TGC Monthly Constructed + Game Day's - discussion

[Dan Barrett]

Hey all.

As you may have noticed, attendance for these events has gradually been declining, which is a real shame, as I loves me some constructed!

For instance, I remember attending a ~30 player Game Day a while ago. Then I won a 23 player one, then the last one was only 12 players (taken down by K Symington Esq. and his merry band of ebony and ivory allies)

Likewise, we used to fire multiple simultaneous legacy and standard queues at the monthly constructed, and this weekend there were only 3 standards. I played a mere 3 matches, compared to 11+ I have at times in the past. :(


Obviously, this is not ideal for us as players, or for Jason running the events to make a living.

So, why have you stopped coming? What would make you come back in your droves?

[Kieran Symington]

I guess we're in kind of a downward spiral at the moment. The less people who come, the less you get out of attending. And then even less people come. Maybe if there were standard tournaments alongside limited on the weeknights more people might get involved in standard and turn up if there was a weekend event?

[Ben Titmarsh]

I enjoy a bit of standard too, but there isn't enough on offer in terms of prize support for Games Day. Back when it was Champs and a Foil Mutavault was on offer (along with a Trophy?) that was a real incentive. I'd play in more of the monthly things if there was something more prestigious than a bunch of packs and some rating points on offer.

[Dan Barrett]

And yet you'll play in a mon/tues draft for the same prizes - what gives?

Ben Titmarsh said:

I enjoy a bit of standard too, but there isn't enough on offer in terms of prize support for Games Day. Back when it was Champs and a Foil Mutavault was on offer (along with a Trophy?) that was a real incentive. I'd play in more of the monthly things if there was something more prestigious than a bunch of packs and some rating points on offer.

[Charlie Grover]

There was no trophy for the foil mutavault (or me, my bro, rob and pete wouldnt have taken the piss so much in our semi-final match :D) but there was for the one before. However the promo is the issue; the 3 champs/game days ive taken part in have offered quality promos (doran + imperious perfect, matavault + I dont remember, emeria angel + nissa's chosen) and I have consciously decided not to attend the rest.

The reason people will play drafts on monday and tuesday for packs and not on the weekends is that people are more busy on the weekends. at least I presume so, thats the reason i attend weeknights and not weekends at the moment anyway.

[Glenn Goldsworthy]

i have only ever done 1 games day and did enjoy myself but that was before the whole playing standard started to cost well in excess of £100 to build an even close to competative deck, I have no hope of affording that. Also as you Grover says people have to stuff to do at weekends not so much in the week

[Thom Richardson]

This

I like the idea of playing in Games Day but the cost of competative standard decks is so high that i'm much more likely to do something else with my weekends




Glenn Goldsworthy said:

i have only ever done 1 games day and did enjoy myself but that was before the whole playing standard started to cost well in excess of £100 to build an even close to competative deck, I have no hope of affording that. Also as you Grover says people have to stuff to do at weekends not so much in the week

[Ben Titmarsh]

Monday/Tuesday requires 3 hours of time investment on a night when I wouldn't be doing much else. If you want to win decent prizes at Monthly Constructed you have to get there at the very beginning and play in every event that fires until people decide to go home. Similar principle with Games Day, even with 17 players its still 5 rounds. Clearly I have played in these events in the past, and don't completely rule them out on this basis, but if there was more incentive as far as prizes were concerned I would definitely be happier to commit my saturday to one.



Dan Barrett said:

And yet you'll play in a mon/tues draft for the same prizes - what gives?

Ben Titmarsh said:

I enjoy a bit of standard too, but there isn't enough on offer in terms of prize support for Games Day. Back when it was Champs and a Foil Mutavault was on offer (along with a Trophy?) that was a real incentive. I'd play in more of the monthly things if there was something more prestigious than a bunch of packs and some rating points on offer.

[Kieran Symington]

If you don't want to spend millions on a Standard deck for Game Day, you could always try some kind of budget aggro deck. Sometimes they get lucky and run people over before they start making expensive things. It worked for me last time....

[The Games Club]

Ben Titmarsh said:

...but if there was more incentive as far as prizes were concerned I would definitely be happier to commit my saturday to one

How about giving some constructive examples of what "more incentive" actually means?

For example not being kicked in the crotch is a pretty good prize - would that be a sufficient incentive?

Or how about a display of boosters for everyone that takes part? (However the entrance fee would have to go up a little bit or so!)

[Amar Dattani]

Rebecca Bonfield said:

Time is a big factor here.

I want to attend the PTQs so I'm scheduled to play Magic every other weekend well into December. Game Day and even more so the monthlys are what I give up to be able to do that.

I think Rebecca just hit the nail on the head - because the Magic Premier event schedule is so busy (PTQs, GPTs, Nats Qualifiers) people don't have enough weekends to play more casual tournaments.

I don't know if this has become more of a problem recently (you used to get better numbers at Constructed days a few years ago, right Jason?). It is also due to the rising cost of standard. I know I am now unwilling to pay retail for Tier 1 standard decks due to the prohibitive mythic rare cost.

I don't think it's a problem with prizes. Offering more boosters will not solve the problem - it's just that boosters cannot compare to a Pro Tour place or 3 byes at a GP.

[Ben Titmarsh]

Referencing my earlier post, the quality of top 8 foils has gone down considerably since the days of Mutavault. Obviously this is outside of your control Jason. From the top of my head some ideas for prize improvements for the monthly construced:

- A Games Club Trophy/Shield (They do something similar in Kent I believe)
- Winner gets entry to the invitational event
- £5 drafts at The Games Club for a month
- Chase cards procured from Mike e.g. a full set of foil commons from the latest set, a playset of a particular standard rare. 'Win a Foil Planeswalker Day'.
- Magic Madhouse voucher
- Judge Foils/DCI Promo cards

Just something that's not boosters. I also echo the comments of other people that I only get limited weekends to attend Magic events, and I'd rather attend one that has a prize i'm interested in.




Jason Howlett said:

Ben Titmarsh said:

...but if there was more incentive as far as prizes were concerned I would definitely be happier to commit my saturday to one

How about giving some constructive examples of what "more incentive" actually means?

For example not being kicked in the crotch is a pretty good prize - would that be a sufficient incentive?

Or how about a display of boosters for everyone that takes part? (However the entrance fee would have to go up a little bit or so!)

[Kieran Symington]

What if the monthly constructed allowed proxies? (Good ones, obviously) Then it would be really useful for testing decks you might be thinking about buying and you wouldn't have to spend a fortune on cards to participate. The last one, for example, would have been good for testing cards from Scars ready for the Game Day without having had to buy them first.