by Stephanie Berry
Hello! My name’s Stephanie, and today, I’d like to tell you all about the Virtual Team Championship or VTC for short. It’s an event every WARMACHINE & HORDES player will want to know about! There’s a lot to explain, and I’m really excited to do so, so let’s dive in…
The story of the VTC began in April 2020. Event cancellations were rapidly becoming widespread, and the community was disappointed to be missing out on the upcoming convention season. To anyone who really enjoys tournament play—whether for the fun of testing one’s skill against some of the best players in the world or for the camaraderie of swapping stories after a day’s gaming—it was gutting to know all of this was on pause for what would ultimately be more than a year.
Fortunately, the WARMACHINE community was quick to organise, and online sites were established for players to interact, keeping people interested in the game and ensuring those players weren’t isolated and lonely. It was in one of these sites, the Fishcord server (a wonderful place to meet new friends and get games) that I and members of both the WTC Committee and Fishcord judge team started planning for what would be the biggest online event ever. We were privileged to have the aid of Lars, creator of WarTable, to provide a platform we could use as well as his assistance with all of our requests and questions. He very kindly let us host our maps on the site for everyone to use, and he was notably receptive to our requests for feature upgrades. Our sincere thanks, Lars!
The first VTC was a massive learning experience: nobody had ever done anything like this on such a scale before, and there was a lot of time and effort involved to pull it off! Thankfully, the organisational team overcame every challenge and put on a huge show, with 100 players in 20 teams battling for the podium. This inaugural event was won by the combined American and Canadian efforts of the All Gas No Brakes team, beating out Canada in an all-North American final, and we even had some PP staff say hi in the stream chats! After cresting the wave of massive hype, the organiser team took some well-earned time to draw a line under a massive milestone for the community and to celebrate our winners, All Gas No Brakes!
After taking a nice long break, we made a few changes. First, we moved the event from September to April, and we updated the timetable to be more accommodating to more of the world. We also wanted to improve accessibility—previously, we had tried to keep teams single-nation only in the early stages of registration, but in honour of our 2020 winners, we decided to cut the brakes, allowing completely unrestricted signup! In the meantime, we overcame all of the usual challenges, ranging from map design, the writing of judge and player packs, liaising with streamers and other bodies, getting players registered and rules locked via our helpful robot assistants, Corgi and Shipmate, and the most important thing of all: getting everybody hyped!
The VTC is currently expecting 140 players across 28 teams, making it once again the biggest online WARMACHINE event ever. Plans are being made to deliver a massive amount of content, both streamed and written, round the clock for the community via KnightsMachine, Fishcord, and various other platforms, so stay tuned to WARMACHINE social media for more, including some surprises we’ve kept close to the chest. The event is being held between April 17th and 25th, beginning with a “league round” and moving into a traditional tournament timetable for the big weekend. The event schedule and lists are available on KnightsMachine, and a stream schedule is coming soon. In the meantime, let me know which team you’re rooting for!
