Vintage scene in Chicago: Started! Please come!

[AmbivalentDuck]

Hi, so I've found a store willing to put up prize support and host infi-proxy vintage tournaments.  Now what?

Just pick an arbritrary date close to the start of classes at Northwestern/Loyola/UChicago and announce a tourney?

Any experience/advice is greatly appreciated.

[JACO]

Well you have to figure out how many people would actually be able to play. I know of only a few Vintage players in the Chicagoland area:
1) myself
2) Dante
3) Jon Donovan
4) Brian Fischer

I'm sure there are others, but figuring out a possible headcount and what would be best for the people who are in the area would go a long way towards having a successful event, which would go along ways towards the store hosting another. Also make sure you're not butting heads with nearby Milwaukee events.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Well, I've got interest from Chicagoland games http://www.chicagolandgames.com/.  They're basically directly off the Bryn Mawr red line stop.  Parking isn't horrible since you can park at a nearby (large) Jewel and walk a few blocks.  The store is within 20 minutes of the downtown via the 147 express bus or 30 minutes via the red line.

Talking to the players there, some had purchased full power as collectors (and basically never played it) and others didn't have cards outside standard.

The store owners are very reasonable and eager to build a tourney scene, and therefore it's a free venue with possibly more than 100% payout.  The draft I did last night had us paying only MSRP for the packs and getting 10 prize packs total from 10 players.  So, they killed their profit margin on the sealed product.

Since I have no experience with planning events and don't travel to Milwaukee for events, I'll happily accept any tourney date you suggest.

I was thinking 30-60 proxy for the first event, and cutting down the proxy count for subsequent events.  I don't know about Steve's logic w/regard to purchasing high cost staples like moxen, but acquiring brainstorm, merchant scroll, etc seems like reasonable small steps towards feeling invested in the format.

I might do infi proxy if players whine the week before about not being able to acquire staples...but I'd rather just show up with the box of white-bordered Rituals/Brainstorms/etc that I'm not using and just trade/sell them for cheap.

[M.Solymossy]

You need to guarentee prizes in order to have the Milwaukee guys travel.

In chicagoland.
- Jaco
- Bill Dicks (if he's still alive)
- Jon Donovan
- Brian Fisher
- a bunch others who only show for power events

If you do power, the  Wisconsin crew has:
- Myself
- Jimmy McCarthy
- Both Carp brothers
- TK
- Owen
- James King and Duby
- Jamison Bryant
- and others

[JACO]

You need to guarantee prizes in order to have the Milwaukee guys travel.

This seems like one of the bigger things also. While it's risky for the store/organizer, the reality is that events that don't have guaranteed prizes just don't draw people who have to travel (which is nearly everybody).

Regarding proxy rules, I'd recommend looking at either one of these:
$25 to enter
25 proxies
.25 each for additional proxies

OR

$25 to enter
10 proxy
$1 for each additional proxy

I prefer the latter, because it incentivizes people to buy and keep Vintage staple cards (and stay in the format), while also seems like a reasonable amount of proxies. All the extra money for additional proxies can either go into the prize pool or go to the organizer/store owner.

Perhaps you could run tournaments with the first model to start, and then once you get a feel for how many proxies people are playing with you can change to the second model. Infinite proxy slows down tournaments because you have to read and remember every card your opponent plays (probably hastily written in black sharpie in chicken scratch font on a Revised basic land).

[AmbivalentDuck]

$25 is high for getting a weekly/bimonthly local scene started.  I realize that I can make a successful tourney with high attendance by just guaranteeing a set of P9.  The challenge is growing a regular local scene with much smaller prizes.

So, the question is grow a local scene first, and then go big...or go big and hope it prompts a local scene.

Would the people in and around Chicago be interested in weekly tourneys with duals/FoWs/other medium staples as prizes?

[JACO]

If you are interested in getting a weekly or bi-monthly scene going you could maybe try to do Legacy half the time and Vintage half the time, to potentially pull in more people. When not traveling for work I'm available most weekends to play.

You could either give out staples like Force of Will/Duals/smaller stuff as prizes, or maybe do $6-11/person for entry, with the house keeping $1/head and giving the rest back as tournament prizes in cash to the top X finishers, based on number of entrants.

Smaller entrance/prize structure means you obviously won't get people from out of state (gas and time costs), so you'll really have to start from scratch if you want to make it Chicago local. There's currently a group of guys that meet up Monday nights at College of DuPage (in Glen Ellyn), so if you can get any of them to cross over and play in your tournaments as well that would be good for attendance.

[nataz]

If your goal is to build up a smaller scene with lead ups to big events, I think ELD is the man to talk to. He is behind at least two weekly vintage/legacy events in New England and they act as great feeder events for larger venues. Check out his scholars thread in the tourny section.

[AmbivalentDuck]

@ the Chicago area players, would you attend Saturday night weekly vintage tourneys?  Probably 4-8 players to start, $10 entry, 100+% payout.

[JACO]

I'd be available. You really want 8+ people though.

[AK44]

@ the Chicago area players, would you attend Saturday night weekly vintage tourneys?  Probably 4-8 players to start, $10 entry, 100+% payout.

I probably couldn't make it every Saturday, but I would certainly try to.

[Churro4]

@ the Chicago area players, would you attend Saturday night weekly vintage tourneys?  Probably 4-8 players to start, $10 entry, 100+% payout.

I couldn't make every one of them, but would make an effort to get there as often as possible. 

I also like the idea of throwing some legacy into the mix.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Well, that's 3 people here + me + my fiancee + whatever regulars from the shop attend.  So 5-8 people.

I'll talk with the store owners and announce here and in the tourney forums+calender when we're starting.

I'll also guarantee a revised dual land regardless of attendance the first week.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Weekly tourneys starting Saturday Sept 5th at 7pm!

See the announcement here: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38658.0

Guaranteed Savannah the first week + 100% payout.

[AmbivalentDuck]

We're just over a week off now.  Who's coming?  I've got 3-4 regulars from the shop.

[Irrelevant]

I should be able to make it and probably bring 1 or two others. 

[JACO]

As of right now I'm in.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Bump!  Tomorrow at 7, please come!

Bring a friend!

[AK44]

I'm in for tonight. Looking forward to it.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Bump! Vintage again next week, and we probably won't be doing legacy again since nobody showed up.

Infinite proxy, entry fee/prizes only if the attendees want it.

7 pm, Saturday the 19th at Dicedojo

[AmbivalentDuck]

Had 3 shop regulars and myself tonight. 

There's interest in legacy next week, but naturally I'd prefer to do vintage given enough people.