(Location Vote) Asia Pacific ASL Open 2018

[hongkongwargamer]

Here's another misconception.

The China players has been playing the Australians and the Kiwis for the last two years in regional VASL tournaments. They played all of us in Manila. They have games on the side regionally. Our Grofaz even called one of them a "tactical computer".

They speak English. I have been playing them for more than 2 years myself. I encourage you and everyone to. I am happy to make the connections.

Rgds Jack

I joined MustAttack and Velonica War College slightly more than a year ago, I can see the activity of the Japanese and Chinese ASL groups. The main issue is most likely communication. The de facto language is English, which, most players use. Learning Nihongo or Mandarin Chinese to effectively communicate with hidden groups of Japanese/Chinese players is a tall task for most existing players. I personally feel uncomfortable using Mandarin to have an ASL game with a Chinese even though I am well versed in the language.

so, while the player base of these two major countries may be larger than the other APac countries (of course, there is no doubt ANZ players speak English), probably the more effective way to compute domestic player base to support ASL tournaments are those who are actively visible and willing to participate. an example is Singapore: we have at least a handful (more than five) of Singaporean ASL players who are inactive (in that sense they do not actively look for players or have not played a single game of ASL in over a year) and therefore, not helpful in organsing tournaments. In fact, the most helpful ASL players in Singapore to organise 2014 ASL tournament is not even local Singaporeans (thank you George!).

 

[sneo]

Here's another misconception.

The China players has been playing the Australians and the Kiwis for the last two years in regional VASL tournaments. They played all of us in Manila. They have games on the side regionally. Our Grofaz even called one of them a "tactical computer".

They speak English. I have been playing them for more than 2 years myself. I encourage you and everyone to. I am happy to make the connections.

Rgds Jack

I wasn't implying they don't speak English nor was I implying they don't play with other regional players. I was stating that English is the de facto language used and hidden groups of both Japanese and Chinese probably need to account for this. The existing Chinese base is by no means 'hidden' as compared to the Japanese judging by some fellows being surprised at the headcount of the Japanese base. I simply group them together in the post because they are potentially the future driving force of APac ASL scene.

 

[Alan Smee]

George's reply has a lot of words. I'll just say I am disappointed re these comments and the low level of co-operation shown. I'm going to excuse myself from the ASL APAC organization at this point.

 

[Aaron Cleavin]

I'm not very good at conflict, at least not off an ASL Board.
I enjoyed Siem Reap both as a venue and as a tournament immensely.
I know George and Alan well, Alan somewhat better than George.
They are both good people.
It doesn't behoove me to go into a he said/he said kind of analysis trying to find points of order / fault, and I have little wish to pick sides.

Rodney King had it right when he asked "Why can't we all just get along?"

 

[Mister T]

Guys it seems you are all failing your MC here.

Having a plurality of events is not the end of the world. We have many events in Europe, with various shapes, and it has never been an issue.

A little dose of healthy competition among venues might even stir up cumulated attendance.

Smaller local events are probably a necessary step in the development of ASL in the region. It took five to ten years after the launch of ASL to witness the first tournaments in European countries.

i have to say that even within an integrated space genuine cross-border players are few in numbers. Scandinavians mostly play in Scandinavian events, Germans mostly in German events, French mostly in French events, etc.

Unfortunately, mileage is huge between the main cities of Asia-Pacific. That is an aggravating factor.

So a Japanese event, a Chinese event and a Australian event can live peacefully next to each other with opportunities of joint events when the time is ripe.

Just my 2 euro-cent

 

[hongkongwargamer]

Mate, of course having a plurality of events is not the end of the world.

Local ASL Tournaments has in fact been taking place in Hong Kong, Australia and I suspect Japan also where folks have been playing for 10 years.

That is not the issue. These local tournaments will go on.

Hope all's well. Rgds Jack

 

[synicbast]

I missed the end of this, and I'm sort of glad I did because I would have had some choice words to say.

My preference was for Siem Reap as a venue again because it was an excellent all around experience, very affordable and had things to do socially that did not just revolve around ASL. It certainly wasn't that difficult getting there travel wise. The issue with the turnout was in my mind a combination of three factors - a shorter than expected lead time between finalisation of event and the event itself, a number of people who attended in past years had changes in commitments, and perhaps an ignorance of just how good a venue Siem Repa turned out to be.

My second preference would have been Singapore. It's central to the region, a transport hub for the region, and accommodation is easy enough to get for most budgets. Tokyo may be the same flight time from Australia as Siem Reap but will require a significantly higher budget for accommodation and food as well as being significantly busier than any of the previous three venues.

As a local, I would not pick any of the main centres in Australia as a venue, accomodation and travel is horrrendously expensive by comparison to the previous venues, and it's about as peripheral as a hub as Tokyo is. I have a hard enough time justifying attending CanCon at the best of times given the venue, cost of accommodation and general ambience.

I will say this though, any decisions I make regarding attendance at future Asia-Pacific events have certainly been credibly informed by this thread and other public pronouncements from several participants.