The Worthiest Adversary strives to broaden the horizon of the audience and 40k Community. There are a number of personalities that contribute to the 40k Community on a daily basis, whether by TO’ing a tournaments, moderating forums, or just being good sports in regular games. All of this requires different levels of investment that may or may not go appreciated. Some names and personalities become more recurring as time goes on, and the community can be accessed in many ways. The Competitive 40k Facebook Group is one venue to access the community with an amazing 8,000 members, hosting discussions, debates, and various articles throughout the broader scope of individuals.
Karl Perkins, a moderator of the Competitive 40k Group gave the Worthiest Adversary a few moments of his time to help expand our general perspective on this facet of the community.
WA: Quick introduction (name, started playing 40k, 40k army of choice and other hobbies or points of interest)
KP: My name is Gene (Karl) Perkins, been playing 40k only since about halfway through 7th, actually. By most accounts, I’m relatively new to the actual tabletop. Before 40k, I was a hyper-competitive MTG player for a number of years, and in the days of a DCI Ranking I leveled out around a 2000! To translate that into actual human words, I was #1-2 in my state and top 50-100 in the entire US for about two years.
I’m into all aspects of 40k, though. I own about six armies, and am constantly adding more. I paint just as much as I play!
WA: Who else contributes to the management and moderation of the Competitive 40k Group?
KP: Our team is 9 people. Two Admins, (Rob Porter and John-Paul Mawet, who both created the group.) and then the remaining seven of us are Moderators. That being Brandon Carpeter, Joseph Lee, Eric Ess, Adam Solis, Brett Perkins, and Sam Rhee.
WA: What are some of your thoughts on the current state of 40k?
KP: I think, by and large, 8th is doing quite well. More than anything, and to keep this opinion as neutral as possible, I think we’re seeing events growing larger and larger, which means we’re seeing the hobby grow. To me, that’s the best evidence of a better rule set and more accessible game. The more people who play, the better off we all are.
Now, I have my own opinions on a few things. Some rules may have been dumbed down a bit too far (Why do my Tzeentch daemons suck at psychic powers compared to Thousand Sons?), and the start of the edition had far too many FAQs with little warning, wildly adjusting rules. Now, all of that was obviously better for the game, but from a personal standpoint it was difficult to adjust to.
WA: Any preferences on tournament format (mission sets, point limits, etc):
KP: If you’ve ever read any of our threads that we have within the group, I almost always chime in and am of the opinion that 40k needs one of two things
1.) Formats. ITC 2k, ITC 1750/1500, Nova 2k, Adepticon 2k, what have you. However, I don’t think all scores should contribute to one global average.
In MTG, you had Standard, Extended, Legacy, Vintage etc and all of these formats awarded a score for that specific bracket. It’s always been odd to me that some random store in the middle of nowhere doing a 1k event with 12 people is awarding the same end result towards your score as a guy grinding it out in a hyper competitive 2k Tournament format on the other side of the country.
2.) One rule set. Too many different rules packets, too many variations, etc.
People always tend to chime in and say that the variety keeps things interesting, and I get that, but I would bet that if we had one rule set that all of these major TOs agreed to, and it had like 12-16 possible missions you choose from, that you’d see plenty of variety but you’d achieve actual consistency across them.
WA: What is your overall impression of the 40k community?
KP: We have some passionate, passionate nerds. I have guys from states and countries I’ve never been to who will [private message] me at 3 AM my time with list ideas. We have folks who write enormous thank you posts because a member of the community dropped everything and drove them home when they had a family emergency mid-tournament. We have charity events posted constantly, gaming sessions where prize pools are sent off to children’s hospitals.
Most of the time, I’m proud of our community.
I contributed an article to FLG last year about community standards, and what we should strive towards and things that we need to agree upon that are unacceptable.
For those unacceptable few (and it is few), I have a very long queue of funny ban GIFs I’m always a little excited to try out.
“It’s a place where people can share their lists, their events, their success stories…”
WA: How has the Competitive 40k Group helped the 40k community? What do you think sets this Group apart from others?
KP: Well, I won’t sit here and tell you we’ve connected the world, or that we’ve personally cultivated the community and shaped the game.
We have, however, now grown to almost 8,000 members at the time of replying. We have tens upon tens of new people joining every day, as well as even more posts being submitted constantly.
It’s a place where people can share their lists, their events, their success stories, and every now and then I’ll even let some shitposts through and we willl all spend a day posting memes. (shout out to /r/grimdank)
If Competitive 40k is something you’re interested in learning more about, if you and your buddies are starting a team and want to take it to the next level, or if you’re a TO trying to make your event the very best for what you can do, we’re here to help. Our community does that best.
WA: From everything you’ve seen, how do you think the community has taken to the FAQ and Beta rules now that several weeks and a few events have gone by?
KP: Quite well. I think most agree with many of the changes at this point. Obviously, there are a few tweaks here and there, but it always opens up a good opportunity for discussion amongst the community when things do change.
WA: What are some current debates or points of contention amongst the community?
KP: There’s always a few things, isn’t there?
To me, the biggest things lately have been:
Does overwatch cause things like the new Dominus Knight Missiles, Hunter Killer Missiles, Tau Skyray missiles, etc, to all be fired? RAW indicates, kind of, that ALL weapons must be fired, etc.
This… has been quite a heated topic the last few days. Been fun to watch.
The viability of turn 1 charges/the FAQ changes to deep strike was one for a while. Since a number of armies can still do it, it doesn’t really change anything that happened, and I’m personally of the opinion the restriction should be removed so we can go back to maximum aggression turn 2.
Point values! Honestly, my local area move to 1750 and I loved it. Very small change, but games finish about half an hour earlier (and actually finish) and armies feel just the right size. Not enough that you can jam too much super good stuff, but not too little that you can’t bring good stuff. Love it. We discuss/poll point values/changes sometimes, and it seems most people are super open to the idea of a lower point value, but some people are, uh… attached to their 2k.
WA: Anything else that you’d like to add or comment on?
KP: Thanks for reaching out, man. Always happy to ask questions.
My biggest thing in my role as a mod is to work towards a strong community. I don’t tolerate too much [nonsense]. If you show up acting like a child, it’s probably going to be called out. We’re all big boys here.
That being said, if you’re interested in 40k from a competitive standpoint and you aren’t afraid of The Zucc, check us out on Facebook. We’ll have more than 8,000 members strong, we have a great group of folks from all over the world, and they’re all consistent on loving this game.
Come hang out. Play the game. We can all get better, together.
Just don’t be a [loser].
The Worthiest Adversary sincerely appreciated the time given by Karl Perkins. While the Worthiest Adversary seeks out individuals from across the community to share their information, it is entirely on their time and initiative. Individuals like Karl Perkins and Groups like Competitive 40k are part of the community that actively engage with others. The Worthiest Adversary salutes everyone willing to participate, helping build awareness, and allowing members of the audience to learn a bit more beyond what everyone sees on the surface.
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