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Believe it or not, West Coast Melee is less than two months away. Be sure to mark your calendars for Thursday, February 26th to Sunday, March 1st, 2009.
Paul has posted the downloadable flyer and registration pack in the “News†section of the website. I want to thank Matt Cicero for his fine work on designing the registration pack, and Paul for getting it and the on-line registration up and running. You have the option of registering on line through the website’s online store, or downloading the flyer and mailing it in with payment. Or if you want to save a stamp, you can hand the registration and payment directly to me at any of the upcoming Game Days.
You can also book your Crowne Plaza Hotel room via their link on the web site. Paul has posted the link in the “News†section on the website home page (in the news item directly below the downloadable flyer). Or you can call the hotel directly. If you do that however, be sure to call the hotel’s local line (949-863-1999) and ask for reservations. Our group name is “West Coast Meleeâ€. Do not call Crowne Plaza’s central reservation ‘800’ phone number; they do not have our group information.
The cut-off for both WCM and Crowne Plaza room registrations is February 12th. However, I recommend booking your hotel room as soon as practicable. We have a finite supply of group-rate rooms blocked out. We’ve done this quite a few years now, and we have a pretty good handle on how many we need. But since the Club is obligated to pay for a portion of the unbooked rooms in our block, we try to avoid having an excess. Crowne is pretty good in that if our room block books out early, they will still honor the group price as long as they have rooms available, but there are no guarantees at that point.
If you experience any difficulty registering for WCM or booking your hotel room, or you have any questions regarding any aspect of the event, please email me directly at President@SoCalASL.com.
We will be offering embroidered polo shirts this year (back by popular demand.) Rob Feinstein has a new design to reflect WCM XII. The shirts will be sold by pre-registration only. There will be no at-the-door shirt sales.
For those who have been to WCM before, you’ll see all those things that make it the premier ASL event in the west; Our “Recon Thursday†hospitality suite, mini-tournaments, our “7-0 Leaders†program for new players, the “Hero Game†on Saturday night, attractive plaques for the mini-tournament and “Melee†winners, and of course all the ASL you can play in four days. We will be returning to our usual venue; The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Irvine. All of the pricing will be exactly the same as last year, including room rates at $99 per night and $6 per day parking. Our room rate includes a free breakfast for up to two occupants each day.
Our Club has grown significantly in membership over the previous year, thanks to the combined success of the ASL Starter Kits, our Monthly Game Days and our updated web site. We are projecting a corresponding increase in attendance this year, most likely in excess of 50 players.
In terms of format, we’re going to try a couple of new things this year.
In response to popular demand, we’re going to launch a mini-tournament on Recon Thursday. I’m calling it the “Micro Miniâ€. Because the actual Melee starts on Friday morning, it is important that we wrap up this mini tournament in one day. The scenario choices will be very short (playable in a couple of hours), hence the “Micro†name. I will start feeding players into this mini from noon onward until we have at total of 8. For everyone else, you’re free as usual to play warm-up games and socialize in the hospitality suite.
On Friday, instead of the usual open play format of the “Close Combat†portion of The Melee, we’re going to use one round of point-based scenarios as a qualifying round. Once you’ve played your qualifying scenario, you’re free to play whatever you like for the remainder of the day. We’re even going to launch a couple of mini-tournaments later in the day. This change in format will allow us to offer larger, longer scenario selections for The Melee. It will also allow us to determine and pair The Melee ‘final 8’ on Friday night instead of Saturday morning. The Friday mini-tournaments will run into Saturday, so only players whose scores are not high enough to make The Melee ‘final 8’ will be eligible to compete in the Friday afternoon mini’s.
On Saturday, the Hand-to-Hand Phase of The Melee will begin for the top 8 scorers from the qualifying round. We’ll also launch two more mini-tournaments on Saturday morning for those who didn’t make the cut, and/or have already been knocked out of the Friday mini’s. At 1:00 PM we’ll launch the “Last Gasp†mini-tournament; the final mini of this year’s event.
On Sunday, we’ll wrap up the final rounds of The Melee and the mini-tournaments. Everyone else will play open games.
We also have a fun-packed schedule for our Starter Kit players as well: We’re planning a SK mini for Recon Thursday, using just SK 1-level scenarios.
On Friday morning we will run the “7-0 Leaders†Workshop for players who want some help moving up the ladder from SK 1 through entry-level ASL, while everyone else can get in some open gaming. At 1:00 PM we’re going to run a short “Welcome to the Barricades†workshop, followed by an afternoon of SK-style Red Barricades D.Y.O. (design your own) using the map and some rules from Red Barricades.
On Saturday at 9:00 AM we’re going to launch another SK mini-tournament, and we’ll have some new SK scenario designs available for those who might like to try their hand at play-testing. And don’t forget about the Hero Game at 11:00 PM; SK players are welcome.
On Sunday the SK players will join the other ASL players in Open Gaming.
As usual, the doors will open at noon on Thursday and there will be something ASL-related going on pretty much right through to Sunday at 6:00 PM. I am looking forward to seeing everyone there.
A Clarification on Club dues:
Since we have so many new members who have joined the Club over the previous 18 months, I want to clarify how the Club dues work.
The Club’s fiscal year runs from March 1st through the last day of February. Regardless of when you pay your dues, everyone’s Club membership expires each year on the last day of February.
Yeah, I know theoretically we should track everyone’s dues individually, so that each person’s membership would expire exactly 12 months after they paid. We decided way back in the early days of the Club that that was way too much bookkeeping.
Dues are $15 for the year. BUT, if you pay your dues between January 1st and March 1st, the price is only $10. If you pay after March 1st, the price is $15.
So what do you get for your $10? Well, 1) you get a $5 discount in the next WCM registration fee. 2) It makes you eligible to attend the Club’s Annual Burning Wreck BBQ (which, unlike WCM, is restricted to Club members only). 3) You can order ASL products and benefit from the Club’s group discount. (And in some cases, purchase modules that are currently out-of-stock at MMP.) 4) You can access all of the member forums on the Club web site, including the playtest groups. 5) You can vote in the Club’s annual election. Obviously, membership is also required to hold a Club Office.
At various times, when the Club Officers deem the Club treasury is in need of a little depletion, we have approved other one-time members-only give-aways. For example, a couple of years ago, to encourage membership attendance at Club functions, we gave a free ASL Journal to every Club member who attended WCM and one other Club function during the year. Last year, to encourage new members to join, Club members ate for free at the Annual Burning Wreck BBQ.
Being a SoCalASL member is really the deal of the century.
If you have any questions about membership or how it works, please email me directly at President@SoCalASL.com.
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