I played in both heats this year. The schedule changed around to allow it. The first game was four players venus and colonies. The second one was a three player venus and colonies.
My normal TFM is usually two player with venus and colonies plus extra like prelude 2 and various promos against my friend. Getting to play against more players in person is a nice change. But it also has its negatives too.
In the first game I had an older gentleman who knew the game well enough to not have to explain everything. But he was shaky enough on little things that I had to burn a portion of my energy to make sure he was doing things legally. It gets old after awhile. The second game was me , a guy who wasn't that good, and the event GM. I would love to have known how many of the good cards the GM played came from the other guy's poor drafting.
Unfortunately, even though this event is considered an "A" event (experienced players only) they aren't pushing this classification. You need to understand that going in. And with the amount of players showing up that there are going to be a certain percentage of clunkers. Also, you have to run the game with the mandatory two actions per turn. If not, you will be adjudicating a lot of game at the end of the four hours.
You may think that's nuts but I would counter that you probably haven't been to a large convention game convention. And I would bet a lot of money you definitely haven't run one of these events. It's a thankless job. Do I think they are doing a good job with their format? No. I brought up something to GM during our game about the passing procedure and he said I was wrong. I then proceeded to show him the paragraph in the event preview where it agreed with me. He then scroll to the top where he had it written his way in a changes section. I said that's fine but you still need to edit the preview to get rid of incorrect information.
He's a young guy in his first year. And he's a volunteer. Does he know how to play? Yes. Does he know how to run an event? No. He took the previous format and went with it. Didn't really do the proper work of reviewing the information and making it air tight.
The really need to look at the idea of splitting it into two events. A four player fun fest and a two player streamlined tourney. The two player event is a possibility but would have to be presented by someone and then voted in by the membership.
In the end I have much more fun playing TFM in open gaming with my friends that I don't normally get to play with. I know they know the game and I don't end up being a hostage to a game with a couple of clueless gomers.
