I’m working on scheduling the GP Trials that Cascade Games will be running. I expect to have dates/locations up on the site as soon as tuesday night.
Tim
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I just posted this on Cascade Games site – “It is very likely that we will be moving to another venue in the Seattle area. After having several talks with WotC folks and after seeing the 800+ players at GP LA – I am now looking for a venue that will allow for higher attendance.”
I will try to get this nailed down as quickly as possible so players from outside the area can make travel plans.
For anyone keeping score at home -
Seattle Center Exhibition hall – rented, All other rooms at Seattle Center – too small, Quest field – rented, Mariners stadium – rented, Meydenbauer center is possible but not 100% working on this one, Lynnwood Convention center – waiting for call back, Washington State Convention Center – rented.
I have not looked at facilities in Renton or Tacoma yet – but if the two options I’m actively working on don’t pan out I will.
Tim
In the past year a lot of players have asked me “how can it be that events can be scheduled where there are two events in cities that are close to each other on the same weekend?” The simple answer is that there are only so many weekends and not all weekends work for example I can not schedule on a prerelease or sneak peak weekend. The event sites are also frequently no available on the preferred weekend.
I have promised to make my best attempt to avoid this as it really affects that most motivated players. If you don’t travel to PTQ’s this really isn’t an issue. However if you do travel this can be a big deal.
My commitment is to book my PTQ’s as soon as I have dates and to send those date to all the PTO’s who have cities that are close. For the next round I have done so. However that doesn’t mean there will never be a conflict.
It really depends on how close cities have to be to consider it a conflict. If the event is in Portland what cities are you really going to drive to? The time of year also affects this. A drive to Boise in the summer is no big deal. A drive in the winter in the snow and ice might not be such a great idea.
As I look at the current schedule here are the conflicts I see. 1/3/09 there are events overlapping in Portland and Salt Lake. Thats a 12 hour drive in the middle of the winter. 1/24/09 San Diego and Denver a 15 hour drive. On 4/4/09 there is a PTQ in Phoenix and Boise. This shouldn’t be a big deal as the cities are 900+ miles away and 16 hours driving time.
All in all – I think this should meet players needs. The conflicts are minimal in my judgement.
Again – I welcome your feedback and comments.
Tim
After several weeks work the Magic PTQ and GPT season are scheduled and should be up on the Cascade Games site within a few hours. How the process works is after I get all the locations finalized I send it on to WotC to be posted on the Magic pages and then Mike Goodman creates all the events in our database. Mike adds the graphics and inputs the aspects that change from event to event and then pushes them live.
The database not only dynamically creates the public viewable web site but also has an interface that allows us to track all the steps necessary to organize the events. We have focused the check lists on the key steps and not get to bogged down tracking trivial details. The key steps are things like a floor plan for the event and judges. An example of a detail we used to track but don’t anymore is is the event kit that we use to run the event packed. Its just not worth tracking that level of information in the database.
The Upper Deck, WoW Realm qualifiers and YGO Regional seasons are also done and should be live in a day or so. There is a ton of events so it might take Mike a bit to get them all published. Its important to realize that Mike is not only working during the week but also flying to Phoenix to Event Manage the Magic PTQ this weekend. So I really can’t ask him to put in to many hours knowing that he’s going to work a 12 hour day on saturday and then have to fly home.
I’m not quite done with the YGO sneak peak scheduling. My favorite locations in BC and Seattle are both booked. So I’m looking for other locations. If any reader knows of a good locations thats low cost please either shoot me an email of leave a comment.
Yesterday a friend in the industry called me to tell me that WotC was having layoffs. I wasn’t really surprised after hearing the Wizkids news but I do find it sad that anyone would lose their job right before Christmas. I know its better to get a winter bonus and severance at the same time – it gives more time to look for a job but it still sucks. The industry web site ICV2 has an article about it. Not a whole lot of detail but if your curious you might want to read it http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13847.html
I wish everyone affected the best. Its a really tough economy out there right now in general – however the computer game industry is doing quite well. The folks from WotC digital team who were laid off should be able to land electronic game industry jobs in Seattle. Lets face it – working at WotC is a great stepping stone to other game industry jobs. So we shouldn’t worry to much about the people laid off, they will do fine. They are really smart and skilled. There likely isn’t room in TCG publishing for the number of people currently employed there but the e-games business can easily absorb anyone who leaves TCG publishing.
Final though I’m going to be at the PTQ in Salt Lake City this saturday. Come on by and say hi.
Tim
I have spent my entire day checking to see if dates work for locations, judges and event managers. All this in the attempt to find a way to schedule events that don’t overlap.
I have sent my PTQ/GPT dates to the TO’s in Idaho, California (SF and LA), Colorado, Vancouver BC and New Mexico to make sure nothing overlaps. Sometimes there is nothing I can do. But this time were early enough that everything looks fine so far. I expect to post the final dates in the AM after I hear back from the venues. Everyone is slow after turkey day.
I’m planning on running the GPT’s after round 2 ends in the PTQ’s in Seattle and Portland. They should be very popular side events and we have had good luck doing this in the past.
This weekend I’m flying to Salt Lake to event manage the PTQ there. I know some players are a bit irritated by the location and date change but the bigger space should make up for the problems – I hope. I really like the store owner – Jamie at Game Grid and it is my hope to schedule a PTQ that has a bit smaller draw (like the next seasons extended PTQ and hold it in his store)
On the Upper Deck side of things, I have a ton of WoW events to schedule. I need to team them up with YGO Regionals as there are not enough event managers or Saturdays otherwise. Once you remove holidays, Super-bowl Sunday a scheduling window begins to look pretty small.
The YGO players in Vancouver BC argued pretty strongly for a YGO regionals. So I’m going to do my best to get them 2 – 3 a year. I know they want 4 -5 but thats just not realistic. the events draw to few players to justify scheduling that many. I really enjoy BC. Its one of my favorite places to go so I’m glad to schedule as many as possible but there is no way to do more than 3.
on a final note then I have to get back to work – the Blazers are so fun. Although I didn’t think they would beat any of the last 3 teams they played (Heat, Hornets or Pistons) they won all three games. Two friends had tickets and took me to the Heat and Hornets games. Thats the first time I have ever been to back to back games and it was really fun. Lvl 2 Magic Lvl 2 YGO judge Trevor Baker took me to the Hornet game and we sat way up in the nose bleeds. It was so fun. The other fans were so into it – the whole area was rocking. Thanks again Trevor.
Gotta get back to work.
Tim
I’m starting the process of scheduling the next GPT and PTQ’s rounds. I expect to have dates in the next day if I hear back from the venues tomorrow. If not, then I won’t be able to book until next week – due to turkey day.
The other PTO’s are being really active in making sure that we don’t overlap dates. Sometimes its not avoidable to overlap and I won’t know until I hear from venues. However I hope to avoid overlapping dates.
I have been assigned 2 PTQ’s in Seattle, 1 in Portland, 1 in Salt Lake, 1 in San Diego and finally 1 in Phoenix. Its a west coast PTQ. In fact its in the middle of the west coast – I guess thats why Seattle has an extra. I’ve never been quite sure why it works that way but I’m always glad to have more than one per city.
Its a challenge to predict the attendance with Extended PTQ’s. Some people love the format and other players think its to expensive to build a great deck. I’m going to have to ask a few judges what they think the attendance will be – or if anyone ever reads this please comment.
On another topic, watched the Blazer game last night. I knew it was a big mistake to start Greg Oden. He really isn’t ready. I have tickets to the Heat game on Wed night. I really want the Blazers to start Przybilla. I like Joels game and think the Blazers have been playing well when he starts.
I know, Oden is the future center,blah, blah, blah. However he needs time to develop and he just isn’t ready.
