Nearly a year...

posted on June 23rd, 2011, 5:29 pm

    Looking back I've recently noticed that it has been nearly a year since I started my summer tournament.  07/17/2010  It truly amazes me to see that tournaments are still going on.  When I came up with the idea of doing a tournament it was because I was bored at work and my mind was full of battling starships.  At the time I though of having a tournament every season and even flirted with the idea of creating some kind of Fleet Operations league.  Although that obviously never came to fruition. 

    When I first looked into it I scoured the forums for information of past tournaments.  Hoping that I could find some method or outline on how to do it.  There really wasn't that much help.  So I started with a basic idea and advanced that with the help of the World Cup and certain players most notably Butterbread and Dominus.  I did extensive testing of balance spending hours to see if I needed any special rules to try and make the games as fair as possible.  As it turns out I didn't really need any special rules to begin with. 

    The tournament was a long and sometimes frustrating process but I enjoyed it and had fun with it.  I was sad when I realized that I wouldn't be able to continue to do more tournaments after I lost my job and stopped being able to play.  However I am glad to see that others have picked up the torch if you will.  So now I can look back on that time fondly and hope to return to that state some day when my life is more stable.

So until that day I will bask in the legacy of that silly idea born out of boredom and a love for Fleet Ops.

Continuing tournaments...

2 maps including the wonderful Duel II...

and above all else the community itself... 

While the community would still have existed without the tournament.  Well I like to think its a little bit stronger for it, but than again thats just me.

If you have read this all the way through than I thank you, and I hope to see you again on the battlefield.

Sincerely
HalFala

posted on June 23rd, 2011, 5:42 pm

Great post, Hal! 

  Yes indeed, I think you should feel pretty good about the fact that your tournament got the tourney ball rolling .  The tourneys have done a lot more than just offer us some fun and competitive games - they've also raised the bar in terms of finding out balancing issues.  When players with a desire to WIN (not just have fun) get in the game together, things about balance begin to show up that previously weren't seen very often.

  Kudos to you, sir!

posted on June 23rd, 2011, 8:05 pm

I know that other people have tried to do tournaments, but yours was the only one that went all the way through, so we definitely want to thank you for that.  Now we have people lined up to host them.  Thanks again for showing the initiative!