Tepekule Wars.. AKA Big Battles in Little Izmir!

It was that time of the year again when the Big Battles of Turkey occur within Little Izmir! A 2 day 5 game Fantasy gaming tournament where people from the big 4 cities ( Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya and Izmir ) would come together to play against each other. Normally this would then be where I post up all the battle reports like I have for other tournaments in the past.

Like Izmircon back in April ( Battle 1, Battle 2, and the infamous Battle 3 ). Which was the kick off for what should have been quite a busy tournament season. However the difficulties for the years tournaments would start with Battle 3, and would only be an omen of things to come. We would also begin to see the cracks of the organization of tournaments happening in Turkey at this time. Where more people are wanting to play, and thus others would step up to tackle such large tournaments. It would also be the first introduction of Tusot *Turkiye Saves Oyunlari Toplulugu/Turkey Table Top War Games* causing some problems with tournaments ( conflict here being the painting competition being the day BEFORE the tournament for Fantasy ). This was better attended than the Izmircon in 2011 but I think the organization of it was better that year by local Izmir Anchorite.

Following Izmircon was the MetuCon! Held in my wife's hometown of Ankara also in April. This year however we did not have a fantasy tournament, but a 40k tournament. Now since I was already there to perform a "demo" with my fellow gamer and good buddy BuRock and our "few" models in this game. So with me being there I did attend the 40k tournament which was my first real dive into the full rules of Tusot. I say first real dive into the ruleset, as it was just reminded to me that I had joined in a Tusot tournament earlier last year before all the rules were put into effect.

Now you might remember this post that I posted concerning my "dealings" with the head judge or High Chancellor or whatever he called himself during the tournament.  After getting completely run over in Game 1, I was OK with what was happening as it was my re-introduction to 40k. However the events from the judges in Game 2 has turned me completely against the new Tusot rule set. With the biggest rule in effect being the lack of English and being fully in Turkish that caused the most problems. Game 3 was more laid back, and again although I lost ( making it 3 losses in a row btw! ) it was a good game but this was mostly due to the lack of judges all of a sudden.

OK, so that is a bit of back story of tournaments this year, and brings us up to this tournament. Originally this years tournament was to be held by the Tepekule crew, and a seasoned vet of running tournaments. It was even rumored to be using the ETC ruleset, and guidelines. Which is something that I have been trying to get put into use in Turkey for a while as it would allow the local players mindset to be on level to the international scene. Maybe even making it viable for us to join in the next years since we would be seeing the best of Turkey showing up at Izmir this past weekend to play against each other as has happened in the past 2 years.

Somehow however at the last weeks running up to the tournament things changed. Tusot has now released their tournament package for Fantasy, and decided this would be a good venue to kick it off! And this is where the problems began. Instead of being an informal, and friendly environment the first thing to happen is an argument on facebook over the "language" being used when talking among each other. Apparently "smack talk" is not professional for a page that is for a tournament where we move toy soldiers across the table. More so when the smack talk was among friends, and had no relation to the judges who were not even involved in the tournament to be! Other issues include that changing of some of the rules ( like ETC such as no Book of Hoeth ) but not everything. So some armies get nerfed, but others are left untouched. And the kicker to me was the fact the Turkish only rule was still in effect!

It was at this time that I had asked the head judge how will it play out, and would this still be in effect. Now I asked this question before the Ankara tournament and was told it would not be used in such excessiveness, to which it was. So I was hopeful to get a more detailed response from him as he would be the Judge this time around, and I know he speaks perfect English ( he also has Canadian citizenship or so he continues to inform me ). However the response was less than stellar and reflected back to the fact that the rules would be in effect and Turkish would be used. English would only be used as a last resort. Not the proper answer here if someone who is not native and not the best with Turkish is wishing to join.

This was the final nail in the coffin and sealed the deal on me not attending this year.

Last piece that also changed in the tournament structure was that it went from a 2 day 5 game tournament style to 2 single day 3 game events! Why? Because Tusot has no rules in play to deal with 2 day events! So instead of adapting their style to work in a 2 day event they rip apart the tournament. Sad..

As it was, no one from Antalya, nor Ankara joined either! So now the largest tournament of the year which normally pulls in 20 players from across Turkey ended up with 8, and all local players! And instead of seeing 20 fully painted armies ( OK maybe not fully painted for all but damn close! ) there was only a handful within 8 that were fully painted! It is sad to see such a great event die so quickly after getting so much momentum over the last few years.

A semi-flacid post was written up about it by my good buddy BuRock over on his blog. I say it as this as he is too nice of a guy to really write "the Ugly Truth" at times. I mean, what do you expect from the 3 time reigning sportsmanship winner! He shows a few photos, and doesn't go too much into the "history" of the tournament set up. Good guy that one.

So it is a sad state of affairs, and I am hopeful to join a local smaller tournament later next month. Doubles with another good buddy who is trying to get me to see the core players of Turkey who are "rebelling" against the Tusot empire. Going back to the basic rule sets that made the original gaming tournaments in Turkey great and helped gather new players each time.

Will see.. and sorry for the long post.. for sticking around this long here's a photo of a gamer girl! Enjoy!