And the majority of players would disagree with your post I say.
And it's not like competitive MTG is going away, WotC (Hasbro) is looking for someone (maybe starcitygames) to be the "banner" carrier for them.
no, hasbro execs are looking at numbers on pieces of paper and trying to make them look good... and not realize, who and why and how those numbers even get there...
You can decide to get your own tournament scene going
It might be rather hard to imagine but there are smaller countries in the world then the US. The largest event during this season was probably Nationals with about 100 players. If we get 20 people to attend our local FNM thats actually a lot.Even if there was someone like Starcity in Switzerland (there isn't) who would be able to run a tournament series like SCG Opens and most active tournament players woud attend,we still wouldn't have chance to compete in this system.
So my was to access in higher-level Tournaments were basicly winning a PTQ or winning Nationals. In the past years I put a lot of effort into trying to qualify for Nationals (which I did) and improving my performance there to get closer to my goal of playing at Worlds one time. The goal was hard to reach but there was a way I could go. Trying to improve my play to get there I went to FNM every week. I played NQs, GPTs and PTQs in my area and obviously spent quite some money to buy cards. I did everything that WotC now wants me to do. The problem? Now there is no such way for me to actually get there. I don't have a reason to play sanctioned Events. With the Nationals becoming meaningless I dont even need to play T2. No reason to buy new cards.
See, I think that everyone is missing what is happening here. WotC cannot sustain designing MTG (making worlds, characters, cards, etc.) AND organizing play. Their is no reason for them to, unless they jack up prices and keep the winnings down. At that rate, no one would go. Or they could funnel the cost onto us in a different way (i.e. higher pack prices which is not what I want to happen). For the overall future of MTG, these are steps that need to be taken. They have limited resources and those resources need to used very carefully.
See, I think that everyone is missing what is happening here. WotC cannot sustain designing MTG (making worlds, characters, cards, etc.) AND organizing play. Their is no reason for them to, unless they jack up prices and keep the winnings down. At that rate, no one would go. Or they could funnel the cost onto us in a different way (i.e. higher pack prices which is not what I want to happen). For the overall future of MTG, these are steps that need to be taken. They have limited resources and those resources need to used very carefully.
Design and organized play are two completely seperate beasts in WOTC land. Maro doesn't sit there and worry about wether the next PTQ will be in Singapore or Tulsa.
See, I think that everyone is missing what is happening here. WotC cannot sustain designing MTG (making worlds, characters, cards, etc.) AND organizing play. Their is no reason for them to, unless they jack up prices and keep the winnings down. At that rate, no one would go. Or they could funnel the cost onto us in a different way (i.e. higher pack prices which is not what I want to happen). For the overall future of MTG, these are steps that need to be taken. They have limited resources and those resources need to used very carefully.
Do you have ANY idea how much $$$ Wizards is making, just on MODO alone? Digital Objects that cost zero to make (yes I know there are server costs, but it's minimal compared to their intake). Let's take an online PTQ for example. PTQ's online are like 500 players or more. It's 30 TIX to enter at 1$ per ticket. That's 15,000$ intake for them, and they give out what in return, a predetermined number of packs that is nowhere near that amount in real $'s and one, a single pro tour invite, out of 500 people. And that is ONE event, and not including paper magic etc... Wizard's is INTAKING a ton of money.
Yeah, and that money pays salaries, design, marketing, the actual making of the cards, artist, maintenance of the client, etc. It's not cheap to run a business.
And yes, design and organized play are two different animals, that is my point. Would you rather they neglect the design of the game so that they can make sure that LSV and PV are at the next major tournament? No offense to those individuals and all their contributions to the game, but I could careless if they ever play the in a tournament again.
I played MTG for years before I knew that there was a Pro Tour (and I only knew of that because of their advertising!).
I totally disagree that the MTG community will be smaller. This provides anyone the chance to be on the Pro Tour, which means that the tournaments are going to be bigger because they can "grind" in so to speak.
There are clearly less slots available now and those slots are determined by grinding. If there are fewer slots for the same number of people that means LESS CHANCE.
If you are good at Magic and enjoy playing it, then you shouldn't worry about it. Alice was a committed Magic player and was rewarded for it, Mr. Kibler wasn't as much, and this system shows that.
Alice is a mediocre player whose contribution to the community is practically nil. Kibler is a hall of famer that no longer needs to qualify so it is irrelevant. Who has contributed more to the community? I bet you that Kibler buys just as much product as Alice does (they each probably have playsets) and since Alice grinds what is constructed events, Wizards is not making any more money off Alice.
Again, Kibler is a bright guy who has devoted a lot of times to collectible games. He has a high opportunity cost to devoting time to magic.
Kibler inspires me and I would daresay a greater number of magic players in general to play the game.
The new incentive system is put in place 100% for people like Alice. It is a narrower system. If I were Kibler and this system had been in place the last 10 years I would've gone and done something else.
You say that grinders are going to flood the Pro Tour, I say that it is unrealistic for these "grinders" to do this. This isn't like a video game that you can sit there and play it all day and it waits for you to come back.
Your opinion is not true to life when we have the cold hard facts already. The SCG'ers have a huge lead on everybody else because they do exactly that. The SCG circuit is dominated by college kids who have little opportunity cost to playing the game every weekend. The SCG'ers also dominate the PWP rankings.
See, I think that everyone is missing what is happening here. WotC cannot sustain designing MTG (making worlds, characters, cards, etc.) AND organizing play. Their is no reason for them to, unless they jack up prices and keep the winnings down. At that rate, no one would go. Or they could funnel the cost onto us in a different way (i.e. higher pack prices which is not what I want to happen). For the overall future of MTG, these are steps that need to be taken. They have limited resources and those resources need to used very carefully.
Do you have Wizards income reports in front of you? Probably not. The game has been doing very well in general and they are one of the most profitable divisions of Hasbro (especially given Modo basically prints money).
The cost of organized play is probably the least of Wizards costs. The main point of organized play is to incentivize people to play the game and more importantly buy product.
The current system has its problems but the new system seems like a serious step in the wrong direction.
Again here's why:
1) Top level play will be dominated by grinders. Grinders have their place. They should not be so dominant though. There is a place for more casual but extremely skillful players as they contribute a lot to the community in articles and theory. More diverse top players means more ways to attract aspiring players to the game.
2) There are less slots which means there is less chance for anyone to make it. People are rational. After the first season they will see standings dominated by grinders. They will see the top players around the world be people who literally play the game like a second job and realize they will never be able to compete with that. They will, as such, stop devoting so much time to the game. This will not be good for Wizards.
A good incentive system is like a ladder. You climb it and you get progressively better rewards. The new system seems incredibly narrow and top-heavy in terms of rewards. It seems unlikely to me to signifcantly broaden the magic player base. Even the FNM championships is going to have serious overlap with the top PWP players who are grinding to get on the PT.
3) This system does not necessarily drive people to buy more product. As I've said before each player only needs playsets to be competitive in tournament play. They don't need much more product on top of that. Wizards best way to make profit (from organized play) is to have a wide player base that aspires to tournament-level play and gets playsets (driving boxed sales). Getting the top players to play the game more and casual players to play the game less is counterproductive to this. The top players already have playsets. The casual players will get them as income allows and as the incentive-system allows.
There were problems with the old system and I was excited about their being more GP's but it seems like they threw out a lot of the good with the bad.
the issues are greater than that... under the new system, someone can win the 1st and 2nd pro tour, and still not be qued for the 3rd... don't you see an issue there?
No, I don't see an issue there. Because each Pro Tour is a single discrete event. Doing well in one should have no bearing on acceptance to the next.
I have no problems with people having to qualify for each individual tour separately. I also think people are dramatically overestimating how many people will spend the ridiculous amounts of money it would cost to grind out entry onto a single pro tour. There is no way that can yield a positive return on investment.
No, I don't see an issue there. Because each Pro Tour is a single discrete event. Doing well in one should have no bearing on acceptance to the next.
I have no problems with people having to qualify for each individual tour separately. I also think people are dramatically overestimating how many people will spend the ridiculous amounts of money it would cost to grind out entry onto a single pro tour. There is no way that can yield a positive return on investment.
there only needs to be 100 players out of millions who want to do it, there will be
So are they going to do away with their tag line of "play the game, see the world" since there is no longer the pipe dream of winning regionals, then placing at nationals, and getting to go to worlds (ala Anthony Eason last year)
Also, what happens if someone wins two PT's in one year? There are terms lined out saying that the ratings invites pass down, but will the PT invite go to one of the 2nd place finishers, and then how would they decide which 2nd place person gets the invite? While it is pretty unlikely to matter, it still seems like something that should have been stated, so when it eventually does happens everyone isn't waiting for questions to be answered then.
The thing that I don't like about the change to Worlds is that the national champions are no longer invited. At the very least Worlds should have the national champs get invited. On a similar note, when WOTC still ran states, I always thought that the state champions should earn and invite to Nationals.
there only needs to be 100 players out of millions who want to do it, there will be
No you don't understand.
It's not that there won't be interest in trying to do it. It's that it is literally unsustainable. There are not 100 people in the world who have the finances to grind out the GP's that would be required to "buy-on" to the pro tour that everyone is so worried about.
I'll bet there are less than 20. In fact, of that less than 20 I'll wager that any that DO make the PT will realize that a $500 plane voucher and getting to play in the tournament is not worth the thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours they had to spend grinding it out.
And I argue that old system was more bad. It encouraged people to not play, which is ultimately worse for the game overall. If I had a bad string of tournaments (which happens), then I could lose YEARS of work, which would make me more likely to just give up the "dream" of having the "gravy train". And most of the playing community is probably more in my boat, where they use FNM as their "playtest" group.
I have a family and job, I don't have much free time other then to play on MTGO and at FNMs. At least this system gives me the hope that if I play well at every FNM and maybe make an appearance at some "higher level" tournaments then I will be able to maybe get an invite at least to the FNM tournament. Who knows, just maybe I am lucky enough to get an invite to the Pro Tour because these "grinders" that you're so ******* worried about don't actually have an effect on the system. Is there the chance that it could happen, yes. Did the old system encourage you to not play "real" games, yes. Which do you think is worse overall for the game?
Like I said, I don't think the system is perfect or without it's flaws, but it is the future of MTG, deal with it. If you don't like it, then just be an adult about it and walk away instead of bashing the system. Sorry you're losing your gravy train, and new people will rise to take your place. I believe that I am an above average player (usually it was just commitment that kept me from going to the "next" level, I didn't want to travel nor drop hundreds of dollars on decks), but I don't expect the game to reward me beyond what I put into it, be that money and/or time.
And if Alice turns out to be a real problem, you really don't think that WotC won't do something about it?
Lastly, I would rather that WotC focus their resources on the actual design (health) of the game and less on organized play. If you want a system that gives you a chance to make a living at playing MTG, then make it happen instead of complaining about not having one.
And I argue that old system was more bad. It encouraged people to not play, which is ultimately worse for the game overall. If I had a bad string of tournaments (which happens), then I could lose YEARS of work, which would make me more likely to just give up the "dream" of having the "gravy train". And most of the playing community is probably more in my boat, where they use FNM as their "playtest" group.
I have a family and job, I don't have much free time other then to play on MTGO and at FNMs. At least this system gives me the hope that if I play well at every FNM and maybe make an appearance at some "higher level" tournaments then I will be able to maybe get an invite at least to the FNM tournament. Who knows, just maybe I am lucky enough to get an invite to the Pro Tour because these "grinders" that you're so ******* worried about don't actually have an effect on the system. Is there the chance that it could happen, yes. Did the old system encourage you to not play "real" games, yes. Which do you think is worse overall for the game?
Like I said, I don't think the system is perfect or without it's flaws, but it is the future of MTG, deal with it. If you don't like it, then just be an adult about it and walk away instead of bashing the system. Sorry you losing your gravy train, and new people will rise to take your place. I believe that I am an above average player (usually it was just commitment that kept me from going to the "next" level, I didn't want to travel nor drop hundreds of dollars on decks), but I don't expect the game to reward be beyond what I put into it, be that money and/or time.
And if Alice turns out to be a real problem, you really don't think that WotC won't do something about it?
Lastly, I would rather that WotC focus their resources on the actual design (health) of the game and less on organized play. If you want a system that gives you a chance to make a living at playing MTG, then make it happen instead of complaining about not having one.
right, which is why the pro's suggested, rating decay as a solution to that
No, I don't see an issue there. Because each Pro Tour is a single discrete event. Doing well in one should have no bearing on acceptance to the next.
You really have no stake in reality. None. Do you understand how hard it is to qualify the first time? There's no incentive for people to bother with trying if their effort is never rewarded. Don't give me the 'ol "play for fun lulz", because people can do MANY different things that are enjoyable but don't cost nearly the amount of money or amount of time Magic takes. And that's what people probably will do.
When less people play, Magic is worse off. It only takes a mild intelligence to understand that a large majority of people go to tournaments for reward and the 'Dream' that they can go somewhere playing the game they enjoy. Without it, there's no reason for a lot of players to attend tournaments.
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Significantly easier now that a bunch of slots aren't eaten up by people who get garunteed spots based on Past PT performances?
Where have they said that those invitations are going to be redistributed? Assuming you are talking about the top 50 invites, they haven't said anything about increasing PTQ's or anything. If anything PTs will just be smaller.
Significantly easier now that a bunch of slots aren't eaten up by people who get garunteed spots based on Past PT performances?
Those slots were never available to you in the first place! And even if you manage to win a PTQ (Your only real chance now) even if you do well at the PT you now have to win another PTQ to get back. This doesn't help anyone except the grinders.
You now have LESS OF A CHANCE to qualify. Do you understand that? If there is LESS CHANCE it doesn't make it EASIER.
If I type in all caps do you understand it better? Please tell me you do.
Those slots were never available to you in the first place! And even if you manage to win a PTQ (Your only real chance now) even if you do well at the PT you now have to win another PTQ to get back. This doesn't help anyone except the grinders.
You now have LESS OF A CHANCE to qualify. Do you understand that? If there is LESS CHANCE it doesn't make it EASIER.
If I type in all caps do you understand it better? Please tell me you do.
Those slots were never available to you in the first place! And even if you manage to win a PTQ (Your only real chance now) even if you do well at the PT you now have to win another PTQ to get back. This doesn't help anyone except the grinders.
You now have LESS OF A CHANCE to qualify. Do you understand that? If there is LESS CHANCE it doesn't make it EASIER.
there's two things going on here:
1) Reduction in size of the PT.
2) No more automatic previous PT winner invite.
They are related, yes, but they are not tied to each other in the way you suggest. If they kept the automatic previous winner invite, then there would be less slots available to people for the PT. The PT has a hard cap on the number of people invited.
Lets say (for the sake of argument) that 300 people will be invited.
Of those 300, 8 qualify based on top 8'ing the last pro tour. 100 qualify based on having the highest "pro planeswalker points" or whatever it is. that leves 192 slots to qualify form PTQs. Now instead, we eliminate the free automatic entry for the top 8 from the last pro tour.
What do we get? 8 more slots that get invites from PTQ's.
Those slots were never available to you in the first place! And even if you manage to win a PTQ (Your only real chance now) even if you do well at the PT you now have to win another PTQ to get back. This doesn't help anyone except the grinders.
You now have LESS OF A CHANCE to qualify. Do you understand that? If there is LESS CHANCE it doesn't make it EASIER.
If I type in all caps do you understand it better? Please tell me you do.
So for the three people a year who win a PT, it's worse, but for the rest of us it's better because we have more slots. As a result, more new people get in to PTs (which is good for the game on its own, btw). Those new people are more likely to want to go again, so they play in more PTQs later. In addition, those people who won the last PT now almost certainly want to go again, so they go to more PTQs. See where I'm going? So, now you have for each PT 9 people who are highly motivated to play in tons of PTQs for at least the next season, and probably longer.
1) Reduction in size of the PT.
2) No more automatic previous PT winner invite.
They are related, yes, but they are not tied to each other in the way you suggest. If they kept the automatic previous winner invite, then there would be less slots available to people for the PT. The PT has a hard cap on the number of people invited.
Lets say (for the sake of argument) that 300 people will be invited.
Of those 300, 8 qualify based on top 8'ing the last pro tour. 100 qualify based on having the highest "pro planeswalker points" or whatever it is. that leves 192 slots to qualify form PTQs. Now instead, we eliminate the free automatic entry for the top 8 from the last pro tour.
What do we get? 8 more slots that get invites from PTQ's.
except that 1) dozens to hundreds less PTQs are occuring world wide (2) you can't q from GPs any more.
There are *less* slots available. It is harder to Q.
except that 1) dozens to hundreds less PTQs are occuring world wide (2) you can't q from GPs any more.
There are *less* slots available. It is harder to Q.
There is one less PT. It is even harder to Q.
Right, but thats a completely separate complaint. The fact that past winners do not receive an automatic invite to the next pro tour does not make it harder for people to qualify for that pro tour. I agree that the sum of all the changes does make it harder (becuase there are less slots). But that particular fact makes it easier than the inverse.
Yes the old system had problems, but just as it was said, there were possible solutions (rating decay, certain amount of tournaments before on can get byes or qualify through rationg each season and so on)
But this is like the Doctor amputation your leg because you broke some toes.
There is a difference between treating a problem and throwing everything over board and creating a whole bunch of new problems
I think the primary issue is that the Pro Toor wasn't achieving what they wanted it to achieve. What that is / was I'm not 100% sure (I have my guesses, but they are jsut as much speculation as anyone elses).
Even if the PT is achieving what you want it to admirably, that doesn't necessairly mean that its achieving what WotC wants it to.
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no, hasbro execs are looking at numbers on pieces of paper and trying to make them look good... and not realize, who and why and how those numbers even get there...
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It might be rather hard to imagine but there are smaller countries in the world then the US. The largest event during this season was probably Nationals with about 100 players. If we get 20 people to attend our local FNM thats actually a lot.Even if there was someone like Starcity in Switzerland (there isn't) who would be able to run a tournament series like SCG Opens and most active tournament players woud attend,we still wouldn't have chance to compete in this system.
So my was to access in higher-level Tournaments were basicly winning a PTQ or winning Nationals. In the past years I put a lot of effort into trying to qualify for Nationals (which I did) and improving my performance there to get closer to my goal of playing at Worlds one time. The goal was hard to reach but there was a way I could go. Trying to improve my play to get there I went to FNM every week. I played NQs, GPTs and PTQs in my area and obviously spent quite some money to buy cards. I did everything that WotC now wants me to do. The problem? Now there is no such way for me to actually get there. I don't have a reason to play sanctioned Events. With the Nationals becoming meaningless I dont even need to play T2. No reason to buy new cards.
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Design and organized play are two completely seperate beasts in WOTC land. Maro doesn't sit there and worry about wether the next PTQ will be in Singapore or Tulsa.
Do you have ANY idea how much $$$ Wizards is making, just on MODO alone? Digital Objects that cost zero to make (yes I know there are server costs, but it's minimal compared to their intake). Let's take an online PTQ for example. PTQ's online are like 500 players or more. It's 30 TIX to enter at 1$ per ticket. That's 15,000$ intake for them, and they give out what in return, a predetermined number of packs that is nowhere near that amount in real $'s and one, a single pro tour invite, out of 500 people. And that is ONE event, and not including paper magic etc... Wizard's is INTAKING a ton of money.
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And yes, design and organized play are two different animals, that is my point. Would you rather they neglect the design of the game so that they can make sure that LSV and PV are at the next major tournament? No offense to those individuals and all their contributions to the game, but I could careless if they ever play the in a tournament again.
I played MTG for years before I knew that there was a Pro Tour (and I only knew of that because of their advertising!).
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There are clearly less slots available now and those slots are determined by grinding. If there are fewer slots for the same number of people that means LESS CHANCE.
Alice is a mediocre player whose contribution to the community is practically nil. Kibler is a hall of famer that no longer needs to qualify so it is irrelevant. Who has contributed more to the community? I bet you that Kibler buys just as much product as Alice does (they each probably have playsets) and since Alice grinds what is constructed events, Wizards is not making any more money off Alice.
Again, Kibler is a bright guy who has devoted a lot of times to collectible games. He has a high opportunity cost to devoting time to magic.
Kibler inspires me and I would daresay a greater number of magic players in general to play the game.
The new incentive system is put in place 100% for people like Alice. It is a narrower system. If I were Kibler and this system had been in place the last 10 years I would've gone and done something else.
Your opinion is not true to life when we have the cold hard facts already. The SCG'ers have a huge lead on everybody else because they do exactly that. The SCG circuit is dominated by college kids who have little opportunity cost to playing the game every weekend. The SCG'ers also dominate the PWP rankings.
Do you have Wizards income reports in front of you? Probably not. The game has been doing very well in general and they are one of the most profitable divisions of Hasbro (especially given Modo basically prints money).
The cost of organized play is probably the least of Wizards costs. The main point of organized play is to incentivize people to play the game and more importantly buy product.
The current system has its problems but the new system seems like a serious step in the wrong direction.
Again here's why:
1) Top level play will be dominated by grinders. Grinders have their place. They should not be so dominant though. There is a place for more casual but extremely skillful players as they contribute a lot to the community in articles and theory. More diverse top players means more ways to attract aspiring players to the game.
2) There are less slots which means there is less chance for anyone to make it. People are rational. After the first season they will see standings dominated by grinders. They will see the top players around the world be people who literally play the game like a second job and realize they will never be able to compete with that. They will, as such, stop devoting so much time to the game. This will not be good for Wizards.
A good incentive system is like a ladder. You climb it and you get progressively better rewards. The new system seems incredibly narrow and top-heavy in terms of rewards. It seems unlikely to me to signifcantly broaden the magic player base. Even the FNM championships is going to have serious overlap with the top PWP players who are grinding to get on the PT.
3) This system does not necessarily drive people to buy more product. As I've said before each player only needs playsets to be competitive in tournament play. They don't need much more product on top of that. Wizards best way to make profit (from organized play) is to have a wide player base that aspires to tournament-level play and gets playsets (driving boxed sales). Getting the top players to play the game more and casual players to play the game less is counterproductive to this. The top players already have playsets. The casual players will get them as income allows and as the incentive-system allows.
There were problems with the old system and I was excited about their being more GP's but it seems like they threw out a lot of the good with the bad.
No, I don't see an issue there. Because each Pro Tour is a single discrete event. Doing well in one should have no bearing on acceptance to the next.
I have no problems with people having to qualify for each individual tour separately. I also think people are dramatically overestimating how many people will spend the ridiculous amounts of money it would cost to grind out entry onto a single pro tour. There is no way that can yield a positive return on investment.
there only needs to be 100 players out of millions who want to do it, there will be
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Also, what happens if someone wins two PT's in one year? There are terms lined out saying that the ratings invites pass down, but will the PT invite go to one of the 2nd place finishers, and then how would they decide which 2nd place person gets the invite? While it is pretty unlikely to matter, it still seems like something that should have been stated, so when it eventually does happens everyone isn't waiting for questions to be answered then.
No you don't understand.
It's not that there won't be interest in trying to do it. It's that it is literally unsustainable. There are not 100 people in the world who have the finances to grind out the GP's that would be required to "buy-on" to the pro tour that everyone is so worried about.
I'll bet there are less than 20. In fact, of that less than 20 I'll wager that any that DO make the PT will realize that a $500 plane voucher and getting to play in the tournament is not worth the thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours they had to spend grinding it out.
I have a family and job, I don't have much free time other then to play on MTGO and at FNMs. At least this system gives me the hope that if I play well at every FNM and maybe make an appearance at some "higher level" tournaments then I will be able to maybe get an invite at least to the FNM tournament. Who knows, just maybe I am lucky enough to get an invite to the Pro Tour because these "grinders" that you're so ******* worried about don't actually have an effect on the system. Is there the chance that it could happen, yes. Did the old system encourage you to not play "real" games, yes. Which do you think is worse overall for the game?
Like I said, I don't think the system is perfect or without it's flaws, but it is the future of MTG, deal with it. If you don't like it, then just be an adult about it and walk away instead of bashing the system. Sorry you're losing your gravy train, and new people will rise to take your place. I believe that I am an above average player (usually it was just commitment that kept me from going to the "next" level, I didn't want to travel nor drop hundreds of dollars on decks), but I don't expect the game to reward me beyond what I put into it, be that money and/or time.
And if Alice turns out to be a real problem, you really don't think that WotC won't do something about it?
Lastly, I would rather that WotC focus their resources on the actual design (health) of the game and less on organized play. If you want a system that gives you a chance to make a living at playing MTG, then make it happen instead of complaining about not having one.
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right, which is why the pro's suggested, rating decay as a solution to that
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You really have no stake in reality. None. Do you understand how hard it is to qualify the first time? There's no incentive for people to bother with trying if their effort is never rewarded. Don't give me the 'ol "play for fun lulz", because people can do MANY different things that are enjoyable but don't cost nearly the amount of money or amount of time Magic takes. And that's what people probably will do.
When less people play, Magic is worse off. It only takes a mild intelligence to understand that a large majority of people go to tournaments for reward and the 'Dream' that they can go somewhere playing the game they enjoy. Without it, there's no reason for a lot of players to attend tournaments.
My DCI ELO Ratings - May they rest in peace :'(
Significantly easier now that a bunch of slots aren't eaten up by people who get garunteed spots based on Past PT performances?
Where have they said that those invitations are going to be redistributed? Assuming you are talking about the top 50 invites, they haven't said anything about increasing PTQ's or anything. If anything PTs will just be smaller.
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Those slots were never available to you in the first place! And even if you manage to win a PTQ (Your only real chance now) even if you do well at the PT you now have to win another PTQ to get back. This doesn't help anyone except the grinders.
You now have LESS OF A CHANCE to qualify. Do you understand that? If there is LESS CHANCE it doesn't make it EASIER.
If I type in all caps do you understand it better? Please tell me you do.
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there's two things going on here:
1) Reduction in size of the PT.
2) No more automatic previous PT winner invite.
They are related, yes, but they are not tied to each other in the way you suggest. If they kept the automatic previous winner invite, then there would be less slots available to people for the PT. The PT has a hard cap on the number of people invited.
Lets say (for the sake of argument) that 300 people will be invited.
Of those 300, 8 qualify based on top 8'ing the last pro tour. 100 qualify based on having the highest "pro planeswalker points" or whatever it is. that leves 192 slots to qualify form PTQs. Now instead, we eliminate the free automatic entry for the top 8 from the last pro tour.
What do we get? 8 more slots that get invites from PTQ's.
So for the three people a year who win a PT, it's worse, but for the rest of us it's better because we have more slots. As a result, more new people get in to PTs (which is good for the game on its own, btw). Those new people are more likely to want to go again, so they play in more PTQs later. In addition, those people who won the last PT now almost certainly want to go again, so they go to more PTQs. See where I'm going? So, now you have for each PT 9 people who are highly motivated to play in tons of PTQs for at least the next season, and probably longer.
except that 1) dozens to hundreds less PTQs are occuring world wide (2) you can't q from GPs any more.
There are *less* slots available. It is harder to Q.
There is one less PT. It is even harder to Q.
Right, but thats a completely separate complaint. The fact that past winners do not receive an automatic invite to the next pro tour does not make it harder for people to qualify for that pro tour. I agree that the sum of all the changes does make it harder (becuase there are less slots). But that particular fact makes it easier than the inverse.
I think the primary issue is that the Pro Toor wasn't achieving what they wanted it to achieve. What that is / was I'm not 100% sure (I have my guesses, but they are jsut as much speculation as anyone elses).
Even if the PT is achieving what you want it to admirably, that doesn't necessairly mean that its achieving what WotC wants it to.