I'm exhausted still! This was by FAR the best NOVA yet. I have to collect a bunch of photos, do a bunch of data mining, and a whole lot of other things to write a proper post-event, but I wanted to get ahead of a couple quick things.
1) NOVA intentionally designed a drop round after 6 if people felt like relaxing on the third day. 36 people chose to. Their opponents for the next day all received games as desired. Nobody got jipped out of games 7/8. So EVERYBODY, it's COOL! There was some initial chatter about mad drops/quits, and it's not true. Even given the option, only 36/227 chose to willingly drop. The subsequent round LOOKED like a lot of drops, but was simply reflective of players watching final games, hitting seminars, playing people they've wanted to once all were out of competition, etc. Rounds 7/8 results from said drops had no impact on final standings.
2) Torrent of Fire does not accurately display NOVA Open standings. I've seen some people starting to say things like "CSM didn't finish higher than 54th" or "The guy who finished 2nd got a bye," and there's no actual final standings published yet. You're just sorting by various metrics in torrent.
3) I've never experienced the enormous level of excitement that I experienced from attendees this year. I was absolutely touched and blown away by h ow much fun people seemed to have, and how appreciative many people were in finding me and thanking me. I hope they thanked ALL the staff just as whole heartedly. If you had a great time, also, share about it! We dig around for all the kudos, and put them together for the staff Thank You party on September 21.
4) Look for the survey, and fill it out even if you didn't have a great time! It's the way by which we best improve the event year to year.
Thanks for a great tournament to you and the staff, Mike. Best run tournament(even with the glitch!), and best terrain yet. Also appreciated that there were actually 8 distinct missions this year.
ReplyDeleteAmazing job Mike and team! Torrent of fire was cool. I know there was a small glitch but it was still great to not have to crowd around a posting. The head judge Mike Sommerville was Incredible with calling out the stupid when needed and keeping things on time.
ReplyDeleteThe invitational was crazy with the level of talented players from all over the US and even the UK.
The GT was great and the option to drop round 8 was good for me to relax.
1st class experience Mike!
It was pretty awesome, my first time attending. Great time.
ReplyDeleteThe lounge was a pretty fantastic idea.
While I haven't been able to make it out there yet, I've heard nothing but good things over the years. I think next year I'll be ready for my debut and head out with Spag!
ReplyDeleteTo more accurately see the NOVA standings as a metric of the TOF results, on the leaderboard, make note of the bracket breakdown. The brackets are broken out to 16 players, and win path winner within each bracket (aka the bracket champions) can be seen.
ReplyDeleteI streamed a good portion of NOVA to my hobby space, and had fun vicariously. It looked like a great event, and watching the invitational games was extremely informative.
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