Mods feel free to move this post if this isn't the appropriate place...
That said, a gripe and a question.
First, the WotC site had listed (and our LGS had promoted) holding a Launch Day booster draft tournament for the release of SoM. Many people showed up yesterday, a lot of us driving in from out of town, only to be told that the LGS sold all but about 20 boosters of their product on Friday. As a result, they would just be holding a Standard tournament, and would not be giving out release foils and any prize support would be in boosters from other sets.
As you can imagine, there were MANY unhappy people. Several of us had brought friends who were new to the game and who wanted to get the new cards. As such, we either didn't bring a Standard deck, or didn't have one period.
We were turned away by the employees saying "Well, everyone that was buying boxes yesterday agreed they just wanted a Standard tournament, so we sold all our packs and that's what we're doing today."
I was under the impression that if you sanctioned a tournament with WotC and received prize support, foils, etc... that you were obligated to run that tournament.
We had issues last weekend during the prerelease with people opening their packs beforehand, and in some instances, trading before the deck-building time (you're not supposed to trade period). When this was brought up to the TO, he just dismissed it. They announced we were running 6 rounds, then proceeded to skip to Top 8 after five rounds. We played one round of Top 8, and then the other folks in the Top 4 (I made it to Top 4, yay!) pressured the TO into just calling it quits and dividing up the prize packs equally.
Most people would say to just find somewhere else to play, but the nearest LGS that host tournaments is over an hour away, and this one is in town, so many of us college students go there.
My question to the community would be what can be done about this? Are there official channels to report this to WotC? What can be gained by reporting it? The store owner doesn't seem to care, and his employees seem to just tolerate us Magic players. There has never been a REAL judge, and I'd offer, but darnit, I just wanna play.
Thanks for letting me rant a bit, and I welcome any suggestions y'all might have.
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"Here only miracles. Here, only the rising of spirit. And yes, love if it was pertinent (which it was so often); and sometimes bloodletting. But never the prosaic, never the trivial. Here the man who brought the strangest tale was the most welcome. Here every excess was celebrated if it brought visions, and every vision analyzed for the hints it held to the nature of the Everlasting." - Clive Barker's Imajica
Wow, 104 ppl have read this and not a single reply. Touchy subject?
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"Here only miracles. Here, only the rising of spirit. And yes, love if it was pertinent (which it was so often); and sometimes bloodletting. But never the prosaic, never the trivial. Here the man who brought the strangest tale was the most welcome. Here every excess was celebrated if it brought visions, and every vision analyzed for the hints it held to the nature of the Everlasting." - Clive Barker's Imajica
I'm not sure this is getting the attention it needs here in Limited/Sealed/Draft. I bet it would get more replies in Magic General.
With that said, Poor TO's result in lower turnouts which eventually results in lower revenues for the stores holding the tournament.
If they have enough people to have 6 rounds then they have enough people to need someone to judge this thing.
The pre-release I was at had a judge for every 6-8 players which is an overabundance, but there is nothing wrong with that since they came from all over and there are often a lot of rules questions at pre-releases.
We hear about this a lot, but what you don't hear about is "this store closed in two years". This is most common with the people who show up here all the time and say "I want to start a game store," who somehow get the money togeather and then don't have a plan. TO's who are after a quick buck don't realize how this hurts thier business in the long term. There are a lot of judges and TO's who write MTG articles, and I wish one of them would sit down and write a "How to Organize a MTG Tournament" primer.
You can report this to the DCI, and hopefully they will threaten your TO to get him in shape and not just yank his prize support and ability to sanction.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
I personally have never come across this so I am not sure how I would feel. Most likely somewhat like you do. I am not sure of anything can be done, so that is why I did not comment earlier.
You can report this to the DCI, and hopefully they will threaten your TO to get him in shape and not just yank his prize support and ability to sanction.
I will echo the_cardfather's answer. There is a formal procedure to complain to Wizards (or the DCI, I forget which) about problems in tournament procedures. I don't know the details, though. If you can't find the procedure, try asking in Magic General. If you don't get a response there, you can try the Magic Rulings forum afterwards. This is not a rulings question, but there are judges there more frequently, and they might be more knowledgeable on the proper channels to use.
"Here only miracles. Here, only the rising of spirit. And yes, love if it was pertinent (which it was so often); and sometimes bloodletting. But never the prosaic, never the trivial. Here the man who brought the strangest tale was the most welcome. Here every excess was celebrated if it brought visions, and every vision analyzed for the hints it held to the nature of the Everlasting." - Clive Barker's Imajica
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That said, a gripe and a question.
First, the WotC site had listed (and our LGS had promoted) holding a Launch Day booster draft tournament for the release of SoM. Many people showed up yesterday, a lot of us driving in from out of town, only to be told that the LGS sold all but about 20 boosters of their product on Friday. As a result, they would just be holding a Standard tournament, and would not be giving out release foils and any prize support would be in boosters from other sets.
As you can imagine, there were MANY unhappy people. Several of us had brought friends who were new to the game and who wanted to get the new cards. As such, we either didn't bring a Standard deck, or didn't have one period.
We were turned away by the employees saying "Well, everyone that was buying boxes yesterday agreed they just wanted a Standard tournament, so we sold all our packs and that's what we're doing today."
I was under the impression that if you sanctioned a tournament with WotC and received prize support, foils, etc... that you were obligated to run that tournament.
We had issues last weekend during the prerelease with people opening their packs beforehand, and in some instances, trading before the deck-building time (you're not supposed to trade period). When this was brought up to the TO, he just dismissed it. They announced we were running 6 rounds, then proceeded to skip to Top 8 after five rounds. We played one round of Top 8, and then the other folks in the Top 4 (I made it to Top 4, yay!) pressured the TO into just calling it quits and dividing up the prize packs equally.
Most people would say to just find somewhere else to play, but the nearest LGS that host tournaments is over an hour away, and this one is in town, so many of us college students go there.
My question to the community would be what can be done about this? Are there official channels to report this to WotC? What can be gained by reporting it? The store owner doesn't seem to care, and his employees seem to just tolerate us Magic players. There has never been a REAL judge, and I'd offer, but darnit, I just wanna play.
Thanks for letting me rant a bit, and I welcome any suggestions y'all might have.
With that said, Poor TO's result in lower turnouts which eventually results in lower revenues for the stores holding the tournament.
If they have enough people to have 6 rounds then they have enough people to need someone to judge this thing.
The pre-release I was at had a judge for every 6-8 players which is an overabundance, but there is nothing wrong with that since they came from all over and there are often a lot of rules questions at pre-releases.
We hear about this a lot, but what you don't hear about is "this store closed in two years". This is most common with the people who show up here all the time and say "I want to start a game store," who somehow get the money togeather and then don't have a plan. TO's who are after a quick buck don't realize how this hurts thier business in the long term. There are a lot of judges and TO's who write MTG articles, and I wish one of them would sit down and write a "How to Organize a MTG Tournament" primer.
You can report this to the DCI, and hopefully they will threaten your TO to get him in shape and not just yank his prize support and ability to sanction.
I will echo the_cardfather's answer. There is a formal procedure to complain to Wizards (or the DCI, I forget which) about problems in tournament procedures. I don't know the details, though. If you can't find the procedure, try asking in Magic General. If you don't get a response there, you can try the Magic Rulings forum afterwards. This is not a rulings question, but there are judges there more frequently, and they might be more knowledgeable on the proper channels to use.