Not that he needs the validation, but Colo

rado has seen exponential growth within our FaB community/ competitive scene since joey started doing his thing here just a few short months ago. We've gone from zero stores carrying product in Denver (forget about running events) to I think 12 stores (or more) running consistent weekly events in our area. I can say with the utmost confidence and conviction that his methods work. Thanks J, for doing what you do. No way we'd have come this far, this fast without you🤘

our area is notorious (going to stick with that word) when it comes to not running new games. Your BEST chance is that someone who works at the store is interested in the game and champions it themselves... but honestly.. I feel half the time it's an employee getting caught up in the hype of a new game, and once the hype settles down they lose interest and stop "being a champion" and the community stagnates or dies. The article touched on understanding the commitment to being a champion, and as a champion for a few games with no initial community, I can't stress this enough. DON'T be like the store employee exampled above. There is nothing worse than someone with even LESS obligation than a store employee getting a community started and not only losing interest, but straight up disappearing from the store and/or events. That is certain death for the community. If you choose to be a champion... meet the commitment. lastly for any stores reading this... reward your champions. talk up front about those rewards.. but beyond rewarding them consistently (percentage off related product for example).. reach out to them and make them feel valuable. Even if they are "only" generating the store $100/week... trust me (and I'm sure you know this). That $100 a week would likely be less, down to even $0/week, without them. Though most importantly.. a champion who feels valued and appreciated will turn that $100/week ultimately into $1000 or even $10000 per month in sales easily.

A great article for people like me who just found FaB and want to make this game grow in my area.

Ive been lucky with most of the LGSs Ive been to that have ran FaB. Most are exited about a TCG that has such good communication and prize support, and are happy and honest with the system to get things rolling. Sad to hear about some of the negative stories that are out there.

From an owner perspective, I say I am willing to start any community but I need to know there is one first. I have had people ask me to start a YUGIOH community; I respond every time with "Here are my days that I can do events. Get the people together on one of these days once and I will buy product and do a free event soon after. Then we can plan going forward." I have yet to have even one person show up. The takeaway is space = money/time investment. If you arent willing to get the 3 or 4 people there for a free play day, how am I to expect you will come to any events I invest money/time into. Big takeaway is that you have to understand that they are a business first and need to make money to even exist. Show them you want it and give some amount of faith (the community) and a good store owner will definitely respond well. The ones that dont, just find somewhere else.

My area so far has a lot of tcgs communities, slowly but steadily some people that play mtg have been getting interested in fab, and I've been working as that catalyst. The simplicity yet complexity of the game has intrigued people to look into the game, plus all the videos online help too!

It's always nice to see new players coming into the game. The fact that people can grab 2 free basic blitz deck and start playing with a friend right away is a great! It is critical for members of the community to be active too (either by actively participating in events or soft / directly promoting events happening in your area); a symbiotic relationship between LGS and the community is key!

We have a few stores locally that support the game and community. I recently started with a few blitz decks and have been recruiting friends to play.

I would love to have an LGS closer than 2 hours that has any interest in events of any kind. I am slowly building up a local community of friends/college kids as they move to town, just to get a play group growing. From there we will see.

This article honestly did help when I was trying to find locals to play with. My only alternative at the time was driving 2 hours one way each weekend for an armory event, which wasn't ideal. Now I have been able to help with learn to play days, help ran a casual tournament, and even have a sealed deck tournament this Sunday! Thanks guys!

It seems like consistency is a big part of it. A lot of past good games have failed because of events not being run every week. Some people will play a bad game because they can count on a crowd being there every friday night.

The growth of the game is carried on great guides like this not just as a supporter but as a person in general. I like the perspective and the honesty of what was said here. It helped me a lot to navigate through conversations regarind FaB and just games in general.! Great article!

New to fab and some good ways to frame conversations in the article.

I feel really lucky that several stores in my area run regular FaB events.

I'm struggling to get fab going locally. There are so many people who are hesitant to buy into a new game. I've done everything from building decks for people to play with and offering to teach people and even giving people budget decks to get started. I'll just have to be persistent and eventually, I'll get players I guess?

I am very lucky that there is an LGS that supports FaB in the area where I live. where the community of people is very supportive in teaching and building FaB. FaB is really great, and i think it's gonna be biggest TCG in the world, cheers

In my area, the shop=owner's cost/benefit calculus is the least of my concerns when trying to generate expand our FAB community.. We have 2 stores with closed games lobbies due to Covid and attendance is way down at the others. Of the stores that do offer tables right now event schedules are fully booked with MTG and D&D getting multiple nights a week, and board or war games consume the others. It's stilll worth the effort, and we're working on getting more butts in seats, but our environment is pretty hostile to the support of a new game right now.