News from KL

[Raph]

Hello people,

the meeting in KL took place. Fried Meulders, Frank Karsten, Luis Scott Vargas, Ruud Warmenhoven and myself were attending. On WotC's side, Chris Galvin, Scott Larabee, Helene Bergeot and Devin Low were attending.

The meeting lasted two hours and a half with questions asked and answers given.

We will work on a summary of the meeting with the others and post it here as soon as it is ready.

I am personnaly happy with how it went. Do not expect too much though!

Raph

[Chomps]

Damn it, Raph, post something, I am too curious =)

[mercenarybdu]

Way to go Levy! But wheres the APAC rep?

By the way, Evan just posted his latest Show on Youtube.

[gleemax]

I wonder if WotC will mention this meeting and what was talked about in the KL blog. Right now it says they're haveing technical issues, did they cut tech support too?

[mercenarybdu]

I wonder if WotC will mention this meeting and what was talked about in the KL blog. Right now it says they're haveing technical issues, did they cut tech support too?

They better post it in the Blog or we'll be on their case until the cows come home.

[MagicRage]

They better post it in the Blog or we'll be on their case until the cows come home.

They really should. Announcing it on the PT coverage would be and open & upfront move on their part, indicating further an effort to communicate with the players. Additionally, it highlights this website which means more people join the MTGPU which means when they deal with the MTGPU they are dealing with a larger percentage of the player base and the MTGPU representatives are recieving a higher amount of opinions.

Of course, Wizards (at least the people with power of this sort of thing) may not want to give the Union more teeth/members/recognition nor acknowledge there is a problem any more than absolutely neccesary, regardless of what the lower-down-the-totem-pole people want.

[mercenarybdu]

They better post it in the Blog or we'll be on their case until the cows come home.

They really should. Announcing it on the PT coverage would be and open & upfront move on their part, indicating further an effort to communicate with the players. Additionally, it highlights this website which means more people join the MTGPU which means when they deal with the MTGPU they are dealing with a larger percentage of the player base and the MTGPU representatives are recieving a higher amount of opinions.

Of course, Wizards (at least the people with power of this sort of thing) may not want to give the Union more teeth/members/recognition nor acknowledge there is a problem any more than absolutely neccesary, regardless of what the lower-down-the-totem-pole people want.

They may not want to say that we exist through the blog but sooner or later the truth will hit the fan.

[wombat45678]

Okay so I just watched the latest Evan Erwin Article "The Magic Show" on Starcity games and now it seems that not only is Two Headed Giant Champs going to be cancelled but so is States. Am I misunderstanding what's going on? Did WOTC just cut two more tournaments? I mean my face looked something like this when I saw the article:

Like WTF WOTC? Was this even discussed at the KL meeting? Or was the entire Magic Community just blind sided?

[gleemax]

Okay so I just watched the latest Evan Erwin Article "The Magic Show" on Starcity games and now it seems that not only is Two Headed Giant Champs going to be cancelled but so is States. Am I misunderstanding what's going on? Did WOTC just cut two more tournaments? I mean my face looked something like this when I saw the article:

Like WTF WOTC? Was this even discussed at the KL meeting? Or was the entire Magic Community just blind sided?

Um, your a little slow on that news. When they annouced champs being cut they also mentioned states. The two kinda go hand and hand, it's just that champs is more international so it got the higher press. When people talk about one they mean both most of the time.

[wombat45678]

Okay my bad, sorry for the misunderstanding.

[Raph]

The PT is over (for me at least!), but it takes some to write the report of what happened on Thurday. I'll write it on my way back home, so expect it sometimes next week.

Raph

[verbal]

Thanks raph!

[gleemax]

The PT is over (for me at least!), but it takes some to write the report of what happened on Thurday. I'll write it on my way back home, so expect it sometimes next week.

Raph

Yeah that sucks, I read the KL blog. Man you had like the perfect Merfolk hand, but those tree-folk were just a bad match up. Ash-kicking indeed.

[fatguy_poolshark]

The PT is over (for me at least!), but it takes some to write the report of what happened on Thurday. I'll write it on my way back home, so expect it sometimes next week.

Raph

Wow nice way to give a guy who hasnt read the blog yet(PTQ this weekend) a heart attack. I was like WHAT the situation is bad enough Raph is quitting... time to start selling cards Then i read gleeax's post and assumed hes right.

[Ereinion]

Just in case someone has missed it, here's a kind of summary of Wizards' official standpoint regarding the changes to OP:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/ptkl08/qanda

[gleemax]

thats nice, but i'd still like to know raph's side of things, unless they made him sigh a nondisclousure or something.

[mercenarybdu]

I still want to hear the whole story from all who attended the meeting to gain a full overview.

Levy is the first I'd like to hear from followed by everyone else who were present for those Two hours.

[janos_wuryon]

While I read the Wizards post about the meetings and its everyone went away smiling alant I wonder as to the truth of that. I would like to point out some statements I found to be a bit hard to swallow.

First that programs like champs/states were axed because of low turnout in relation to the total # of players. Lets see PT's are 300-400 player invite only events and GP's range from 400- 1000+. Both of these number represent a fraction of the 200,000+ DCI registered players and almost none of the people just starting out as a serious level competitor. These events live on Champs/States ( in NY) anyways avereage 80-100+ people. Seems to me that if you have 50 states events that average at least 1/4 of what NY does you run an event that reaches 1000+ players across the country. THat seems like a GP Quality turnout to me and I bet that of the 1000+ going to stats on a given saturday only a small portion of them actuall would travel to a GP..... Thats just one of my initial thoughts about this so after I read the reports from our attendees Im sure ill have more to say

[gleemax]

still no report? you guys are letting your support down. its like all that enegy and hype went away along with kl. before kl everyone was union gung-ho and posting city. what happened at kl?

[Shadowhunter483]

I'm sure everyone is just tired. I travel to Asia every now and then, and I know that the jet lag is killer.

[kardkid13]

Seriously, Raph and the guys are Pro Tour competitors, and flying to Asia is exhausting, not to mention several days of Magic. Give him a break to collect his thoughts, I'm sure we'll all be the better informed for our patience.

[mercenarybdu]

While I read the Wizards post about the meetings and its everyone went away smiling alant I wonder as to the truth of that. I would like to point out some statements I found to be a bit hard to swallow.

First that programs like champs/states were axed because of low turnout in relation to the total # of players. Lets see PT's are 300-400 player invite only events and GP's range from 400- 1000+. Both of these number represent a fraction of the 200,000+ DCI registered players and almost none of the people just starting out as a serious level competitor. These events live on Champs/States ( in NY) anyways avereage 80-100+ people. Seems to me that if you have 50 states events that average at least 1/4 of what NY does you run an event that reaches 1000+ players across the country. THat seems like a GP Quality turnout to me and I bet that of the 1000+ going to stats on a given saturday only a small portion of them actuall would travel to a GP..... Thats just one of my initial thoughts about this so after I read the reports from our attendees Im sure ill have more to say

These events might not give out Pro Points, they did give the low profile person the chance to play in them and have a good time. Yet Champs got the axe too which has caused an uproar that even got the locals of my area pretty upset too as they have to drive even further away from home just to go to such events for some jolly times.

[janos_wuryon]

Ill be quick here. Im sorry for the bad grammar and spelling in my last post ( I should know better than to type when im sick).. Ok on to more relevant thoughts. I would like to say that the amount of information covered at the meeting as well as the response from WOTC is a lot to process. I have had similiar experiences in my work life and it does take some time to regain your objectivity and perspective. WHile I am eager to hear our side of things I would rather hear a concise and clear headed response than one fired from the hip. I gather from the WOTC response that they took the vantage of the misunderstood benefactor. They didn't make changes for any nasty business reasons they were just trying to help. If I had gone into that meeting looking to denounce the aims of foolish, company brainwashed drones I would have had a bit of a stumble when they took this stance. After the meeting Im sure that Everyone involved thought of dozens of holes in WOTC's responses as well as many things to address that can't be explained away by WOTC's just trying to help defense. SO in conclusion give those who were there first hand a break and allow them to sort out what occured. Thus they can deliver a clearer message to all of us.

[Damion]

Could this possibly be one of the things that Wizards is doing to appeal to the casual crowd with their budget reallocation? http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/021808

[Shadowhunter483]

I don't think so. I mean unless they are creating something like regular Saturday tournaments, porting magic online to the xbox will do nothing.

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