Wizkids recently announced that the format of the 2003 Canadian Nationals would be single-day Sealed box. Most people I play with, myself and many members of the Angry Beavers Clan feel that this is not the best format to decide a National Championship.

We have started a petition thread on the "Dear Wizkids" forum, listing our concerns and proposing our alternatives:

http://www.mkrealms.com/forum/showth...004#post704004

I invite all to read it, and for Canadian players who agree to post a reply to that thread.
Any discussion/comments/criticism (regardless of country) should be posted here only please.

Thanks for you time and comments,

Frenzy!

Try my three army format. It limits cheese while stressing army building and playing skills. If you budge it up to four armies, you could probably even allow MDFs and Titans into the game without allowing them to break the game, especially if you declare all chariots as the same figure and all MDFs as the same figure. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out the UNWMKC link in my sig. I'll be sure to let everyone know how the format worked after I run the event on the 22nd of this month.

PArt of the US nationals is going to be sealed also it seems. I totaly agree that sealed is just not the way to find a National champion. A sealed event along with a H2H head event maybe but not sealed by itself.

That's basically our gripe, Barrel.

Like it says in the petition, a good player can still recover from a bad pull in sealed.

OUr theory on why it's a one-day event is that both MK and MWDA nationals (also sealed) are happening the same weekend at the same convention. So, if you do 2-day events, players cannot participate in both.

Just found out that UK and Singapore are having their MK and MWDA nationals at different events several weeks apart.

I agree completely. A simple sealed-box tourney is just not a good format for a national championship event. It leaves way too much to chance.

I doubt WizKids would go for it, but I really do like the multiple-army format designed by our famous anti-War activist, Altan. :)

DragonVenom

Well the US MWDA nationals are at Wizard Worlds East ( Phillie) and Worlds is at Origins right?

As much complaining as we did last year about how Nationlas ran it was a whole lot better than straight sealed. Make it draft atleast. I really hope it gets changed for you guys.

Our nationals will also have sealed, and it seems that will qualify the 8 best players (or luckiest) who will then play h2h 200 points to the end.

I agree with you, the sealed format by itself is not a decent way to make the nationals.

I respectfully disagree. I've only lost one sealed tournament (won all three or four other marquees, including the nationals qualifier last year), and it was the pulls that killed me. I had to play a cursed hag, 2 healers (CP & elven acolyte), 2 weak mindsifters, a glade guardian, and a shadow, because these were my BEST pieces. I lost to a guardian drac swarm I couldn't hit, and to an army that had a chimeric worm as its centerpiece.

I suppose I could blame the dice, but probabilities were NOT on my side.

I'm going to have to say that having a sealed draft as a national championship seems a lot better to me than letting everybody use Uber Figs... So all of the great players without jobs and huge amounts of money will have a chance. But of course since thats the type of person that usualy plays MK... I feel all alone... *shudder*

I genuinly believe that, before sinister and minions, booster draft was the MOST fair format for this game.

The amadrac and solonavi threw that out the window.

Now, sealed, or even draft, is plain unfair, as the final few will be decided by who drew an amazon drac or striker.

In a smaller tournament, where the likelihood of someone drawing one of these uber-uniques is less, and only a rare few have access to the truly powerful figures, sealed is leagues more fair than constructed. However, in a 100+ person tournament, it is almost a guarantee that there will be several amazon dracs and strikers on the table -- and that just makes any booster format other than point draft unfair.

I guess the best selection of boosters for the Canadian Nationals would be the Unlimited ones.

I mean, Uprising will still be a few weeks away, and Minions may be hard to find.

As I've stated before, I think the best answer would be to have a fixed set of figures that everyone would use to build their armies. No concerns about players with thousands of figures or lucky booster pulls. Everyone starts with same basic figures. A level playing field.

A good idea, but hard to implement.

Wk doe slet use pick from a set group of figs now...ALL of them which of course is a fairly large set. Personly high priced figs or Uber figs are not going to win you a National Championship in constructed. LAst year for the US we had a chariot, I think 1 Nub, maybe a trueshot, a n OST and a wandering Mooch in the top 4 or so. In most of the army builds the LE coudl have bben replaced by another piece an the player not lose much of anything.

Now people asked for sealed, booster draft, and the such after last years Nationals. THis is just a bad idea. Last year we had the Qualifier as a sealed event and the tournament 200pt h2h and this year the NQ is 200pt constructed with the Nationals being mainly Sealed.

The one thing that no one has brought up is army build totals in sealed. How many players can create 200pt armies on the nose in sealed? It is fairly tough and all it is going to take is someone looking across the table doin gth emath and just going through the motions until time runs out. They win because their opponent could not construct a 200 pt army. That is BS.

I have in move then one sealed event been able to play almost every single figure i pulled from a booster. That is just wrong.

My point exactly! You may have been more skilled than your opponent, but the luck factor (Dice rolling notwithstanding) introduced by the Sealed format gave your opponent an army YOU COULDN'T EVEN HIT.

In the MK constructed metagame, this does not happen. We have not reached a point where we have a rock-paper-scissors model of army archetypes (which seemed to always be present in CCGs like Magic). Sure, some army types are dominant, but a well-built balanced army played by someone with skill will still beat an unskilled player with Uber-figs.

Anyway, I'm glad this is stimulating discussion, I just don't know if there's a solution to this. I'm glad for the countries that have 2-day formats (sealed then constructed). Their truly best players should prevail. And I like what WK are doing with the Worlds. The only complaint would be that it's SO BLOODY LONG!!! I mean, 4 days straight?!?
Last year, we had to play for 3 days and THAT was grueling. I was kinda happy in a way when I got eliminated (well, not really :) ).
The one thing we did which is not on the agenda this year was 5 rounds of 2000pt Conquest on Friday. That was a little too much (but fun!).

I just don't want to see "Timmy New Guy" win because he drew an Amazon or Striker etc. He would get so whooped at Worlds where there is a good selection of formats. Now I agree that a good player can still win with a bad booster pull, but that same player against another pro level player with an Amazon will lose 90% of the time.

I am pretty new to tournaments but a guaranteed to eliminate "uber figs" and such from ruling is this: When going head to head with someone you play two games, you play your armies against each other. then switch, you play his army and he plays yours. Probably a logistic nightmare, but it would test a players ability to adapt new strategy on the fly( a mark of a good player I think).

When I play for fun my armies are never planned until right before the game. I put something together and then it all depends on tactics. Or luck, last night I had my Tormentor killed on my opponents second turn(it took eleven clicks of weapon mastery in form two figs).

Like I said, not very logistic but an interesting idea.

And I agree, sealed box only not the way to go.

elkmaven