Tournament Tuesday: Don't Run it if You Ain't Goin Run It!

Today's Tournament Tuesday entry was written while still boiling over the extremely poor handling of the Down n' Dirty Tournaments that were suppose to happen last Saturday and this Saturday. When the tournaments were announced in mid August, I was quick to sign-up for the Oct 24th date. I talked with my friend Ernie and he agreed to travel with me to Palatine, IL for the event. To cut to the chase, as we got closer to the date, I began to press the TO about the start time and such, as we would be driving down from Wisconsin and didn't want to be late.

Needless to say, the TO, who originally hyped this event, was not being very forth coming with answers. When a response was finally posted, it was in reference to the Oct 17th date and concern that it may conflict with another 40K tournament in the area that weekend. Fine, I understand the concern, but questioning whether or not to run the event less than two weeks before it is not an option. More so, canceling the event about three days before because of such a concern is even more unacceptable.

I am sure someone is going, "But John, you said you were attending the October 24th tournament". Guess what happened, that one was moved to Nov 7th in the same post that cancelled the Oct 17th. The reason for it being moved was to avoid conflict with Halloween activities at the store. Last time I checked, Halloween is on October 31st, which is the following week.

Let me just state now that in the scheme of things, this is no big deal. It is what it is and the time gained is time I can spend with my family. I just find it annoying that there were alot of other events in the area that weekend and could have attended the N.I.M.G.C. event on Sunday if I knew sooner.

With regards to the TO for the event, I understand his/her concern (I don't personally know them) about attendance, but if you are going to cancel an event over such concerns, make the decision early and not shortly before the event. As a side comment, moving the event to a different day is the same as cancelling it in my eyes. Now if I wanted to attend, I would need to work with my wife to see if she can get the day off.

So in conclusion, things are going to arise that may facilitate the need to cancel or move an event. While I understand that this may occur, when it does, it needs to be communicated in a timely fashion. Life is more important than a hobby, but as a TO's, we need to be respectful of that little piece of it that participants are willing to share with us.