Tonight....on Tournament Watch.... nah just kiddin', cool music though eh?
This post is about the recent scheduling clashes that have been caused by the ever increasing number of tournaments in Ireland. The question is however; could they have been avoided?
Let's see.
The focus, of course, has to fall first on the plight of Q-Con, in my opinion, one of the best run conventions of any sort in the gaming scene. I use the term, plight, simply because this is the second year running that this event has found itself clashing with events run elsewhere in Ireland.
It might be fairer to say that they have clashed with it, of course; it has run at the same time of the year for 18 years now whereas the events clashing with it have less history.
Now, this year, it appears that Q-Con 2012 (22nd-24th June this time) will clash with the Irish Masters. That event, which has invited the top 16 players in the country to attend, means that when coupled with the two players helping organise the event, there will be a total of 18 of the best players in the country missing this well run competition.
Put on top of that, is the fact that MooFool, the latest in a series of new events in Cork, will run on the same weekend as Retcon, UCD's Annual Gaming Event. Retcon, also in its 18th year of running, will be scratching its head as to why this new event has decided to run on the same weekend, just two hours away in the city of Cork.
So let's have a look and see if this could have been avoided:
After the Irish gaming community starting participating more in the European scene and with the advent of the Rankings system for Ireland the number of tournaments in Ireland has increased significantly. However looking at the table above (courtesy of RankingsHQ) we can see that there are still more than a few months left in the gaming calendar with only one (October, June and December) or two events (July, August, September, November and January).
In fact, Q-Con was traditionally the only major event around June. Now it clashes with the Irish Masters. Equally, March has had only one other event apart from Retcon, Itzacon VIII.
From that evidence, it is indeed perplexing as to why newer events would clash with already established events.
Conspiracy theory?
Or is it more symptomatic of a gaming scene that doesn't communicate and organise effectively within itself?
I can't be sure myself since I'm not heavily involved in organising these events but I thought it interesting that it's an increasing phenomenon rather than a decreasing one (which one might have thought since the gaming scene is becoming better known to all gamers.) and I wonder what our gaming public think?
Yours,
Joey
EDIT: The most excellent organisers of the Irish Masters have moved it to the weekend of the 30th June/1st July. Hooray.
