Well, this is an interesting change. The King of Servers tournament in Chicago was poorly attended last weekend, and there were only 14 (I think?) at the opening kickoff tournament to the Great Lakes Circuit last weekend as well. This is something that the organizers (or just spags? I dunno) are attributing to certain cards â and are now expanding their Most Wanted List to Faust, Museum of History, and Mumbad City Hall. While I have no problem with those cards ending up on the list, and in theory like the idea that the ANRPC folks are trying to make their events more fun and better attended, this seems like it could be a very big mistake.
Look, itâs already hard enough for casual and occasional Netrunner players to keep up with the real MWL â now these guys have added several (much deserved, mind you) additional cards for new players to have to know are going to cost them an extra influence. As I posted a long while ago, when the MWL was announced, I feared that this would cause the creation of two metas that would winnow down into one, unappealing one â that seems to have happened, and now the ANRPC folks are trying to fix that further by adding new restrictions.
But, these restrictions are pretty much catering to the most competitive, and most attentive-to-the-meta players anyway. Itâs making a new hypercompetitive circuit that is another level of inexplicable for new, casual players. Itâs quite simply something that is aimed at those 14 people who would have already shown up to these events anyway. Do the GLC organizers really think that restricting Museum of History and Faust will bring a bunch of new players in to these events?
Iâm not much for Schadenfreude, but I do think the ANRPC might be looking at the dwindling of their limited, competitive perspective on the game. The number of players at Regionals is down, the number of people attending ANRPC events is down. Hell, the number of people even organizing these events are down â there is apparently some confusion as to who will run one in Portland, OR, while no other GLC events have yet to even be scheduled, and itâs almost Memorial Day.
I think the ANRPC was an interesting idea, but one that was doomed from the start if all they do is make events for the most competitive Netrunner players. I firmly believe that the game needs alternate formats that bring new people into this fun game/hobby, that do more than just provide yet another way for the most obsessed players to destroy the casuals. The King of Servers was a great step in the right direction, and Iâd love to see more exploration of alternate play formats rather than trying to fix the competitive game.
