Cascade Games will not be holding a prerelease in AZ. I have conflicted feeling about this. However clear to me that what Cascade Games does best is hold really large event. If attendance is low then thats not an event we should be running.

In AZ. we never broke 100 entrys – and that was no where close to 100 unique players. It just doesn’t make sense for Cascade Games to run that sized event.

So I’m sorry to everyone who this is a disappointment for.  But it just didn’t work out.

We will continue running PTQ’s and everything else that we do now – just not a prerelease.

Tim

As artists sign up for the GP I will be posting here. Keep in mind that the events almost a year out so all artists are tentative and will need to be confirmed as the event comes closer – however I promise an amazing list of artists.

First artist to sign up is – RK Post.

This is going to be amazing folks.

I live in Portland. I love Portland and last night Wizards of the Coast web site went live with the news that Portland Oregon is going to get a GP. Thats right – Portland Oregon is getting a Grand Prix.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/other/110509a

For years players have been asking me –  ”When will Portland get a GP”  and I have never had a good answer – well now I do. The Grand Prix Portland will be Sept 11 and 12th.

So Good. So flipping good.

I can’t wait to show off Portland – easily one of the best cities in the world to everyone at the GP.

I know everyone wants details as soon as possible and I have been working for months on getting this event together and will be ready to announce things like location, hotels, artists and side event schedules over the next weeks.

But for now – I’m just so happy to announce that Portland gets a GP.

Tim

You got to check this out.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/10/d-and-d-microsoft-surface/

Special thanks to Aaron Hamer for the link.

Yes this needs to be faster and cooler but what a great start.

Tim

I am pleased to announce that Eli Shiffrin has passed his lvl 3 test and now joins the ranks of lvl 3 Magic Judges.

Way to go Eli.

Tim

We had amazing attendance in Seattle for the prerelease – easily our best under the new system – in fact we sold out of packs.  Clearly Zendikar sealed deck is going to be a very very well attended PTQ season.

I am checking with all the locations we have scheduled to add more tables and chairs to accommodate the likely increased attendance. It is possible that some event dates might have to shift – but this seems unlikely – and I should have final answers by Tuesday.

Looking forward to a huge PTQ season.

Tim

Note – the PTQ in Seattle has been moved to the Rainier room at Seattle Center – Its over 6000 sq feet and can seat over 300 players. Just in case finding moxes in boxes brings out a lot of players.

ALL ORGANIZERS

Significant changes made to the

Magic Tournament Rules

The latest update of the Magic Tournament Rules was released on September 20. All organizers should read through the rules and familiarize themselves with the changes. There is one change that is of special note to Organizers and Judges everywhere:

Section 1.4 — Participation Eligibility

Tournament officials and other staff of a tournament (including the Tournament Organizer and Scorekeeper) may participate in a DCI-sanctioned tournament of which they are a tournament official or staff if (and only if) the tournament is of the following event types:

Friday Night Magic

Prerelease

Launch Party

Magic Game Day

Other non-Premier Magic Tournament

If tournament officials and other staff play in the event, it must be run at Regular REL. If tournament officials play in the event and the event it not one of the allowed event types list above, the event will be invalidated.<

Pretty simple and quite exciting! If you are the judge, organizer, or scorekeeper of a Friday Night Magic, Prerelease, Launch Party, Magic Game Day, or regular sanctioned tournament, you will soon be allowed to play in that event. All tournament officials are reminded that they are required to officiate events fairly and without regard to their own self-interest. This change in eligibility goes into affect October 1, 2009. If tournament officials play in any of their own events they run before that date, the events will be invalidated. Enjoy those Zendikar Launch Parties!

Of interest to all WPN Organizers and DCI tournament players are the following changes to the Magic Tournament Rules. The following changes to Limited Events go in to effect immediately:

Section 7.3 — Card Use in Limited Tournaments

Other than basic land, only cards from the expansions of the boosters opened (and only cards opened in that player’s pool) may be used in a player’s deck. For example, in a Magic 2010 Sealed Deck tournament, any card in a booster other then the Magic 2010 game cards received by the player and basic land may not be used in a player’s deck during that tournament.

Section 7.5 — Sealed Deck Swap

In Sealed Deck tournaments, the Head Judge may require players to perform a deck swap prior to deck construction. Players receive unopened product and register the contents (except basic land cards) on deck lists. Any card in a booster that is not a card from the expansion of the opened booster is retained by the player that registers the cards (example: a player that registers the contents of a booster during a deck swap keeps the token card, if any). Players who drop from the tournament before fulfilling this duty will receive a match loss in the first round. Tournament Officials then collect the recorded card pools and re-distribute them randomly. A player may randomly receive the product he or she registered. The Head Judge should require players to sort the cards they register according to some criteria (e.g. color and then alphabetically) to assist the player receiving the pool.

So far the list of confirmed R&D folks to gunsling at the seattle prerelease so far ….

Jason Radabaugh, Kelly Digges, Graeme Hopkins, and Dave Guskin – confirmed.  Local favorite, lvl 2 judge and R&D guy – Jay Schneider isn’t sure if he can make it.

Its very likely we will have more – this is just the list that has confirmed so far.

Tim

and remember were at the washington state convention center 6th floor – right next to where we were for PAX – NOT Seattle center

I’m having trouble getting the decklists to display as anything but a very very long list of text. So I had Mike convert it to a jpeg.  Hope this shows up OK.

as always names of players have been changed to initials – gotta make the lawyers happy and no they are not in order of finishing.