I'd love a chance to play and see how I stand against people from different parts of the Country. I just wish National would be held on the west coast for a change. You know, spread the love around.
Needless to say, it's somewher on the bottom of my "to do" list.

Okay, there seems to be three campfires buring here.
1) Casual players who could care less, and/or Competetive ones who can't afford the time or money to go.
2) Competetive players who would like to test themselves in a larger ocean, to see other players and tactics beyond the ones they do every week locally.
3) Concerned citizens who see these events as an oportunity for a 'check-up', i.e. a way to effectively demonstrate what does and doesn't work, what's balanced and what's abused, to the makers of the game.

On a Dark Note: I hate to voice pessimism, but WK's history forces me to at least consider the possibility that this question is a prelude to the elimination of these events as a further cost cutting measure. 'Gosh, Mr. CEO, we did a poll, and most people think these events are illrelevent. Why don't we give them the axe and save money? Smithers, you're a genius! Go move your car to the employee of the month parking spot.'

Right you are Corrosion.

I hope the Mechwarrior tournament scene stays strong. That being said, if it doesn't, there are plenty of other places I can go. Chess, Go, MtG, and Vs are but a few examples of games which have stronger tournament scenes than MW has ever had.

I live in Europe, should I say more (same for the dropship to win in the JF boosters)!

When WK gonna choose to make a Wold Championship here, maybe I'm gonna pay attention to it, in the meantime it is of zero importance.

Xtatika

Well, I had the good fortune to actually play Dean Sohlne during one of my 4 matches at Cdn Nationals last year. Good game, good fun and he was a gracious winner.

I enjoyed myself, and I was all set to return to Ottawa again this year. But recently I've done a 180. It's a sealed booster again, and based on last year it could be boosters of anything. Not that I dislike sealed events, I'm actually quite good at them. I want to see how the same ppl compare with their 'choice' pieces though.

I think the Worlds however, are important, I think it's obvious the best do get there and succeed over the rest of us. And Game Imballances DO come out. Take Dean's army against Corle, if that wasn't unballanced I don't know what was at the time. Nothing against Dean, it was a brilliant army. *see Sirlin.net

I'm interested in seeing the results from this year. Meanwhile I can still brag of having the dubious honour of being beaten by the World champion.

I voted unimportant. I play for fun, and even if I didn't, I couldn't afford to attend World's (assuming I could even make it that far) so it wouldn't matter anyway. And since most of the rest of the world's MW players (ie the people outside of North America) can't afford to attend either, I don't see the tournament as a "best of the best" event. It's more of a "I had the time & money to come here" event.

Now, if MW were available as an online game (which I think would be reasonably easy, compared to something like Magic), then anyone with a computer could attend the tournament. That would be a real world's tournament, IMO.

I think the idea of loads of people playing this game in one location is great. The Nationals Championship is irrelevant to me.

I think the must win and get the prize or I am ranked in the top (insert number here) mentality is causing too much distress to this game.

I don't mind the rankings, and if people have the money to go to the world, more power to them.

As someone living with bills, rent, and responsibilities, I will likely never attend, nor be ranked high enough, so it's all pretty irrelivent to me.

Not only unimportant, but counterproductive to the overall play environment.

Players should be there because they like the game, not to boost their ratings.

Ratings leads to nationals
Nationals leads to cheese
Cheese leads to departure.

Nationals and Worlds are not rating games, the only 'rating' of any sort is the title at state of National or World Champion.

Ratings do not lead to nationals this year. Winning a qualifier or meat grinder at the con leads to nationals.

Frustration to leads to departure. 'Cheese' as some like to call it leads to frustration on the part of players to beat it. That frustration is what leads them to leave.

But that is another subject entirely.

My POV - Nationals and Worlds are a good thing.

They provide those who are interested in a title the chance to get it. They provide people the chance to play outside their current gaming environment. To see new strategies and new possibilities.

You will always have people who copy top armies, if there was no worlds or nationals then they would copy what they see on the forums. I don't think the tournaments change that.

Like others I have to wonder about the reason for the question though. Being in marketing I know most survey's and polls are done to collect information for a purpose. I can see a few possibilities for this one.

1) To see if it is a program that can be cut.
2) To see if it is a program that can be improved.
3) Curiosity

I had to vote "not really important" for two primary reasons. First off, the event that drives the invitations to Nationals doesn't necessarily select the best players. By offering excellent prizes for the event, you bring out the players who may not necessarily care about the game, but do care about winning that rare prize. If you get a bad set of boosters, you're pretty much screwed.

Secondly, if you don't have the time or ability to go to Nationals, you can't possibly participate in the Worlds.

If Nationals and Worlds were held at the same Con, I think I'd view it as much more important. As it stands, the disjoint in locations eliminates a large portion of the possible pool of players.

From what I've seen the people who just have to play at Nationals or Worlds are those that are doing the most damage to the game. They have only 2 concerns, winning at all costs and getting the LE's.

I personaly couldn't give a #### about either nationals or worlds. I've beaten the #1 already and don't really care what cheese is used else where.

I usually stay out of the tournament scene because they bring out the competitiveness in people and some times, being too competitive can be really irritating. I play for fun and I'd like to play units that people in competitive play shy away from and I abhor the units those players do use.

I play the game for goofing off with my friends, not for the competition.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.. Zzzzz.. Zzzzz.