Speaking only for myself, I came to one of the Alpha Strike Academies, because I hadn't played AS at all before, and I fell sufficiently in love with it that the next morning I went straight over to the dealer's Hall and bought a copy of the book. I would've bought the Companion too, but CGL had already sold out of them by then.
I wasn't quite ready for Tournament play, but if there's AS tournaments next year, I'd love to come to those.