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The road to Birmingham: Part 1

European championships X-Wing

In November of last year FFG OP (Fantasy Flight Games Organized Play) announced the first ever European Championships X-Wing. They will be held June 2nd - 4th at the UK Games Expo in Birmingham.

Currently there are still about 350 spots left of the possibly 600 people attending. This means currently just under 250 people are attending. However I assume this number will rise once FFG OP announces the prizes for this event. Possibly making it the biggest X-Wing tournament in Europe. 

Full prize-support is not known yet, but we can assume it will rival the North-American 2016 and the Worlds 2016 prize-pool. We do know that the European Champion will receive travel and accommodations to the 2018 World Championship, along with a first-round bye. He or she will also work with FFG to design a card for the game.

Now I'll be heading down there with a bunch of happy Belgians. Should you wish to join drop me a line through here or facebook and maybe we can meet up!

The road to Birmingham

The first article in this series will outline everything concerning tickets, travel arrangements and costs. Some of this will also be based on my attendance of the Lothal System Open 2016 in Germany. Following entries might entail details on how I practice, what list I will bring and how I prepare for the meta. And ending the series will be a series of match reports.

Event tickets

Tickets are available from the UK Games Expo site. You need a 3-day Entry Ticket. This costs £28. You also need an event ticket for the FFG Europeans. For X-Wing this is another £24. So you're looking at around €60 in event tickets. 

Flight

About the flight I can be pretty short. Check the website of Brussels Airlines. Flight to and from Birmingham without specials (no checked luggage etc) costs me just shy of €90. 

Hotel

Hotels in the UK are expensive. Be sure the check the accommodations and alternative hotels page of the UKGE site as apparently many hotels are already taken. We found a spot at the NEC Premier Inn. Hotel costs me £410 or about €480 for 3 nights. This could go cheaper if I would find a roomie. Be warned though. I tend to snore ;)

Per Diem

Seeing the prices for food and drinks at Comic-con Germany (Lothal Open) last year and FACTS just last weekend in Ghent I'm going to assume a spending of about €75 per day. This adds up to €225 for the event + another €30 for dinner thursday evening. 

Total cost

Tickets: €60
Flight: €90
Hotel: €480
Per Diem: €255
Total: €885

Is this worth it? I don't know. To me it is. It is one of my few holidays in a year and I ignore other outings to save for this. Further this event will give me some amazing experiences and fun matches at a really high level.

See you in Birmingham? Do you have any other remarks? Leave them in the comments below!


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