[Announcement] March 7-8: Grand Prix Chicago 2009

[MattH]

Train rides bllloooowwww, but having a passel of Magic players to test with might turn that around.

[RoddyVR]

Well i guess this decides when i'm gonna go see the grand canyon next year... just have to decide if i want the GP on the return trip, or on the trip out.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

I was planning to fly to Mexico in February. After checking flight prices i happily discovered that returning to the UK via Chicago isn't much more expensive than the regular UK-Mex-UK fare :)

So i guess i'll be there!

[Swing4Five]

So I just signed up for my classes for the Spring, and realized looking it over that my next (and last [cross fingers]) semester is going to be a HUGE bitch... hopefully I'll still be able to do this.

[KillemallCFH]

My chances of making it to this just got significantly lower. My money now is going to have to go into repairing my mangled car. Hopefully I can still make it, though.

[bigbear102]

Train rides bllloooowwww, but having a passel of Magic players to test with might turn that around.

I'm thinking along the same lines. Between being cheaper than a plane and more comfortable than a car, I like the train. We definitely need to get details about a schedule and which trains we need to book so as to have a huge magic contingent to make the ride a bit more bearable.

[Shriekmaw]

I'll be making it out for this. There is no way I'm missing a Legacy GP which isn't that far away. I will probably travel there the same way a lot of other players in the area.

This is 4 months out, but its something I'm thinking about. Hopefully, this will be a good GP without any brokeness like GP: Columbus.

I agree with the notation that the train will be the cheapest way to get down there. The train has a lounge and dinning cart which makes the long trip much more enjoyable.

Let me know what the other players from Syracuse/Rochester are planning on doing on transportation and logging.

[Team-Hero]

Is anyone from California (San Diego/Los Angeles/Southern) planning to go? The train doesn't seem too bad but I don't want to go alone.

[RoddyVR]

The Amtrack train going from Boston to Chicago (there's only one, going once a day) makes these stops:
see http://www.amtrak.com/timetable/oct08/P48.pdf for actual schedule, though i've been told that there's some changes going on at the first of the year (changing the sleeping cars to be going from boston insteadof/aswellas from NY). So there might be some changes then to the schedule.


Boston, MA (both South and BackBay stations) (leaves just before Noon)
Framingham
Worcester
Springfield
Pittsfield, MA
Albany-Rensselaer, NY (gets here at 5:35, leaves at 7:05)
Schenectady
Utica
Syracuse
Rochester
Buffalo-Depew, NY (leaves just before midnight)
Erie, PA
Cleveland, OH (Lakefront Station)
Elyria (Lorain)
Sandusky
Toledo
Bryan, OH (leaves just after 7am)
Waterloo, IN
Elkhart
South Bend, IN
Chicago, IL (Union Station) gets here at 9:45am.


It also has connecting (litteraly in one case) trains from:
New York, NY
Croton-Harmon, NY

Poughkeepsie, NY
Rhinecliff-Kingston, NY
Hudson, NY

A coworker who has taken this train dozens of times sais that while it can be late (she's been on an amtrack train that was 7 hours late), this one is prety reliable for time.
I'd probably say that if the tourny starts at about noon, and it isnt held too far from the station, then it would be safe to take this thing to arrive on day one of the tourny. If the GP starts at 10am, then it would have to be the train of the day before...which would suck a bit.

[bigbear102]

I would never trust public transportation the day of a Grand Prix. I would plan on leaving Thursday night, getting there for the day on friday and being able to sight see in Chicago for the day, play in the grinders Friday night, and then be ready for Saturday. We also have to figure out the return train for Sunday.

[Patrick]

As of current some players in the Southeastern Michigan area are looking to arrange carpools and rooming arrangements. Basically, the more people that can be crammed into a double occupancy hotel room, the better (just because you pay for a quad occupancy doesn't mean you get more space). If you're in the area and you want to get with us shoot me an email at patrick@haterhigh.com.

[cdr]

I'd probably say that if the tourny starts at about noon, and it isnt held too far from the station, then it would be safe to take this thing to arrive on day one of the tourny. If the GP starts at 10am, then it would have to be the train of the day before...which would suck a bit.

The grinders will start at 3PM Friday. You would want to take the train that leaves Thursday, arrives Friday.

[SuperBean]

I'll be there as well.. And like Bryant, probably playing T.E.S

[SuicideKing]

There will be a very large group of ICBM players at this event so yeah prepare to rack up some loses.

[Janet]

Ooh, I will definitely be going to this. I doubt I'll have enough money for this and room so I'll be stuck taking the bus or train, ugh.

[Resist_Temptation]

I will definately be getting myself and my friends to this one. I cannot believe that there is one legacy grand prixand it is within a couple hours xD sucks to be everyone who lives far away

[Shriekmaw]

There will be a very large group of ICBM players at this event so yeah prepare to rack up some loses.

FYI. Syracuse and Virigina will be showing up, so expect to get owned in the format that you pretend to play.

[Arsenal]

I live in Milwaukee, WI, so I'll be there. Might be tempted to get a hotel room if there's going to be insane casuals in rooms before/after.

[heroicraptor]

The GP promo is Chrome Mox.

[RoddyVR]

The grinders will start at 3PM Friday. You would want to take the train that leaves Thursday, arrives Friday.

Show's how much i know about how GPs run.

Could someone walk me through what i could expect the schedule to be like? Assume i'm a legacy addict, and will try to get into as much legacy playing in as possible.

For people (realisticly speaking like me) who wont make day 2, is it likely that there will be some legacy side event type deals to keep us entertained? Do the halls that these things are in close for the night or could i theoreticaly stay there the whole 60 hours that this thing is going?
Is it possible that there wont be enough legacy magic going on that i should finaly get around to building an EDH deck?

Also, when should i expect for the details of where excatly this thing is held to be available? I'd like to reserve the hotel/train tickets as soon as possible but dont want to find out after i do that the hotel i reserved is an hour away from the tourny.