As a responsible writer in a public forum, I'm coming back with some of the responses to my article on Regionals. Although the response was underwhelming, the messages I received seemed to represent most of the viewpoints I expected.

Maybe most importantly, I received a message from GP Baglione, a judge who worked the Mid-Atlantic Regional. He began with a response to my recommendation that the computer equipment be tested before the tournament is supposed to start:

"...I just wanted to let you know that all the equipment had been tested the night before. The Tournament Organizer has their system, and John Carter the Head Judge had his own system as a backup. For some reason, both systems, which had worked before, chose then to stop working. Perhaps we really need triple redundancy..."

Sometimes Bad Things happens to Good People, and unfortunately for Dreamwizards and the judging staff, A Bad Thing happened just as they were about to start their largest tournament of the year.

Dear Dreamwizards,

Sorry. No hard feelings, eh?

Love,
The guy who asked for his money back

A couple of respondents shared my sentiment that there need to be more regions. I noted the lack of a tournament between Baltimore, Maryland and Duluth, Georgia. Things are just as bad in the Mid-West, where players from St. Louis had the unenviable choice of driving several hours to and from Chicago, Columbus, or Lincoln. Dropping money on a hotel room would probably be necessary for such a long drive. Other locations that might want a Regional tournament include Denver or Minnesota, based on their distance from this year's tournament sites. Certainly Ohio players, with a Regional that is twice the size of other Regional tournaments, could use a second location just to give them a fairer chance at qualifying. (Tru dat - The Lazy Ferrett, who hates driving three hours)

Here are the definite advantages I see with having more Regions:

Less travel time: Does anyone really enjoy driving six hours for any reason? If the drive can be managed reasonably within one day, that's a big improvement.

Overall better attendance: Players who would skip Regionals because of the distance could attend.

Shorter tournaments: Three hundred people probably spend half as much time looking for their pairings between rounds as six hundred people. Also, there is some benefit gained from reducing the number of rounds, although not a huge amount. Again comparing six hundred to three hundred players, there is only the difference of one round of play.

More qualifiers for Nationals: As an advantage, that speaks for itself.

There are also disadvantages that can't be ignored:

Limited resources: More tournaments will put a drain on the existing group of Regionals judges. Not every DCI judge can afford to spend sixteen or more hours working a tournament, no matter how many foil Vampiric Tutors you give them.

Reduced revenue for a given tournament organizer: Existing organizers are going to lose players to the new locations and may not be able to realize proportional savings by renting smaller spaces.

More qualifiers for Nationals: Having more qualified players will tend to dilute the overall level of competition. This isn't obviously negative and is probably outweighed by more people having the experience of playing at Nationals.

On the whole, more Regions seem to favor a better tournament experience for the average player. Resources may be stretched thin, but it's worth it for a closer, shorter tournament.

My ideal Regionals is less than three hours from my house, runs about eight rounds, and gets me home by midnight. The fact is I can't spend too much time playing in a Magic tournament. I'm an aspiring member of Team AWWAJALOOM - does this team even exist anymore? - because of my responsibilities outside of Magic: Getting married this May, working full-time to clean up the environment, and improving my zone offense for ultimate frisbee. Maybe I'm no longer in the target demographic for the game, but I shouldn't have to forfeit my weekend to play in the Regional tournament.

RK
wrk@alum.mit.edu

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