So here it starts, the first blog post about my journey as an event TO. Before I dive into the details of my most recent and biggest event so far, I want to quickly explain how I got here.
In the beginning......
In early 2022 I turned 40, and on top of an amazing surprise birthday trip planned by my fantastic partner, I decided to setup a small 40k RTT based at my local game club venue. The goal was simple. 40K points of Warhammer 40K for my 40th.
The thing with events is, that everyone wants them on their doorstep, but no one wants to be the person in charge, as there’s a lot of work and it’s easier if someone does that all for you. During my first RTT I decided to play as well as TO, which was ok because I took a non competitive list that I could just goof around with.
I also wanted to use this RTT as an experiment. How easy would it be to set something up, how quick would tickets sell and how easy were the resources to get hold of? I wanted to create something that would become a template that I could recycle and expand upon.
After my first event I went on to run two more RTTs (one day events) before trying my hand at a GT event. A lot of the lessons I learned I’ve learned as I went along are going to become the TO guide which will appear on this website in the near future, so I won’t go into details right now.
That brings us nicely to a fortnight ago when the dust settled from the GT and I realised I had a lot to reflect on so that I could do better next time. In order to collect my thoughts I’ve summarised the event into three sections, the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good
I sold 34 tickets of the 40 I put up for sale. All my previous events sold out early so I was surprised at first, but the local scene seems to prefer its one day events and there were some major events happening on the same weekend. This turned out to be beneficial tough as I was rather optimistic about how many tables I could fit in the venue. I now know that 34-36 is the venue limit depending if I wanted a table being streamed or not. Three players had to pull out last minute due to illness and changes to their schedules which meant on Saturday we started with 31 players.
We had decent terrain on every table. Some with full 2022 LGT sets, some with the 2021 versions and then a sprinkling of GW and other competitive third party sets. A lot of players had their UKTC booklets on them and changed the table layouts to as close as they could get it to match each game. This was allowed in the gaming pack and was worth noting for future events. A massive shout out to the Toys of Mass Destruction guys who sorted me out with some extra 2021 sets on loan.
At least half of the crowd praised the event and asked about when I would be hosting more. I met so many awesome people and got tonnes of valuable input, some of which will be going towards the TO guide on this website.
The bad
Though it was not the hottest weekend of the year so far, it was pretty close and having 30+ players packed into a scout hut that’s at least 40 years old meant things got really sweaty! I had to move table 1 out of its own room (which I was hoping would provide a quieter space for finals) into the main hall for day two as this room was the hottest and players were struggling.
Then there was the issue that I messed up the pairings for game 4, by not switching it from win random to Swiss before doing so. Then whilst fixing this I accidentally ended the event! After 15 minutes of cursing and a hastily watched BCP video guide later though I had the round reset and the event back on track.
I wore a hi-vis to start with so I could be spotted in the crowd, but with the heat I later decided to hang it off my belt to keep a fraction cooler. This was not an issue in itself but later when I walked past one of the most beautifully painted armies of the event the hi-vis dragged across it throwing precious minis to the floor. I was pretty mortified by this, especially as by this time it happened I knew the army was going to be winning a painting prize.
The ugly
Lastly I stood over a game of undefeated players that was not fun for anyone involved. As a TO ideally you shouldn’t have to step in until there’s a disagreement between the players, and I ended up spending the whole round at this table (barring deployment and the odd instance of checking on others).
I've never witnessed a game where the players couldn't resolve any issues between themselves and I don't think I made enough of an effort during the game to improve it. This is something I'd really like to dive into in a future blog.
All in all I had a terrific time running this event. All the experiences both good and bad are valuable and go towards running better events for myself and crafting better resources for others.
What I learned from this
I need to be more proactive if I think a game is getting sour. I could really do with a resource to refer too that backs me up (this is what the Players Social Contract was born from)
If you use any LGT terrain or something similar, expect players to use the UKTC layouts
When booking a venue, check that it has the means to cope with whatever extreme of weather you would expect at that time of year.
I won't be hosting any new events now until the new year, but keep an eye out on the main page for resources to come available.
I'll also be posting regular blogs discussing various TO related topics.
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