Northern Open 4

Last Saturday I have attended Northern Open 4 event as Tournament Organizer. I quite enjoyed the experience of seeing a tournament from a different perspective. There is lots of work behind the scenes that I don't necessary think about when I go play but I can certainly appreciate more all the hard work that goes into events from the organizers. Northern Open is one of the biggest events we do up here in North, I think we always had around 20 players after the first one, so it was quite busy but having experience from our previous events I think we were ready for everything.

I would say the busiest part was before and after the event. We had to set up 10 tables in less than hour and a half and then clear them out just fast afterwards, but lots of people helped out both times which was great to see. I had a chance to play two of the three rounds as we had odd number of people in the end, and that really made me realize I should think about table set up even more. I think next time I'd at least measure where the deployment zones are and consider the missions more so you don't end up with objectives and HVTs in the most awkward places. I know, I know, games of chance are not really about always fair but at the same time I don't think unfair advantage is good for the game either.

As I walked between the tables I found it lots of fun to see how the games went and hear all the crazy things that happened, I think on one table someone managed to kill Achilles with a USA Grunt, in CC at that! It was also good opportunity to see all the different armies and how people played them, which you don't have time to do much when you are playing.

Surprisingly, our defending champion of NO3 ranked 3rd of 4th and my mate James who won last two events we went to also had some bad luck. In the end it was Yorkshire Renegades that took the crown this time. Will see if they can defend it in May!

These were the ten tables we had:
(more photos from the event can be found on Facebook groups and the Infinity Forums.)