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The Star Fleet Battles tournament at Council of Five Nations is no longer Rated Ace Sanctioned by ADB
Last update: September 29, 2009
Hello Star Fleet Battles Players,
You have probably arrived at this page looking for information about why the Star Fleet Battles tournament at Council of Five Nations has been de-sanctioned*, and declared Conventus Non Grata, by Stephen V. Cole of Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. We of the Schenectady Wargamers Association are posting this to give you our side of the story.
Steve Cole found out about Paul's intent to attend Council, and threatened de-sanction in both a private email and a posting on the ADB BBS.
David Cheng had a telephone conversation with Steve Cole on Wednesday, July 22nd. The final result of that discussion is that the Council SFB tournament is indeed de-sanctioned. We in no way dispute Cole's right to do this - he is a man of his word.
Steve Cole also decided to not allow any mention of Council of Five Nations to appear on the BBS, nor will any mention of Council appear in any future ADB products (such as Captain's Log). As of the writing of this document, the discussion thread on the BBS has already been deleted.
This last point is where we feel Mr Cole has regretably crossed over into the realm of spiteful and vindictive.
We understand in a weird kind of way why Steve Cole banned Paul, and why he would live up to his word of de-sanctioning any tournament in which Paul was a participant. We do not agree with this logic, and we think it is painfully self-destructive on Steve's part, but we understand it none-the-less.
What we do not understand is why Mr Cole feels the compulsion to ban all mention of Council of Five Nations on his web site and in his BBS discussion groups. Does ADB have something to gain by not allowing the SWA to promote their unsanctioned SFB tournament, and thus still be promoting Star Fleet Battles by association?
We, the SFB players of the SWA, have spent years working to build and grow our annual Star Fleet Battles tournament. We have trained new players, who have then gone on to purchase SFB merchandise from our local retailers and direct from ADB. As other tournaments around the world have lost attendance, ours is the only one that has maintained, and even grown, in size. We have even deliberately coordinated our event schedule between the Council SFB tournament and Federation Commander events (another ADB game), in an effort to develop synergies (and more sales for ADB). We have worked hard to promote the work and products of Steve Cole and ADB.
We just cannot grasp Cole's logic, even though he tried explaining it to us several times. We acknowledge he cannot see ours either.
Here are some things we are now planning. This list may change and/or grow over time:
If you really want to support us:
1. Come to Council of Five Nations! Show your support in person and have lots of fun in the process. The SFB crowd is a great group of guys (and one woman... that we have recruited), and we have loads of fun every year; much of it not in the SFB room. We are currently working on The Baron's Guide to the Pubs of Schenectady, and hope to post that on the web site soon. Not to imply that we encourage heavy drinking, of course.
2. Encourage your SFB-playing friends to come to Council. We offer group discounts to those that pre-register together. Details on the web site.
3. Join the online discussion at the new web site we've set up: The Star Fleet Battles Open Community. There are a lot of folks that have drifted from the SFB and SFU community; we'd love to see you get re-engaged. There is none of Cole's censorship of the posts here. We even have a growing section of Federation & Empire players. Click the link and check it out.
4. Keep playing SFB with your home gaming group, and do what you can to help grow the player base.
Thank you for reading this far.
Thank you for your support; in the past, in the present, and in the future.
We hope to see all of you at our future gaming events.
* The term "sanctioned" is a trademarked term claimed by ADB, referring to convention tournaments that adhere to a set of ADB's standards. The most meaningful effect for players is the awarding of an "Ace Card", an award only granted by ADB. More information on ADB's Rated Ace Sanction is available at the ADB web site here.
The terms "Rated Ace" Tournament, "Ace Card", "Sanctioned Star Fleet Battles Tournament" and "Federation and Empire" are Trademarks claimed by Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. The use of such terms is no way meant to imply that the Star Fleet Battles tournament at Council of Five Nations XXXII (2009) are Sanctioned or Rated Ace by ADB. These terms are only used in this online document in a descriptive way to explain why our tournament is no longer a Sanctioned, Rated Ace tournament after having had that status for so many years.
Please click here to go to the main Council general info page.
Please click here to go to the Star Fleet Battles tournament page.
Please click here for Directions to Council of Five Nations.
Please click here to go to the Council Hotel page.
Please click here to go to the Council Parking page.
If you have any questions, please email us at sfb /at/ swa-gaming.org
Hello Star Fleet Battles Players,
You have probably arrived at this page looking for information about why the Star Fleet Battles tournament at Council of Five Nations has been de-sanctioned*, and declared Conventus Non Grata, by Stephen V. Cole of Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. We of the Schenectady Wargamers Association are posting this to give you our side of the story.
The Situation
Here is a quick summary of events leading up to this decision...Steve Cole (CEO of ADB) and Paul Scott
(outspoken multiple-World Champion SFB Gold Hat winner) have had a
long-running dispute over some things not worth mentioning here. More
details may or may not be available on the ADB internet Bulletin Board
System here.
A reasonable person might conclude they were both being very stubborn.
Steve Cole decreed that Paul was banned from participation in all ADB Sanctioned events. This includes both face-to-face tournaments, like at Origins and Council of Five Nations, and online tournaments, like World Leage and the SFBOL Rated Ace Tournaments.
Steve Cole decreed that Paul was banned from participation in all ADB Sanctioned events. This includes both face-to-face tournaments, like at Origins and Council of Five Nations, and online tournaments, like World Leage and the SFBOL Rated Ace Tournaments.
(As an aside, if you're enough of an
SFB fan to be reading this, and you're not signed-up with Star Fleet
Battles Online, you should be. Check it out here).
Paul has attended the SFB tournament at Council in the past, and
expressed interest in attending again this year. He offered, more than
once, to not attend if it would cause trouble with ADB. We told him he
was welcome to attend. After long consideration, we do not feel it is
appropriate for Steve Cole to dictate who can and cannot attend our
convention and play in our tournaments. We weighed the pros and cons of
losing the Rated Ace Sanction from ADB. We were ready to do so if
it came to that.Steve Cole found out about Paul's intent to attend Council, and threatened de-sanction in both a private email and a posting on the ADB BBS.
David Cheng had a telephone conversation with Steve Cole on Wednesday, July 22nd. The final result of that discussion is that the Council SFB tournament is indeed de-sanctioned. We in no way dispute Cole's right to do this - he is a man of his word.
Steve Cole also decided to not allow any mention of Council of Five Nations to appear on the BBS, nor will any mention of Council appear in any future ADB products (such as Captain's Log). As of the writing of this document, the discussion thread on the BBS has already been deleted.
This last point is where we feel Mr Cole has regretably crossed over into the realm of spiteful and vindictive.
We understand in a weird kind of way why Steve Cole banned Paul, and why he would live up to his word of de-sanctioning any tournament in which Paul was a participant. We do not agree with this logic, and we think it is painfully self-destructive on Steve's part, but we understand it none-the-less.
What we do not understand is why Mr Cole feels the compulsion to ban all mention of Council of Five Nations on his web site and in his BBS discussion groups. Does ADB have something to gain by not allowing the SWA to promote their unsanctioned SFB tournament, and thus still be promoting Star Fleet Battles by association?
We, the SFB players of the SWA, have spent years working to build and grow our annual Star Fleet Battles tournament. We have trained new players, who have then gone on to purchase SFB merchandise from our local retailers and direct from ADB. As other tournaments around the world have lost attendance, ours is the only one that has maintained, and even grown, in size. We have even deliberately coordinated our event schedule between the Council SFB tournament and Federation Commander events (another ADB game), in an effort to develop synergies (and more sales for ADB). We have worked hard to promote the work and products of Steve Cole and ADB.
We just cannot grasp Cole's logic, even though he tried explaining it to us several times. We acknowledge he cannot see ours either.
The End Result
While we will briefly mourn the loss of the Rated Ace Sanction, we instead choose to celebrate the freedom we now have to make our SFB tournament even better.Here are some things we are now planning. This list may change and/or grow over time:
- We are no longer constrained to the magic numbers of 16 and 32 for our tournament.
- We will award whatever, and however many, prizes that we want to award.
- We will be selective in our prize awards, so a top-tier finish
will still carry the prestige equal to, or even greater than, ADB's Ace
Card award. (Disclaimer - we are not
awarding an Ace Card).
- We will still create The Council Cup award, as first announced here. We anticipate this will have more prestige than the Gold Hat awarded at Origins in the eyes of the SFB community.
- The tournament judge will now be allowed to participate.
Watch out for that Hydran! Conspiracy theorists
might claim this is the entire reason why the SWA has "deliberately"
acted to get de-sanctioned. What is an internet post without a
good conspiracy theory?...
- We will allow the experimental G-Rack Federation TCC into our tournament. The SFB community has been waiting years for this. No more risk of losing the sanction means we have the freedom to have whatever ships we want! We may find out that it breaks the tournament, but at least we'll have fun in the process. But wait... Why would the Tournament Judge allow this? Isn't the Hydran one of the ships that would most oppose this upgrade? Damn, how come those conspiracy theories can never maintain internal logic!?!...
What can I do?
We hope that the SFB community will understand, and sympathise, with our decision. We fully acknowledge that there might be a few who believe that Cole is right and we are wrong. That's OK; you are still welcome to play SFB with us any time. We don't ban people because they don't agree with us.If you really want to support us:
1. Come to Council of Five Nations! Show your support in person and have lots of fun in the process. The SFB crowd is a great group of guys (and one woman... that we have recruited), and we have loads of fun every year; much of it not in the SFB room. We are currently working on The Baron's Guide to the Pubs of Schenectady, and hope to post that on the web site soon. Not to imply that we encourage heavy drinking, of course.
2. Encourage your SFB-playing friends to come to Council. We offer group discounts to those that pre-register together. Details on the web site.
3. Join the online discussion at the new web site we've set up: The Star Fleet Battles Open Community. There are a lot of folks that have drifted from the SFB and SFU community; we'd love to see you get re-engaged. There is none of Cole's censorship of the posts here. We even have a growing section of Federation & Empire players. Click the link and check it out.
4. Keep playing SFB with your home gaming group, and do what you can to help grow the player base.
Thank you for reading this far.
Thank you for your support; in the past, in the present, and in the future.
We hope to see all of you at our future gaming events.
* The term "sanctioned" is a trademarked term claimed by ADB, referring to convention tournaments that adhere to a set of ADB's standards. The most meaningful effect for players is the awarding of an "Ace Card", an award only granted by ADB. More information on ADB's Rated Ace Sanction is available at the ADB web site here.
The terms "Rated Ace" Tournament, "Ace Card", "Sanctioned Star Fleet Battles Tournament" and "Federation and Empire" are Trademarks claimed by Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc. The use of such terms is no way meant to imply that the Star Fleet Battles tournament at Council of Five Nations XXXII (2009) are Sanctioned or Rated Ace by ADB. These terms are only used in this online document in a descriptive way to explain why our tournament is no longer a Sanctioned, Rated Ace tournament after having had that status for so many years.
Please click here to go to the main Council general info page.
Please click here to go to the Star Fleet Battles tournament page.
Please click here for Directions to Council of Five Nations.
Please click here to go to the Council Hotel page.
Please click here to go to the Council Parking page.
If you have any questions, please email us at sfb /at/ swa-gaming.org
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