Thoughts on ASL Oktoberfest 2022 in Cleveland: Time for a new ASLOK format… and hotel?
Mini Tournaments at ASLOK should be on a 36-hour cycle
Another ASLOK has come and gone. I’m now back from Cleveland after five fun days of gaming at the Sheraton Cleveland Airport Four Points hotel. And despite some of the complaints suggestions for improvement that follow, I had a great time seeing old gaming friends, and meeting some new ones. I also played a variety of interesting new scenarios, including my stint as Italian attacker in the above-depicted L’Inferno Fascista by the Hazardous Movement duo of Chuck Hammond and Chad Cummins.
Oh, and I beat Steve Pleva and Wai Wong at Terraforming Mars, so that’s worth the gas money from Toronto in and of itself.
So I’ve been going to ASLOK every year since I got into ASL in 2014. I even participated in the virtual “VASLOK” of 2020 (where I actually made it to the tournament finals, against Steve. Guess who won?). And as regular participants will know, the format has stayed fairly uniform: Each day, from Wednesday through Saturday, features a selection of three-round mini tournaments. In each mini, there are four first round games featuring 8 players, then a 4-player/2-game semi-final, then a final. The conceit is that all three rounds will be played in one day, with the first starting at 8am, the second at about 2pm, and then the finals at around dinner time.
In past years, I have seen minis that actually concluded in this way, with the bleary eyed champ (sometimes it was even me) accepting the other finalist’s admission of defeat at 1 a.m. or so. But as players have aged, that’s become quite rare.
What typically happens in reality is that the first round ends at 1pm or so, and then everyone drifts away for lunch, with the second round starting between 2 and 3. Then when that one ends, it’s past dinner time, everyone is ravenous, and no one’s brain is really oriented toward the third round until 9pm or so. And by that time, all you’re really doing is figuring out what scenario you’ll be playing the next day, and which one of you has to get up early (or stay up late) to set up a defense.
In other words, these nominally one-day minis are really one-and-a-half-day affairs—because, in truth, two intense games of ASL is pretty much hitting the engineering limit of most of our brains (unless you’re talking about really small scenarios like Going to Church).
Yes, it’s possible to play three medium-sized ASL scenarios in a day if you start at 8am and end in the wee hours—but only if you scarf down your meals at the game table, sacrifice sleep (usually at both ends of the day), never check your phone at all for messages from home, and resign yourself to serious brain fog in the final match. Plus, you’re probably not going to enjoy your last match very much under these circumstances. I love ASL. But I don’t really love playing it so intensely that it starts to feel like a 16-hour work shift.
And the truth is that a lot of these minis aren’t being finished at all—because the day ends, and the two guys in the finals have no choice but to make vague plans to play the match later in the week. This sometimes happens and sometimes doesn’t. I got to one mini final this year (Jungle Love). My opponent (Stan Jackson) and I couldn’t find time to play it (since we had signed up for other minis the next day), so we will instead be playing it on VASL. Which is fine, I guess—but if you’re playing VASL, it kind of defeats the purpose of an in-person tournament. (Also, you don’t get the celebrity glitz and glamour of having Bret announce your name, and you stroll up to get your plaque while four people around the room half-heartedly clap while barely looking up from their boards.)
In addition to going to ASLOK, I also often attend the New York State championships in Albany, the Canadian championships (most recently in Montreal), and the Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen. All of those tournaments are five-round tournaments that feature a two-scenario-per-day format. And it feels a lot more natural and relaxed. Moreover, there’s more flexibility in scenario choice, because you aren’t under pressure to finish each scenario in 5-6 hours.
Just to be clear: I am not suggesting that ASLOK move to a standardized five-round format—because doing that would ruin what makes ASLOK special. Unlike at Albany or Copenhagen, Cleveland’s ASL tournament always strikes me as more of an open-ended festival of ASL, with some players showing up on the earlier Saturday and playing on through the week and into the next weekend—a nine-day extravaganza. You can’t condense that kind of experience into a standardized five-round template. And the minis do a good job of maintaining a sense of ongoing competitive tension for such an extended period.
So here’s what I propose: Keep the mini format. But bend to the reality that these are day-and-a-half affairs. So instead of having four sets of minis that start Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, you would start them off on Monday afternoon (for early birds), Wednesday morning, Thursday afternoon, and Saturday morning. I.e. 36-hour intervals instead of 24.
And here’s another thought: There’s really no reason why some of the minis couldn’t have staggered starts on Tuesday morning, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, etc, as well. Which is to say: You’d be having minis starting every day, twice a day—but with each of them on a 36-hour cycle.
The idea here is that if you get eliminated from a mini after the first round (the fate of 50% of players), you can jump back into a mini on a same-day basis if you want. But you still only have to play two games a day, which I think it what most people want. (A further advantage of dispersing the start times in this way is that you won’t have the traffic jam around Bret’s desk at 8am every day.)
Let’s face it: The hotel is a dump
The Sheraton Cleveland Airport Four Points hotel has really gone downhill. I realize we all have a sentimental attachment to it because of all the great times we’ve had there. But this trip set new standards for terrible service. People couldn’t get towels. Many of the amenities are falling apart. The sixth floor elevator was completely out of commission for a few days earlier in the week. And there’s just a general air of decrepitude to the place, made worse by the labour shortage that’s affecting the whole region. Even the gas station/Subway restaurant/Mini-grocery next door feels like it’s going to the dogs.
Integrating ASL and disc golf
Okay, here’s the other reason I don’t want to play ASL 18 hours per day. We’re all getting older and we need exercise to ward off stiff joints and further erosion of physical abilities. During the COVID pandemic, I spent a lot more time walking my dog and playing disc golf (often both at the same time). I’ve gotten used to this kind of daily exercise regimen. And on those ASLOK days when I didn’t get any exercise, I felt crappy about it, and longed for a taste of the great outdoors.
Yes, great outdoors, even in Cleveland. After getting bounced from a mini on Wednesday, I made my way to the Veterans Memorial Park disc golf course in the Cleveland suburb of Parma (about 15 minutes from the hotel). It’s a beautiful park, and I even spotted a deer on hole 5.
I’ve also found a pretty good disc golf course near Albany. And if anyone is interested in helping me convert one of these regularly occurring ASL tournaments into ASL and disc golf biathlons, let me know. I’ve become convinced that a little daily exposure to fresh air helps your ASL game… not that you’d know it from my performance this year.