary market, and/or powerfull enough to "worth" your effort competing.
That is the same paradigm/paradox.
Isn't the competitive environment and the thrill of winning/loosing enough for you ? Well...
The fun of playing in a casual event is not enough for us too. We want prizes (or a fair chance at them). just because it's an incentive to come at the event.
We just also want to have those prize within the boundaries of our style fo play, like competitive players want them within the boundaries of their style of play.
If everyone can get them, everyone can get what he wants, then it's better, right ?
Understand now ?

Some of us don't have basements. I can't even have ONE person over to my joint to play HeroClix.

It's why I'm as militant as I am about playstyles.

Even a no prize event has a cost. There's overhead. Space costs money. Heat/cooling costs money. Electricity costs money.

I do my best to keep all this in mind when I go to a venue, especially venues that have large, nice, designated gaming areas. Hell, one local place has various kinds of terrain available for 40K and the like as well as a microwave and water cooler!

Convention space also costs. I'd be willing to pay, but I certainly wouldn't mind prizes as well.

THIS.

Nicely done, elf. One shot; one kill.

I'd be much happier with product prizes. The whole concept of exclusive figures is actually repugnant to me. This happens nowhere else that I can think of.

The prize at the Olympics is a medal, not a snowboard that will help you beat everyone the next time. The prizes you mention were trophies. Star Wars Miniatures had it right with participation figures, companies should not make parts of the game prizes. All parts of the game should be available for everyone to buy equally.

Bottomline, if you don't get it at this point, you probably won't. Which is fine, I guess.

Exactly. At our venue we played a game of sealed sinister the other night. Our judge procured a brick for a low price. I cant think of a single team that was any better than the other that night. I have a hard time grasping how the meta supporters cant see the logic behind the casual tornament.

Well, at this point, it seems to me as though the thread is basically asking, "If we do this, are you going to come and ruin it for us?"

And the resounding answer seems to be, "If there are prizes, I don't see that I have any other choice but to find some way to come and ruin it for you."

So, that may be your answer right there.

Is there a disconnect between "playing as hard as you can" and "building as hard as you can"?

Because Slade's example is perfect. We found a brick of Origin for ultra cheap a year or so back. Once we opened, everyone still played to win. And there's nothing wrong with that. But no one brought "Das Über." There's a difference.

Yep. At this point it's hard to see it as anything other than "DOES NOT COMPUTE" binary thinking, or plain selfishness.

Hard to tell which pisses me off more, honestly.

This has always been my philosophy. I am a firm believer that cheese at meta play only exist at the team build stage. Once you are actually playing it seems silly to not try and win the game.

See, I'm almost exactly on the opposite side of the fence. My venue never picked up the SWM prize kits because nobody there wanted to play in tournaments for a repaint of generic figures we had 10 of already. We would usually crack boosters for the chance at a R/VR, but we all wished there was something like HeroClix worth playing for. I don't like prizes that AREN'T part of the game, as a general rule, at least not for "winning," so to speak. I'm all for participation prizes of whatever caliber.

Your mileage may very obviously vary.

Yes, to my mind, there is a difference.

"Building as hard as you can" is finding a tentpole, the cheapest Outwitter, the cheapest Perplexers, and characters with Special Powers that allow you to "yoink" your tentpole out of danger to get healed whenever you need it done.

"Playing as hard as you can" is turtling, passing, and other "legal" tactics that make you That Guy.

What you are describing is "Building to not have to play" and "non-playing"

You can build a meta team without a tentpole. You can play a meta team without turtling or passing and win worlds.

Oooo! Oooo! Mis-ter Ko-tter!

I got it!

Remember earlier when I said the only way to do this effectively would be to make people take polygraph tests, but then I realized they'd study up on how to game the polygraph tests and it kinda just showed that there's no way to get meta guys to stop meta-ing?

The solution is that we use Wonder Woman's lasso!

No, seriously.

I'm talking about the HeroClix object. Yes! At sign in for the event, you place the Lasso Of Truth on the head of the person signing up and they have to say, "I do solemnly swear that I'm just here for fun."

My experience with the kind of guys that we're hoping to keep away from this event indicates that they cannot deal with that level of Goofy-Goober tomfoolery and they will just leave instead.