by. BananaCrapshoot

Hello Troopers, BananaCrapshoot here for SAGA and I want to talk about a sensitive topic when it comes to FFG, and that is Organized Play. Specifically I want to talk about what I personally would like to see from Organized Play.

To start off I wanted to take a look at what we got from FFG so far in regards to OP. The Left side of the graphic relates to casual play and the right side relates to competitive play.

For Casual play we have Prerelease. I hope this is for every set, that was something that was lacking from Star Wars: Destiny. Each set release having a chance to play a draft or sealed event and get some cards early is a huge draw for players and it’s a lot of fun. I hope we have access to some cool alt art promos for playing in these. Weekly play, I think we all know this one, show up with a fun deck and play against your friends, traditionally in other games I have played you usually get packs or promos of some sort for playing in weekly events. Lastly for casual we have Store Showdowns. I think this would be really cool if this was like a store championship level event played towards the end of a set. Prizing I would like to see some more treatment alt art promo cards, some playmats and for all of these events I hope the players are awarded points.

What are these points I just mentioned? Well FFG during their youtube livestream mentioned having a player ID system ran through their website along with being able to win points for going to events. One other game I know of that does this system really well is Flesh and Blood.

Flesh and Blood does a really good job with OP and is kind of the gold standard right now. Using the graphic the bottom tier 1 level is the more casal events and it gets more competivie as we move up the OP ladder. Their more casual events are pre-release and Armory events. Armory events are the weekly events played at your LGS. On top of winning packs or promos you can also gain XP. These go for 90 days or so and can grant you invites to nationals and other big events. Skirmish events are their store championship level events.

As they start getting more competitive you can head to Road to Nationals events which performing well can reward you with Nationals invites. Pro Quests is where you go if you are looking to get into the Pro Tour for Flesh and Blood. Then we have Battle Hardened events which are open events you play in to win Pro Tournament Invites.

As we move to tier 3 we have Callings which are large open events 400-1100 players in size. Cash prizing at these events through top 64 as well as highly coveted gold foiled cards and Pro Tournament Invites. Nationals are also at this level with similar prizing to Calling events but also with National Champion Trophy.

Last level of FaB OP we have Worlds and the Pro Tour. Worlds requires a PTI or high enough ELO rating (we will get to that) to play in. Prizing at worlds includes cash payouts through top 64, gold foils, special champion card and more PTIs. Pro Tour events offer similar prizing to World’s but without the awesome world champ title and trophy and much smaller cash payouts.

Now to touch on Elo and XP. XP is won at events and the amount of XP you gain is determined by the type of event. Elo is another point system in FaB it is only available in tier 2 and higher events. From Flesh and Blood’s Website,

“A player’s Elo rating is represented by a number which may change after the outcome of a ranked match. After every ranked match, the winning player takes points from their opponent. The difference in rating between the two players determine the total number of points gained and lost. If the higher rated player wins, less rating is gained than if the lower rated player wins. In the event of a draw, the lower rated player will gain rating from the higher rated player.

Rating Points Staked

In each round of ranked play, players have the opportunity to win or lose rating points. At the end of the round:

• The winner’s rating will increase by the stake and the loser’s rating will decrease by the stake. If the stake is less than 1 point it will be rounded up to one point.
• If the match is drawn, the higher ranked player’s ranking will decrease by the stake and the lower ranked player’s ranking will increase by the stake.
• If the match is a double loss, the players rankings will not change.”

Now after looking at all this, what do I want from Star Wars Unlimited OP and what do I think FFG can realistically support?

To start the player ID system is a step in the right direction. So is the point system. If there is only one point system I hope for sort of a combination of FaBs XP and ELO systems. I think a sytem where you gain points for participating, and then the more games you earn with modifiers for the type of event to give you an idea of a player skill level is a good way to go. Having point thresholds for some events could be one thing to make you feel like you earned your way to that event even if you just played in weekly events.

For weekly events I would like to see points for partcipating and for wins. Along with Promos. Store Showdowns I’d like similar points, maybe with a higher win modifier and some playmats or deck sleeves too would be neat prizes.

Moving more into the competitive formats, I would still like to continue to see the point rewards with higher modifiers for each event. Cash prizes at these levels would be ideal I think. Along with some special treatments on some promo cards only found at these level events.

Now I from the first graphic it appears planetary qualifiers are smaller of these, then sector qualifiers, then regional qualifiers feeding into Galactic Championships. If the Galactic Championship is Worlds then I would take it Regionals are like continental championships, Sector qualifiers as larger open play events similar to what Galactic Qualifiers were like in Destiny. Planetary qualifiers I’m guessing will be like previous Prime or Regional championships have been like. If they take a more FaB approach at these events you can win an equivalent to a Pro Tournament Invite to play in the Galactic Championship.

Honestly, I feel like FFG if they committed the resources they say they have to Unlimited, I can see them pulling most of this off for OP. The one spot I think they are most likely to not do is an overall player ranking/point system and Cash prizing at the competitive events. I really think for SWU to stick around for the long haul and compete with FaB, MTG, etc. you will need to have serious considerations for cash payouts at your competitive level events.

I would also love to see them take another Flesh and Blood idea and that’s having open invite events running concurrent with pro level events. This is a great way to keep the community together and allows for bigger celebrations of the game and community.

That’s it for this one. Let me know what your thoughts on a simpler FaB OP structure would look like for Unlimited, and what you want from FFG OP for the game. Thanks for stopping by and we will you see in the Arenas.