Wizkid Event System Leaderboards

Does anybody else religiously check the leader-boards on the Wizkids Event System after playing in some OP?

I do.

I’ve really upped my event attendance recently and I’m finding it quite a little thrill seeing my performance recorded and tracked on the leader-board. In the current season breakdown I even broke the UK top ten for a brief moment. At time of writing I’m 9th on the season and 36th for Lifetime performance in the UK. And I’m buzzing off it.

It’s a well known phenomenon – the psychology of leader-boards and why we engage with them has been written about at length; particularly from the perspective of the video gaming industry – and I’m not ashamed to admit that it most definitely works on me. (For anyone who’s interested; there’s a really interesting site about digital gaming psychology and he’s got a great piece on the subject HERE) Wizkids have certainly tapped into my chimp-y competitive instincts.

It’s always been an addiction of mine. An old console gaming buddy of mine & I used to spend entire weekends on co-op campaigns or trying to meet strange & elaborate criteria in the game to score some prestigious yet obscure Xbox achievement.(That was until we had families and all night sessions on Gears of War became a thing of the past)

It’s certainly a source of banter at one of the FLGS’ I play at. Both Nos 8 & 10 around me in the Season ranking are from the regular Tuesday night group I hang out with. No-one takes it too seriously, but it is fun to have a playful brag with one another now-and-again, or dish out some teasing smack talk. Everyone takes it in the spirit it’s intended.

On a more serious note – our very presence on the WES is representing for the Union Jack. This is super important for one of the stores I play at because Esdevium (the distributor & Official OP organisers over here) have stated they are encouraging stores & gaming centres to record their Casual events on WES as this will be their primary tool when it comes to deciding which locations get Regionals & the National. The more of us there are across the UK, recording our play and, hopefully, climbing the ranks, the better the support from Wizkids & Esdevium will be, more regionals played, and a better field.

It’s not clear what Wizkids expectations are, but in it’s lifetime the UK leaderboard has 161 players on it (in comparison to the US with 3473). The UKGE qualifier has 32 spaces on it (nearly all tickets sold) so I’d be curious how well attended a PDC or a WKO is on…say…one of the US coasts for a comparable population count. (California & Oregon on the West coast combined is basically as populated as the UK, give or take a few mil)

In any case, whether it’s for inconsequential banter, or to support my local FLGS, I’m going to keep checking that ranking one way or another for my own mini thrill. How about you?