[Columbus, Ohio, USA] Possibility of Weekly Legacy Tournaments at Comic Town

[Mark Sun]

Yes, it's about time that we started getting the active Legacy players together in Columbus. There is, after all, a GP coming here in July and everything.

This is only the first phase of getting some tournaments organized there. The purpose of this post is to see who would be interested in having a weekly Legacy tournament and, of course, to figure out what would be the best time. Previously, there was talk of having Legacy during the later hours on Friday, but that always interfered with FNM and was a bad idea overall. Plus, most of us drafted anyways.

If you are close to the Columbus area, this is great for you. I would like to have at least 16+ players to start. For those of you who do not know where Comic Town is,

1249 Morse Rd.
Columbus, OH 43229


But yes, please post here if you would be interested; please spread the word and of course if there is a preference for time, do address that here. I do not work for the store, but I'll be happy to relay word, etc.

Thanks,

--M

[Kojiro]

I'm definitely in. I know some of the MM2 crew would be interested in getting some testing in before the GP, but might not show up initially.

I'll talk to DJ about tournament format, but I think we can drum up a few extra players if we can change it up a bit. I'm thinking $5 entry with unlimited proxies with store credit to the winner. IMO sanctioning is annoying because A) DCI ratings and rankings are down anyway and B) you need 8 people and a completed deck. I know quite a few players who haven't finished a full 75 because they're building up their deck in anticipation for the GP.

I think it's absolutely essential to allow proxies to ease people into the format to get people playing, testing, building, and promoting. I'm a little ashamed at Columbus that we can pull in 40-60 people for the MD tournaments but can't get a group together to get some playtesting in.

[MULocke]

Sweet, more legacy in Columbus! I'm in. Maybe start out with more proxies then move to less and less as the GP gets closer?

[Mark Sun]

Sweet, more legacy in Columbus! I'm in. Maybe start out with more proxies then move to less and less as the GP gets closer?

Sure, that doesn't sound too shabby. I think Matt (Kojiro) has the right idea here; I don't really care about the sanctioning part. The idea of holding weekly Legacy at COLUMBUS is to prepare, and to be a good host city when we play (no attacking with Glacial Chasm in play... too soon?)

Anyhow, I suppose we should address proxies as well. I think it's a great idea, and it makes for eas(y)er tweaks in your lists. There are about 6 months till the end of the July, so I propose to start at ~24 proxies and decrease by 1 each week until we hit May, and then 2 a week. That way, by the beginning of July, everyone should have a pretty comfortable deck to play. I don't know, these are just thoughts.

I'm sad that this only has 2 replies though

[Smmenen]

I would play; but not on Friday night. that sounds awful. What other options are there?

[Kojiro]

I personally like Thursday nights.

[Mark Sun]

I personally like Thursday nights.

I can agree to that. C'mon, people

[Jon Stewart]

That sounds fantastic.

It's only 40 minutes away, I would be making the trip down every single week.

I can also definately talk a couple of my friends into coming as well, though they don't ever post on mtgthesource, they do have legacy decks.

I'm sure all of us know a few legacy players that don't post here, or don't check the Tournament Annoucements Subforum, so we should each make it a point to recruit a few of our friends into coming as well.

Also, try advertizing this over at mtgsalvation.

Please do this. It would be awesome. If we can get a regular legacy scene going here, there is no reason why these tourneys would have to stop in July, they could continue on indefinately.

Thursday night would work well, but any day of the week would work actually.

Edit: Starting with 24 proxies seems like way too many. This isn't vintage. There is no power, tons of budget decks and several decks easily portable from extended. And keeping track of taking out one proxy every week seems too complicated too as is doing deck checks with such specific and variable numbers. And frankly, I don't think anyone should play a deck where they are proxying up half of their entire deck.

How about starting with 12 proxies, and maybe decreasing the number by two every month, or just leaving it at 10 proxies as a permanent fixture.

[Mark Sun]

Mtgsalvation would be a great idea, I'll make a post there very soon. As far as the crowd, you're right, we are definitely spreading the news via word of mouth as well.

My weeks free up on Thursday nights after 6, so I would like it to be later in the week if possible. Where do you live, out of curiosity? Bringing a few people would be great. And I'm sure the proxy rule can be flexible, it was just a suggestion on my part to get things rolling.

[MULocke]

We could try to do Wednesdays, as a lot of people show up then to test various formats anyway. It's not always legacy, but the point is that 10-15 people are already showing up to test so it seems to be a good night (and Thursdays don't work for me, sadly).

[Kojiro]

The issue we have right now is twofold: A) the Columbus Legacy scene is heavily fragmented. I see a LOT of people with Legacy decks playing here and there, but there’s no real hub for testing, tournaments, community building, etc. I’ve seen a handful at Solj, Guard Tower, Eric’s house, Capital, CT, and quite a few at PES, but no one group knows that the other groups exist, or if they do, they’re not communicating.

The second problem with Legacy in Columbus is that no store has really tried to ‘own’ Legacy. What I mean by this is running Legacy tournaments or carrying Legacy singles. CT tried win-a-box tourneys, but players didn’t like the high cost of entry and min player requirements. The Soldiery has hosted the MDO tournament series which have actually been pretty good all things considered. From a business perspective these guys are missing out on a huge player base DYING for more tournaments and things like fairly priced Legacy singles and free play space.

There are a few ways to fix this:

Bring your deck with you to FNM/PTQs – there’s no better way to get people interested in the format than to look up from their Standard game to see two people playing with Wastelands, Armageddons, and Dual Lands. Lord knows people are talking about the format, but doing this actually gets people excited about playing the format. On that same note:

Attend FNMs/PTQs – the local community isn’t getting any better or bigger with you sitting at home on MWS or with your small group of players in your kitchen. Play Legacy in high visibility places!

Recruit – this is pretty basic; be an ambassador for the format. If you see someone playing Legacy, or a binder full of Goyfs and FoWs, tell them about your play group or an upcoming tournament. Obviously this would be better if we had a weekly.

I say we start with doing something on Thursday nights. I know the Mansfield guys run a weekly on Wednesday and I wouldn’t want to cut into that. FNM has and will probably always be a bust until we get closer to the GP. We should probably poll people at FNM and see what they think. I’m happy to speak with Ryan/DJ at CT about extending hours on Thursday. Worst case scenario we do it at Solj.

[Media314r8]

I have Wednesdays evenings and Sundays free. Fridays seem terribad. Fridays at Comic Ton already have sanctioned T2 and draft, adding legacy will just dilute the participation in all three. Individual large tournaments are better grounds for testing than large orgies of small tournaments across three formats. I agree that proxies should be allowed, but cutting the number of proxies as the GP draws nearer seems frivolous, as you cannot sanction a 2 proxy event just the same as you cannot sanction a full-proxy event. Perhaps a looming date soon before the GP when sanctioning/GPTs at Comic Town will encourage people to finish their decks, and earn the practiced deckbuilders eternal points. I do not want to off put anyone who starts building their deck a month before the GP by only allowing 2 proxies at that point. Proxies seem like a black or white issue, but I think we can all agree that attracting a weekly legacy player base will mean allowing proxies, and so long as they are discernible, I don't care if people have 0, 15, or 75.

IMO Wednedays, Thurdays, or Sundays would work best. (as the Sunday drafts don't pull too many people)

[Smmenen]

The Meandeck Open series will likely continue as it has been - one tournament every 1.5/2 months for the foreseeable future, including past the GP. The next one is scheduled for Feb 21st. FYI.

I personally would be unlikely to attend any other Legacy events, simply because of my limited time. Attending an event after work is undesireable. If you could get a saturday tournament organized somewhere in Columbus, though, I'd likely attend -- esp. if it started around 11-12AMish. I would not play in any weekend evening events.

[Mark Sun]

The Meandeck Open series will likely continue as it has been - one tournament every 1.5/2 months for the foreseeable future, including past the GP. The next one is scheduled for Feb 21st. FYI.

I personally would be unlikely to attend any other Legacy events, simply because of my limited time. Attending an event after work is undesireable. If you could get a saturday tournament organized somewhere in Columbus, though, I'd likely attend -- esp. if it started around 11-12AMish. I would not play in any weekend evening events.

Lmao, I get up at noon on weekends, the only opportunity I have to sleep in generally. That said, I would get up at 11 to play Legacy on a weekend, no questions asked. I don't see this running into anything (important), to be honest. Not sure how Matt/Eric/rest of the crowd feels about this. Anyhow, FNM again this week, great time to poke and prod a little bit more.

By the way, guys, I posted this on MTGSalvation and got NO replies. We are on our own for now. Can imagine this upcoming 5K being a little reminder for everyone that Legacy exists. I may make a post on the WOTC forums, but that's really stretching it.

@ Steve: would it be worth it to post on the StarCityGames forums?

[Kojiro]

CT closes pretty early on Thursday, so it would take some convincing to run a weekly. At least in the short term I'd like to get people playing at FNM. I'll be sure to bring my Legacy deck to CT on Friday to play in between testing.

[MULocke]

Also, anyone who is going to test tonight should bring a deck as well.

[Chubu!]

I've lurked on here since ever since, and this is my first actual post. I'm fairly new to the area, and I'd love to play Legacy. I generally work M-Th nights, sometimes Saturdays, etc., but i'll do my best to make it to as many weekies as I can, no matter the night.

[TnA_Will]

Aaron and I talked and our Friday night idea just wouldn't really be the best idea because of standard(Eric you were right :) ) we both think we could make it and possibly Aaron's brother Josh would be open to Saturday or Sunday afternoon. All it means for us is not play testing legacy until 4am at CT on Friday night if we pick Saturday. I've talked to DJ several times at CT and he's basically waiting on us(legacy players) to come to him with an idea of what we want to do.

So if everyone thinks that Saturday or Sunday around noon would be acceptable to them then I think we should talk to him and go for one of those.

[Chubu!]

Those days sound good to me. Sundays would be better, but I can probably make it to some Saturdays, if I know a few days in advance.

[Media314r8]

So the consensus is Sunday then? I'm likely going to CT tonight to playtest, I'll tell them to plan a Sunday event $5 entry, store credit prize. (tenatively for 1pm start time, their doors open at noon sunday) I'll tell them to start at unlimited proxy, (so long as they're legible) and we'll take it from there.