Well, it's official, the MKRealms Invitational Tournament will be run at Origins. What is the Invitational, you might ask? Here are the details:

The MKRealms Invitational is a chance for prominent MKRealmsers to battle it out against each other and get bragging rights once and for all. Basically, it's an MKRealms Battle Royale. The tournament will be open to 16 or 32 people, chosen by the Mods from amongst the pool of players who choose to apply for entry. It will occur on Friday at Origins, not conflicting with the US Nationals, so that we can get as many folks as possible. The number of rounds will depend on whether the tournament extends over 1 or 2 sessions, but it will be at least 5.

In the near future I will be requesting each person interesetd in playing to submit a short "resume" indicating why they should be selected to play. Reasons you may want to touch on include your official ranking, the number of posts you've made on the Realms, the quality of your posts, or any other reasons that you feel that make you special enough to merit selection for this prestigious event. Because the event is not open to the public, it won't be sanctioned, so it will have no effect on your ranking. It WILL, however, give bragging rights, since we're guaranteed to have a top-notch field.

The format will be a new format combining constructed skills and sealed deck skills. Next week I will issue a list of 150-200 figures, uniques and nons, that will be usable in the tournament. Thus, all players will have a month to think of and test combinations of figures that might be available. Then, before rounds 1 and 4, I will issue a new list of 50-60 figures, chosen from the larger list, that will be usable for those rounds of the tournament. From that list each person will construct an army, 200 or 300 points, and face off against opponents. It will be a round-robin tournament, to encourage people to play other people as much as possible.

I have had contact with WK, and it's likely that they'll be able to throw in some nice prizes for the event. The Winners will probably also receive a special title here at the Realms and perhaps a unique Avatar that only they can use. Many of the details are still TBD (# of rounds, times, where to send applications, etc), but I feel comfortable enough now to let the cat out of the bag. So if you're interested, or have questions or suggestions, or just want to get a head start on building your reputation, please post now. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at Origins!

How I wish I could be there.....

Stormfox

I would certainly like to crack at some of the trashtalkers :)

If I end up being there on Friday, this is something I'd love to participate in.

I especially like the limited choice in figures. I hope they all suck, we're talking wood golems, tanglewood spirits, wild mountain trolls, so on and so forth. That will REALLY seperate the best from the best.

I think that's a great idea. Now that I offically have at the National Championship (I'm listed as "steve" on the offical site) I guess I'll sign up for your own tournament. I really do think it is a great idea to do a MKRealms tourney, whether I get a seat or not.

Video,

I forgot to mention how the figures will be chosen. I'm goign to start by generating the lists randomly, then tweaking them by hand to avoid obvious pairings and ensure that each faction is duly represented. I'd like to have the lists tuned to the point where there aren't infinite choices, but there are enough choices that we won't be seeing everyone field the same army.

How bout makin it figs with 8 inches of movement or less. No ranged attack of greater than 8 inches. Make them dust off those figs....

I will sign up for the sole purpose of getting various parts of my anatomy handed back to me.

Max: Thanks for the update. Though I really would like to see the less played figures out on the list, and it would probably irk me to see amotep gunners, steam golems, shades, technomancers, other army staple figures, on it.

Troll/Vid,

Yeah, that's the point. No number-crunched figures. No artillerists, gunners, etc. Actually, more appropriately, no *** gunners, * artillerists, Storm Golem, etc. I'm not going to force people to use junk, but I will weed out the over-used stuff in an attempt to force people to actually think when they start building their armies.

Maximillion,

Two things. One, how soon will you be nailing down times? I want to volunteer with WizKids so I can get into Origins for free (man, I'm broke), so I'd like to know.

Two, on a totally different subject, is it possible to run a sanctioned event at Origins? I mean, I wanna participate in the weekly event WK is sponsoring, and the first week of the darn thing I'm going to be at Origins! How could we go about seeing if they will run it there for those of us away from out regular venue?

Just curious,
Brian

Count me in -- I'm going to be there, but since I don't have a spot at nationals (unless I win the at-large), I'm going to need some kind of MK fix. I'll send ya a resume.

to start submitting our "resume" for this invitational
since its just a little more than a month away


Icy =)

:(

Good luck, sounds like fun! Too bad I won't be able to attend.

Sounds great... any chance of an event like this at GenCon? I'll be reading about this one and hoping I can participate in one at GenCon.