When I began playing Star Wars: Destiny, the tournament circuit was structured as (from smallest to largest) Quarter, Store, Regional, National, and World Championships. This hierarchical structure allowed you to choose the level of competition in which to participate. After just a year, Galactic Qualifiers (GQ) were introduced, disrupting the balance, but not in an unwelcome way. Instead of competing for position, you competed for prize support. For each victory you were awarded a certain number of prize tickets, with bonuses being earned for those finishing in the top. The only flaw of the GQ structure was the elimination of players after two losses, which negatively impacted morale.
The Only Constant… is Change
After realizing the negative consequences of the GQ elimination structure, Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) changed the format to allow all players to complete in six rounds of swiss. This improved the competitive environment, allowing all players to compete for the coveted bonus tickets, even if they suffered a loss or two in the early rounds.
Surprisingly, the tournament circuit is set to change again, marking the third consecutive cycle with a major change. The changes include the elimination of Quarter, Regional, and National Championships and the creation of Seasonal, Seasonal Premium, Prime, Grand, and Continental Championships. The two events that will remain from the prior year are Store Championship (currently on hold as per FFG) and the World Championships.
Quarterly events have been replaced by Seasonal and Seasonal Premium events. Additionally, prizes are now awarded based on participation as opposed to performance at this level of competition. The prize support for the Seasonal Premium kit includes what has historically been included in the average Store Championship kit. The question will be whether this Premium kit is provided “Seasonally” as the name suggests, or whether FFG will take a shortcut and say that it is the replacement of the Store Championship. If I had to place a bet on this, I would say FFG will take the shortcut, which would be disappointing.
At the higher levels of competition, not much has changed except for the name of the events. The Continental Championships are not new, but are now formally defined as a tier of competition. One exciting piece of news regarding the formal tier tournaments is the prize support. Historically, the Top 64-Top 16 finishers received very poor prize support. For instance, I finished just outside the Top 8 in two nationals last year and walked away with a GARBAGE spot gloss and 18 GARBAGE shield tokens for my efforts. At least this year, players can expect to receive promos, shield tokens, and spot gloss cards for finishes outside the Top 8 and a playmat and resource tokens for finishing in the Top 8.
Speed Bumps
Needless to say, this constant change and lack of communication from FFG makes planning events and building a community difficult at best. Another frustrating aspect of the current cycle is that many events are occurring out of order. For instance, the only event in my region has been a GQ, and we have yet to receive the Seasonal Kit (and only just received the Q4 Kit from 2018). As a result, there has been little opportunity for new players to sufficiently prepare for larger tournaments, thus many chose not to participate. This is incredibly frustrating, especially for community builders.
With the current system, many players are not ready and able to compete at larger tournaments and communities are definitely struggling. This disorder has a measurable impact on the entrance of new players into the game and should be addressed by FFG with more timely tournament support and better communication.
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