Maria Bianca
The Imperial Retribution on Kessel was my very first tournament, and all I can say is ... WOW! Since it IS my first one, this might be a little long... I apologize in advance, lol!
Location: The location itself was great! I appreciated the cleanliness, both inside and out. I actually liked how it was in nature, too! However, I have to say that while there was a lot of space outside, there was not too much space inside. Also, while the place was easy to find, it was difficult to drive to it, and even more difficult driving away from it on a Saturday night. Parking space was limited, as well. Imagine this scenario: only 26 of the 40 available spots were filled, and parking and play space was barely enough for 26. Eek!
Catering: The location had a kitchen and a grill, which I thought was cool! I liked the idea of prepaying for food as part of the tournament registration - there was a lot of variety, and the food tasted great! The drinks were affordable, and the coffee was bottomless for a crazy low flat rate (with milk AND sugar!!) - I know at least three coffee lovers (myself included) who appreciated this very much! Two of the participants also brought cakes - an always welcome bonus!
Events: I absolutely loved how there was not just the tournament, but a repaint contest, as well! Even a mini-contest like that added more dimension to the event. I would like to see more contests like this built into future tournaments!
Awards/Prizes: The prize pool was amazing, and I really loved how no one walked away empty-handed - really considerate of the TOs! The trophies were a hell of a nice touch, too. It really shows how much effort the TOs put into coming up with the prizes.
Tournament: The only (not even) bad thing I can say about this was that I found myself waiting a long time in between matches - I say that's not even bad because I understand that some people need more time to prepare or read over lists. Other than that, everything was super organized - there was much information given before, during, and after the tournament, and it still flowed very smoothly! The lists were all diverse, as well, even within the same faction.
TOs/Referees: Sebastian (Renegade2) is an excellent TO and referee! Despite how hardcore everyone was starting to get, he managed to reach everyone who had questions and keep the games rolling. However, who really amazed me was Tosca (HarleyQuinn) - she is also a TO, she was also a competitor, and she STILL took time out of her own match to help resolve an issue or translate some text! Now that is some power multi-tasking!
People: The people were awesome! They were all friendly and managed to communicate well with others, despite the language barrier. Including my already limited German, two out of the three participants I played against spoke little to no English, but we still took the time to make our points and finish our game within the time limit. (Yay!) Outside of the matches, everyone socialized with each other - not just from my experience, but from what I have observed, as well. There was only one exception to this, which brings me to my next point...
Outreach: There was only one participant from France, which leads me to wonder if anyone had reached out to him and asked him to advertise to a French X-Wing group that he may be a part of. I am not sure if this is an acceptable practice, but if the tournament location is so close to France, then surely more French people would be inclined to show up! This isn't really a negative point, more like a very optimistic suggestion. :)
Overall, the Imperial Retribution on Kessel was an excellent tournament, that not even my petty nitpicks could bring it down. I highly, HIGHLY enjoyed my experience, and will recommend any tournament organized by these TOs. Thank you again for everything!! |
Gundrek As always with Sebastian and Tosca, this tournament was AMAZING !
Nice location, nice people, nice lunch (grill party !!!!) The prize pool was impressive, and all the side assets were really welcome ! (free spare dices ? hell yeah !!!) I met talented and really friendly players, which i enjoyed playing against ! (special mention to Andreas, Carsten, Timo and Tosca :) ) The whole bunch of players there were nice, i can't wait to come back !
(And i'll try to improve my german ;)
Best regards,
Florent |