$400 1st Place at Batter Up Sportscards in Tewksbury, MA 12/20

[Pandemonium]

I just want to point out that Magic Players are crazy.  They'll show up for anything if you assure it's happening.  I got 15 people for FNM the night of the storm. 

It seems to be a trend this winter (I'm 100% at fault of this as well) that TO's aren't properly communicating with players, and it's easy as a TO to miss a detail, a message, and it's not fair to ask players to try to keep up with organizers.  For example, when Wizard's runs events, they happen, no matter what.  The Betrayers of Kamigawa Prerelease is an example of what I mean here.  Anyone remember that blizzard?

ELD is right.  When we guarantee prizes, we should give it out.  However, if the players that were there unanimously agree to something different, I don't see an issue.  It shouldn't be a common practice, it should be the appropriate exception to the rule.

The Snow and status of the tournament should have been addressed on the Mana Drain.  I have a lot of respect for Ben as well, he's a fair dealer, he's a good TO, he has a good business.  I've never been to the store but I've never heard 1 bad thing about it.  I'm glad that the players that attended had a good time and if they're happy, that's really all that matters.  It's hard to set a blanket policy, I think the solution here is to encourage TO's to include a Severe Weather case in their TO post.  Something like "Will Happen NO MATTER WHAT" or "Prize may be scaled in inclement weather".  As long as it's clear what's going to happen, players won't have to guess when the situation arises in the future.

These issues that are being discussed here should be addressed by the TO's, I think the true answer from All of us is to improve communication.

Feedback from all of the community is important and a thread like this is invaluable to me, as it's clear that winter events should have a Severe Weather disclaimer.  I hope that situations like this don't take away from any organizers future attendance as long as we continue to improve and correct our mistakes.

[Grand Inquisitor]

To offer a first hand account, I think this statement gets pretty close to how it went down:

if the players that were there unanimously agree to something different, I don't see an issue.  It shouldn't be a common practice, it should be the appropriate exception to the rule

It was a crappy day, our car was almost an hour late and everyone I could see was more interested in playing a more low-key, less entrance/prize intensive event.  Having been to two events here, I want anyone checking out this thread to realize these guys run quality events.

This is not to take away from Eric's comments at all.  I think his post was really well couched and I think what he's emphasizing is good practice...just not overly relevant to what happened here.

[Newenglandmagicgroup]

First let me apologize for the extremely late response to this thread as well as apologize for not posting the night before that due to weather this should have been canceled.  Moving on to future events, we will make sure to keep a better eye on the forums and keep the community updated.
 
That said, I want to clear up that at the start time, there was no tournament to be had as there were no players.
 
We waited in the store instead of closing in case people did show up, which when we did have people show up I talked to the group which led to a reduced cost tournament with all of the entry fees going back out in prizes.
 
I understand that perhaps we should add a "weather permitting" stipulation to our events.  Being new to the Vintage scene, I have never dealt with something like this before.  So again, my apologies.
 
I do feel we run solid events with the players in mind, the first 2 events we held went over very well and the 3rd was a mess but we learn from our mistakes.
 
I am open to any and all comments as my goal here is to run a better tournament and offer something fun and competitive to the Vintage community. 
 
We will be announcing another event shortly and will be taking all comments into consideration.
 
I appreciate all the support and comments posted as I appreciate the 9 people that did brave the storm to come out to the store.
 
Rest assured those who have any questions,  this was a learning experience for me and while I have been running DCI events for years on end, we have only run 3 vintage events.  I am sure the next one we host will be a much better experience as we learn from our mistakes.
 
I will be reviewing all posts before announcing our next event and will be checking in with ELD before hand to ensure we run the best event possible.  We want to gain the trust of the community and become a venue where players want to come and play as well as a venue that players can expect to have a good time.

If anyone would like to contact me directly rather then through the forums, my email is Ben@NewEnglandMagicGroup.com  Again I am open to all comments and suggestions.

[ELD]

I have nothing but confidence that Batter Up will continue to learn and get even better at running events.  Their support of New England Vintage is commendable, and I'm certain that this issue will only encourage more open and clear communication with the community.  I look forward to their future events and their continued support of our format.