It's finally here!
StarCityGames.com is proud to present Grand Prix Charlotte this weekend, with events and festivities starting Friday, February 22 and going all the way through Sunday, February 24. This includes the main event of Gatecrash Limited Saturday and Sunday, where old and new players alike can prove their prowess in the format against the best in the world! We've pulled out all the stops for this one, folks, so you won't want to miss out on all the fun!
We will be in the beautiful (and ideally located) Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Located right smack dab in the heart of the hustle and bustle of downtown Charlotte, the event site not only has plenty of hotel options nearby but ease of travel thanks to the close-by train station and highway exits. And most importantly, there are a ton of excellent food options nearby, including a nicely situated Buffalo Wild Wings across the street in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
We have a ton of tremendous events planned! We'll start with Artist Alley, where four spectacular artists will be at the Grand Prix signing cards and selling their wares!
We're excited to showcase one of the best fantasy artists in the game in Charlotte as our Guest of Honor, Terese Nielsen! Terese's body of work includes Force of Will, Eternal Witness, the GURU lands, and many more. Check out her recently released Series One Lithographs or get them in person at Grand Prix Charlotte!
Eric Deschamps has been illustrating amazing cards for Magic since 2003, starting with Unhinged. This New York-based artist has painted many beautiful pieces including Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Koth of the Hammer, and all the Worldwake manlands.
Painting for Magic: The Gathering since the release of Shadowmoor, Steve Belledin's work has been celebrated for its attention to gritty detail and amazing use of light and scale. His work continues to grace the top tables of tournament play.
StarCityGames.com customers have seen Kristen Plescow's work for months now in the form of in-order creature tokens, and at the Grand Prix you'll get even more in the form of exclusive Grand Prix Charlotte commemorative tokens!
You can meet a cadre of Magic celebrities at the event as well at our All-Star Meet and Greet Friday night! Friday night from 6-8 PM, you can drop by and meet Mike Flores, Gerry Thompson, and Brad Nelson! Have them sign your GP Charlotte commemorative player tokens (available to all who enter the Grand Prix) or cards they are known for! Craterhoof Behemoth, anyone?
Also occurring Friday will be a pair of Judge Conferences, from 10 AM-3 PM and from 5-10 PM. If you're a certified judge, we'd love to have you join us! However, if you can't make it, be sure to tune in and watch the entire Grand Prix Charlotte Judge Conference streamed live on SCGLive!
Keep in mind that Grand Prix Trials start on Friday too and all winners will receive a free sleep-in special in addition to the three byes! Plus, all of our fabulous side events like Foiled Again, Standard Win-a-Boxes, $10 Booster Drafts, and more will get underway as soon as we open our doors to the public at noon on the 22nd.
And that's only what's happening on Friday before the actual Grand Prix gets underway!
The main event begins on Saturday morning. Your $40 entry fee ($60 with sleep-in special) gets you a set of commemorative SCG player tokens with the unique GP Charlotte backing, one month of StarCityGames.com Premium, a Grand Prix foil promo Primeval Titan, a StarCityGames.com deck box, and a Gold Rush envelope just for entering!
I'm going to channel my inner Evan Erwin here: did I just say Gold Rush? Oh yes, I did! And this Gold Rush is even bigger than the first because it includes two sets each of Unlimited, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, foil Ravnica: City of Guilds, foil Dissension, and foil Guildpact. That's over 3,000 cards, people!
Saturday will also feature the Rebound Gatecrash Sealed event at 4 PM, a special four-round Sealed event that will be offered at a $10 discount for those who entered GP and will also be able to earn you Gold Rush envelopes! In fact, Gold Rush envelopes are being given away to winners of all eight-player side events, all undefeated players in all Swiss side events like Rebound Sealed, and all entrants in Sunday's 5K Win a Trip to GP Miami Standard Challenge!
What's that, you say? What's the 5K Win a Trip to GP Miami Standard Challenge? You want to learn more? Well, listen to this! On Sunday of GP Charlotte, you can enter our $5,000 Standard tournament where the winner will win a trip to Grand Prix Miami June 28-30 of this year, including free flight and hotel in addition to first place prize money. Both finalists of the event will receive a foil set of Gatecrash, third and fourth place finishers will receive a regular set of Gatecrash, and each player in Top 8 will get a special Wizards of the Coast messenger bag. The tournament pays down to the Top 32 competitors, and all participants will receive a Gold Rush envelope. And that's not all; at end of the event, all remaining Gold Rush envelopes will go to top finishers in the event.
This will be a humongous Magic weekend with a ton of events and activities, so you'll want to show up prepared. Whether you're preordering cards like Gravecrawler, Eternal Witness, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, or Force of Will to be signed in Artist Alley or you're trying to make sure you have hot cards like Boros Reckoner, Domri Rade, and Sphinx's Revelation for Constructed, you'll want to be prepared. Happily, we're here to help! If you place a preorder by Thursday, February 21st at noon and select "Grand Prix Charlotte" as your shipping option, you'll get free shipping on your order!
This weekend I will be in Mecklenburg County working alongside some of the best and brightest StarCityGames.com coverage has to offer! Writer of The Official Miser's Guide Michael J. Flores will be joined by SCG veteran Joey Pasco and Team Panik captain Matthias Hunt in the booth, with road warrior Glenn Jones and myself in the Sideboard! The hashtag for this event is #GPCharlotte, so be sure to follow along on social media and tune in all day Saturday and Sunday on @SCGLive!
See everyone in Charlotte!
Event Coverage Coordinator
About Reuben Bresler
Reuben Bresler is a Coverage Coordinator for SCGLive who lives in Roanoke, VA. When he's not doing coverage, he works on various video projects for StarCityGames.com, like The Newsening.