Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
Special Ops: Inside the World Series of Board Gaming
Operation Game Night returns with a deep dive into the World Series of Board Gaming as co-host Jared prepares to compete in the Las Vegas tournament this September.
• The tournament structure allows competitors to select specific games rather than requiring mastery of all sixteen featured titles
• Each of the four tournament days features different games with champions advancing to higher rounds
• Winners receive championship rings and compete for a prize pool reportedly worth up to $40,000
• Beyond the main "Ring Events," smaller "Phoenix Games" tournaments offer prizes up to $250
• The event features a massive library of 2,500+ games from Dice Tower available for open gaming
• Players can choose to participate in just one game or commit to the full four-day experience
• Jared plans to focus his training exclusively on Lost Ruins of Arnak in preparation for the tournament
If you're interested in joining us at the World Series of Board Gaming in Las Vegas this September, check out their website for registration details. We might just see you there!
As always, come interact with us online, let us know if you have any feedback, and leave us a review/comment anywhere you get your favorite podcasts!
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welcome back to og and operation game night. We are back. It's the return of the mac clayton gable. How you doing Clay?
Speaker 2:I'm doing good. I just love cutting you guys off with that intro video Mid-sentence. He's ready to go when.
Speaker 1:Clay's ready we go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I was done with the chit-chat, the talking about what we were going to do, and I just wanted to do it, so it's good to be doing it, he's got a happy trigger finger. Yeah.
Speaker 1:The return of the Mac, anyways. Uh, I've created a monster cause. Nobody wants to hear Travis, no more. They want Jared. I'm top liver. So, jared, how you doing there?
Speaker 3:It's so good to be back from join ops June. Um welcome, welcome back, everybody. Welcome back. Thank you for providing us this break in June, fearless Leader, and I'm ready to hit July hard. That's right, right in the mouth. Yeah, if you let me.
Speaker 1:Thank you to Clay, not to Clay.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Screw you Clay Thank you to.
Speaker 1:Vic and Amanda for lending us their production and their episodes, and we wanted to make sure that we spotlit them. So, if you have not done so already, go ahead and follow Games Emos Podcast and have a seat with Amanda Lee, because they put out awesome content. Make sure that you follow Empty Nest Board Mama and Games Emos Pod on the Instagram and go and engage with those two, because they are great friends of the show, personal friends to us, and go show them some love. But today we're going to talk on this special operation. We're going to talk about the World Series of Board Gaming, because we have a potential competitor amongst us. Jared, tell us about the World Series of Board Gaming.
Speaker 3:Well, I just want to say it feels good to be back with my brothers. Travis came all the way across the Atlantic and then he came to see me. Okay, I just want to say that Clay wanted him to drive to go see him after he flew. He flew for 15 hours. Okay, he didn't fly for 15 hours. They made his ass sit on the apron for like four hours while his dogs were underneath the plane dying of heat. They were okay. I mean, everyone was sorry.
Speaker 1:Everybody made it.
Speaker 3:I didn't mean to say dying out there, but um, and then clay had the audacity to say hey, why don't you just drive up and see me?
Speaker 1:why don't you drive two hours out of your way, uh?
Speaker 2:okay, I thought you flew into bwi. That's what you told me before I did. That's like an hour oh, okay, all right all right, sorry if you're gonna sit on the tarmac for four hours. You might as well come see me.
Speaker 3:All right, I just wanted to twist. I just wanted to give a little dig A little dig, but, as the resident World Series of Board Gaming expert on the podcast, I just wanted to throw out there that whatever we've been talking about on the World Series of Board Gaming up until this point on the podcast has actually been pretty wrong. I went to the About Us part of this website and learned a lot. It helps to read about the events that you're considering going to. I actually follow them on Instagram. I've been looking at this, so I want to help educate my fellow podcasters, and feel free to stop me at any moment while I educate you on the plan of attack, potentially because my boss still doesn't know that I did buy plane tickets. They are refundable, but I did buy plane tickets to go to vegas in september.
Speaker 3:Okay, so here's what we got going on here. Um, clay does have the screen share up, but we have four full days of gaming. Okay, each day they have four games apiece. Well, I was under the impression I had to play 16 different games to try and become the best board gamer ever. That is not the case. Okay, that's not physically possible because look at the start times.
Speaker 2:Nine, 10, 11, 12. Not the case, okay, I that's not physically possible because look at the start times.
Speaker 3:9 10, 11 12.
Speaker 2:You cannot finish one single game of terraforming mars in an hour before a couple turns, maybe.
Speaker 3:No, you probably can't get through first two turns. My ass can't even finish reading the cards in an hour to decide which ones I really want to start the game with. So here's the deal. This is what's actually kind of neat about the World Series of Board Gaming. You can kind of choose your own way into this tournament. You can choose to play for one day, you can play for two days, or you can play for two days, or you can play for four days. Each day you decide to play, you get to choose one game. So if I want to play for one day, I choose which day I want to play and then I choose the day and then I choose which game on that day I want to play game on that day I want to play.
Speaker 3:Obviously, I'm very interested on Sunday for the 11 am session of the Lost Ruins of Arnak. But I know I don't know I could be persuaded into maybe Dune Uprising, imperium Uprising. I could see myself maybe doing Terraforming Mars, I don't know. But here's the thing. The tournament works in this way If you win, you're the top dog for your game. It's a tournament style where you there's only a certain number of seats per game. Once the seats are filled, you can't enter for that game. I don't think any of the games are currently filled.
Speaker 3:So anyone that's listening, if any of these games sound good Terraforming, mars, brass, birmingham, the White Castle, azul those are all on Friday. I mean, azul is a very easy, accessible game that I'm sure there's some absolute geniuses that will just tear you apart. But you can enter that, that tournament, and if you win the azul, um, you're the top doctor of azul. That puts you into the like round of 16. All the winners from these 16 games get put into the tuesday you know championship and they'll play four of these 16 games. Four of these 16 games will be chosen as the championship games. So 16 people will be the winners of these games. Four games will be chosen. Then you'll be grouped into groups of four. The winners of those four games will then, uh, those four winners will be brought into the, the one championship game, and then they'll play a single game that nobody has won. So that's another thing that I haven't mentioned the game that you play in the higher and higher levels of this tournament, you'll play a new game that no one's played, yikes.
Speaker 3:So if I'm the our neck and I'll play. Maybe someone who won for azul and someone else who won for raw and someone else who won for splendor. We won't play the game that they won in there. It's called the, the ring events, the ring games. We won't play the one that you were really good at. So I actually still need to be kind of good at the other games or know enough about how to be good at them, and I think the really good ones they really are good at all of them. So, yeah, I really do need to be good at all 16 if I really want to be the best.
Speaker 1:You know, world series support gaming, so there's potentially, there's Series support game, so there's potentially 16 games listed here. There's a potential 17th game that like surprise. You guys have not played this game at all during this tournament, but here it is. No, no, no.
Speaker 3:You just won't play the game, a game that you've ever played before Out of the 16. The way they describe it on the game or on the website is they literally have 16 chits in a bag to decide who plays in what position. They'll reach into the bag, grab it out, out whatever game that is. Let's say they pull out wingspan the winner of the wingspan ring game. Okay, that person is put into the bracket or the.
Speaker 3:The game of game one, wingspan, is actually the game that will be played on table two. Oh, and then they'll go reach into the bag and pull out a new one and that's going to be the lost ruins of our neck that the winner of lost ruins of our neck will play, will now play wingspan. And now lost ruins of our neck, whoever that guy or that will be, table three, wow, and so, like they have it all, it's like very much. They don't want to get sued because there's like like $40,000 or something like that of winning cash, wow. But there's actually other events that if you guys don't want to play these ones the ring events there's like side events.
Speaker 3:Oh let me see Satellite events. I saw, let's see. Sorry, I thought I had it pulled up. They're called Phoenix Games. Let's look at the schedule. I'm going to fly in Thursday night. I don't know, maybe I'll move it up, maybe I won't, I don't know. The gaming starts in the morning, but then you start seeing these Phoenix games, these Phoenix games. There's other games that are going to be played, like Catan are going to be played, like katan, but they're, they are going to also play, uh, phoenix games. Of the games that are played, those 16 games.
Speaker 3:Um, for the ring games and these are kind of like one-off uh, sit down and play and you can win up to like 250 bucks. I think you will have to pay like uh a 50. It's pretty much like you're playing Blackjack, but for board games. Oh nice, they're like mini tournaments. For that game, let's say, maybe I don't want to play the really big boy Lost Ruins of Arnak, we could still get me into a Phoenix game which is like a smaller version of this really big World Series board gaming event, and that's going to be Lost Ruins of Arnek. Phoenix Tournaments 5pm on Sunday. Crokinole doubles, crokinole doubles, right there.
Speaker 2:Boom.
Speaker 3:Again, these are like smaller versions. If you have a ticket to the show which, if you're not playing these ring games I think it's only like 90 bucks or something like that just to go walk around, be part of the convention, you can have access to these Phoenix games. I'm not sure exactly what the price is to sit down and actually be part of these Phoenix games. I'm not sure exactly what the price is to sit down and actually be part of these, um, these uh, phoenix games Dune Imperium, phoenix game, perfect, I love it. Um, I might just have to do that. I don't know. I might still be involved in the Lost Ruins of Arnak ring event, though that starts at 11. So I don't know, it's tough. But so there's a lot more than just those 16 games if you go and look at the scheduled events. So they also have the entire library of dice tower east, or dice tower west is going to be whoa.
Speaker 1:That's a big library yeah, it's a gigantic library yeah, um, we're talking a lot of games.
Speaker 3:Let's see. Is there a side event? This is what I wanted to look at with you guys. Um, and you can play. There's going to be a lot of other influencers. Potentially the uh, you know operation game night might be there. You might get to meet operation, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, over 30 walk-up tournaments played in a single elimination pod of 16 people or less. Wow. So, yeah, you can win up to 25 or 250 bucks per competition. You got to be 25 or 18 years older, yeah, so it says more info will be announced in May.
Speaker 3:I can't find the more info. That's why I'm pretty sure you're going to have to do like a $50 buy-in or something like that. It's not going to be free, I'll tell you that. But yeah, even if we let's say we don't go and play the Lost Ruins of Arnek on Sunday, the three of us just go, we'll have access to the gaming hall. Oh, yeah, and I think it closes at 2 AM, we could be sitting there sipping on whatever drinks we want to be sipping on. We bring your own board games. You can check out the games from dice tower West. Yeah, that's like a.
Speaker 1:That's a legit library. It's pretty huge, right? Yeah, they have, uh, one of their like convention hall areas just dedicated to shelf upon shelf upon shelf 2,500 games in the library.
Speaker 3:Holy smokes. Look at that. I mean, this says 24-7 gaming, but the other thing said that 2 am 2 am. I'm not going to be playing board games at 3, but you would be surprised. I mean, don't put it past me, I guess. So anyways, oh, maybe that is what Dice Tower West is. Yeah, dice Tower West is the 24-7.
Speaker 1:But that's also not in September, that's usually in March. Ah yeah, so anyways, west is the 24-7.
Speaker 3:But that's also not in September, that's usually in March. Anyways, what I'm saying is this thing is more than just the World Series of board gaming. The prices are up there. If you want to play four days, I think it gets up to $500-$600. If I want to play four days, I think it gets up to like 500, 600 bucks. If I want to just play one day and just play Arnak, I think it's like $300. Yeah, $300 for one ring day pass and then, like you know, it's kind of like the old, you know, getting a large Slurpee, you know you get a small Slurpee, it's like two bucks. If you get a large Slurpee, it's like 250. So you might as well get the large Slurpee, because it's only 50 more cents, of course. So do I just do four days of Slurpees? Just do four days of slurpees, or because? But I don't want to be in this tournament for four days if I could be playing with you guys, not a bunch of neckbeards.
Speaker 1:If you, if you're playing in the tournament, clayton and I will be standing behind you at the.
Speaker 2:We will be riveted rubbing your shoulder.
Speaker 1:Yeah be misting you with some water.
Speaker 2:We will be be your biggest supporter.
Speaker 1:Your energy is getting low.
Speaker 3:Maybe a couple of two claps and Ric Flares, hey Jared.
Speaker 2:Can we go back to something real quick about the big ring tournament structure? I was trying to follow all that but quite frankly it's very confusing.
Speaker 3:We can run it back.
Speaker 2:If you pick your game for day one, do you only play that game one time and then you're the winner, or you play like four or five games that day, tournament style.
Speaker 3:Oh, you could play up to five times the same game. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:So it's again single elimination. Potentially 36 or 32, right, 16, 32. Yep, 32 games played first round. The winners go down and go down and go down Actually, probably more than 32, because they're they're playing four four-man games for four-man games. One person comes out of that four-man game wow, into another four-man game and you so in order to be the ring leader or the ring master. I don't even know what the official title of the the winner of the ring. Uh, they actually give you a ring, I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, yeah, they legitimately give you a ring if you win arnak. How cool would that be. I had a freaking lost ruins of arnak ring and every day on the podcast I you like you turn on the podcast. I'd just be like yo check out my freaking lost ruins of arnek room boom yeah, you'd have to.
Speaker 2:How cool would that be? Uh, it's not. It's not just a fantasy, jared, it's gonna be a reality. This has been your destiny that's true.
Speaker 3:I, I don't know, man, it's pretty cool, but there is actually a code of conduct as well. They do allow a small amount of table talk, but you cannot be disparaging. You can't. At any time players can be like, hey, he's being too aggressive. So there is probably some gamemanship to this.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't say anything about podcast co-hosts heckling the other players.
Speaker 3:It doesn't talk about any amount of bad boy cologne that you can or cannot be wearing An impressive amount of bad boy cologne, so I don't know this could be I'm fired up about it.
Speaker 2:I'm close to booking my tickets as well.
Speaker 1:So I know, and I should have my schedule tomorrow, and by the time that this airs I may have plane tickets of my own.
Speaker 2:So yeah, oh my god, can you even imagine Operation Game Night coalescing in Las Vegas.
Speaker 3:But, but for real, though. For real, I think I'm only going to do Lost Ruins of Arnak. As much as I love Terraforming Mars, people from France absolutely tear me apart. In Terraforming Mars, I don't think I've won a single game outside. People from Europe tear me apart. I don't know what they do in Europe, but when?
Speaker 3:was the last time you lost a game of wall street of arnak on bga I lose it all the time to uh, to dallin, but dallin is gonna train me, he's gonna train me, but I play two player with him, four players, a whole, another beast, yeah, so my, my whole, uh bga. Um, you know, lineup and schedule is going to be changed. Like right now there's like 16 games. Right now I'm playing all sorts of everything. It's going to be laser focused. I'm going to have like 14 different four player lost ruins of our next. I'm gonna be trying different strategies, I'm gonna be looking at different things. Um, dude, where?
Speaker 1:the training starts now the training starts now.
Speaker 3:Okay, wow, so any questions?
Speaker 2:yeah, how do you guys feel about this like as it's a pretty novel thing at like face value to have like a competition like this for board gaming. I mean it's not weird in like other circles you know magic and different trading card games have been doing these type of competitions for a long time and obviously you know pick up league sports and things. But I mean this is kind of a new novel take on board gaming for competition. Do you think board games lend themselves to this type of competition?
Speaker 1:I think whenever you have something where there can be a winner, you're bound to have a high-level competition, right Like there's like the World Series of Cornhole. There's like the World Series of cornhole, there's like the world series of horseshoes. There's, you know, anytime you take something that's not meant to be serious and you pit people against each other, with one being the winner, there's bound to be something that occurs like this. My main question is about like, who sanctions the like world series of board gaming as an organization, and how long does it take until somebody says I can do that bigger and better. Like sure, they've paired with dice tower, and I can see that, you know, dice tower is, you know, some sort of partner in this? I don't know a whole lot about the world series of board gaming as an organization. Like, let's say, board game geek comes in and says like you're gonna win the ultimate geek championship and get a bigger ring and a bigger purse, and like they're gonna give you a belt they're gonna you know upstream the world series of board gaming.
Speaker 1:Like how long is that going to take for that to happen? Because, yeah, I don't know they got a board directors.
Speaker 3:That seems pretty legit, that's true?
Speaker 1:uh, I mean these guys tech consultant, bro looks good llc board chairman, but motivational speaker, I mean I I don't know. Clay, do you recognize any of these people?
Speaker 2:yeah, steven bonacore yeah, I think he was like a dice tower guy back in the day. Maybe we this could be.
Speaker 3:They might be a position for us on here soon. The board of directors. The board of directors probably more executive team yeah, I might, I'm, I could be logistics or it's like the backup support.
Speaker 1:What about the door holder? That's what I want to know.
Speaker 3:Door holder. Dole holder number three.
Speaker 1:Be the coffee runner for the World Series of Board Gaming executive team? Yeah Dang. Anyways, clay back to your question. I go back to any sort of sports organization. Right, the NFL has a stranglehold on American football. And then Dwayne the Rock Johnson says, well, what about the XFL? And he starts his own league. Right, how long until somebody else comes in. They have the World Series not the world series, but like the world championship for jujitsu and all of a sudden, like the b team, comes in and creates the craig jones invitational in las vegas where he pays out like triple what they do at the traditional one yeah, I'm just curious how, how successful this is like if.
Speaker 2:If it is something that's making a ton of money and it's like a huge turnout, oh, it's only a matter of time till these type of competitions start cropping up all over. Yeah, maybe a smaller level even, but um, I mean there there was a.
Speaker 3:There was a the satellite event. The satellite event was in virginia. We missed it. There was one in Singapore, maybe in February 26, I think maybe they might. This one still is advertising for the one that was in February of this year. Maybe you and I are going to be going to that, who knows?
Speaker 1:Look at that ring. It's the same lineup.
Speaker 3:but look at this freaking ring dude. Wow, gotta get one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's dude. Wow, yeah, got to get one of those. Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Wow, but I mean, reserve your room today, bruh.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, if you're out there listening to this and you want to help us make some custom jerseys for Jared and the OGN crew to attend the World Series of Board Gaming, we will wear them with pride. I cannot wait. I'm so excited about this.
Speaker 3:Leave nothing on the table. Wait, leave everything on the table.
Speaker 1:Leave nothing on the table because you got mad and flipped the table halfway through.
Speaker 3:Well, when I get the airplane first round and I fly that little thing all over, I'm exploring, I'm hitting guardians left and right, getting my gems going up the research track, ding, ding, ding, ding. Sorry, I just that was just. I don't know where that came from, that's how it's done right there yeah I'm just gonna hit end mission complete.
Speaker 1:Don't cut us off. Don't you dare cut us off I'm cutting you off.
