Crystal Brush 2011

[althai]

Maybe these great American painters are not appearing at GDs?

That's partly responsible. I don't think that Marike or Jen have been to a GD since 2004. I think also that when there were multiple GDs every year in the states, it spread things out a bit, since a lot of painters would only go to the ones that were closer to them. Remember that Europe is much more densely populated than the US, so there are simply more people close enough to a Games Day that they can get there easily. Maybe the standard will get a bit higher now that there's only one a year, rather than three or four. But personally, I've never been to a Games Day, so I'm just guessing.

[pae]

It doesn't help that the one Games Day is on the east coast of the US, making travel a bit difficult for some of the people in the western half of the country. Ideally, they'd put it in Kansas City, which is probably the largest city that's close to the center of the country, but that would make sense, and we can't have that. Or they could go with just two, one on the east coast (Baltimore) and one on the west coast (San Francisco).

[Corvus]

post mortem: http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/sho ... post606202
very interesting!

[mahon]

I think that GW are finding out that they thinned the GDs down too much. Aren't they reducing the number of GDs already?
IMHO 1-2 GDs for North America would be definitely enough, and it would make competition much more tense and so - quality of entries might increase....

And I think many good european painters aren't attending GDs, too. In my opinion competitions are a good thing for inreasing quality because you return from them with a huge load of inspiration, exchanged remarks and experiences, and motivated to paint. Good thing for sure... as long as you care at all ^^

[Corvus]

Last year there was only one GD in the US if I'm not mistaking. It didn't do that much to the overall quality in my opinion http://demonwinner.free.fr/usa/2010Baltimore/

If they want to do it seriously then they should organize an event in Europe as well. I think this will get much more attention than the other solution they have proposed: giving tickets to winners at other European events.

[Trovarion]

free air tickets at conventions......mh...do i really have to start attending neutral painting competitions? xD

[NAVARRO]

You would gain more money for sure

[mahon]

I don't know about other european countries, but I heard from some of my Polish friends they had to go for quite some effort to get a visa to the US.
moving across borders in Europe is much easier, as we don't even need passports for that.

I think it's one more reason why organizing it in Europe would make it much easier for many good painters to get to the event.

[LadyEyes]

My personal opinion, you're not necessarily going to see better overall quality at U.S. GDs with only one per year. I think you'll get fewer of the amazing painters going because it's not going to be as convenient for them as when there were 3 or 4. And we've seen a trend here of the better painters going to non-GW events. With GenCon, AdeptiCon, ReaperCon, etc., why should you go to a GD where there's no prize money, etc.? Just what I've been hearing/seeing the last few years.

[mahon]

yeah, you have much more interesting events on the other side of the pond...