TL;DR: All themes are split out into separate factions. Anyone who is the best in faction with a score of 200 or more is the Faction Master. Anyone who is best in faction with a score less than 200 is a Faction Regent. Anyone who is a Faction Master will receive an invite to the UK Masters even if they’re not in the top 16.

The Situation

The number of factions, including theme lists, in Kings of War has expanded from 21 to 26 and the list is set to grow even larger.

Already in 2^nd edition some of the best in faction awards didn’t have much meaning because there were so few players. Using myself as an example; I achieved best in faction for Brotherhood but I was the only one who played them three times. I effectively had no competition.

In 3^rd edition, many of the theme lists will have the same issue where the player base is so small that there’s not really any effective competition for their best in faction award, and the small number of results means that the faction’s overall ranking is heavily skewed.

The player who won the best in faction award for Historicals only played them once throughout the season.

Ultimately with the large number of factions (and more to be expected), the value of the best in faction awards is being watered down.

The Desire

We’d like best in faction awards to be a great honour to achieve, rather than “Congratulations on picking a faction that no-one else uses”.

We’d like to give awards to all the best in faction players at the end of the season. There are questions about how to fund this. I’m happy to shoulder the cost myself for a small number of awards, but when we could easily be looking at well over 30 factions in the next few years I’m less happy reaching into my pocket for it.

We would also like the winner of a best in faction award to be invited to Masters even if they don’t make the top 16 on the overall leaderboard. However, this should be on the basis of demonstrating skill with that faction rather than choosing one that no-one else did.

The Solution

If you are the Best in Faction and have a score of 200 or more (this is based on your top 3 scores for that faction) then you are a Faction Masters. A score of 200 is essentially 3 podiums at one day events.

If you are the Best in Faction and have a score of less than 200 then you are a Faction Regent.

Faction Masters will be invited to the UK Masters event even if they don’t make the top 16, and will receive a Faction Master award (whether this is a simple framed certificate like this year or something more grandiose I don’t know yet).

In terms of Masters attendees, when we have a good idea of how many Faction Masters didn’t make the top 16, the committee will determine a minimum number of spots at Masters (I personally imagine this will be around 20 players). After the first round of invites to the top 16 and all other Faction Masters, we will see if we have met the minimum. If we haven’t, or have an odd number of signups, then we will start working our way down the leaderboard offering out more invites as with previous years.

Website Development

To do:

• Note the Best in Faction as Master/Regent appropriately.
• Allow a filter on the factions table to only show those which have a master rather than a regent.
• Explanation of the above.