NOVA Open 2011 Recovery Phase

What an amazing weekend! We had over 350 people attend the Open. I met a lot of great folks, worked hard running a small tournament and judging at the big one, and found the whole thing to be a very rewarding experience.

The team tournament on Friday went very well. Players were happy and seemed to enjoy getting in some laid back games in a slightly different format. I don't recall hearing anyone complain about their games.

Also a big shout-out to the 11th Company guys for letting me jump on their live stream webcast at random intervals and respond to questions and comments coming in over the chat feed. Jump in one hour, ten minutes (1:10) on this video to see and hear Mike and I pontificating. We are both pretty nuked at this point so it's kind of funny listening to us try to be kind of funny:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/16916085

Also, I promised Jawaballs that I would start some sort of internet flame war between he and I so here it goes:

Exemplum: NOVA Open 2011 Team Tournament

For your viewing pleasure some pics from the NOVA Open Team Tournament:

NOVA Team Tournament Photo Album

Indicium: NOVA Open Live Video Feed

Be sure to check out the very latest in voyeuristic gaming with the NOVA Open live, streaming, videographic feed:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-11th-company
You'll be right in the middle of all the gamey goodness as the high-tech hardware of the 11th Company swoops in for play-by-play, throw-by-throw coverage of all the 40k action!

Indicium: Hobby in Perspective

I stumbled across this amusing and informative article over at Cracked.com and wanted to share it with my wargaming crew:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-questions-you-need-to-ask-to-avoid-ruining-your-life/

It is an interesting, quick look at some of the big questions that we should all likely be asking ourselves as life continues it's inexorable advance. For me, the biggest question deals with what it means to "be" an adult in our society, absent the rituals and traditions of our forebears. Considering that society at large sees wargaming as playing with toys, I have often asked myself what the hobby reflects about me as an individual and my role in a larger, social perspective.

Answers to that question will vary widely and all are highly individual, but I do like John Cheese's notion that a large part of adulthood is becoming the person that others can rely on and not the reverse. Once you have become unconsciously that go-to person for others, then things like hobby and how we spend free time seem to fall naturally into perspective.

Let me know what you think of John's article. Did any of it resonate with how you are moving this this lifetime?