Community

"Running tournaments, and particularly with these casual formats that we are introducing, you don't need a judge."

Unless this is a change with the new program, it's a horrible mis-statement that inspires confusion, and I'm ashamed to see it on the front page of the official site. Every sanctioned event requires a judge - just not a *certified* judge - to act as an impartial party to resolve disputes. Said judge is usually the organizer, but saying "there is no judge" tells the players "you have no recourse if there's a disagreement, work it out among yourselves."

This all sounds very neat. Props on letting the TOs play.

I am guessing formats outside of the "biggies" will not affect your DCI rating, but will still count toward Magic Player Rewards?

Are these prize kits free? Can you get multiple prize kits if you run multiple events each week? Ex: My local store has events Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Friday is FNM; can the store get a support kit for Monday and another one for Wednesday?

Nice to see this ties into Gleemax. Nice forward planning. Does this mean Gleemax will finally get out of Alpha? :P

Going all-Standard with FNM and WPN promos is a clever decision: you promote the set yes which makes people want to buy, but you also encourage them to enter the Tournament Food Chain via FNMs.

BDM: What do you say to players who are upset that programs like the MSS, Champs, or —if you look at a smaller subset of players—the loss of a Pro Tour. I am assuming this is where a lot those resources have gone. What can you say to those players to assuage their fears that their area of Magic is going to be less and less important as grassroots focused Magic becomes more prominent?

Jesse: I can say that I and the folks that I work with are very much committed to retaining premier play. I think we as a group have premier play in a very good situation. We have good messaging behind it and tell compelling stories about it. We have lots of players who are, as you say, very much engaged in those activities. We have no intent to diminish them or reduce them.

We made the changes that we made at the beginning of this year because we felt that the pendulum had swung in one direction and we wanted to free up resources to devote to the other direction. But we have made those changes and we are committed to the course we are on right now. I think that both levels are going to be properly supported.

Ah, so this is that April announcement regarding what will replace State Champs. Good job, Wizards.

/sarcasm

Wow. The more I read these types of articles and any article based around acquisition, I realize more and more how badly Magic Online has been hurting the Magic playing community as a whole. Sure, MODO has a great player base where you can find a game when you want at any time of day, and WotC makes a ton of money from it. But from everything I've seen, I don't know how it propels Magic playing.

From what I see:

1.) Player sees people playing in stores/magazine ads/something that leads to IRL human interaction.
2.) Player makes friends and plays Magic, buying cards, etc.
3.) Player begins playing games of MODO on their off time.
4.) Player's online collection increases online, their percentage of play switches to online versus IRL.
5.) They associate playing Magic with MODO and play online rather than IRL.
6.) They play online only.
7.) They begin playing World of Warcraft.
8.) They stop playing MODO.
9.) They keep playing WoW and lose their job/college/family/etc.

At least, this is the pattern I've seen repeated times. Maybe that's a strange anomaly.

Hopefully this new program will pull people away from MODO and back to the game playing tables. I don't do the whole MODO thing, but hopefully it'll draw some people off their computers.

Cerelius wrote:

1.) Player sees people playing in stores/magazine ads/something that leads to IRL human interaction.
2.) Player makes friends and plays Magic, buying cards, etc.
3.) Player begins playing games of MODO on their off time.
4.) Player's online collection increases online, their percentage of play switches to online versus IRL.
5.) They associate playing Magic with MODO and play online rather than IRL.
6.) They play online only.
7.) They begin playing World of Warcraft.
8.) They stop playing MODO.
9.) They keep playing WoW and lose their job/college/family/etc.

I hope you're not serious. I don't play wow but I think you're exaggerating the issue. If I understand you correctly, that issue is that magic players are all migrating to MTGO instead of irl magic, and basically magic is coming to and end because of it, and of course those players are eventually decaying due to playing wow. But really I don't see the issue here. Some people play mtgo. Not a big deal.