how far is too far to drive for a mox?

[nataz]

Hello everyone,
My name is Jared Carter and some of my friends and I have a question to poise to the New England Type One community.

first off, our current situation:
We had a blast playing at the NE champs (lost rounds and all) and met a ton of really cool people. We however were not impressed with the fact that it took about 6 1/2 hours to get there. Doing that once in a while is fine, but that’s the kind of distance we have to drive every time we want to play with against competition for some decent prizes.

Everything local is just T2, extended, or really bad type one with no prize support.

Well, we want to change that.

What we would like to do is set up a small mox tourney here in Maine.

Maine you ask, what’s that? Isn’t it part of Canada or something?
NO! We are actually part of the United States, we even have senators. Amazing huh?
We just happen to be a little further north then most people in our country.

But see, that’s the catch. It sucks that we have to drive 6+ hours to get to any large games, but how far are people willing to drive to get to us? After all, if you are north of CT (and some of you must be) its not quite as bad for you to get here.

The question is of course, can we get the numbers to make it worthwhile to put up power for prizes. I’m thinking we would need at least 20 players to even think about it, and I know we cannot raise more then 5-10 (scrubish) players locally. We need at least 10-15 guys to come from elsewhere to actually make this happen. If it works out, we can do it again, and again, and again. We literally have about 10-15 pieces of power we are looking to sell, but we would rather see them given away as prizes. As long as we make our money back, we will keep doing this at almost cost, just to get some games going up here.

So, the question I am asking is this.

Is there anyone on the TMD boards who would be willing to drive to Bangor Maine to play Type One for pieces of Power, or is Maine simply too far away, and we should give up now and forever?

Please respond and let us know, and if enough people show interest we can move ahead and look at dates. We are thinking late April-May, and then again though out the summer.

Thanks for reading
-carter

[Meddling Mike]

I think the reason why the tourneys are normally held in various places in Connecticut is to fall under the spheres that Massachusetts RI CT and New York gamers will drive too. It's unfortunate that you guys are from Maine, but that's about the same haul for Massachusetts folk, maybe more, and definitely longer for people from NY, RI and CT. But my personal theory is, if the prizes are good enough, and they figure their chances are good enough, they would drive a ridiculous length. If you're worried about just getting jonesed on your power throw in a disclaimer on your tourney announcement, something to the effect of, "If we get 25+ people we'll put up (some random peice of power) as the prize, and if we don't A box of mirrodin will be the grand prize. At least that way you're assured not to be giving out a mox for a 10 person tourney.

[Razvan]

Mathematically?

A good car usually need about 30 cents per mile (including gas, repair, price, over a whole lifetime).

So if a Mox is $200, and you have to go back... I would say 200 miles.

About $.50 per mile to make it worth it, since you have to get back.

Of course there's other factors like chance to win, fun playing, fun chilling... etc...

[Hi-Val]

You might consider meeting people halfway. Granted, I don't know much about NE geography, but I'm sure you could think of a spot that would be ~3 hours away and centrally located for gamers. Find a comic shop or rent a hall for the day if you can and are feeling ambitious. Remember that you can drive places knowing that increased attendence will pay for the gas you spend.

Who knows, maybe Maine will be a new mecca for magic! You also have the chance of pulling in some of the Canadian players.

[SpencerForHire]

Mathematically speaking its also good to carpool

[thecapn]

I think the best thing to do would be to create a regional playerbase.  The way to do this, IMO, is to run unlimited proxy tournaments like they do in Columbus.  A Mox is much bigger than most prizes offered in local tournaments, but most players don't want to invest in the cards needed to play the format - especially if they have no experience with it.  Offering a big prize isn't quite enough though, you still have to promote the format.  Tell people about themanadrain.com, tell them your thoughts about type 1, and give them an idea where to get started - your local t2 control player may want to avoid keeper because it requires an intense knowledge of matchups, but may fair well with Control Slaver.  Also, power cards, especially Black Lotus, hold a special place in every magic player's heart.  The opportunity to play with these cards for a big prize is exciting, and hopefully people will realize the format isn't dead like they may have thought.  The higher cost of a mox tournament, usually $15, is offset by the fact that players don't have to scrounge up a bunch of $4 rares.

I also really think the unlimited proxy metagame is the most enjoyable to play in.  It makes the environment not only more competitive, but also more fun since it truly has that type 1 broken/balanced feel.  It's a good idea to set a rule on proxies, like all proxies must contain full oracle text and picture proxies are recommended.  Like I said, promote, promote, promote.

In response to the question how far is too far to drive? Well JP Meyer and I drive 2 and a half hours every month to play in the Columbus tournament, and people (including Hi-Val) regularly from major cities an hour and a half away.  Raye and his friends came in from Chicago once (6+ hours), and I know people sometimes come from NY and Kentucky.  Keep in mind that dedicated type 1 players will drive pretty far for a challenging tournament.  If you've got any more questions feel free to pm me or Smmenen, as he's done a lot of work to get the monthly Columbus tournaments going.

Peace,
   Jason

[The Hamburgler]

I would suggest blaring up some obscenely large tournament, that will get people to get off our american ass's and "scoot" (as Stok would say). Heh maybe try a "vintage Maine Championships :lol: ". I would hitch a ride with us Cape Cod folk if it would promise some good times, good prizes and some "Mainians" to speak and stare at  :shock: . Well who knows, maybe Maine will be the next type one mecca of the modern world. In more recent news, the red sox won the world series. Meh.

[nataz]

thanks for the replies so far.

i guess i should note, since it was already brought up, that this tourney would be unlimited proxy if we held it.

[RoadTrippin]

Bangor is far as hell. I drive there like 4 times a year- it takes me between 4 and 6 hours to get there, obviously depending on hick traffic.

This is from Cape Cod perspective. Hadley is closer to Maine, CT and RI crews are farther away. How about since we already have a great player base, you come down here  

[Kerz]

If you were to hold a tourney in Bengor, it would most likely have to be on the bigger end (more than just 1 piece of power given away) to be at all sucessful. Your player base you want consists of all the New England players, and most of these won't do a 4-6 hour drive for a Mox.

Also, while mathematically it doesn't really add up, sometimes people venture to big tournaments for the experience and the meeting of new people, not just for the prize. For example, Smmenen travelled more than 12 hours round trip to get to the NE championships, along with a one-night hotel room and food expenses. This all added up to much more than a lotus, I'm sure, but it made up for itself.

Another example is GenCon in Indiana. Many NE players make this 17+ hour drive, which includes 4 nights of hotel rooms, and over 8 meals. Even if one of these people won EVERY tourney they entered, it wouldnt nearly make up for the money spent. But- they got to say they went to GenCon, and met a ton of people, etc.