Star Fleet Battles Tournament at Council of Five Nations

Council of Five Nations XXXIII is coming this October 8-10.  Once again, we are poised to host the biggest and best Face-to-Face Star Fleet BattlesTournament in the whole world!  We consistently get attendance in the high 20s to low 30s.  This year looks to be excellent as even more SFB players from outside our usual 4-hour driving radius decide that the competition and camaraderie at Council is worth booking an airline flight.

We pamper our loyal SFB crowd with a nice private SFB room all weekend, the best room in the facility.

The Council Cup

The Council Cup is a new tradition we began in 2009.   It memorializes the names and ships of all the Council of Five Nations SFB tournament winners going all the way back to 2002, when we held our first full Star Fleet Battles tournament.

Here is the list of all the winners that currently appear engraved on the trophy:

• 2002 - Brian Evans - Romulan TKR
• 2003 - Paul Scott - Hydran
• 2004 - Tim Sheehy - Hydran
• 2005 - Peter Bakija - Gorn
• 2006 - Stephen McCann - WYN Aux (11g1)
• 2007 - Kevin Block-Schwenk - Romulan TKR
• 2008 - Jason Gray - Romulan TKR
• 2009 - Paul Scott - Federation TCC with G-Rack
  

Tournament Attendance

As usual, we are compiling a list of the players we know will be coming, and the certainty of their attendance.  You will see below what we've heard so far.  You can also get in on the discussion about the convention at our special Council of Five Nations bulletin board section of the Star Fleet Battles Open Community web site.

If you're thinking about attending, please email us at sfb /at/ swa-gaming.org and tell us your (Committed / Probable / Maybe) status so we can add you to the list.  If you're already on one of these lists, but your status is changing, please let us know that too.


Committed

1. Brian Evans [Syracuse]
2. Peter Bakija [Ithaca]
3. Courtenay Footman [Ithaca]
4. Steve Wampler [Ithaca]
5. Andrew Sackett [Ithaca]
6. Ken Stuart [Ithaca]
7. Andrew Koch [Rochester]
8. Robert Bassett [Rochester]
9. Alden Moore [Upstate NY] - Council First-Timer
10. Tim Sheehy [New Jersey]
11. Chris Dixon [New Jersey]
12. Marcus Giegerich [New Jersey]
13. Brook Villa [New Jersey]
14. Rob Franke [New Jersey]
    
15. Stephen McCann [New Jersey]
16. Kevin Block-Schwenk [Massachusetts]
17. Ken Burnside [Milwaukee, WI]
    
18. John Rigley [SWA]
19. Eric Rocque [SWA]
    

Probable

1. Ben Kalb [Ithaca]
2. Ken Kazinski [Syracuse]
3. Shane Bogardus [Syracuse]
   
4. Tos Crawford [Downstate NY]
5. Brett Johnson [New Hampshire]
6. Patrick Hill [Pennsylvania]
7. Ron Pilotte [Maine]
8. Rob Estrada [Colorado] - Potential Council First-Timer

Maybe

1. Tim Linden [Toronto]
2. Jude Hornborg [Toronto]
   
3. Chris Proper [Ithaca]
4. Howard Sanders [Ithaca]
5. George Duffy [NYC]
6. Jon Fry [Vermont] - Potential Council First-Timer
7. John Pendt  [Oneonta NY] - Potential Council First-Timer
8. Tom Compter [Vermont] - Potential Council First-Timer
9. Ed Slusarek [New Jersey]
10. Tom Carroll [New Jersey]
    
11. Mark Leonard [New Hampshire]
12. John Malis [Massachusetts]
13. Joe Kwiatkowski [New Hampshire]
14. Mike Johnson [Ohio]
    
15. Jason Murphy [SWA]
16. Ben Ossenfort [SWA]
17. Dage McNitt [SWA]
18. Robin Toll [SWA]

Special Long-Distance Maybes

• Jeff Johnson [North Carolina] - Potential Council First-Timer
• Ken Lin [Columbus, Ohio] - Potential Council First-Timer
• Jason Gray  [Australia]
• Dale McKee [California] - Not likely at this point, but not 0% chance either...
  
• Jeremy Gray [Germany]
• Some of the other SFB players from around the country/world?  It's worth the trip!
  

Tournament Judge



Tournament Schedule

The tournament officially starts at 10am on Friday, October 8th. In fact, we're starting the con early just so SFB players can get in as many games as possible.  The rest of the events don't start until 2pm.

A bunch of us locals will be there when the doors open.  However, you do not need to be there that early to participate. We expect another wave of guys on Friday night after dinner, and yet another bunch on Saturday morning when the doors open at 8am.

See below for the details of the open Patrol round and finals bracket.

Experience Level

Most people on the three lists above have at least a solid knowledge of the rules and has played several games (a bunch of folks listed have Ace Cards). However, we know we'll have several players who are more at the novice level. We strongly encourage everyone to attend, whatever your experience level. We will try to pair you with players who can coach as you go along.

Sweeteners

• Students get roughly a 50% discount on their registration.
• Groups of 3+ who pre-register in the same envelope, or together online, get $5 off each one.
• We'll have over $200 of prizes, courtesy of ADB, waiting to be claimed by tournament gladiators like you.
• October 9-11 is Columbus Day Weekend.  All our local State workers have Columbus Day Monday off from work. Maybe you do too, making it even easier to justify going to a con?
  

Questions?  Comments?

Please send an email to sfb /at/ swa-gaming.org and we'll get 'em answered. 
Or, you can call Dave Cheng at (518) 464-1977 before 11pm Eastern time, any given night.

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There is a proposal to try something a little different this year, and run the tournament in a Swiss format. 

In summary:

• There would be three scoring rounds
• You could play your round 1 game in one of the following time slots: Friday 10am, Friday 2pm, Friday 7pm, Saturday 9am
• You could play other non-scoring SFB games in any of the other slots presented
• Points are scored based on internals and shield damage scored on your opponent
  
• Players are matched for round 2 (Saturday 2pm) based on their round 1 record and points scored
• Players are matched for round 3 (Saturday 7pm) based on their round 2 record and points scored
• There would probably be some kind of finals on Sunday morning.

There has been some discussion about this online.  The tournament judge will make a final decision by before the pre-registration material goes out, hopefully on Labor Day (September 6th).

It's not too late to have your opinion heard!  We especially want to hear from you if you think you might be attending the tournament.

Please check out the Council of Five Nations thread here and add your two cents before this weekend.

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Please click here to go to the main Council general info 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