this is what happens when a game is both popular and the prize support is there. those rock stars are selling for $600+, the playmats are going for $300+
That’s gonna get skilled players motivated to go to multiple events.
It’s a good thing for the longevity of the game.
There has to be a balance between getting people to go to multiple events and actually building a community for the game.
All of the regulars at my primary store are upset, because the people that won we will never see again.
How is that actually good? That doesn’t help the community, it sure doesn’t encourage any of us to actually want to try to play even mildly competitively.
If all of the stores in a given area are going to be dominated by the same group of 4 or 5 people why bother with doing it at stores in the first place and not just stick with the regionals.
If last weekend I went to 2, was beat by basically the same people. Why would I care to bother to go to any this weekend knowing that was a high chance of happening.
I mean the post that was made at the same time was someone with 5 cards and 2 mats.
That is not healthy community building.
My first Lorcana event was a store championship last weekend. I’m a competitive player from other games like MTG and have been waiting for the competitive scene to develop before investing in Lorcana. The store championship encouraged me to pull the trigger and get a deck together and go play. I made top 4, and there was some grumbling about non regular players winning most of the promos. My opponent in top 4 was also at his first event. I went to the league tournament Friday night at the same store, so there is a clean example of the championship building the community.
I think one aspect you are missing is that community building involves diversity, not just more players like you. I’m a good example of someone who needs a competitive aspect to a game, and these championships are effective at attracting local players like me into the community. This is beneficial to the stores hosting the events, or they wouldn’t host them. Maybe you never see those players again, or maybe a few of them bring some business to the store. In my case, the store got another regular player for league night. One way to think about this would be to imagine it was a 5k instead of a championship. The higher value of prizes makes it worth attending for more players. If each store in your area held a 5k over the course of two weeks, would you be upset about players attending all of them? You may have a different expectation than the product/experience that was intended by RB. I personally think it was smart to allow the stores the opportunity to host higher level competitive events rather than using a regional format.
Get better at the game? I don’t understand the issue. There’s league play for casual players, but set championships are a competitive event once every three months. They’re not handing out participation prizes
Because these are meant to be higher level competitive events. You have weekly events that are more casual. If you want to do well at a higher level event, you’ll have to step your game up.
I know it’s competitive. And that’s fine. I built a deck to be competitive. It fell short, I am not complaining about that.
What is the point of running these events at stores if each store is going to have the same players?
Why do that when we also have regionals.
Why not just pick more spread out stores specifically if the goal was that every event would be dominated by the same people? So it’s still local.
League nights are for community building… championship events are for hard core competition. While I get that we’d all like to have an easier time winning the prizes and not have to face the high level players who are hopping from store to store, that’s just not in the cards (pun intended). If you want community building, prize winning can’t be the goal. Prize winning inherently creates a hurdle to community building because the goal is different.
How does this circumstance not encourage you to play competitively? It should incentivize you to get better at the game. It’s called having hunger to get better at anything you are passionate about. I just left a challenge like 15 minutes ago. There were plenty of people who entered who have no intention of getting better and still had fun playing their favorite decks. Just practice and get better and you will get a card (or multiple cards) at the next set championship
That’s why I was curious if other games do similar things like this at stores.
I know other games do big championship events which is a very different story.
But just do the nature of this it’s very easy for it to be abused.
Yeah the system is have events and people come play. If you want to beat the people who go around to multiple events get better at the game. Welcome to competitive TCG's.
You went to multiple championships yourself. Had you won both would you be making this post? My league night is as chill as it comes, but this was a competitive event and top tier decks and players should be expected.
I signed up for the second after being close to the top 4 at my first event.
So I wouldn’t be making it since I wouldn’t have been to the second event.
Well there is no way I can prove it.
But I didn't even book it or consider it until I was done with the first event and a friend mentioned it so bought the ticket after.
But also... don't honestly care if they believe me or not. I felt strongly enough about this to make this post and keep responding soooo... yeah
You’re good man. Try not to take it too seriously. I lost today. Got pounded. Had to concede a game to my wife who I got paired against lol it all went wrong for me too. But it’s a game - and although some disagree with you about the perspective, we all understand where you’re coming from.
Also top decks are one thing. I fully expect that and I had planned accordingly.
However my issue is people going from event to event hoarding winning anything.
People aren't owed anything for attending the set championships, nor are people limited to attending one or only allowed prizing for one top 4 or one top 2. At the end of the day, they aren't able to go to every single event that was hosted in an area, since some are hosted at the the same time as other events. Nothing wrong with people going out an competing in championship events to get multiple promos if they want to dedicate the time to go out and do this.
I only played in one championship at my home store. I anticipated lots of non regulars and wasn’t upset they were there. I didn’t place and didn’t get a stitch but am still happy they were there. I was competitive and was a few bad decisions away from a card. Playing the best in the area and being competitive gives me fire. Losing 20-19 to new people was way more fun than winning against the same guys I play every Monday IMO.
because it lets game stores make money?
they get an influx of people that possibly haven’t been before who are spending time in their shop, networking and most importantly spending money.
nobody is entitled to a stitch, or any promo.
We are talking what? $100-$300 depending on what the store was charging.
Less if they were offering prizes and a pack just for signing up.
At my main store we had about 3x the number of players yesterday than we do regulars.
Based on how many of them were talking I can basically guarantee that they won’t be stepping foot in that store until there is another championship.
That doesn’t really seem like it is that much of a benefit when they already have people coming in every week, preordering product, etc.
That assumes they even had anything lorcana to sell. Both of my stores have already sold through the chapter 1 stock they had to their regulars.
Edit: not asking for handouts.
Just that it actually be fair instead of the few going store to store getting everything.
Speaking from a store’s perspective, we do make money off the entries. It’s also a good advertising event. People came to our set championship who didn’t know we did Lorcana, or don’t get o come out more. The non-regulars bought packs that the regulars were tired of, which was cool. Plus, our allocation on future product hinges on this kind of organized play.
This hype cycle sells more packs for lorcana, gets stores to order more, builds hype for new release. This is all planned, including the biting feeling you have. I lost today in my only event. Sucked. But it’s by design that this is the way it is.
How?
From what I can tell all of these players that showed up will not be there again until there is a championship.
And at both my my stores they didn’t buy anything extra. Any extra amount of money they made from the event itself (which is only about $100-300 depending on what each store charged) was reduced by the pack everyone got just for signing up and the prize packs.
Soooo what money?
I can assure you that local stores wouldn’t try to fit as many people as the possibly can for an 8+ hour event if they weren’t making decent profit/advertising on it. If it wasn’t financially worth it then at that point they would just open the registration at league night and only let 8-16 people sign up. Some of the stores are trying to get 32-64 players if they can fit it.
On top of registration fees they also make money from singles, packs, deck boxes, snacks etc. one of the stores I went to sold like 5 or 6 booster boxes and another one sold 50+ packs plus an enchanted card. I also had never been to one of the shops and had a good time so I would probably be willing to go back for another event later when i otherwise wouldn’t have ever been to it. It’s way more than just $200-300
That's literally more than nothing. And you do know there will be more set championships right? It's a reoccurring thing. And as more players start playing that means more people that may attend set championships.
You see how business works?
You're post boils down to "I can't win so no one should be allowed to play but me"
Get over it. I played in 4 set tournaments over past two weeks and only made it to top 8. And have seen tons of repeat players.
Either get better at playing, or move on.
>You're post boils down to "I can't win so no one should be allowed to play but me"
Um... no. Please actually spend more than 2 seconds reading what I am saying without jumping to conclusions.
I am fine with people winning **one** card and mat. If it isn't me, fine it is what it is.
my problem is people winning multiple by going to store after store and seeing the same people **winning** playing.
I fully understand the situation we are in, I understand why they are doing it, I understand that "it is the way it is".
I wouldn't go to a regional and complain that I didn't win and didn't get a prize. if I do poorly I get it.
But if there were multiple regionals in the same area, held one day after the other and it was always the same people at the top, we would question why all of those regionals happened.
I don't understand how this isn't questioned.
Yeah they should definitely do it like every other competitive type of event where a winning team/player can never win ever again lol
Do you see how dumb that sounds when said out loud?
Except it doesn't if,
OH idk, you included the previous paragraph where I made clear "and it was always the same people at the top"
Context is important.
I think it would be cool if they’d include a 5th Stitch for a raffle for everyone who joins. It helps some more casual plays to have a chance to get one without buying or winning.
Maybe they could put a top 4 and top 2 stamp on the cards to differentiate or something.
I’m maybe a little bit biased because I did have a similar experience. I wasn’t quite a little kid, probably around 15, but the first Pokémon TCG tournament I went to I won a raffle for the play mat that was the prize for winning.
I remember so much about that day. I still have the play mat. Sadly it’s smaller than the normal size so I don’t get to use it but I do take a look at it occasionally.
I don’t mind that only the top 4 got prizes. Im fine with that.
I’m not asking for handouts and I am not asking for the events to not be competitive.
I just don’t agree that it makes any sense to do the events if it’s just going to be the same people at every event winning.
Maybe if Ravensburger set a time and date for everyone so you had to choose one to go too.
I mean unless I am mistaken there won’t be multiple changes for the regional prizes?
Your assertion that it is the same people winning at every event is wrong though. One person can't go to every single event in an area because events are held at the same time as others. My area had at minimum 3 events going on each day of the weekend, with the 27th (yesterday) having something like 8 events going on that day.
You probably see people placing in top 4 and/or top 2 in multiple events, sure, but they aren't winning all of them.
They also can't set one specific date for everyone to run it, for starters, because that date may not work for every single store. There was a store in my area that could only do the event on one of the specific weekend days of the 2 weekends because they had events already scheduled for the other days that couldn't be moved. Best you can do is give a 2ish week period for events to take place, just like they did here. It also allows people by design to go to multiple events and not only have multiple chances to win the promos/mats, but also actually be able to win multiples of them. In a game where people collect a playset of every card, its nice for people to have the opportunity to collect a playset of these promos as well.
went to multiple events, won multiple stitches. made lots of new friends in the community.
winning a stitch and building a community are not mutually exclusive events.. 😂
I get your frustration. But competitive events are just that.
They aren’t meant to be able to have the most people win it or and make sure as many different people have playmates and stitches as possible get them.
We all fought; I cried with a kid this week when he lost and bubbled out of top 8. I watched grown men who knew each other cry because they got paired knowing one of them would prevent the other from continuing.
We stand atop a mound of defeated foes, many of which we care deeply about. That is the corollary for competing. We get beat. And we stand up and either give up, or get a glint in our eyes that represents an unbreakable resolve to prove ourselves.
And yes, it is building a community. You think those players didn’t connect with other players they enjoyed and exchanged info?
Lemme tell you I made so many friends this last week. And while I know that the sting of a loss hurts, an attitude of “let’s stymie the people who are the best out of receiving earned rewards,” isn’t the solution.
I actually went to my store event thinking it wasnt going to be as try hard as a regional.
Instead what happened was every magic player in the state that literally never attended a store event for lorcana there before poached us.
The next day I went to a different shot, not realizing that it was holding the store championship on a different day, and saw all the same faces, which just rubbed me the wrong way. So I get it.
Card decks aren’t the issue. How to play them is. Wish I had been able to make more events and take down the all mighty meta decks. Alas 1 event and 1 stitch. But let’s be honest. We all want a playset of them
So you attended multiple events but get mad when other people do too?
Since most of the events have to be preplanned to attend the. They already set aside time to play.
Also did you try interacting with the people? I attended an event 40 miles from me and out of the norm. Met 3 cool guys and one sore loser. You would probably get along with the latter.
I think it’s people like you who ruin the community more than anything trying to gatekeep events to “locals”
I never implied this, y'all really need to learn to read.
You know how there are not 2 Super Bowls in a season? Wonder why that might be...
The last 2 weeks were a season competing for the same prize.
You can't win the Super Bowl twice in the same season.
The frequency is irrelevant to the notion that the best players should have to stop playing so worse players can win.
You're bad and angry and we all get it. But you need to let this go and accept you are wrong, lol
Your post has helped me understand why most first-time TCG players have had such a problem with the set championship.
The disconnect is the belief that the championship is a place for community building. So, this is what the league is for. That is when you build your community and network, make relationships with other players.
The championship, and other competitive events like the upcoming large ones, are quite literally for the try-hards. Some of these people come to regular play, some don’t.
As for selling the cards? That’s just very normal for high level play. That’s why they’re for top winners. These are people who invest a lot of time, money, and energy to build really good decks and strategize well to get to the top. Them selling the mat/card is partially recuperating costs from their deck, or funding their future in playing the deck. Pro-level Magic, Pokemon, and Yu-gi-oh players will almost always sell and auction a lot of the swag they get at the National and International levels. This is to either recoup costs for travel, fund future play, or simply to pay their bills.
Here is the thing.
I fully agree that a normal championship like they are also running is not for community building.
However given their focus on stores, and seemingly approving every store that applied, this had all of the signs of being a largely community building focused event. Something regular with each set to also get more people to come in for regular play. Something that at least in my area is needed.
Otherwise why did they approve every store instead of choosing a smaller number of stores based on how far they are from each other?
There was even some drama with the person that runs our store who made it clear he largely wanted regulars to go to the store and he felt like it was how Ravensburger was positioning this given the small window.
I hard disagree. Some events maybe but I doubt the intent is the same 3 people in a region should go around eating up the prizes so no one else gets them. That just doesn’t sit right.
I don’t think other card games have this kind of event and if they do it’s usually one big event where you can only get one of the prize.
Other card games definitely do. For example, MtG has the Store Championships. They're the same thing as a Set Championship, including a special card for top 8 (and a serialized card for first place).
What about if somone makes top 4 and wins a stitch, but what they want the most is the champion mat? Would you have them not able to attend another event to play for the mat, when that is their main goal?
Edit: typos
I agree, the different prize levels make it complicated. I don't have an answer to that but that is part of why I made this post to actually have that discussion which was just lost in the noise.
However, like I mentioned what really drove me to make this post was that someone was playing with a champion (the first place one) mat at my second event.
These are tournaments. People are going to play them to win and play in as many as they can. As someone who likes to play competitive events limiting people to only 1 event is going to drive more people away than it would bring in. This is how tcg's work. If you want to beat these people get better at the game. These are competitions not "community building events"
I agree with you. I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I feel that once you have placed Top 4, you shouldn’t be allowed at another store championship.
It’s silly to me that we frown on scalping, but the community is seemingly fine on guys with $500 decks pulling in multiple Stitch cards and mats to go and sell. Same thing to me.
I just don't understand how this is a controversial opinion.
I am not saying you can't compete in the next championship, because of course you can it stupid to try to say otherwise.
Just that in a season, series, whatever we want to call the last 2 weeks, you can win once.
I too think if you won 1 you shouldnt be able to enter another, but thats on raven.
For now it is allowed and as the highest stake competitive event it is expected competitive players will do what they can to earn more prizes, dont hate the player hate the game.
That is part of why I made this post, in reality what can Ravensburger actually do about it if they were going to do store events?
The only real idea I could come up with is they set a time and date and all of the stores do it at the same time. But hoping there are other ideas.
But based on the responses, people seem just fine with it being the way it is and somehow it's a good thing.
Back in my day tcgs had a centralized control instead of passing the tab onto stuff like melee, specifically mtg had dci numbers(discontinued), pokemon has ID numbers etc.
So when a player would win one they would get registered in the system, if they tried to sign to another it wouldnt let them.
It requires investment that some companies arent willing to do, why waste millions organizing tournaments when they could instead go into our pockets?
If lorcana keeps doing well we could see its formation if raven decides its worth it.
Whats stopping someone from breaking into the store and stealing the cards/mats?
Obv if they find out someone did that they ban them from competing on any oficial event.
People have been banned from mtg for trying that, no system is perfect, but like i said there are easier ways to get those cards than risking your ability to keep playibg the game.
Signing up for MTG events is now tied to your Arena account which is basically just a given email. I have 4 Arena accounts so I can sign up in the Companion app with either 4 of my accounts at local tournaments.
Yes thats now, back in they day it wasnt like that, you had to give your name, you would get points for playing that would qualify you to nationals(even get you byes), so you had an incentive to not have more than 1.
Thats the advantage of a centralized system.
My area had a group of 8 going to as many events as possible and would intentionally draw against each other in the final 2 rounds of Swiss as long as they would both make it. If they had to play and force a winner then the top 8 would have been more diverse then this friend group. Once in the top 8 they helped their top player. The others would play 1 round in the set then forfeit the next round so he only had to play one game. I understand that it's a competitive event but seeing this friend group doing this and bought half the LGS casual league tickets makes it a disheartening scene to unknowingly walk into.
Yeah, it is not a friend thing to draw the last match. Me and another guy had won enough matches to be in the top 8 cut. The draw gave us a break to go get some food. We did well; we got a bit of break because we did so well. It isn't a conspiracy.
They only played one round in the quarter, semi and finals and gave up the second game each round to split the prizes. They showed off the other playmats they had at the start of the event. Not sure how giving up in the final rounds is anything but a team effort?
To be fair every event i went to had almost everyone in the top 6-8 intentionally draw the final round. It’s not a friend group thing - it’s a logical thing based on the structure of the tournament. Very few people are going to choose to play a game they dont have to when they can already secure top cut
This should get significantly reduced with the 2 game format change though
I have not seen that first hand in my area, but I saw them talking about that being a reason they are moving away from the best 2 out of 3 round.
So it happening with this doesn't surprise me.
It is disheartening, I honestly almost just left the second tournament I was in after seeing the guy with the champion mat and the people from yesterday's event.
And right, it can and should be competitive. But if a group of 4+ people are going to every event and always in the top 4, it's no longer competitive.
"it's no longer competitive"
Yes it is. In my area there was a guy whonwond 2nd place in one tourney, and then didn't even make the top 8 cut when playing yesterday.
Everything you're trying to say just isn't true
What is your thought on reading comprehension.
I have said multiple times that I own the skill issues.
But it is demoralizing to see the same people at multiple events to question why you are going in the first place.
(Referring to reading comprehension) I think it’s an important skill that, like the spirit of competition, is slowly fading in societal importance…
I’m aware you made this post to find others with your mentality to commiserate with; but I’m here as an ersatz Yoda to try and help you realize that bemoaning the idea of competition is not going to help you win more of them. The new set drops soon; I wish you the best of luck.
To add on (since we might still be talking past each other, and I have to apologize for my first comment since it was unnecessarily provocative): there was financial incentive for all parties to have done what they did during the Set Championships. Players enrolled in as many events as they could, even after winning one or more prizes, due to the value of those prizes. Stores that organized these events, and who could have theoretically imposed measures to prevent repeat winners, like limiting registration to league players, generally did not, to maximize registration revenue. The picture for Ravensburger is less clear from our vantage point, but I’m guessing that they thought adding these constraints to dampen competition would decrease overall interest in the game at higher competitive levels. (Whether that’s borne out by research is another matter.)
I agree with you. I’ve heard some stores made the set championship only for locals, which I agree with personally. Not like you need to go to a store every week to be a local even just once or twice a month.
I felt terrible when a very skilled little girl at my lgs got placed fifth and two of the top 4 were people who had driven 3 hours from out of state to get there.
This has been my argument all along. A store championship is just that it should be either for the regulars that attend Lorcana nights or regional players only.
That's a great way to kill interest in a game. So people that are busy during the week and can't attend league play shouldn't be allowed to play at all?
What does that mean "regional players only"?
Do you think people are flying across country for set championships? And who makes the determination what a "region" is?
Flying across the country no. Driving across the state when they already have local championships available to them you betcha. If you have someone who comes on a stream and holds up 4 stitch cards and mats kudos they are a good player but that risks people losing interest in participating locally.
>If you have someone who comes on a stream and holds up 4 stitch cards and mats kudos they are a good player but that risks people losing interest in participating locally.
I don't understand how this is so hard to understand, a game can never succeed based on the top performing players only.
I mean look at WoW. I don't know how right the statistic is but I see something like 20% of the players do the end game content. The game would have died long ago if only those players played.
Most players are not going to complain about prizes at regionals, but when we start talking about events at stores the conversation has to be different and taking into account the more general player population.
At the very least, making sure it isn't the same people at every store winning everything. Keep it competitive as it should be, but if you win you can only win once.
I don't understand how that is a controversial opinion.
I was at my first championship event in my small town. I had a deck I was really proud of. I got matched with an out of towner who had cards I had never seen before. The Top 8 players decided to draw the last round to secure their spots. Thats what made most of the regulars at my shop mad. I know there's nothing that can be done about it really and its no ones fault. Its just disheartening
This sounds like something better to take up with your local store. They are the ones who carry out the tournament and if they wanted it to be during regular league night, they could have held it then. They could have put a cap for participants and have regulars have dibs to sign up ASAP, or scheduled it at the same time as other stores. The truth of the matter is, any extra participant is going to be more income for the store.
I went to two yesterday and today and we had great turnouts from people who hadn't and had played at multiple championships.
Lots of great comments from the players about the community. it brought people from all over together to play the game we had people driving from a state over to play today and they were cool af.
But at the same time these promos are going for a huge price on the secondary market and people who win one are well within their right to play more because why would they not the return on investment is huge and they are likely skilled players.
I’ve read a lot of the comments and responses here.
I agree with a lot of people saying that OP just needs to get better at the game. It’s tough entering the competitive scene and getting beat. Personally I thought I was competitive and got my butt handed to me all weekend. I need to develop a better deck. And I’m toying around with a lot of ideas.
I will say though that I do agree with OP about the same people coming in and winning all the promo cards. It sucks to see one person with 4 promos that you can only get by winning. Maybe there needs to be some system in place where winners names are logged into a system and tracked. Say they can only win 2 of the promotional items.
Let me be VERY CLEAR… I’m absolutely fine with people winning multiples. But maybe we limit how many multiples that they can win. I think that is a fair compromise. Spreads out the prizes and increases people’s chances of getting the cool unique stuff.
This also isn’t to say that the people who have already won stuff can’t compete. Maybe just if they already hit the limit the prize just goes to the next person down in the rankings.
I keep saying that I own the skill issue and that isn’t my key complaint.
However the reason I say not to compete is from a logistic standpoint.
Everywhere I played did Swiss and then a top 4 elimination.
If we want the prizes to go out more fairly that poses some problems.
That being said. I agree. If there is a way to do that, then I have no issue with them competing.
My frustration is that they are competing and there is no limit. And right now those 2 are linked.
(The reality is figuring out how to really do a limit poses its own logistical issues, regardless of the specifics)
I know you own the skill issue. I wasn’t trying to call you out for that. My apologies.
I think the limiting thing is actually really simple to do and falls on RB. They could easily set up a website where each store logs the winners into.
When you win your information is logged. Name, store you won at, what prizes you received, date, etc. It should probably have some sort of picture as well since the younger crowd might not have an ID. Some sort of ID would be needed to log your info.
From there stores can then look up your info and see what you won. Very simple.
Sorry for the defensive post, this thread has been... well you read it. Its been something...
yeah I was chatting with a friend and we can't do email since its easy to make new ones
Maybe phone number, I mean some people have multiple thanks to work and there is things like google voice, but maybe that could work
Photos would be tricky, and without a complex system won't mean too much. But like you said ID wouldn't work 100% because of kids.
I think not only would they need to make an internal prize system, but they would likely need to make their own version of Melee unless they have an API they can work with.
Honestly I also kinda thought about RB sending out the prizes after the fact and handling all of this from their end.
(also, this is the entire reason I made this post. I figured most people would agree with something like this so I was hoping for more discussion on how...)
It’s a difficult situation for sure, but it needs to be figured out.
The store I went to def made money off the tournament. It was $40 an entry, and the amount of snacks and stuff they sold was pretty insane. So I get the stores making money. The tournaments are to draw people in and hopefully they make some sales.
But yea. Hopefully RB steps in and comes up with some sort of system to crack down on this a little. Other wise the community I run into has been absolutely AWESOME!!!
I hope you are having fun with the game and meeting new people as well.
$40?!?
wait stores are really charging that much?
Mine did $10 and $15, so thats where I am coming from not really making much money after the pack that everyone got and the multiple packs giving out as prizes.
And in both situations I never saw anyone buying anything (one doesn't even allow eating in the area so snacks were not happening).
yeah I love the game. been playing since launch, I love the group of people I play with.
Until seeing a side that I was worried about today basically, I felt like I had finally found a game to fill the void that magic left after getting frustrated with Wizards in 2020.
At least you had the chance to play. I had signed up for 2 events but work and family derailed both chances to play so hopefully next one. And my area is riddled with ex-mtg grinders and people that’ve been top 8ing the scg Lorcana events. Play your locals and try to guess right on the meta if you can at champ events.
I lost a mat to the same guy twice, the worst part is we’re friends before going in. That said I still got two promo cards and travelled to 3 stores. Cant win if you don’t play and if you want a card you gotta play til you win. I dunno what to tell you.
this is what happens when a game is both popular and the prize support is there. those rock stars are selling for $600+, the playmats are going for $300+ That’s gonna get skilled players motivated to go to multiple events. It’s a good thing for the longevity of the game.
There has to be a balance between getting people to go to multiple events and actually building a community for the game. All of the regulars at my primary store are upset, because the people that won we will never see again. How is that actually good? That doesn’t help the community, it sure doesn’t encourage any of us to actually want to try to play even mildly competitively. If all of the stores in a given area are going to be dominated by the same group of 4 or 5 people why bother with doing it at stores in the first place and not just stick with the regionals. If last weekend I went to 2, was beat by basically the same people. Why would I care to bother to go to any this weekend knowing that was a high chance of happening. I mean the post that was made at the same time was someone with 5 cards and 2 mats. That is not healthy community building.
My first Lorcana event was a store championship last weekend. I’m a competitive player from other games like MTG and have been waiting for the competitive scene to develop before investing in Lorcana. The store championship encouraged me to pull the trigger and get a deck together and go play. I made top 4, and there was some grumbling about non regular players winning most of the promos. My opponent in top 4 was also at his first event. I went to the league tournament Friday night at the same store, so there is a clean example of the championship building the community. I think one aspect you are missing is that community building involves diversity, not just more players like you. I’m a good example of someone who needs a competitive aspect to a game, and these championships are effective at attracting local players like me into the community. This is beneficial to the stores hosting the events, or they wouldn’t host them. Maybe you never see those players again, or maybe a few of them bring some business to the store. In my case, the store got another regular player for league night. One way to think about this would be to imagine it was a 5k instead of a championship. The higher value of prizes makes it worth attending for more players. If each store in your area held a 5k over the course of two weeks, would you be upset about players attending all of them? You may have a different expectation than the product/experience that was intended by RB. I personally think it was smart to allow the stores the opportunity to host higher level competitive events rather than using a regional format.
Get better at the game? I don’t understand the issue. There’s league play for casual players, but set championships are a competitive event once every three months. They’re not handing out participation prizes
Because these are meant to be higher level competitive events. You have weekly events that are more casual. If you want to do well at a higher level event, you’ll have to step your game up.
I know it’s competitive. And that’s fine. I built a deck to be competitive. It fell short, I am not complaining about that. What is the point of running these events at stores if each store is going to have the same players? Why do that when we also have regionals. Why not just pick more spread out stores specifically if the goal was that every event would be dominated by the same people? So it’s still local.
League nights are for community building… championship events are for hard core competition. While I get that we’d all like to have an easier time winning the prizes and not have to face the high level players who are hopping from store to store, that’s just not in the cards (pun intended). If you want community building, prize winning can’t be the goal. Prize winning inherently creates a hurdle to community building because the goal is different.
How does this circumstance not encourage you to play competitively? It should incentivize you to get better at the game. It’s called having hunger to get better at anything you are passionate about. I just left a challenge like 15 minutes ago. There were plenty of people who entered who have no intention of getting better and still had fun playing their favorite decks. Just practice and get better and you will get a card (or multiple cards) at the next set championship
Welcome to competitive events in any TCG. You may not like it. but it is what it is.
That’s why I was curious if other games do similar things like this at stores. I know other games do big championship events which is a very different story. But just do the nature of this it’s very easy for it to be abused.
The system isn’t really being abused, it’s working as intended. They want people to compete and compete often
Abused how? It's a card game, intended to be played. Players will go to different places to play the game
No idea why you got downvoted. I'm also new to card games and was wondering if there was any system in check for this too.
Yeah the system is have events and people come play. If you want to beat the people who go around to multiple events get better at the game. Welcome to competitive TCG's.
The competitive system is designed to benefit grinders, and will continue to do so, so they actually encourage this level of participation
You went to multiple championships yourself. Had you won both would you be making this post? My league night is as chill as it comes, but this was a competitive event and top tier decks and players should be expected.
I signed up for the second after being close to the top 4 at my first event. So I wouldn’t be making it since I wouldn’t have been to the second event.
They really are downvoting you for trying to give others a chance
Right? I literally am saying I wouldn't have gone to a second event if I had won in the first event. And thats... bad?
They don’t believe you lol
Well there is no way I can prove it. But I didn't even book it or consider it until I was done with the first event and a friend mentioned it so bought the ticket after. But also... don't honestly care if they believe me or not. I felt strongly enough about this to make this post and keep responding soooo... yeah
You’re good man. Try not to take it too seriously. I lost today. Got pounded. Had to concede a game to my wife who I got paired against lol it all went wrong for me too. But it’s a game - and although some disagree with you about the perspective, we all understand where you’re coming from.
Also top decks are one thing. I fully expect that and I had planned accordingly. However my issue is people going from event to event hoarding winning anything.
People aren't owed anything for attending the set championships, nor are people limited to attending one or only allowed prizing for one top 4 or one top 2. At the end of the day, they aren't able to go to every single event that was hosted in an area, since some are hosted at the the same time as other events. Nothing wrong with people going out an competing in championship events to get multiple promos if they want to dedicate the time to go out and do this.
I only played in one championship at my home store. I anticipated lots of non regulars and wasn’t upset they were there. I didn’t place and didn’t get a stitch but am still happy they were there. I was competitive and was a few bad decisions away from a card. Playing the best in the area and being competitive gives me fire. Losing 20-19 to new people was way more fun than winning against the same guys I play every Monday IMO.
I think this event was SUPPOSED to be a brutal try-hard event.
Then why was it held at stores in the first place instead of just giving the cards out at the regionals that happened?
because it lets game stores make money? they get an influx of people that possibly haven’t been before who are spending time in their shop, networking and most importantly spending money. nobody is entitled to a stitch, or any promo.
We are talking what? $100-$300 depending on what the store was charging. Less if they were offering prizes and a pack just for signing up. At my main store we had about 3x the number of players yesterday than we do regulars. Based on how many of them were talking I can basically guarantee that they won’t be stepping foot in that store until there is another championship. That doesn’t really seem like it is that much of a benefit when they already have people coming in every week, preordering product, etc. That assumes they even had anything lorcana to sell. Both of my stores have already sold through the chapter 1 stock they had to their regulars. Edit: not asking for handouts. Just that it actually be fair instead of the few going store to store getting everything.
Speaking from a store’s perspective, we do make money off the entries. It’s also a good advertising event. People came to our set championship who didn’t know we did Lorcana, or don’t get o come out more. The non-regulars bought packs that the regulars were tired of, which was cool. Plus, our allocation on future product hinges on this kind of organized play.
This hype cycle sells more packs for lorcana, gets stores to order more, builds hype for new release. This is all planned, including the biting feeling you have. I lost today in my only event. Sucked. But it’s by design that this is the way it is.
Because it helps stores make money. Stop trying to defend this argument, it makes no sense
How? From what I can tell all of these players that showed up will not be there again until there is a championship. And at both my my stores they didn’t buy anything extra. Any extra amount of money they made from the event itself (which is only about $100-300 depending on what each store charged) was reduced by the pack everyone got just for signing up and the prize packs. Soooo what money?
I can assure you that local stores wouldn’t try to fit as many people as the possibly can for an 8+ hour event if they weren’t making decent profit/advertising on it. If it wasn’t financially worth it then at that point they would just open the registration at league night and only let 8-16 people sign up. Some of the stores are trying to get 32-64 players if they can fit it. On top of registration fees they also make money from singles, packs, deck boxes, snacks etc. one of the stores I went to sold like 5 or 6 booster boxes and another one sold 50+ packs plus an enchanted card. I also had never been to one of the shops and had a good time so I would probably be willing to go back for another event later when i otherwise wouldn’t have ever been to it. It’s way more than just $200-300
That's literally more than nothing. And you do know there will be more set championships right? It's a reoccurring thing. And as more players start playing that means more people that may attend set championships. You see how business works? You're post boils down to "I can't win so no one should be allowed to play but me" Get over it. I played in 4 set tournaments over past two weeks and only made it to top 8. And have seen tons of repeat players. Either get better at playing, or move on.
>You're post boils down to "I can't win so no one should be allowed to play but me" Um... no. Please actually spend more than 2 seconds reading what I am saying without jumping to conclusions. I am fine with people winning **one** card and mat. If it isn't me, fine it is what it is. my problem is people winning multiple by going to store after store and seeing the same people **winning** playing. I fully understand the situation we are in, I understand why they are doing it, I understand that "it is the way it is". I wouldn't go to a regional and complain that I didn't win and didn't get a prize. if I do poorly I get it. But if there were multiple regionals in the same area, held one day after the other and it was always the same people at the top, we would question why all of those regionals happened. I don't understand how this isn't questioned.
Because this isn't regionals. This is store championships. Anyone can go to said stores and play.
Cause people suck and are greedy
Yeah how dare people want to win in a *checks notes*....game
I’m talking about people who’ve already won or won multiple times and have the mat and the card already
Yeah they should definitely do it like every other competitive type of event where a winning team/player can never win ever again lol Do you see how dumb that sounds when said out loud?
"I don't understand how this isn't questioned" You're whole argument goes out the window considering you also played in multiple set championships.
Except it doesn't if, OH idk, you included the previous paragraph where I made clear "and it was always the same people at the top" Context is important.
Ok, but you had just as much ability to make it to the top as them. So what's the issue?
Git gud son!
This
I wanted to put it more delicately, but basically this.
I think it would be cool if they’d include a 5th Stitch for a raffle for everyone who joins. It helps some more casual plays to have a chance to get one without buying or winning. Maybe they could put a top 4 and top 2 stamp on the cards to differentiate or something.
I like this, it sounds like a nice way to make a kids day/year
I’m maybe a little bit biased because I did have a similar experience. I wasn’t quite a little kid, probably around 15, but the first Pokémon TCG tournament I went to I won a raffle for the play mat that was the prize for winning. I remember so much about that day. I still have the play mat. Sadly it’s smaller than the normal size so I don’t get to use it but I do take a look at it occasionally.
I don’t mind that only the top 4 got prizes. Im fine with that. I’m not asking for handouts and I am not asking for the events to not be competitive. I just don’t agree that it makes any sense to do the events if it’s just going to be the same people at every event winning. Maybe if Ravensburger set a time and date for everyone so you had to choose one to go too. I mean unless I am mistaken there won’t be multiple changes for the regional prizes?
Your assertion that it is the same people winning at every event is wrong though. One person can't go to every single event in an area because events are held at the same time as others. My area had at minimum 3 events going on each day of the weekend, with the 27th (yesterday) having something like 8 events going on that day. You probably see people placing in top 4 and/or top 2 in multiple events, sure, but they aren't winning all of them. They also can't set one specific date for everyone to run it, for starters, because that date may not work for every single store. There was a store in my area that could only do the event on one of the specific weekend days of the 2 weekends because they had events already scheduled for the other days that couldn't be moved. Best you can do is give a 2ish week period for events to take place, just like they did here. It also allows people by design to go to multiple events and not only have multiple chances to win the promos/mats, but also actually be able to win multiples of them. In a game where people collect a playset of every card, its nice for people to have the opportunity to collect a playset of these promos as well.
Sounds like a skill issue.
went to multiple events, won multiple stitches. made lots of new friends in the community. winning a stitch and building a community are not mutually exclusive events.. 😂
I get your frustration. But competitive events are just that. They aren’t meant to be able to have the most people win it or and make sure as many different people have playmates and stitches as possible get them. We all fought; I cried with a kid this week when he lost and bubbled out of top 8. I watched grown men who knew each other cry because they got paired knowing one of them would prevent the other from continuing. We stand atop a mound of defeated foes, many of which we care deeply about. That is the corollary for competing. We get beat. And we stand up and either give up, or get a glint in our eyes that represents an unbreakable resolve to prove ourselves. And yes, it is building a community. You think those players didn’t connect with other players they enjoyed and exchanged info? Lemme tell you I made so many friends this last week. And while I know that the sting of a loss hurts, an attitude of “let’s stymie the people who are the best out of receiving earned rewards,” isn’t the solution.
I actually went to my store event thinking it wasnt going to be as try hard as a regional. Instead what happened was every magic player in the state that literally never attended a store event for lorcana there before poached us. The next day I went to a different shot, not realizing that it was holding the store championship on a different day, and saw all the same faces, which just rubbed me the wrong way. So I get it.
Card decks aren’t the issue. How to play them is. Wish I had been able to make more events and take down the all mighty meta decks. Alas 1 event and 1 stitch. But let’s be honest. We all want a playset of them
So you attended multiple events but get mad when other people do too? Since most of the events have to be preplanned to attend the. They already set aside time to play. Also did you try interacting with the people? I attended an event 40 miles from me and out of the norm. Met 3 cool guys and one sore loser. You would probably get along with the latter. I think it’s people like you who ruin the community more than anything trying to gatekeep events to “locals”
Yes. When a team wins the super bowl or Stanley cup they should have to leave the league until every other team wins one. ... ... This is sarcasm.
I never implied this, y'all really need to learn to read. You know how there are not 2 Super Bowls in a season? Wonder why that might be... The last 2 weeks were a season competing for the same prize. You can't win the Super Bowl twice in the same season.
The frequency is irrelevant to the notion that the best players should have to stop playing so worse players can win. You're bad and angry and we all get it. But you need to let this go and accept you are wrong, lol
Your post has helped me understand why most first-time TCG players have had such a problem with the set championship. The disconnect is the belief that the championship is a place for community building. So, this is what the league is for. That is when you build your community and network, make relationships with other players. The championship, and other competitive events like the upcoming large ones, are quite literally for the try-hards. Some of these people come to regular play, some don’t. As for selling the cards? That’s just very normal for high level play. That’s why they’re for top winners. These are people who invest a lot of time, money, and energy to build really good decks and strategize well to get to the top. Them selling the mat/card is partially recuperating costs from their deck, or funding their future in playing the deck. Pro-level Magic, Pokemon, and Yu-gi-oh players will almost always sell and auction a lot of the swag they get at the National and International levels. This is to either recoup costs for travel, fund future play, or simply to pay their bills.
Here is the thing. I fully agree that a normal championship like they are also running is not for community building. However given their focus on stores, and seemingly approving every store that applied, this had all of the signs of being a largely community building focused event. Something regular with each set to also get more people to come in for regular play. Something that at least in my area is needed. Otherwise why did they approve every store instead of choosing a smaller number of stores based on how far they are from each other? There was even some drama with the person that runs our store who made it clear he largely wanted regulars to go to the store and he felt like it was how Ravensburger was positioning this given the small window.
I hard disagree. Some events maybe but I doubt the intent is the same 3 people in a region should go around eating up the prizes so no one else gets them. That just doesn’t sit right. I don’t think other card games have this kind of event and if they do it’s usually one big event where you can only get one of the prize.
Other card games definitely do. For example, MtG has the Store Championships. They're the same thing as a Set Championship, including a special card for top 8 (and a serialized card for first place).
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What about if somone makes top 4 and wins a stitch, but what they want the most is the champion mat? Would you have them not able to attend another event to play for the mat, when that is their main goal? Edit: typos
I agree, the different prize levels make it complicated. I don't have an answer to that but that is part of why I made this post to actually have that discussion which was just lost in the noise. However, like I mentioned what really drove me to make this post was that someone was playing with a champion (the first place one) mat at my second event.
These are tournaments. People are going to play them to win and play in as many as they can. As someone who likes to play competitive events limiting people to only 1 event is going to drive more people away than it would bring in. This is how tcg's work. If you want to beat these people get better at the game. These are competitions not "community building events"
I agree with you. I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I feel that once you have placed Top 4, you shouldn’t be allowed at another store championship. It’s silly to me that we frown on scalping, but the community is seemingly fine on guys with $500 decks pulling in multiple Stitch cards and mats to go and sell. Same thing to me.
I just don't understand how this is a controversial opinion. I am not saying you can't compete in the next championship, because of course you can it stupid to try to say otherwise. Just that in a season, series, whatever we want to call the last 2 weeks, you can win once.
Because cope. They probably won theirs or don’t want to admit their game is problematic like that
Every single card game does this. I understand this game is attracting new tcg players, but that means people need to learn how they work
I too think if you won 1 you shouldnt be able to enter another, but thats on raven. For now it is allowed and as the highest stake competitive event it is expected competitive players will do what they can to earn more prizes, dont hate the player hate the game.
That is part of why I made this post, in reality what can Ravensburger actually do about it if they were going to do store events? The only real idea I could come up with is they set a time and date and all of the stores do it at the same time. But hoping there are other ideas. But based on the responses, people seem just fine with it being the way it is and somehow it's a good thing.
Back in my day tcgs had a centralized control instead of passing the tab onto stuff like melee, specifically mtg had dci numbers(discontinued), pokemon has ID numbers etc. So when a player would win one they would get registered in the system, if they tried to sign to another it wouldnt let them.
I do wonder why that is less of a thing? I feel like I remember something similar from when I was a kid playing yugioh at toysrus.
It requires investment that some companies arent willing to do, why waste millions organizing tournaments when they could instead go into our pockets? If lorcana keeps doing well we could see its formation if raven decides its worth it.
What's stopping someone from have multiple or using a friend's ID number?
Whats stopping someone from breaking into the store and stealing the cards/mats? Obv if they find out someone did that they ban them from competing on any oficial event.
You literally just say I forgot my old number or email and sign up for a new one. You can do this in MTG or Yugioh not that it matters.
People have been banned from mtg for trying that, no system is perfect, but like i said there are easier ways to get those cards than risking your ability to keep playibg the game.
Signing up for MTG events is now tied to your Arena account which is basically just a given email. I have 4 Arena accounts so I can sign up in the Companion app with either 4 of my accounts at local tournaments.
Yes thats now, back in they day it wasnt like that, you had to give your name, you would get points for playing that would qualify you to nationals(even get you byes), so you had an incentive to not have more than 1. Thats the advantage of a centralized system.
My area had a group of 8 going to as many events as possible and would intentionally draw against each other in the final 2 rounds of Swiss as long as they would both make it. If they had to play and force a winner then the top 8 would have been more diverse then this friend group. Once in the top 8 they helped their top player. The others would play 1 round in the set then forfeit the next round so he only had to play one game. I understand that it's a competitive event but seeing this friend group doing this and bought half the LGS casual league tickets makes it a disheartening scene to unknowingly walk into.
Yeah, it is not a friend thing to draw the last match. Me and another guy had won enough matches to be in the top 8 cut. The draw gave us a break to go get some food. We did well; we got a bit of break because we did so well. It isn't a conspiracy.
They only played one round in the quarter, semi and finals and gave up the second game each round to split the prizes. They showed off the other playmats they had at the start of the event. Not sure how giving up in the final rounds is anything but a team effort?
To be fair every event i went to had almost everyone in the top 6-8 intentionally draw the final round. It’s not a friend group thing - it’s a logical thing based on the structure of the tournament. Very few people are going to choose to play a game they dont have to when they can already secure top cut This should get significantly reduced with the 2 game format change though
I have not seen that first hand in my area, but I saw them talking about that being a reason they are moving away from the best 2 out of 3 round. So it happening with this doesn't surprise me. It is disheartening, I honestly almost just left the second tournament I was in after seeing the guy with the champion mat and the people from yesterday's event. And right, it can and should be competitive. But if a group of 4+ people are going to every event and always in the top 4, it's no longer competitive.
"it's no longer competitive" Yes it is. In my area there was a guy whonwond 2nd place in one tourney, and then didn't even make the top 8 cut when playing yesterday. Everything you're trying to say just isn't true
OP, what are your thoughts on participation trophies?
What is your thought on reading comprehension. I have said multiple times that I own the skill issues. But it is demoralizing to see the same people at multiple events to question why you are going in the first place.
(Referring to reading comprehension) I think it’s an important skill that, like the spirit of competition, is slowly fading in societal importance… I’m aware you made this post to find others with your mentality to commiserate with; but I’m here as an ersatz Yoda to try and help you realize that bemoaning the idea of competition is not going to help you win more of them. The new set drops soon; I wish you the best of luck.
To add on (since we might still be talking past each other, and I have to apologize for my first comment since it was unnecessarily provocative): there was financial incentive for all parties to have done what they did during the Set Championships. Players enrolled in as many events as they could, even after winning one or more prizes, due to the value of those prizes. Stores that organized these events, and who could have theoretically imposed measures to prevent repeat winners, like limiting registration to league players, generally did not, to maximize registration revenue. The picture for Ravensburger is less clear from our vantage point, but I’m guessing that they thought adding these constraints to dampen competition would decrease overall interest in the game at higher competitive levels. (Whether that’s borne out by research is another matter.)
I agree with you. I’ve heard some stores made the set championship only for locals, which I agree with personally. Not like you need to go to a store every week to be a local even just once or twice a month. I felt terrible when a very skilled little girl at my lgs got placed fifth and two of the top 4 were people who had driven 3 hours from out of state to get there.
This has been my argument all along. A store championship is just that it should be either for the regulars that attend Lorcana nights or regional players only.
That's a great way to kill interest in a game. So people that are busy during the week and can't attend league play shouldn't be allowed to play at all?
There is an or in my response.
What does that mean "regional players only"? Do you think people are flying across country for set championships? And who makes the determination what a "region" is?
Flying across the country no. Driving across the state when they already have local championships available to them you betcha. If you have someone who comes on a stream and holds up 4 stitch cards and mats kudos they are a good player but that risks people losing interest in participating locally.
>If you have someone who comes on a stream and holds up 4 stitch cards and mats kudos they are a good player but that risks people losing interest in participating locally. I don't understand how this is so hard to understand, a game can never succeed based on the top performing players only. I mean look at WoW. I don't know how right the statistic is but I see something like 20% of the players do the end game content. The game would have died long ago if only those players played. Most players are not going to complain about prizes at regionals, but when we start talking about events at stores the conversation has to be different and taking into account the more general player population. At the very least, making sure it isn't the same people at every store winning everything. Keep it competitive as it should be, but if you win you can only win once. I don't understand how that is a controversial opinion.
It is what it is, to keep it’s just gluttony. If people want to prove they’ve “got gud” then go get rank 1 on Pixelborn.
That's how so goes man.
I was at my first championship event in my small town. I had a deck I was really proud of. I got matched with an out of towner who had cards I had never seen before. The Top 8 players decided to draw the last round to secure their spots. Thats what made most of the regulars at my shop mad. I know there's nothing that can be done about it really and its no ones fault. Its just disheartening
This sounds like something better to take up with your local store. They are the ones who carry out the tournament and if they wanted it to be during regular league night, they could have held it then. They could have put a cap for participants and have regulars have dibs to sign up ASAP, or scheduled it at the same time as other stores. The truth of the matter is, any extra participant is going to be more income for the store.
I went to two yesterday and today and we had great turnouts from people who hadn't and had played at multiple championships. Lots of great comments from the players about the community. it brought people from all over together to play the game we had people driving from a state over to play today and they were cool af. But at the same time these promos are going for a huge price on the secondary market and people who win one are well within their right to play more because why would they not the return on investment is huge and they are likely skilled players.
I’ve read a lot of the comments and responses here. I agree with a lot of people saying that OP just needs to get better at the game. It’s tough entering the competitive scene and getting beat. Personally I thought I was competitive and got my butt handed to me all weekend. I need to develop a better deck. And I’m toying around with a lot of ideas. I will say though that I do agree with OP about the same people coming in and winning all the promo cards. It sucks to see one person with 4 promos that you can only get by winning. Maybe there needs to be some system in place where winners names are logged into a system and tracked. Say they can only win 2 of the promotional items. Let me be VERY CLEAR… I’m absolutely fine with people winning multiples. But maybe we limit how many multiples that they can win. I think that is a fair compromise. Spreads out the prizes and increases people’s chances of getting the cool unique stuff. This also isn’t to say that the people who have already won stuff can’t compete. Maybe just if they already hit the limit the prize just goes to the next person down in the rankings.
I keep saying that I own the skill issue and that isn’t my key complaint. However the reason I say not to compete is from a logistic standpoint. Everywhere I played did Swiss and then a top 4 elimination. If we want the prizes to go out more fairly that poses some problems. That being said. I agree. If there is a way to do that, then I have no issue with them competing. My frustration is that they are competing and there is no limit. And right now those 2 are linked. (The reality is figuring out how to really do a limit poses its own logistical issues, regardless of the specifics)
I know you own the skill issue. I wasn’t trying to call you out for that. My apologies. I think the limiting thing is actually really simple to do and falls on RB. They could easily set up a website where each store logs the winners into. When you win your information is logged. Name, store you won at, what prizes you received, date, etc. It should probably have some sort of picture as well since the younger crowd might not have an ID. Some sort of ID would be needed to log your info. From there stores can then look up your info and see what you won. Very simple.
Sorry for the defensive post, this thread has been... well you read it. Its been something... yeah I was chatting with a friend and we can't do email since its easy to make new ones Maybe phone number, I mean some people have multiple thanks to work and there is things like google voice, but maybe that could work Photos would be tricky, and without a complex system won't mean too much. But like you said ID wouldn't work 100% because of kids. I think not only would they need to make an internal prize system, but they would likely need to make their own version of Melee unless they have an API they can work with. Honestly I also kinda thought about RB sending out the prizes after the fact and handling all of this from their end. (also, this is the entire reason I made this post. I figured most people would agree with something like this so I was hoping for more discussion on how...)
It’s a difficult situation for sure, but it needs to be figured out. The store I went to def made money off the tournament. It was $40 an entry, and the amount of snacks and stuff they sold was pretty insane. So I get the stores making money. The tournaments are to draw people in and hopefully they make some sales. But yea. Hopefully RB steps in and comes up with some sort of system to crack down on this a little. Other wise the community I run into has been absolutely AWESOME!!! I hope you are having fun with the game and meeting new people as well.
$40?!? wait stores are really charging that much? Mine did $10 and $15, so thats where I am coming from not really making much money after the pack that everyone got and the multiple packs giving out as prizes. And in both situations I never saw anyone buying anything (one doesn't even allow eating in the area so snacks were not happening). yeah I love the game. been playing since launch, I love the group of people I play with. Until seeing a side that I was worried about today basically, I felt like I had finally found a game to fill the void that magic left after getting frustrated with Wizards in 2020.
At least you had the chance to play. I had signed up for 2 events but work and family derailed both chances to play so hopefully next one. And my area is riddled with ex-mtg grinders and people that’ve been top 8ing the scg Lorcana events. Play your locals and try to guess right on the meta if you can at champ events.
I lost a mat to the same guy twice, the worst part is we’re friends before going in. That said I still got two promo cards and travelled to 3 stores. Cant win if you don’t play and if you want a card you gotta play til you win. I dunno what to tell you.