Changes to WPN for TOs without stores - i.e. TGC

[Paul Hodgson]

Spotted this on MTGSalvation earlier today, I imagine that there are serious implications for TGC...

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=277459

"Originally Posted by Wizards of the Coast

In Wizards of the Coast's continuing global efforts to build strong Magic and D&D player communities in hobby stores, WPN levels and benefits will apply solely to stores as of the December Friday Night Magic solicitation round starting October 15th. This change will also appear in the Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease solicitation round starting October 18th. This change allows Wizards to better leverage the strengths of the WPN and our programs, maximizing their impact for stores and promoting the formation of vibrant player communities. 

Stores will earn WPN levels based on all sanctioned OP activity that they sponsor. All WPN programs, including Prereleases, D&D Encounters and FNM, will be given exclusively to store locations. 

Most stores and organizers will notice no change with this shift. The vast majority of Organized Play already happens in retail locations. However, we do have individual organizers who are not associated with specific stores. We encourage these organizers to team up with a local retailer so their players can enjoy the great programs at the store's WPN level! 

For those organizers unable to associate with a store, we will offer an Event Support Kit starting with Mirrodin Besieged. This kit will be identical to the Gateway Support Kit for the most recent Core set (Magic 2011 in this case), and will refresh with each new Core set. Organizers not associated with a store will also have access to rated and casual sanctioned events. 

For more information please refer to the detailed FAQ, or contact your dedicated Wizards of the Coast support team at 800.324.6496 or online at www.wizards.com/customerservice.

Jason I imagine you're impacted significantly by this, as it means that pre-releases and FNMs are no longer available to TGC. Do you have a view on what the impact is going to be to the London Magic scene? Is there anything that the community (i.e. us!) can do?

/worried...

[Ben Titmarsh]

Yeah, this looks pretty significant. Does it have to be a bricks and mortar store? Maybe TGC could become affiliated with Magic Madhouse.

[Charlie Grover]

Announcements that should have effected TGC but didnt have happened before, hoping the same is true here..

[Daniel Royde]

This will damage "my" uni group a bit. I assume there are other smaller clubs that won't like this. Should we all be starting a petition?

[Amar Dattani]

That Ginger One said:

Announcements that should have effected TGC but didnt have happened before, hoping the same is true here..

I really hope your right Charlie - losing London Pre-Releases would be quite a big deal for UK Magic.
If not hopefully Jason can affiliate with someone.
Ben - Don't think Mike qualifies as a store.

[Charlie Grover]

Check Rob Wagner's facebook...

Daniel Royde said:

This will damage "my" uni group a bit. I assume there are other smaller clubs that won't like this. Should we all be starting a petition?

[Daniel Royde]

How will this change affect Premier events including Regional Prerelease events?
Premier events and Regional Prereleases are Wizards-run events, like Grand Prix and Pro Tour Qualifier events, and still exist for the Mirrodin Besieged and subsequent Prerelease rounds. PTOs will continue to be contracted to run large Regional Prerelease events for each Magic set release.



That Ginger One said:

Announcements that should have effected TGC but didnt have happened before, hoping the same is true here..

[Paul Hodgson]

Think the body of the announcement says something about Regional pre-releases not being affected, however FNM and Local Pre-releases, and potentially PTQs/GPTs will be unavailable.

[Thomas David Baker]

deckcheck.net claims it is closing down in protest at these changes.

Quite a stir on the interweb. I wonder if it will have any influence on the policy.

(As an aside, I currently have a copy of all 38,133 decklists from deckcheck.net as part of my uber Magic program that also powers magic.bluebones.net/proxies/ so the data at least won't be lost if he really goes through with it ... I guess we have an opportunity to make a "better" deckcheck. I'll let him have his moment in the sun before putting anything together, though.)

[Dan Barrett]

That deckcheck thing is the stupidest protest ever.

Also I look forward to seeing and plugging your forthcoming new and improved version! :)

[Charlie Grover]

Im not convinced it is actually. I think the closing down of a major site that helps support a game will make wizards take notice as much as a fair amount of facebook ranting as long as it is publicized which will be the main issue.

[Thomas David Baker]

I wonder if the venn diagram of "the people who know what deckcheck is" and "the people who made this decision" overlap a lot, a little or not at all. There's a fair bit of Facebook grumbling about this also so it will be interesting if there is enough to produce an about face.

[Daniel Royde]

It's really helpful that they released this on a Friday. So that we can get official answers near to the announcement....