The Defining Tournments of our Format

[Jhaggs]

I was having a discussion about setting up tournaments with a riend of mine yesterday when this thought occcured to me:  What are the defining tournaments that players in this format most often look to as a reference and as a hallmark for the meta?

Sports like tennis, golf, and I even think bowling, have there "Grand Slam" events.  These opens are of referred to as "majors".  So what are the "Majors" of type 1?

1.  Waterbury "Open"
2.  GenCon "Open" (summer)
3.  Dulmen
4.  Eindhoven

I suspect that the European scene must have a definitive tournament that defines a meta or a tournament that people most often reference.  I would love to hear European players chime in and describe the tournaments that they salivate the most over.  Plus, it would be nice to be able to plug in 2 other "Majors" that maynot necessarily be in the US.

Finally, I pose this question:  Will the Vintage Format ever see a player or deck win a "Grand Slam" (winning all 4 tourny's in a year) if 4 Major Opens can be agreed upon?

EDIT:  Added Dulmen and Eindhoven  to the list.

[Dr. Sylvan]

The prizes aren't big enough to support someone making a trip across the Atlantic just to play Magic, so it'll be a while before anyone even plays in all four in the same year.

Dulmen is undoubtedly the premier European tournament just based on attendance and consistency (every month). Barcelona regularly gets 50+, but typically has outlier-type results and isn't really "major". They keep moving around in Italy and France, so I don't know what to say about them. Basically, Dulmen's the biggest.

[Nefarias]

The biggest problem with the "Grand Slam" scenario is that, with the exception of the Vintage World Championship, most big tournaments are held about every other month, and a comparision to tennis or golf championships would be difficult.

That said, many tournaments are held in very high esteem already, and greatly influence the metagame. The two mentioned already are certainly the highest calibur in America, and, thoguh I have no firsthand experience with it, it seems that Columbus is becoming more and more popular/competitive as far as USA tournies are concerned.

As for Europeans, they have had a healthy T1 scene even longer than the USA. It seems from the information I've gathered, Dulmen (Germany) and Eindhoven (Belgium?) have the highest quality players and most innovation to the meta, though the meta there is different from here. As far as sheer numbers are concerned, tournaments in Madrid have insanely high turnouts, from what I understand.

[Jhaggs]

Maybe the Grand Slam Slam senerio is impossible due to big tournanments being played mulitple times a year.  Perhaps, a special acknowledgement could be made for the vintage player who captures the most "majors".  In a sense, this could be the equivolent for the vintage format to track top players as if we had our own "pro" tour.

EDIT:

In fact, maybe Dr. Slyvan could calculate the top 8 finishers in each "Major" tournament once they are established and have a player ranking system.   The higher the finish the more points that are acculumated.  Somewhat simillar to Nascar.

[Dr. Sylvan]

I think that was a suggestion for me to start counting something! HUZZAH! Unfortunately, as I think about it, the lack of international interaction makes this much less feasible. However, by the end of the year I should be able to do a summary of the players who regularly appear in the Top 8s of the "majors". Anticipate a thread requesting biographical info on big winners in roughly November.

This is the signal to all our colorful personalities to start/keep winning so as to maximize the awesomeness of the "bio article".

Edit: I totally beat your edit, Jhaggs. :-D

[Jhaggs]

Sorry for the spam....

I think is potentially a great idea.  If we could tally who all the top 8's in all the Major bigtime tournaments, we could feasible construct a way to great a "Top 8 players of the year list" as well as a "Top 8 decks of the year list".  Since the vintage format is growing, why not have a method to track our format's top players.  Further, it would make tournaments even more valuable to attend and setup AND you might have less matches being thrown if a players ranking points were at stake.

I wonder who would have been the vintage top 8 in 2003?

EDIT:  I saw that Dr. Slyvan...last time I ever answer the phone before a hit the submit button.

[Jacob Orlove]

Richard Mattiuzzio (Shock_Wave) actually gets super cheap flights for some reason (it's connected to whatever job he has), so I think he's actually been to most, if not all, of these events. Just thought you might want to know.

[Jhaggs]

Richard Mattiuzzio (Shock_Wave) actually gets super cheap flights for some reason (it's connected to whatever job he has), so I think he's actually been to most, if not all, of these events. Just thought you might want to know.

But how many "Majors" has he been in the 8.  I honestly have no idea but I think that the normal weekend tournaments need to be eliminated.  Some sort of standard of player participation should be set in order for something to be consdiered a "major".  If shockwave has competed and placed well in the most majors then he totally deserves the top player status due to his effort and skill.  Just like racing, the more you compete the better your chances are to acquire points.

[Toad]

Eindhoven (Belgium?)

Netherlands.

[Shades]

Eindhoven is definately not one of the biggest tournaments in Europe!


I agree, Dülmen ist the biggest, and then?

In Spain, there are many places, but the biggest events are in Barcelona with an average of ~50-70.

In Italy, the biggest event was held in Massa with 139. An the weekly tourneys over there, have alsways about 60-70 attendants.

[Dr. Sylvan]

An the weekly tourneys over there, have alsways about 60-70 attendants.

Anything that big belongs on morphling.de so I can analyze it! Tell them to get up their Top 8 Decklists with the number of players!