Subject: State Championships and Nationals Date: Sat, 05 Dec 1998 19:17:59 PST From: "paul jordan" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com I have been talking to some of the State Champions, and others who are involved in competitive MTG, and most of us feel that the state championships should hold some bearing on the Nationals. I know that they have regionals for this, but doesn't it make sense for state championships to lead to something bigger? If it doesn't lead directly to Nationals, then perhaps it could offer some edge in Regional tournaments. One person suggested having a series of byes to State Champions, and maybe others (top 8 from states, or top 4, etc..) as we see in Grand Prix competition for higher ranked players. I know that this seems kind of trivial, but it really is a matter of some importance. If Wizards wants MTG to be a serious "sport" or game or whatever, its tournament circuit should flow from one tournament to another. Any other sport/competition that takes place nationwide and has state championships has the champions or highest ranked players from each state compete in the next level. In this case it would be Regionals. Since Regional tournaments do not require invitations, this doesn't seem to make much sense. The next obvious step would be to either offer some sort of advantage to the State Champions by giving them a few byes, or to give them free passage into the Nationals. I know that it would not be that much of an inconvenience to add 50 slots to the Nationals. The people that run this are quite experienced and can certainly handle that. Let me (or Wizards) know what you think. aloha, paul truth is good the bottoms of my shoes are clean from walking in the rain. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com