Crummy prizes at the prerelease :(

[Norm4eva]

Usually I only attend a prerelease if I intend on playing the format and need to pick up a fair stock on cards that I use to trade/sell for the cards I really want.  Usually this pans out for me; I have this habit of going 3 - 1 at these events which pays off in the form of half a box.
Until today, when I find that Wizards seems to have changed their prizes policy and now, not only are we doing poopy poopy Swiss but the top 8ers aren't even getting half a box.  Something like, 12 packs for the top 2, 6 for the the next two, 4 for the next, etc etc...
Anyway since my tiebreakers were shitty I came out of there with 2 packs.  I went 3 - 1 just like last time, losing in the final match because I mulled to five and never had a full manabase, and a year ago that should have been 18 packs.  Now it's two, and I'm feeling a little cheated.  What the fuck do my tiebreakers have to do with anything?
The TO insists that this was all Wizards idea and that his 'hands were tied', and that if I'm truly pissed about it I should shoot an email to customer service.  Maybe I will maybe I won't.  But I am curious if anyone else who might have attended came out feeling the same as I do.
Frankly I'd probably be more upset if I were in the Top 2.  What the fuck is 12 packs?  It's like we all bought a really expensive box and drafted and got the leftovers.

[Nefarias]

Damn, what pre-releases are you going to? And what's the entry fee?

The prize payout where I go had always been the same:

24 Man flights, no sort of Top 8
If you go 4-0, you get 8 packs
If you go 3-0-1, you get six
If you go 3-1, you get four
If you go worse than that, you get nothing.

I attend the Boston pre-releases, which I hear are consistently amongst the largest in the country, and everyone seems happy with that payout.

Granted, if I were used to 18 packs for 3-1, I'd be pissed about that dropping to 2, but I think the original 18 was abnormally high.

[andrewpate]

Yeah, the payouts you describe are quite insane.  I 4-0ed the last prerelease flight I played, and I got only 8 packs.  I don't remember the exact prize structure, but what Nefarias described is probably pretty close if not dead on.

I haven't gone to a prerelease since Future Sight for the exact reason that I was sick of playing a long tournament only to go undefeated and get barely more than my entry fee in packs.  Imagine a poker tournament with a cash buy-in, with the payout being that the final table gets its fee refunded and the last two guys left get 5 bucks.  That's pretty much how I feel about prereleases.

Now, if I discover that there is a Nashville (3 hours for me) event paying out HALF A BOX for 3-1, you will have correctly identified one day on which I'll be scarfing McGriddles on I-40 at 6am and gas prices be damned.

[EnialisLiadon]

This was my first pre-release, and I really loved it.  I went 3-0-1 and got 6 packs, and I was pretty happy with that.  Three times that amount for all the top players doesn't sound economically feasible.

[LordHomerCat]

I went to one here in Milwaukee at a local place, and there were something like 30-35 players or so.  5 Rounds, packs to top 16.  First got like 12 or 14 or so, second about half that, 3-4 like 4 each, 5-8 2 each, and 9-16 1 a per person.  Really, that seemed pretty unimpressive to me.  I could not help but recall when I went to the big ones in Columbus previously and flights (of 32 people) would be 5 rounds, payout to top 8.  First was a box, second 16 packs, third and fourth were like 8 each and five through eight got 3 or 4.  Considerably better prizes, for the same price and the same number of entrants (oh, and they would also go one tourney pack + 3 packs of product for whatever reason).  It definitely felt kinda crappy yesterday and made me a lot less excited to go back today again.  From looking over the prizes for flights at the big one in Madison, they seemed pretty similar to the prizes at the local one here, and in fact I just checked the PES (Cbus tourney organizer) website and the flight payout has decreased considerably there too.  All in all, I guess it feels like I was spoiled by the old system?

At the very least, the set was a lot of fun to play with, although the guy who killed me with multiple rare/mythic dragons was not such a good time.

[EnialisLiadon]

At the very least, the set was a lot of fun to play with, although the guy who killed me with multiple rare/mythic dragons was not such a good time.

I only lost two games all day, and both of them involved two different people dropping Elspeth on turn 4 and doing nothing but riding it to victory.  It was a little annoying.

[Norm4eva]

Oh wow, so I'm just used to being incredibly spoiled then??

Now I feel like an asshat.  I suppose with a bigger picture of what prizes usually look like, I'm feeling a little better about getting two whole packs heh.
Yeah classically here in Nebraska the Top 8ers received a box without any tiebreaking math involved.  So it was usually pretty lucrative to agree to split the prize if you were 3 - 0 going into the fourth game, 27 packs for both of you = everybody wins.  Yeah wow, we got way spoiled.

Well nevermind I guess heh

[Vegeta2711]

In california here, we were getting 600-700 players at the bay area PR's for good sets.

So it was like:
4-0 - 18
3-1-1 - 12 (maybe 15 on a good day?)
3-1 - 8
2-1-1 - 5 or 6

or something along those lines. I forget exactly.

That said, the new prize structures for most places is going to be diddly shit.

[T00L]

Yeah I was told that part of the new prerelease structure is that TOs can only use so much product between product for the actual event and prizes.

[Godder]

To add to that, drafting the new set at the PR is also finished with, for the same reason. Basically, to help shops out, WotC are trying to limit the amount of product available via PRs.

[Norm4eva]

Well not to be a douchebag, but helping shops doesn't help me very much -_-
I really like this set and I'd like to play block/standard this season, and I like I said, I used to rely on that half-a-box to help me obtain what I wanted later on.  Not that this is true for everyone, but in my circumstance, helping the store = punching the customer.  Guess I'll have to sell some jank I'm not using, like that playset of Meddling Mages

[Apollyon]

Wizards did set a limit as to how much TOs could limit for prize payout. It's not that the TO didn't want to give out prizes, it's that they aren't allowed to.

[Norm4eva]

That's entirely understood.  I'm not mad at my TO at all.  I know the guy who owns the store, hell I learned to play the game from him and his friends.  It's just a bummer that's all - or it was, until I saw what others have been getting for prizes and now I understood I've been treated pretty well by the local sto'.,

[Apollyon]

I prefer deep prizes, especially for a Prerelease. They are meant to be among the most casual events, and giving out lots of prizes, especially to the top really goes against the spirit of that.

Damn, what pre-releases are you going to? And what's the entry fee?

The prize payout where I go had always been the same:

24 Man flights, no sort of Top 8
If you go 4-0, you get 8 packs
If you go 3-0-1, you get six
If you go 3-1, you get four
If you go worse than that, you get nothing.

I attend the Boston pre-releases, which I hear are consistently amongst the largest in the country, and everyone seems happy with that payout.

Granted, if I were used to 18 packs for 3-1, I'd be pissed about that dropping to 2, but I think the original 18 was abnormally high.

Boston consistently gets a lot of people because there are a lot of people in Boston in a fairly small area. There are few areas in the country that can compete on density, especially if you throw in the fact that there are a lot of colleges in the area.

From what I've heard, Boston got crushed this PR, although I think the venue might have something to do with it. The Brighton KoC is one of the worst venues that I've ever been to.