Ownership of ROC has changed. Please continue reading to find out all the changes that will take effect for 2018.

Greetings, Heroclix players. At the 2017 ROC Cup, I announced several of the changes that have occurred with ROC. I shared some of those changes and promised that details would be forthcoming as there were still many things that I was in process of working through. I am now ready to reiterate what was announced at the ROC Cup and provide more details in the process. Let's start with the big one: I have purchased ROC from HCRealms.com and TCGPlayer.com will no longer be involved with ROC as a partner. I want to stress here that this was a very amicable and supportive buy-out and break-up by all parties. I am very grateful to Realms and TCGplayer. ROC will be pulling off of HCRealms.com and the transference of ROC kits will transfer to me on January 1st. I want to point out that, even though we will be moving to our own site, that ROC will always be a part of Realms. We will feed content and announcements to Realms and, in fact, part of the agreement that I made in purchase of ROC is that I now own part of Grid Reality and that Grid Reality will always exclusively supply maps for ROC. ROC is not wandering too far off but ROC's brand has grown to a point where it can stand alone on its own website. Something, in my opinion, that is needed to take ROC even further.

As many of you know, I opened up a game cafe in Huntsville, Alabama earlier this month called Lucky Dice Cafe. Lucky Dice Cafe will now be the hub and home for all things ROC. Lucky Dice Cafe will process orders, ship product, and provide customer service. Even though the store is just opened, it is also the home of Lucky Dice Games. Lucky Dice Games has been around for a few years now and, through its online business, has enabled all of the things to occur with our store and with ROC. We have quite a bit of experience in gaming, packaging, and order fulfillment. We have prided ourselves on customer service and fast shipping, something that we plan to continue with ROC.

Now let's go over all the changes that will be occurring and the details thereof. As stated, we will have our own web page that will be complimented with our Facebook page. Here is what will be on that webpage:

• Event log-in and reporting- Judges will now be able to log in and report their event results. Players will now have to be registered on our site to play in ROC events. Players can set up their own account or event judges may register them at the event. Judges will be able to report the results of their event on a real time basis. This will include players' order of finish, winning team builds, and pictures. Judges will still use the WIN system as well. Our event reporting does not conflict with the WIN and I strongly encourage all venues to use the WIN, as that is one of the tools that WizKids uses to rate venues.

• Judge program- Judges will be mailed prizes based on a tier program that we will implement. Judges can earn pins, tokens, maps, points, ROC Cup hotel rooms, and entry into the ROC Cup itself. Prizes earned will be based on judges becoming ROC-sanctioned, reporting events correctly as they occur, number of events run, type of event, and number of participants. Basically, if you run a lot of events, become sanctioned, and report them as you should, we are going to give you a lot of stuff. Details of the tier program will be on our web page.

• Ranking- All players will receive ranking points when participating in ROC events. We will rank players based on attendance at each event from first to last. Win-A-Maps are our smallest event kits so we'll base our rankings on those. In a ten player Win-A-Map event, the winner would receive 10 points and last place would receive 1 point. In a fifteen player event, the winner would receive 15 points. So for a bigger event, more points can be earned. Increase in event levels to a Qualifier, Super Qualifier, or Regional will also increase points earned. We will use a modifier to award more points for players as they participate in higher levels.

• TCGPlayer.com point cards and redemption- This is a major change and a very good one. All Tcgplayer point cards will be honored for redemption for products at their site and their site only indefinitely. Players may still use those cards to gain entry into the ROC Cup 2018, after which, we will no longer accept TCGPlayer.com point cards. Effective at the beginning of the year, players will be given digital points and those points will be credited to their ROC account. Those points can be used to purchase ALL product through the ROC site at Lucky Dice Cafe. one point will be worth one dollar in credit purchases at the store. Players can use a combination of cash and points to purchase product that will be mailed directly to them with tracking. Players can use their points for entry into the ROC Cup. We will simply deduct those points from your account upon registration at the Cup. Players will also be able to buy, sell, give, and trade points on the ROC page.

• Articles, News, Podcasts, and forums- ROC will produce Event reports & Meta play articles. We will feed these articles to HCRealms.com and will also post links of pertinent articles that HCRealms produces to the ROC website, including Realms membership sales and products as they are posted on the Realms site. Again, we are totally supportive of HCRealms.com and will continue our great relationship. I plan on bringing all of our amazing podcast friends to our site. They will have front page links and a forum spot of their own. As they produce new material, they will be able update their info on the front page. And, yes, we will have a forum page where we can communicate as well.

• Events- As soon as the site is up, you will begin seeing events. I will also be doing some changing to the kits. The smaller kit prices and prizing will remain the same. Super Qualifiers and Regionals, however, will be changing. Super Qualifier prizes will be reduced to more accurately reflect the number of players that have been attending these events. The price for Super Qualifiers will also be reduced. This will increase the number of Super Qualifiers and help absolve some venues' hesitation in purchasing kits due to risk of funds. Regional kits will also be reduced and the prizes changed. I am entertaining the idea of making kits free to the venue and sharing the gate entries with the venue. Still working on that one. I am also entertaining a travel voucher as a prize that must be used toward airfare or hotel rooms at the Cup. Again, still working on that one. I am also going to be pointing prizing for our larger events more toward actual current product in the venues stores rather than convention LE's. The number of planned Regionals is being reduced. I currently have five planned for 2018. These will be at Majestix in California, Dice Addictions in Oklahoma, Big Bang in Kentucky, Space Cadet's Collection in Texas, and Lucky Dice Cafe in Alabama.

• ROC Online will begin in January. Thanks to the efforts of Aaron Cantu and Wesley Summers, we have a working product. We will run these events just like we would a regular event and we are going to run a bunch of them. In the beginning, we will run Super Qualifiers in 16-player pods. Entry fee will be $25.00 and prizing will be very similar to physical events. Prizes will be mailed to players. Anyone in the world may participate in these events. However, participants outside the USA may have to pay for additional shipping costs. This will only occur when we have to ship out maps and product that are quite heavy. There will be no up-charge for smaller items. My mandate to Aaron and Wes was to create something that could be run online as closely as possible to a regular tournament in terms of time, with event judging, and required players to present actual physical figures to the judge prior to the tournament. They have done exactly that. Aaron has written rules for online play as well. Aaron Cantu is officially the ROC Online Coordinator. He will be in charge of scheduling and running tournaments. He will pick judges to help him in this endeavor as he sees fit. ROC Online will also have a forum page on our website. Again thanks Aaron and Wes. Well done. Aaron will be launching a press release of his own very soon that will detail ROC Online.

• Maps- Each year, we have given out maps as prizes at our events. This will repeat, starting in January. Map rotation will occur every 3 months with the introduction of the ROC Champion's map in October. That is a total of 4 maps that can only be won at an event. A fifth map will be released at our States and Provincial Championships. This year, that map will be designed by our ROC Cup Team champions. But wait, we have something new. We will be producing one limited map each month for purchase in our store. Each monthly map will be themed into the current quarterly prize map. But wait, that's not all!!! We will also be producing battle royal maps. The first two will be available in January. These maps will be delivered right to your home and can also be ordered by venues when they purchase kits. With this new influx of maps we will also begin a map retirement program at the end of 2018. It will not be a full retirement though, only from Modern Age. All maps will still be available for play in other ages.

• The ROC Cup is moving- This one was a tough one for me as I've loved our events in Atlanta. The Cup will be moving to Huntsville Alabama. Furthermore, the Cup will take place at ROC's home, Lucky Dice Cafe. Our store has plenty of space for this event and we already have delicious food. Honestly, I think you will find it to be one of the best venues you have ever seen. We are completely set up to host this event. I am working with a nearby hotel for great room rates. The hotel will have all the amenities that you are used to at the Cup and will provide shuttle service for those in need of it. The hotel is a very short distance from the store. I will provide more information on this when it is firm. Lucky Dice will be providing all of the amenities that you are used too. In fact, I dare say even better. We have great food and we are going to stay open at night to let everyone play as much as they want. We will pretty much run the same itinerary that we have always run at the Cup including side events. We will have our annual dinner and you guys are in for a treat. I have a special neighbor that is the greatest chef in our area and has been featured on Food Network. Get ready for food from Chupper Time. Please check out Lucky's Dice Cafe on Facebook @LuckyDiceCafe and Chupper Time on Facebook @Chuppertime.

• ROC Board and Head Judge- The ROC Board is officially disbanded. Decisions on ROC will be made by myself and my staff along with Patrick Yapjoco, ROC's Head Judge. In fact, Majestix, which is owned by Patrick, will be linked on our webpage and will be providing content for the ROC page. This will also provide another resource for players to buy heroclix product. In addition to being Head Judge, Patrick will be our article editor and will be ROC's West Coast Rep. He will be responsible for posting all event results and Heroclix articles in relation to competitive play. Anyone wishing to write articles about events they attended, teams, strategy, etc.. should contact Patrick. Anyone wishing to run events on the west coast should also contact Patrick. Online events will be approved by Aaron Cantu. All other events Super Qualifier or higher will be approved by me. Smaller events can be purchased at our site without approval.

• 2018 Schedule- I am ready to begin scheduling all events for 2018. Reach out to me and let's get you on the calendar. It's time to ROC 2018. You may email me at [email protected] or contact Howard Brock on HCRealms.com, Howard Brock on Facebook or @RealmsOpen on Facebook.


Sincerly,
Howard Brock
Proud owner of Lucky Dice Cafe & ROC

Good luck! Being UK based, I've only been able to attend 2 ROC events, hope international support continues...

Congrats Howard! I'm sure ROC will continue to thrive.

Only bad news I see is the location change. My partner and I do not stop or get out of the car in the state of Alabama as we've been told our kind is not welcome at a Subway, a couple of gas stations, and even a Wal-Mart. I can only imagine it being worse if I were a POC. A more inclusive venue would be preferable.

I don't know the area, but isn't Huntsville relatively cosmopolitan compared to the rest of the state?

Huntsville is slightly more progressive than the rest of Alabama, so there is that.

This is approach good. Let the ROC be a business run by a business. The sort of half hearted community approach was where the conflict of interest approach came from.

Huntsville: It's Almost Tennessee

Heck ya Howard and family cant wait till next year!

One question I had was whether or not the maps will see a release outside the ROCs they are available from. In previous years we were given access to paper copies of the maps in a map pack at the end of the year, and I know several people have asked me personally when we would get one for this year (especially with the popularity of the Logan map and the Underground map). Can we still expect a map pack to be released, and with more than 17 ROC maps being released every year from now on, will there be a way to acquire those maps after their season has passed (and what would that method be?)?

On a serious note, I find this all very positive, very progressive. Great work Howard! I look forward to online tourneys!

Howard, I second the statement and look forward to the second chapter of the ROC.

Howard! Thank you for the update. Sad the roc is leaving atlanta, marta, and the airport made it easy to reach yall for some players. I am excited about the new maps, sad about map retirement though. If none retured id buy them all. I am most excited about this clix online potential!!!! This online is better for the game. It unites more players, shares more strategies, and make heroclix a viable game for players in remote locations. I think if you all consider a online server that is free to practice, it will build player confidence playing on the compiter and will encourage the 25$ entry fee for the online competitions!!! Also more people will play more and become more involved with the game which will lead to more 25$ players! Most of all i am hoping for a free server to practice inbetween the online tournaments. Great job Howard, Aaron, and Pat, everyone involved and Congratulations.

Good luck!

Hey man, I definitely hear you. My name is Wes Summers. I am a competitive clix player and I live in Huntsville, AL. If you are worried about finding a space that is safe for you and your partner to stay, my home is open to you. The feelings you are experiencing my partner and I manage every single day. I definitely want to see more LGBT players in the competitive scene.

Hiding does not cause change, visibility causes change.

My only ROC experience so far was a negative one so im excited to see how things improve! Im sure Howard will be able to take these events to the next level