Asian Team Championship Report with Garry Wait I had a very exciting game at Australia’s Cancon 2019 tournament where I had the pleasure of losing to Benjamin Lin. Not often do you run into a player in a tournament and lose completely, yet enjoy your game immensely. It was a pleasure to play Ben and even more intriguing when he mentioned his plans to run a “World Championship” event in Singapore. This evolved to be the Asian Team Championships, the first ever event of its kind for WWIII that I am aware of.

Held in Singapore on July 20-21, this was an exciting event to be part of. Not only as the first ever event, but I hadn’t had much chance to play international players. I was excited to plan a list as the format was equally intriguing as the premise of a world championship.

As an aside, although Singapore seems a world away – even to a pseudo Asian from Australia like me – it’s not. Easy to get to and even easier to transit through. Singapore boasts what I as a foreigner consider to be the best airport in the world- with its own massive indoor waterfall and garden, movie theatre, indoor pool, jungle walk... you name it… And that’s before you even exit to Singapore proper.

As a gateway to Asia, I defy anyone not to be impressed. Very easy flights from Australia and the world with almost any airline you can name proudly flying into this vibrant and exciting multicultural democracy. English is universally spoken, and public transport is world class. Do yourself a favour if you have never been – get on a flight and try. Clean, safe, orderly, and efficient. Singapore is all these things. For gaming, it’s heaven with enthusiastic and friendly practitioners of miniatures on hand and the outstanding Blitz and Pieces headquarters in Singapore too. I know I ended up forking out lots of hard-earned cash gratefully from Ben and Melvin there. Thanks guys.

For gaming, it’s heaven with enthusiastic and friendly practitioners of miniatures on hand and the outstanding Blitz and Pieces headquarters in Singapore too. I know I ended up forking out lots of hard-earned cash gratefully from Ben and Melvin there. Thanks guys.

Structure Firstly, teams would be of three players. Once each draw was announced, team captains would have matched their best player vs their opposing team’s best player. This was decided by the team captains for the first round and in subsequent rounds decided by wins and then VPs scored. Once this had been decided, one team would decide matchups for the remaining two players and the other team would choose which tables would be assigned to which of the three games. As I understand it, the tables were set with 40%, 60%, and 70% terrain density. With infantry formations, I know I preferred the higher density but admittedly this was partly dictated by the sheer size of the event and the player base. All up there were 8 teams and 25 players (some players only available for one of the two days), so this meant a big commitment in terrain for the Singaporean guys. They really came to the party and the tables were great. Certainly, they were more open than I am used to, but no one would suggest they were unfairly open

Extracurricular and Social Atmosphere The thing that stood out for me most of all was what outstanding spirit was shown in the gaming.  Although the guys – and I got to play team members from Singapore, USA, Malaysia and China – were universally good and knowledgeable gamers, the most fantastic thing about the event was the friendly spirit shown. Every game I saw was played in a friendly way and there was lots of laughter and good-natured joking. Players played to win and who doesn’t! It’s a game and meant to be played competitively yet still in a friendly way.

I often hear nonsense online that someone played a “friendly” game as though in some mythical world, it’s not possible to play a tournament game in a friendly way. I’d reject this as a general rule, but especially so in the Asian Team Championships. If anything, I find tournament gamers more laid back than the “neckbeards” who enjoy throwing their weight around the local club. The Singaporean community is extremely welcoming with a feeling of family and friendship even to someone who just walked in the door like me.  One of the things that characterised the sheer fun of going to the ATC was the afterhours activities. Laying aside the fun and frivolity of the first night’s drinks, each night of the ATC was characterised by casual dinners with players. This was an excellent opportunity to relax over well priced, tasty local cuisine that as a tourist, you may not ever know of.

Singaporeans love their food and drink, and this showed with some excellent recommendations for meals and drinks. I know I for one will be looking forward to 2020’s ATC for the social dinners as much as the games.

The Gaming For the games themselves, I was part of Team Dropbear which was nominally intended as an ANZAC team. We originally had a team lined up to come from Australia and unfortunately due to some players suffering from medical issues, had to cut back the Australian contingent to yours truly.

Instead I had Regan and Terrance as players. I ran Brits with Iraqi Allies; Regan ran pure Iranians and Terrence ran pure Soviets. One of the great things was the sheer quality of the organisation for the ATC. We were very well prepared with all lists made known two weeks prior to the event and on the day, received a professional looking folder with missions and all lists organised into teams. This proved vitally useful. Little touches like having spare trays for players to carry figures around went down well. Additional gifts like a set of unique ATC 2019 counters, objective markers, iron on cloth patch (true collector’s items, all!) and even the outstanding 2019 Battlefront DeLorean “Back to 1985” objective marker!
We as a team had a great time, especially the nights out with Team USA and Teams from Singapore, ending up third place to a well deserved First place Team USA and Team Singapore in second place. Fantastic experience and I’m looking forward to doing it again this year. I would wholeheartedly endorse the ATC to any player of any skill level as a great fun and enjoyable weekend’s gaming. I have already booked flights and leave to attend this year’s ATC 2020 on 6-7 June 2020 and am very much looking forward to it. For those who are keen, the details are all at:  Asian Team Yankee Championships Date: June 6 - 7 2020 Location: Singapore https://www.blitzminis.com/pages/atc-2020 Period: WWIII: Team Yankee Points: 100 Players: 32 Event Contact: [email protected]