So how do you guys do it??

[gusjdt]

Hey there

I wanted to ask people here who know what it takes to get people to come to a vintage tournament. I live in Puerto Rico and very few people play any at all. I'm trying to get a vintage scene started but its not so easy.. I first tried doing sort of like a FNM but the format being vintage. Basically vintage tourney, $5 bucks entry, prize being cash made from people who showed up. I didnt even get to do it because of the lack of interest. I then talked to a store about making a tournament that basically is 12 dollars admission. We need 12 people since the money is going to be used for a Mox Tourney. It's not going so well.. The prize is 5 duals and a sol ring. The 5 duals being an underground sea, volcanic, tundra, taiga, and tropical island. Everyone keeps telling me that vintage is not good because it "scares people" (wtf??) and most people dont have the cards. Also they say that its more easy to play standard since its simple and keeps the newer players interested. I told them that with 10 proxies people can build competetive decks and even borrowing cards from store owners (which I have done many times). I even suggested upping the proxy count to friggin 15 and still no one shows interest.

What the HELL can I do to actually get the most important format going in my area?

[Lunar]

proxy up/build/put together a couple of good T1 decks...make them nice looking (they dont have to be tourney legal proxies, use nice printings so they look good, or gold bordered cards are good too) demo the decks and let people play around with them.  Show them what you can do with T1 and how fun it is to play in this format.

Just keep trying.

[neenjafus]

it's actually quite difficult. Here in southern california we have very few T1 tourneys despite there being quite a lot of people around. It got to the point that I sold my whole collection because there weren't any good T1 tourneys around and it wasn't worth sitting on (at the time) a couple thousand dollars worth of cards.

Good luck to you though.

[Mr. Fantazy]

it's actually quite difficult. Here in southern California we have very few T1 tourneys despite there being quite a lot of people around. It got to the point that I sold my whole collection because there weren't any good T1 tourneys around and it wasn't worth sitting on (at the time) a couple thousand dollars worth of cards.

Good luck to you though.

How funny, we hold T1 every Saturday night here in Orange, Ca. and we can't even get 8 people to show up.

The best you can do is schedule the tourney, promote it as much as possible and hope.

-Shawn

[Methuselahn]

I would say that your best bet is to proxy up decks for people to use.  Then, if they are interested, hold the prize at whatever most people are willing to accept.  Do this even for a small amount of people.  Generally, you have to invest first in creating a market such as this before you can expect any kind of profit.  Or, if you have balls of steel, put up signs everywhere and hold a cheap tournament 10$? and fork up the Mox out of your own pocket.  Good Luck!

[Chamelet]

Well, I live in Brazil, and Type 1 is just as hard here, 'cause people don't own even dual lands.
Since the beginning of the year, I've been promoting Type 1 Unlimited Proxy tournaments every month. Only few people showed at the first ones, varying from 5 to 8. Yeah, 5 to 8. The prizes are boosters and, in December, I'll make a tourney for a greater prize, like Mana Drain + Duals w/ blue.
Here, I charge semothing near U$ 4 per person. Now we're growing a bit, since I write Vintage related articles to the local Magic site and, mainly because of the proxyes, the guys are getting interested.
It's very unusual for people to travel interestates to play tournaments here, and that's awful. We're trying to make a broader tournament organized by Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
In September, there will be a large tournament, with 12 proxyes. We'll pretty much be able to know howthe Vintage scene has changed from that tournaments attendance.
But that's how it goes. You have to start small. The Vintage scene is growing I guess. We have the first national serious Vintage only forum now. And people are listening a lot to Vintage players.
It will probably a year from now for us to make 30+ tournaments, but it'll be good!
Just make tournaments that have a cheaper entry fee, and reward the winners with either good cards that aren't ultra expensive, or with boosters.
Try unlimited proxyes. It's good for small beggining environments. Oh, and a good thing I've done in the first tourneys was taking some "Decks to Beat" lists to show to the players. With that list, you can point what people should look after and what they could play next time (or even now, if they have the cards/proxyes). Oh, take some of your proxyes (like P9, Mana Drains, MWS) so they can borrow/buy and play.
Did this post help at all?

[gusjdt]

Haha, yea it did Chamelet. I think its probably the fact that I'm one of the youngest players in my area. I'm going to try and proxy a crapload of decks so they can try them out. I might even hold unlimited proxy tournaments. There are about 7-10 people that would be willing to participate. I might just have to deal with that first before making anything big. Then again, theres a guy that is going to make a p9 series in August. 9 proxies too.

[smbdy_182]

Well, I live in the Philippines and we have already tried an unlimited proxy tourney at an entrance of $5.5 and the price was a set of unlimited illusionary mask. It is really hard to draw players to participate and to think we expect more players than our sanctioned vintage tourney's averages about 15 per tourney. And to think the usual reason why people in our area does not like to play vintage is because of the fear of "power". The unlimited proxy should be able to help them with that problem since everybody is on the same ground no one having more of an advantage as the other. What can we do to draw more players other than the unlimited proxies is something that I cannot actually answer.

* Due to money problems, we cannot give out power cards. The most expensive i think that were given out was mana drains.

[BigMac]

The biggest problem for small magic communities is starting up something different. The only thing i can say is keep trying. Some people will get to like the format and some may not. But start off with small tournies with low entree fees. Have a price something like store credit or a dual or something, so people can actually choose what they like.

If ye get 4 people, start there. Don't blow it off because so few are there, just play it and have fun. Next time have them tell their friends how much fun ye had and try and get them to take some friends. Let the word get out that there is a tournament worth comming to. The more participants, the better the prizes is always a good incentive.

Have many proxies so people can play whatever they want but with more players have less proxies not to have to many of the same decks there and have people think about their decks.

For all the rest hope is all ye can have.

Good luck.

[kl0wn]

Hype your events as much as possible; make flyers and put them up wherever you think Magic players might see them.

Have some of the top decks handy when you're chilling out, waiting for people to show up. Then when people say Type 1 is too broken/all about power, hand them a top deck and break out the unpowered R/G beater. Then smash their face repeatedly with it.

[Chamelet]

Hype your events as much as possible; make flyers and put them up wherever you think Magic players might see them.

Have some of the top decks handy when you're chilling out, waiting for people to show up. Then when people say Type 1 is too broken/all about power, hand them a top deck and break out the unpowered R/G beater. Then smash their face repeatedly with it.

Or just play Fish and win the tourney!

[warble]

From my experience the most important part is the actual presence of a community of magic players.  If there's no shop in PR, and no gaming spot aside from on campus, you hold the tournaments on campus and advertise mainly to college kids.  If there are no vintage cards in the area, instead of just saying, "unlimited proxy" you can actually say, "power 10 proxies and mana drain proxies will be available to purchase at a price of $1 apiece, other proxies are allowed" or something else to stimulate the community.  If you can't find a hub of magic players (trust me, there are players in your area, and they will come) your task is not to produce a suitable tournament, but to allow the players to communicate and build the community first.
Vintage may be an expensive format, but a community comes at an even more expensive price.  It comes from time, and dedication, and a lot of effort and communication with tons of people (or a few of the right people).  If you can see the benefit from this (in the Northeast it's wonderful to play vintage) get started on mailing lists, locales for pickup games, and when you see the community start to come together and communicate, then you will be able to hold a tournament.
One of the best community building "games" you can play in magic is a booster draft; players come in and keep the cards they draft, and because they pay a small extra fee, you can offer a prize to the top player, top 2, or if you're lucky top 4.  There doesn't have to be an immediate jump into "vintage magic" because vintage evolved from a large community with a need to use their cards.  Because this isn't your community's starting point, you need to lead the community to discover why vintage is so amazing.  Organizing a booster draft tournament is both less risky and more productive then jumping straight into a vintage tournament, and because the entry fee is lower and the prizes are more lucrative ("you mean you're giving away ALL the entrance fees?!?") and there isn't even a requirement that you know how to play or own cards, you'll find your community grow and expand even with the first few tournaments.  Don't supply a mana drain, supply a bunch of basic lands and a box of boosters and let people play around.  Then show them the way of the black lotus.

[jcb193]

The other problem, is most new vintage players are not going to have ANY of the cards they need.  This means, they will have to play 60 card proxy decks (which nobody wants to do), spend $200+ on a whim, or not play.  People like to play with the cards they own.  As a person who has played magic in many different states and communities, i never found it to be a successful Vintage scene if you don't have at least a few old-timers or people who have been playing for 5+ years.

Legacy might be a better format to try and build.  If nobody in the area has power or knows about power, nobody is going to be that interested in power.  I've been to plenty of FNM where the kids didn't even know what a mox was, so why in the world would they care about winning one?