I am sure that this has probably already been covered extensively, but I am new to the forum. I have been playing 40k regularly since the release of the 2nd edition boxed set. I have traveled to tournaments all over the country to include numerous Games Days, numerous GW GTs, Necro, Adepticon, Exterminatus, Ard Boyz, and countless Rogue Trader events and conventions, etc.
In 15+ years of gaming, I have never seen a tournament with only 2 hours allowed per round. I love the website and have checked out all of the BoLScon coverage that was posted on the old home page. A friend and I considered making the trip for the tourney despite the relatively short notice. While the expense of coming from Florida was significant, it was ultimately the 2 hour rounds that discouraged us from attending.
Based off of the army list and tactics articles that I have read on your site, it appears that csm mech along with marine mech and ork mech armies dominate the gaming scene there. If both armies are mech based, then players likely only have 5 to 8 vehicle models to move and shoot for the first two to four turns of the game. In this case, 2 hour rounds would be fine. However, if two foot slogging armies were to meet, I do not believe that 2 hours would be a fair amount of time for them to accurately complete a 2000 point game (nor 1850, or even 1750 for that matter). They would have to adopt certain so-called "speed play" mechanics such as not measuring accurately for movement or assault movement (measure one model - move the rest in the general direction). I just experienced a dreadful Ard Boyz game where my opponent was running over 200 tyranid models. He was basically flubbing his movement (i.e. - figs in the back going like 9" and not making difficult terrain rolls, etc) and we still barely completed 3 turns in 2 hours. Granted it was 2500 points and he was slow as syrup, but still.
I hope to attend BoLScon next year, but urge the organizers to allow 2.5 hours per round. I rather play 5 or 6 games with enough time, or time to spare, than squeeze in 7 hectic, rushed games. That's just my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own, but this is a sentiment I have seen expressed by a lot of people. I think this is maybe being downplayed a little by the coverage (i.e. - the comment that people who didn't finish in 2 hours wouldn't have finished in 2.5 anyway). Certainly, with advance planning players can build their armies to be mech for this event so that they play faster, but if you run into an opponent who hasn't done the same, it could really suck to run out of time on turn 4 (or 3, or 5). Especially if you've spent over $1k to attend. If the organizers are adamantly opposed to increasing the time per round, maybe play up the mech angle and/or drop the points to 1500 or 1750.
Whatta y'all think?