Vault Tours – Should you go?

Short answer: Yes!

Long answer:
You’ve read my reports about Vault Tours, and the rigorous training I went through, and think “I’m too casual to go to a Vault Tour.” Which is an actual sentence someone said to my SO on thecrucible.online. I’m here to tell you Vault Tours are for you, too.

Prize Support

The prize structure is designed to be casual friendly. Just for participating you’ll get 30 shards and every win thereafter you’ll get 15 more. Furthermore, there is basically an infinite amount of side events you can participate in. Join an 8 person pod and you’ll get 2 shards at a minimum, plus 5 per win. Join a scheduled main event and get 3 for participation and 5/10/20/40 depending on your wins.

A bit too much pressure? No worries, just find another player you feel is at your level and play a Speed Sigil. You both open a deck you bought in at the venue and play a game. Loser gets 2 aember, winner gets 9.

You’ll undoubtedly get enough shards to get some cool stuff off the prize wall, and besides, we’re here to play keyforge, right? You’ll do lots of that!

Friendly Players

Sure, players that can still make top cut, as in, 0 or 1 loss can be a bit harsh about taking back plays, but that’s to be expected. Throughout all the side events, and even main events while you’ve acquired 2 losses, your opponents are going to be friendly and helpful. I’ve had nothing but positive experiences throughout the event, even at top tables. Once the main events were over I even stopped cutting opponent decks. I told them that competition is over, I’m done cutting decks.

It’s also not too hard to find people to hang out with, talk with, play with. I’m quite a shy person and have a hard time making new connections and I had no problem meeting new people. We’re all there playing keyforge, we already have plenty in common. At the minimum, you’re going to have a bunch of opponents to talk to about the game.

And if you’re really bad at connecting with people, join the Sanctumonious discord server and have a little chat with us before you go. You’ll be guaranteed some friendly people to talk to.

Friendly Staff

I’ve only been to European Vault Tours, but I hear the new people at Yeti Gaming are fantastic as well. Everyone I’ve interacted with in the staff has been phenomenal. From answering questions, to helping you find teammates for team events, the staff is always there for you.

Don’t hesitate to ask them rules questions, or anything about the event. They’re there to help you have as good a time as possible, and make things go as smoothly as possible.

Inclusiveness

The world is getting better with making Women and LGBTQ+ people feel safer and more comfortable in society. While it is is far from perfect, the keyforge community has largely been great at it. Playing in Krakow, a championship for many FFG competitive games, it was fairly obvious there were many more Women in keyforge than the other games.

The staff and the players have never given me any issues, on the contrary, I have gotten a lot of positive remarks for my appearance. I didn’t feel like anyone looked down on me, on the contrary, people seemed to try and accommodate me as much as they could, from staff asking me my pronouns, and other players correcting each other when referring to me.

Next time I attend a Vault Tour I’m going to request that one bathroom be marked gender neutral. From the interview with Alex Watkins over at Archon’s Corner, I feel like he will do what he can to accommodate such a request.

Contact and afterward

So yes, you should come to a Vault Tour. It’s awesome. You get to play keyforge all day with awesome people. Best vacation I’ve had.

As always, you can follow me on twitter for updates. And join us at the Sanctumonious discord server if you’d like to chat with me, or join an awesome community of keyforge players.