Organized play: what’s new for 2016
By [Dewit] - ANKAMA - February 26, 2016, 12:00:00
Hello everyone! It’s time for us to talk a bit about tournaments in the coming year.
The new organized play season will begin in March 2016. For local tournaments, no changes on the horizon, with the exception of new prize kits, of course.
However, for bigger, more important tournaments, there will be some changes. We have prepared a brand new system that will give to the best players the ticket for the most prestigious tournament…
We will set a new ranking system, parallel to the current ladder, exclusively for organized play. To get points in this ladder, you will have to participate in QT (Qualifier Tournaments) or National Championships. The rankings will be international and allow players from all around the world to compete.
Every country which has an organized play structure in place can host 5 QT and 1 national championship during the season. QTs will accept players from all countries, with no restrictions. Countries dependent from another organized play structure (like Switzerland and Belgium, depending on the French championship) will be allowed 1 QT.
To qualify as a QT, a tournament must: have at least 32 contestants, be announced at least 15 days before the date on the official Krosmaster’s forums, and their results must be send directly to [Lescart] who will process the new ladder from it.
Every QT will offer the same prizes all over the world, but a small fee will be asked from the players to cover the cost of those prizes.
Participate in, or even better, winning one of those QT will give the players points in the new ladder, accordingly to their success:
- Winner: 15 points
- Second place: 8 points
- 3rd to 4th place: 5 points
- 5th to 8th place: 3 points
- All other players: 1 point
National championships will also give out points, but in slightly bigger bulk, as it is appropriate for such important events:
- Winner: 40 points
- Second place: 20 points
- 3rd to 4th place: 10 points
- 5th to 8th place: 6 points
- 9th to 16th place: 4 points
- 17th to 32nd place: 2 points
- All other players: 1 point
All QTs must take place between March 1st and October 31st; once the season is complete, the rankings will be locked and the top 48 players will be qualified for the Krosmaster World Championship 2017!
“Wait, 2017? What happened to 2016?” are you probably saying right now. We’re currently studying and organizing the event, and as soon as we have info to share about it, you will be informed, we promise.
Krosmaster’s 2016-2017 season will start pretty soon! For your demands of QT organization and any question you may have, please contact [Lescart] by Ankabox messaging. Until then, start your training, the competition will be harsh this year!
To this effect, I'm not sure whether Canada or the US is screwed more. On the one hand, Canada has a much smaller player base, so it would be hard to even get 32 players together in one place, much less over the land mass that is, well, Canada. On the other hand, there are realistically only 3 to 5 population centers where such an event would even take place. 1 person could reasonably attend 1 event if they lived in or around BC, Ontario or Quebec, but are unlikely to be able to attend more than that without a long and expensive flight. At best, please in the Quebec/Ontario region who are bilingual (not abnormal for that region) could attend 2 events with a bit of a road trip.
On the other hand, the US has much more population density, and it's more evenly distributed. There will be a lot more places with largish player bases who are not close enough to attend any events, much less only 1. Were there an event in Vancouver I would be able to attend the 1 event, but the player Group in Salt Lake city is probably straight out of luck without a lengthy road trip.
Of course, it is actually possible things may be organized this way. At the very least, both (English) Canada and the US have the same distributors.
If it *is* set up like this, then the best case scenario is "Here's one event in Toronto. !@#$ you everyone else in Canada!"
The UK doesn't even have 32 players interested in Krosmaster. Myself and my friends make up 80% of the Krosmaster scene here in the UK.
Maybe the last year, in the beginning, before the continue delays of release dates, before the missing Quest/Season 4/Piwate Island/Duel Pack 3 32 players were possible to find organizing events in Games' Fairs.
Actually, with many people that gave up the organized game (playing just online or at home), and with missing support to organized games spreaded before this announcement, things are "a little bit" more complicated... And with Ankama that put greater attention on the online than the real game (at least, this is my personal perception as customer), things aren't easy.
Krosmaster got a stain diffusion in many countries... Wider countries got more distance between groups of players, usually composed by a few players (one "promoter" of the game and his friends).
France is doing this kind of organization for competitive play since the last years, so french player used to go to Games' Fairs and gather there for events like QTs.
Other countries, like Italy for example, are trying to adapt to this decision from Ankama but finding minimum 32 players for an event is now harder... Even with the passion for the game that persists in Italy.
I imagine that for other countires, like the US or Canada (even Russia) gather 32 players together is a real pain...
Maybe Ankama could take consciousness of the actual situations outside France, and "personalize" the minimum number of players for the different countries.
This system is pretty good, because it push players to play in all possible events and gain points for the International Ladder.
I like this system but, as I said to many other persons involved in Krosmaster here in Italy, 32 players is too high as minimum number of players for a QT.
My 2 cents. Matt.
We have about 50 active players in Moscow (with small groups and no tournaments in other cities), but the biggest event we've managed to gather was 24 people at once, usually our tourneys get 15-20.
I'm not sure it's at all possible to get an event this size in the nearest future.
But we'll strive.
I just want to focus on this for a moment because this system is not at good for a number of countries for precisely this reason. It's quite easy for someone who doesn't live in Canada, the US or Russia to underestimate just how large they are. The reverse is also true, but not really relevant here.
Consider the scenario I stated earlier. If there is only 1 event in Canada, and it's not unreasonable to assume that will be the case, then it will almost certainly be in Toronto. For me to get to Toronto, I would need to go significantly further than I would if I were going from London to Moscow. It would probably cost me more, too. Domestic flights are not cheap in Canada. If I wanted to attend events in the US, I face similar problems which are compounded by the fact that I'm talking about international travel. The only place where an event might be held that I could *possibly* reach in an over-the-weekend capacity would be Seattle, and even that is a 3 or 4 hour drive once you factor in border wait time.
In this regard I'm even one of the lucky ones. Not only do I live in the third largest city in the Country, but I'm also within driving distance of Seattle. People who live in Ontario are a little better off than me. Most everyone else in the Country is probably in a worse position.
That's the problem here. The game in such countries isn't supported and distributed in local stores. There are games/cards local store basically in every mall in US and Canada, so if the game is going to be properly spread by publishers there could be a chance to make it a solid reality in those countries.
This operation requests a great amount if money and a solid commercial plan, trying to launch Krosmaster as a really international game.
It hasn't got the crowd of other minature games like WH (the same would be true for every ccg that will face MTG as the main antagonist), but Krosmaster is a pretty good tactical game.
There are marketing levers to use, like the TV Series Wakfu and Dofus, and the whole paper material of the Krosmoz... But doing that is indeed an investment of money.
I've talked about this even with our local publisher.
Things are not mature for this kind of operation. There was soooo many changes in Ankama, from the leaving of Jerome Peschard to the change of production sites (from China to Vietnam, if I remember correctly) that created all this delays in the release dates.
Things are now settled on (at least I hope so), and must go better in the immediate future to don't disattend the customers' trust.
So I'm waiting to see how things will change.
The whole re-design of the organized game is a good thing, because it shows that Ankama noticed that the previous system wasn't ideal for this game.
The next step could be to assemble an international focus group, taking people from players (that are even customers), and start reasoning Krosmaster as an international game (if these are Ankama's wills, of course) outside from the French country.
When this mind-step will be done, Krosmaster is going to be ready for becoming the game that it should have been from the beginning... Because the game is cool, and it deserves that.
My other 2 cents.
Have a nice game! Matt.
We will be discussing this internally, and if we can find an arrangement for the US market's specificity, then we will inform you of this.