Spike! Magazine 2009 (lots of pics - may be slow loading)

[generaljason]

Here's all the pictures that we have so far courtesy of Blammaham and Rob from Edmonton of the Spike! Magazine 2009 that we hosted last August.


The trophies and Spike 2009 Championship Jersey.


Close up of the Winners Trophies.


Over 700 dollars worth of Door Prizes.








Da Skum and Atropelladonna taking it easy between games.


The 40mm terrain and the DGT timers


Another shot of the boards.


40mm Dungeonbowl.


One of the crew from Edmonton.


Another of the crew from the great white north.


The whole Edmonton crew.


Colin.


gken1.


overthefalls and atropabelladonna


sallacious


A better picture of Da Skum's Skaven theme team.


Punkpogoer's dugout.


Rituro picking up his prize.


end of the draws


Blammaham - Spike! 2009 Outstanding Painting.


Blammaham's winning team.


Lord Chaos receiving his Most Casualties Award. Yeah, that's me in the picture as well.


Lord Chaos


Da Skum reclaims the Most Touchdowns award.


Blurry Punkpogoer winning Spike! 2009 Outstanding Sportsmanship.


Warpstone winning Spike! 2009 Outstanding Coaching.


Spike! Magazine 2009 Champion Atropabelladonna posing with his jersey.


Atropabelladonna posing with the Best Overall trophies.

[generaljason]

Okay, so I read all the Feedback results.

Clocks had a 94% approval rate for tournaments.
40mm had a 94% approval rate as well.

In the debate of whether to play 6 or 7 games, 68% voted for 6 games, were 32% voted for 7 games.

As for when to host the Spike, the findings I found were this:

1. For Winter, a couple of locals preferred them, as they pointed out that nothing was going on because the weather. But all the Albertans expressed concern about the road conditions in Winter months.

January has West Coast Quake in LA on 16-17, and the Capital City Kick-off in Ottowa on 24-25. December is out for obvious reasons, and while February has no other obligations other than Valentine's Day, but too close to Spike 2009 to even consider.

2. For Summer, most people expressed concern that because of the better weather summer months often clash with vacations. The same was said for long weekends. Only a couple of people said they'd keep it where it is.

After doing a little homework, the summer is really bad for us because there are so many events or conflicts.

June has the Ordo Fanaticus WFB GT on the 27-28, which a lot of our members go to every year, and we want to get Oregon players to come up. July has Canada Day and Independence Day, as well as the WCP GT on the 25-27, which again many of our members play in or are involved. Also, the Zlurpee Bowl in Indiana, US is on the 11-12. August not only has the BC day long weekend, but also has the Ordo Fanaticus 40K GT on the 8-9, as well as Gen Con from the 13-16th. Conclusion: Summer is out.

3. For Spring, most people were receptive to doing it here as opposed to Summer.

For March, the problem is the Dungeonbowl. Granted, Dungeonbowl is in Germany, but it's still a major so I'd prefer to avoid it being in the same month. More relevant though is that Trumpeters and Weathertop are in March from 13-15. April has da Grots Cup in Red Deer, Alberta on the 25th, and there is always the revolving Good Friday long weekend. May has the Victoria Day long weekend, as well as the Blood Bowl taking place in Nottingham on the 30-31st. Conclusion: Spring is out.

4. For Fall, most people were receptive to this idea as well.

Looking into it though, October has the Chaos Cup on the 3rd and 4th, as well as the Canadian Thanksgiving on the 10-11. Comic-Con in San Francisco is on the 17-18. November has the US Thanksgiving on the 24-25, as well as Remembrance Day. Besides, the weather is starting to get brutal again.

September has Labour Day on the 5-6, and the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle on the same weekend, and that's it. No other conflicting tournaments, and it's still close enough to the summer for the weather to be decent. Also, this gives people 13 months to plan.

Conclusion: Spike should be in September in my honest opinion.

[Grumbledook]

poshest looking tournament ever ;]


what happened to the original spike! trophy?

[generaljason]

poshest looking tournament ever ;]

what happened to the original spike! trophy?

Thanks Grum. We try.

As for the location of the actual Spike trophy, well, that's a long story - 4 months long anyway. Short of it is - GW Canada's Community was shut down near the beginning of this year. As a result, everything their offices had was liquidated and shipped down for storage in the States.

For the last 4 months, myself, Mike, Tom, Lycos and even JJ were involved trying to track down the whereabouts of it.

We didn't get it in time for Spike 2009 so we had a buddy donate the trophy you see there from one he made a decade ago out of dental molds and paint.

On happier notes though, Dave said that they have finally found it so we should have it back in Canada pretty quick. Again better late than never. From where we stand we're just glad they found it in the end, and a big standing o' from the whole Vancouver crew to Lycos for never giving up and tracking that down for us!

[Blammaham]

This was my first tourie after playing BB for 20+ years and it was the greatest overall gaming experiance I've had. All the coaches I played againsed were awsome, managinag a tie with Gken 1 was definatly a hilite!( if only I had got that 5 one turn sooner). Great event graciously hosted by the Thunder bowl league and organized by the always perky General Jason.S.

[Warpstone]

poshest looking tournament ever ;]

I gotta admit, our league has done a pretty great job of avoiding the "playing in someone's parents' grungy basement" scenario. We are pretty spoiled and GJ and crew set the bar high

One big thing to come out of this tourny (and it's reflected in GJ's summary of tournies) is that we really do want to get the west coast tourny scene kick-started. Looks like our members are hoping to get out to WCQ2010 and while I can't go this year, I've ear-marked Chaos Cup 2011 for a must visit. Having the Edmonton crew visit was a blast and, like GJ said, we really would like to make it easier and more appealing for out of towners to take part.

Think about, it's a trip where the family can come along and play in Vancouver while you get 2 great days of blood bowl!

[Colin]

And you guys from Vancouver can come to Alberta for a tourney as well (return the favour)
Maybe I'll see some of you at (6th annual) da GROTS Kup nest year.

Great meeting you all, hope to be able to make it back next year.

[generaljason]

And you guys from Vancouver can come to Alberta for a tourney as well (return the favour)
Maybe I'll see some of you at (6th annual) da GROTS Kup nest year.

Great meeting you all, hope to be able to make it back next year.

The only problem with da GROTS Kup is that it's only a 1-dayer. If it were a 2 day event, I'd definitely do the drive with a few guys one of these years. But a 12-hour trek for 1 day of Blood Bowl is a long drive - especially the 12 more on the way back. I'd want at least 2 days in Red Deer for a drive like that just to relax and play.

[Colin]

The problem is the store that the club is at isn't opened on Sundays. I might be able to convince them to open the gaming area for a few hours on Sunday if I can get enough people wanting to do a two day tourney.

But even if I can only do a one day event, you could still come up and do the one day tourney and spend the second day relaxing in Red Deer before making the trip home. (maybe I'll host an after tourney get together at my house for the out of towners)

[generaljason]

Well see what you guys can do Colin.

A 2-day Blood Bowl tournament that's going on it's 6th year and is geographically the closest to us is a much easier sell for me and members to make the trek than a 1-day tournament. With 2-days, I'm not saying I'm going to convince everybody right away, but I will convince players to hop in the car for a road-trip to Red Deer to support the only other Canadian Blood Bowl tournament in the west.

[Colin]

I'm too lazy to take the time to link every single photo here, so here's the link to the photobucket albumn with the Spike! '09 pics.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v153/TorgBB/Spike09/

[Blammaham]

Great Pics Colin! Thanks.S.

[Warpstone]

Thanks for the pics Colin.

I'm also in GJ's camp: if you can make it a two-day event, I'm happy to make the drive out.

[lordchaos]

Same. I would make then trip for a 2 dayer.

[daloonieshaman]

ugggh!,I was 2 hours away and could not make it (Damn dead people why do we have to make such a big deal about them becoming worm food)
My halflings would have won this thing hands down with all wins