National Carcassonne Championships in 2017

[MrNumbers]

Thanks, I added the date. Once you know other bits of info (location, webpage/fb event, etc.) please let me know. 

For now I know only location - shopping center Riga Plaza. Other info will be known later.

[danisthirty]

The UK Carcassonne championships will be held at the UK Games Expo in Birmingham running Friday 2nd - Sunday 4th June. There isn't any official information (that I've seen) but the Carcassonne championships are almost always on the Sunday, probably with a 9:30am start. ScottMoore (the events organiser and member here) should know more...

The UK tournament will be organised by Mike Dixon of Halesowen Boardgamers. I have dropped him an email to ask for confirmation of date/ time and also if the structure will be the same as it has been in previous years (i.e. 3 rounds of 4-player games). I will post here if/ when I get a response with any news to share.

[danisthirty]

I've just had an email from Mike Dixon of Halesowen Boardgamers, who is jointly responsible for the running of the UK Carcassonne champions this year:

Hi Dan,
 
To give you a bit of an update, the majority of the boardgame tournaments went live on the UK Games Expo website last night and the date for the Carcassonne National Championship is confirmed as Sunday 4th June starting at 9am.  As for the format this has pretty much been dictated to us by Esdevium and we will have to follow their structure (they sponsor the event, supply the games and represent the company who makes it).  We’ve been asked to run 3 preliminary rounds of four player games from which the top 8 qualify for the semi finals, two 4 player games with the winner of each semi final advancing to a 2 player final.  I personally think that is a bit of a backwards step for the competitive players so I’ve highlighted this to the people who talk with the sponsors to see if we can change this, although I’m not sure how likely that will be.  Nevertheless I hope you can still support the event and anything you can do to help promote the event throughout the Carcassonne community will be greatly received.
 
Kind Regards,
Mike

I'm very disappointed at this decision from Esdevium games. I can't say I'd ever really heard of them before they became a sponsor for the UK Games Expo but it frustrates me that they get to call the shots on something that they clearly have very little knowledge of. Any consultation with virtually anyone who enjoys playing Carcassonne competitively (and this is for a competition) will confirm that as a game it is far more enjoyable and less luck-based with 2 players. I can't quite fathom why they would reduce the number of 2-player games from the previous format, but I'm so annoyed by it all that I might not even enter. All I can think of is that it might somehow generate more money for them as a 4-player?

So what now? Well, I don't know if it will make any difference but I intend to find contact details for someone at Esdevium and let them know how disappointed I am. I would urge others to do the same if they are as bothered by this as I am. Or even if you're not. Please post your thoughts here all the same and I'll pass them on in my email...

[Decar]

Please pass on any email addresses you find Dan.  The UK has a responsibility to find the best player in the country to enter the Finals, held in Germany.  The format of the final should be considered or replicated as closely as possible.  This sounds like a very backward step, compared to previous years as it relies more on 4-player games than the 2-player format, held everywhere else.

The only consolation I can see, is rather than entering and spending the entire day playing Carcassonne, I'll be able to walk around and see some of the innovations being demonstrated on the UK Expo; something I've had no time to do last time we attended.  I'd be happy to stop and play a few games with you or anyone else from the forum though!

[Jéré]

Absolutely. Sucks for you guys. If their objective is just to send one poor UK guy without any proper preparation for the World Championship to be slaughtered in Essen then the proposed format will do the job! Very shortsighted, it's the least I can say...

[danisthirty]

It's more than shortsighted, it's blind! We might as well be playing a different game. Next year the UK's best Carcassonne player will be determined by a 50-player game of Snakes and Ladders.

[Decar]

TBH I'd probably have a higher chance of winning that

[Merlin_89]

Commiseration to you Dan! And I thought that Polish format was awful! Join the club! At least we play 4-player game only until final 8/16 is set.

I can only expect, you'll held advanced 4-player League to train for all of this. I'd love that, as I bombed last year in Polish Championships because apparently I suck at "family" Carcassonne.

PS It annoys me that Poland has no details on 2017 Championships, but I hope nothing changed and we play extended elimination process throughout summer with main event set for September (I guess our winner is always as fresh and ready for Essen as one could be...).

[Halfling]

4 player practise sounds like the order of the day. How about a game cafe meeting somewhere in uk?

[asparagus]

Strangely the organiser of the UK 2017 Carcassonne championship is listed as "MSO". So I don't know what's going on.

[Willem]

4 player practise sounds like the order of the day. How about a game cafe meeting somewhere in uk?

I'm in for that Just hold our own

[danisthirty]

I just saw this:


Game Description
The Carcassonne National Championship will consist of 4-player games. Each player will play three games in the preliminary rounds, which will be followed by a quarter-final round where the top 8 players play one 2-player game each. The winners of these games proceed to the semi-final round, once again 2-player games, with the two winners going head-to-head in the final.


If this is accurate, the format will be exactly the same as last year. Which would be good. I don't know if this was just a copy/ paste job rather than actual information, but I'd hope that it would have been finalised by the time it's put on the website and tickets are made available.

4 player practise sounds like the order of the day. How about a game cafe meeting somewhere in uk?

I'm in for that Just hold our own

Depending on who is available and how many of us there are, I'd be happy to go for a 4-player basic game as part of the weekly game tonight...

[ScottMoore]

Hi Dan, are you sure that Mike Dixon is from Halesowen Boardgamers? I go there most weeks and I've never heard of him! A good person to contact at Esdevium Games may be Mike Budd - I believe he is in overall charge of their presence at the UK Games Expo and is, in my experience, a friendly guy who goes out of his way to help even though he is extremely busy:
mike@esdeviumgames.com

[asparagus]

I just saw this:

Look at column 2  here: http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/bookevents.php?category=bor

[danisthirty]

Hi Dan, are you sure that Mike Dixon is from Halesowen Boardgamers?

Nope, not sure at all. But I was kind of passed between a few people in the email chain so it wouldn't surprise me if I got confused about who was connected with who along the way.

Thanks for the email address, I'll drop him an email. It seems a shame to move back to what I'm certain will be an unpopular format after all your efforts to involve us with previous tournaments and change things for the better Scott. Will hopefully be able to catch up with you at some point over the weekend.

I just saw this:

Look at column 2  here: http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/bookevents.php?category=bor

Thanks for the link asparagus. Not sure what MSO stands for here.

Have you bought your ticket yet? Will your daughter (Julia?) be playing too? Looking forward to catching up with you both on the day...