Sound advice, but it's completely situational. By situational I mean having a "once in a while" with no resources usually gets ruined by "that guy." And while not every venue has a "that guy" who still shows up to make a fun event his style of fun (ie: uber stomp competitive) the numbers are on the rise at the venues I've talked to as of late.

Why is that? Because now it's not just the resources that are over the top, but the characters are getting that way as well.

But hey, whatevs. To each their own. Every corner of the world is different. For example some people are cool with those who run competitions playing in and winning said competitions.

Reason I no longer play casual--right here. Meta is life.

Casual play is often in a private setting, where it is much more socially acceptible to bar the entrance and participation of those a group deems intollerable.

Meta is life.

To be honest, I don't necessarily believe that it's meta or nothin'. I played a theme team of Despotellis, Sinestro, and a Yellow Lantern Battery with a couple constructs at this event, and I had a good time. It's a little meta, but the only way to make it more Sinestro Corps-y would be dropping Despo for Parallax, and that's what I was really going for. Didn't place, but I won half of my matches, and had a good shot at the other two. Fought against a Kyle Rayner team with Ion and a Green Lantern Battery, and we were joking the whole time about how themey it was. He was a really cool guy. Kept correcting me when I said my Yellow Battery could only do one free action because of the Green Battery (he said I could do as many as I want because it wasn't a character). Honestly, every one I played against and talked to was really casual, even if their teams were much better designed than mine. My girlfriend didn't want to play resources, so she did an all movie avengers team of Hulk, Fury, and Scarlet Witch. She didn't win any of her matches, but she had fun, and said that everyone gave her a lot of really good tips.

And while casual play is obviously easier in the confines of your own home, along with custom figures, older map choices, and even runs against Galactus, if your venue isn't doing enough casual for you, express interest in that, and get others to express interest in that. Most places will adopt to whatever draws people. And "that guy" can ruin a few matches, but if you work with the venue to alter the situation, he'll either get the message or just have to keep shelving his meta team because it doesn't fit with the weekly tournament theme of "double dates" or "monkeys VS robots." Worst case scenario, have a meta-level player shut that guy down a few tournaments while playing the team more casually for others, and he'll get the idea or leave. My girlfriend played against a lot of top level players in this tournament, and they didn't curb stomp her. They beat her, but they also nurtured her interest in the game, and I'm very happy to see that was how they handled it.

8 players is what the ROC is.