I think the laspe between rounds came because people would ko the opponents team before half time and then be waiting until the end of the round PLUS the standard fifteen minutes.

You guys all rock, the whole family is great and if the girls stay with Heroclix like I posted earlier maybe even future World Champs you got there... I had alot of fun meeting you all and hope to see you next year.

Glad you got to get some of the new set it is amazing...


Till then,
Steve

Time BETWEEN rounds was not an issue. I thought you guys moved swiftly. 10-15 minutes is not unreasonable at all.

Here are my thoughts after GenCon:

World's event - I think the format for this was perfect. I really liked the different team-building excercises competitors had to undergo in order to make the top 16. Plus, making the constructed portion for qualifying be a floor event means that nobody really knows exactly what to expect on Sunday. At first I didn't like the idea that we had to play 5 rounds both days, but I think that playing that extra round really helped to separate the field, and ended up being a good thing. I also liked that an undefeated performance on one day qualified a competitor, but so did two really solid days of play. I don't think I'd change a thing about the format for this event.

Pre-release - This was also great, and if Wizkids can make the release schedule work out so that this happens every year, I'd really like that. I would think this would also be a decent money-maker for Wizkids, as they're pulling in retail prices for the boosters, and I can't imagine two boosters per person canabilizes sales from the retailers too much, especially since a lot of those players are probably brick or case buyers.

Start times - I know I'm echoing others here, but I'd also like to see much earlier start times to the events.

King of the Hill - I didn't get a chance to play in any of these, but I really like this format as well. I think two free boosters for winning--with a chance to win more--is a pretty darn good prize for winning a match.

Battle Royals - I did play in one of these, and I guess it just wasn't my thing. I understand the need to keep games moving, but having every character on the board take a click at the start of each player's turn starting around turn 5 is a bit ridiculous. This is in addition to clicks taken outside of the "shock the turtle" barrier. I don't know if all of the battle royals were like this, but that's the way mine went, and I really didn't think that was fun.

Prizes - The BN starter for the pre-release winner seemed pretty weak. I know that part of the prize is just playing the new stuff, but how about a voucher for one of everything from the prize support kit from the new set or something similar to that?

Con-exclusives - I really don't like the idea of con-exclusives in general, but I'm OK with them as long as the exclusives aren't game-breaking. I think they'd definitely help drive sales at the booth, which in the end is better for all of us.

The judges - I thought all of the WizKids reps in the hall did a fantastic job the entire time I was there. Thanks to all of you; you have an incredibly difficult job, and I thought you did it very, very well. And to echo some others above, I thought the wait times between rounds at worlds were extremely short given all of the information you guys had to input. Thanks again for a great job.

Fair enough, but that's hardly our fault, is it?

I'll also say this about the wait time - we are currently using my 3rd version of the software and this year was the alpha test for this new version. I was extremely nervous and had version 2 on another laptop available as stand-by.

The new software exceeded my expectations in terms of performance. There were definitely some things that marc and I noticed that can be better and make it even faster, but it performed at least as well as the previous versions. By next year, this system will be humming.

I can't think of any that were game breaking - (big caveat - except for the Galactus/colossals. IMO I'm not talking about those, I'm talking about booth giveaways at the 25$/50/100 purchase levels like they used to).

The others were like Parallax, puck Sue, Azbats, Gold Nova. Perfect ones: high demand, but almost the opposite of gamebreaking.

Only speaking for what I ran....

The Battle Royals were run on a timed round as per most Heroclix events, when that time expired, end of round, that is when the clix damaged occurred, if this didn't happen BR's would go on all day and we have many players waiting for a turn. Unfortunately we were limited by space this year, I did manage to get 8 going on Sunday and Adam 3 others in various locations. Maybe next year we will have more room and give a little more time on the rounds, we did our best with what we had this year. I know we had many players waiting on Sunday, I just wish we could have got everyone in and playing, man even I wanted to jump in, when throughout the weekend various BR's were WotSM booster BR's........

O I know, it's not your guys fault, I was just letting people know.

I think you guys did great, I like the time between, gave me time for food and such

another thing I'd have done if I was Wizkids...I'd have given every player who signed up for a tournament some random common from Web of Spider-man. I understand the whole run of WOS isn't ready yet and WK had to rush to get the stuff they did out, but...just imagine every player takes some common fig home to their local venue/tournaments. People get to get their hands on a WOS fig a month or so before it's released. People get all crazy excited for the set, and they might just make plans to go attend some con because they are so excited they might get some preview fig. Maybe WK would have to give out 250 cheap common figs but the payoff would be a lot bigger I think. I was disappointed that GenCon in general isn't swagged out like it used to be, but this seems like some happy medium (rewarding players of your game, not just people walking by) that would have a minimal cost but potential huge reward.
I'm coming at this from not only a business angle, but a personal one as well. I wanted to get any random fig from WOS to take home to my local venue just to show people. But even though I entered multiple battle royales and tried to trade with everyone in sight I wasn't able to get my hands on even 1 common WOS fig which sucks.

Real good idea actually. I took the booster I got and gave it to the local shop to put in their case so people could see the figs and the booster artwork actually in their own hands.

Yeah, I know you guys were in a rough spot trying to cycle people through; I'm just saying that given the opportunity, I'd rather the BRs erred on the side of fewer unavoidable clicks than more. Once again, great job to all of the judges; without you guys none of this would be possible.

I played in a Battle Royale you ran and had a blast.

For feedback in general:
Earlier or later starts to let players have a good chance to hit the floors.
If you want to see people excited to play swing by the late night games. That's the crowd that kept the game alive while funding was found. Invest in some sort of amplification. If you were more than a table away it was really hard to hear.
Have some basics around for players, even if you charge for them. I forgot to bring markers and objects and had to hunt around for a cheap starter.

They were available, all one had to do was ask. In the past, if they've been left out in the open they dissappear. While I never minded that, this year the stash that was available was my own stuff, so I wanted to be able to come home with some. But objects, tokens, dice, etc. were (and should always be) available for the asking.

This was one ruling that kind of bugged me as a player. I think I understand the logic in the roll off (no figure on board at end of last action since applying push damage is part of resolving the action), but seems like a case where it is more in spirit with the gameplay style you're trying to foster to have the aggressor in the action win the match.

Just a thought, but limited-edition objects, markers and dice would sell like hotcakes. Even if I weren't playing, I'd stop by to pick up copies of the Gencon 2011 "Battle in the Big City" pack for all my friends...