Hey everyone. Please forgive me for posting in English. I know everyone speaks and reads English, but it still feels rude to do this on a Swedish forum. I hope you can forgive me.

https://www.ncaslassociation.com/tournament-information

Gary Fortenberry and I will be conducting the main tournament at the next Bitter Ender ASL tournament. Once again, this will be a blind scenario and maps playlist. None of the tournament participants will have seen any of the scenarios or maps in advance of the tournament. We will publish a list of materials or any unusual rules you may want to brush up on in advance. At this point, we don't have a firm attendance list, but a lot of the "who's who" of ASL intend to come. If everyone who has said they want to come does attend, it might be the most difficult field ever at an ASL event. Everyone is ceded by asl-player rating, and the person who comes out on top will have earned it. I would really like to see you guys attend if only to say hi one more time and have a chance to speak with you all again.

Edited June 26Jun 26 by Sparafucil3

Hi Jim,

Here’s the information I’ve gathered and added:

Morrisville, North Carolina, USA

April 22–25, 2027

Location: Four Points by Sheraton Raleigh Durham Airport, Morrisville (just minutes from Raleigh-Durham International Airport – RDU).

Recommended flights:

Depart from Sweden on Tuesday, April 20 (ideally between 6:00 PM–10:00 PM) to arrive Wednesday, April 21 during the daytime. Alternatively, fly Wednesday evening to arrive Thursday morning.

Estimated total cost (flights, hotel, meals, etc. included):

$1,800–$2,200 (approx. 18,000–22,000 SEK), depending on whether you stay 3, 4, or 5 nights.

Other notes:

The dates shown on the tournament website link appear to be incorrect.

Wednesday: Friendly games.

Thursday: Unclear – it mentions something like “play on Round Thursday”?

Friday onward: The main tournament seems to start on Friday.

• I couldn’t find an official rules page.

• Secret scenarios: No information available on how many nationalities are required or whether one or more scenarios are given per round in this 5-round tournament.

Best regards,

Mel

Mel,

The dates seem to be incorrect on the website. I am not maintaining that, but I have notified the maintainer, so thanks for that.

Thursday has some themed one-day minis (usually 2 rounds so 4 players each). Same on Friday. Those are for people who are either not interested in the main or get knocked out of the main tournament.

The main tournament is a little up in the air at the moment. If we get 64 players in the main tournament, then the main would require 6 rounds and would start on Thursday. If we don't get 64, we might do a play-in round on Thursday to see who joins the main field of 32 players beginning on Friday. Since we don't know who would show or join, it isn't possible for me to say with clarity what will happen right now. Say the top 48 players in the world show up. That would mean we need to cut the field down to 32. To be fair, we would cede the 16 highest ranked players, and the remaining 32 would be paired by rating, with the winners being placed into the final field of 32. We really hope to get 64 but we have no way of knowing at this point. Last year the tournament had 55 attendees, but not everyone played in the main event.

Official rules have not been posted yet. They are likely to follow the rules we used in our last tournament. You can find those here.

Scenarios are still under development. Same for the new boards. We cannot give the nationalities at this point. I know the 4 scenarios currently in playtesting feature Germans, Russians, Hungarians, Americans. I know two in the design phase feature Italians and Romanians. Even when we finish all 10 to 12 scenarios, we still have to pick which will be in the tournament. Each round of the tournament will have 1 scenario that everyone plays. Ideally, the scenario VC will allow for bidding. This is not guaranteed at this point since design is still ongoing. More details will become clear as we get closer. We plan to submit the pack to MMP by the end of December. At that point, we will know more about what is in the pack, which of the 10 - 12 scenarios will be in play, which OB you would need to pack, boards and overlays, etc.

As of right now, I would plan on a 5 round main, starting Thursday morning with 32 players. If it grows to 6 rounds with 64, we will let everyone know as soon as possible. If we hold a play-in round, we will let the people facing play-in know ASAP too. Final rules are not likely to change from what I posted above. We might change Intensive Fire to be X10 rather than B10/X12 but that is still up in the air. Given the repair rules we put in place, Intensive Fire is open for abuse, and the change to X10 really makes people think about Intensive firing. But for now, assume we haven't and won't.

Thanks for doing this, Mel. I sincerely hope to see you and some others there.