Subject: The Troubles With PTQs And How To Fix Them Date: 2 Sep 1998 04:39:14 GMT From: Matthew Hubbard Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy What's Wrong With Pro Tour Qualifiers And How To Fix Them This Saturday, a two slot qualifier for the Pro Tour - Chicago tournament was held at Neutral Ground in Mountain View, Ca. This is not a tourney report; this is an account of how badly these tournaments are run and a few simple things that could be done to improve them. Let me start by saying why I like the Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ) tourneys this season. 1) I like big tournaments. It's great to have strong competition coming in from as far away as Reno or even L.A.; it means more when you win, it hurts more when you lose. 2) I personally like sealed deck over constructed play, because I don't have the time to playtest a constructed deck to bring it to tournament quality. 3) As a sealed deck player, I like the one starter/two boosters from three different sets format more than any other type of sealed deck or draft, because unless there's been a sorting problem, everybody will have a "Highlander" deck, one of everything except basic lands. Facing a deck with two or three copies of some overpowered common (Red X spells, Empyrial Armor, etc.) can take deck building skills completely out of the mix. If those are my three favorite things about the current PTQ season, here are my three least favorite things. 1) Overcrowding 2) Waiting 3) Capricious Rulings Let me take each of these points in turn and give my ideas on how to improve on the current situation. 1. Overcrowding. Yesterday's tournament had slightly less than 120 players; the one slot PTQs earlier this summer averaged about 90 or so. Neutral Ground has its tables numbered assuming crowds of nearly 250. To accomodate this larger number - a number I readily admit WILL show up for a pre-release tourney - the seating is set up for four matches at an eight foot table and three at a six foot table. The result is about 120 people crammed into about half the store, while the rest of the store is seriously under-utilized. The crowding makes that part of the room very hot, and the ventilation is inadequate to the task; it was much hotter in the store than it was outside, and it was a warm (not blazing) day. This crowding also means that it get harder to keep track of your belongings; I often did not know if the starter box on my left hand side contained my sideboard or the sideboard of the person sitting next to me. The answer here is simple; set up for 3 matches per 8 foot table and 2 matches per 6 foot table. If that means renumbering the tables when big tourneys come around and undoing that work when smaller tourneys, do the work. I used to work at Neutral Ground when it was Match Play; I know that it will be no skin off the nose of Brian Chew, the owner. He'll just get his underlings to do the work. Moreover, get better ventilation; if it means more big fans or better air conditioning, spend the money. The place is being remodeled, and it would be an excellent idea if serious thought was given to the comfort of the customers who are keeping this place open. ---- 2. Waiting. My friend Eric Newhouse - one of the people who taught me the game way back in The Ice Age - was sitting a few seats away from me as `the product' was being passed out; this was Eric's first big tournament for a while. Eric, a generally laid back individual, calmly said he was amazed at how long things were taking and that this would likely be his last PTQ. I have played in so many of these things over the past couple of years, I've become resigned to the long wait for everything, but Eric was completely right, and the long delays were just beginning. The service is on the level of airports, airlines and the DMV. There is room for vast improvement. Some things are going to take time at these tournaments, but a lot of time is being wasted, especially in the explanations of the rules of the store, how to fill out a deck list as the registrar and how to fill it out as the user, how a sideboard works, what the Paris Mulligan is, etc. Here is the easy way to save time. Write the rules down and hand them out to the players when they sign in. Make it the players' responsibility to read and understand the rules; tell them this several times before the tournament starts. Most of them have played in PTQs before, and if there are no new store policies or rule changes, don't announce the stuff that 90% or more of the group already knows. Announce only the changes. If there is room, add a FAQ of rulings dealing with the cards in the set that are being played. Granted, not every ruling can be listed, but some unusual highlights (sacrificing a Blood Pet with trample damage during damage prevention, casting a Sonic Burst in response to casting a buyback spell, Interdicting the tapping of a Skyshroud Elf, Maddening Imp's ability, etc.) Too often at these tournaments, information is considered so valuable it can't be given to the people who need it. ---- 3. Capricious Rulings. It was the last round on Saturday; the crowd of 120 had dwindled to less than 50, but we were still stuck together in the cramped conditions, filling up the first few tables while the rest of the shop, between 66% to 75% of the available table space, was not being used. I went to Peter, the head judge, and recommended that everyone check their table number on the pairing sheet, multiply that number by two and go to that table instead. In other words, everyone still in this pivotal round would finally have enough room for their cards, sideboard, life counters, etc. (In point of fact, this method could have been used in the sixth round as well, and maybe even in the fifth.) Peter said no. I asked why. The answer, essentially, was "Because I said so." This was not the only question I asked Peter on Saturday, but this was the only answer and only justification I ever got from him. There are definitely times when I have taken Peter's judging style personally, but on reflection, I think he only behaves like this because he believes that he can almost always get in less trouble saying "no" than "yes". He misses the big picture; the more people he pisses off with his attitude, the less will show up to these tournaments, and the game (at least at this level) will wither and die. ---- Perhaps these problems are only found at Neutral Ground in Mountain View; I would expect some of them are universal in the general case, even if specific incidents differ. On Saturday, the shop took in about $3,000 in entry fees alone, not to mention the incidentals the crowd bought. More thought should be given to the comfort and convenience of the players, who are, after all, the customers, the people who keep a business alive. While I have named names - the owner and the head judge - I don't want this to be considered a personal attack. The problem is with the system that has been put in place, and the system needs to be changed. MattH