I have to admit that I am living a double life. No, I'm not a spy with a secret identity, or a person harboring a deep dark secret... But stuck in between the age span of my daughters, I'm serving two different roles as a parent.
Kelle, our oldest, is thirteen, and in less than six months, she both turns fourteen and begins her high school life. Anyone who has had a teenage daughter can fully appreciate what I mean when I say she is somewhat "boy crazy." No longer is Dad (or, as is my case with her, step-dad) considered the primary male in her life. Eight years ago when I entered her life, the only guys she wanted attention from were her Dad and I - and now, neither of us counts. (At least not when compared to the hunky sophomore she saw the other day.) My other three older daughters are not too far behind Kelle.
Most fathers would not give this much of a second thought; it's the natural order of things. Kids grow up, and teenagers drift away from their parents and find people who they feel are more important to them, and whose attention they crave. Of course, the parents are now considered "the heavies" and a bothersome entity that just gets in the way. Through the knowledge I have gained through various Psych and Sociology classes, I am fully aware that this is a natural stage of growth and development. And, had I only my older daughters, I could quite easily convince myself of the things I have learned.
But that is easier said than done... Because I also have Angel, who will be turning four shortly, and Veronica, who is a six months old. For them, Dad is the center of their little universe. If something is wrong, Dad can fix it. If they're looking for a buddy to play with, Dad is there.
So there I am, stuck in the middle with no middle ground. I have my younger daughters who think of me as a hero, and my older daughters who can't get far enough away from their dorky, uncool father. You know what a good age is? I would say about seven or eight. Your kids are old enough to be somewhat independent and have their own personality, but still young enough to not realize your faults and to think you hung the moon.
Of course, on the flip side, I know I wouldn't want to be twenty years older and still raising a seven-year-old. So I guess growth is a good thing.
What got me thinking of these two extremes, though, are the tournaments I've been running. I've had the opportunity to run two sanctioned events since my last article was published, and I've started to see a pattern. We have a small group of regulars, left over from before, who are very good players. We also have a completely separate group of younger, newer players that have been coming to play. And again, there's not a whole lot of middle ground.
Not that I'm complaining. I'm more than grateful for every player I get to come into the store and play. Let me share with you how these first two "officially sanctioned" events went.
The first sanctioned event was an Extended tournament that had fifteen people play. Four of the players were people I've seen previously at other tournaments, and they are all pretty good players. Two of the others were folks that I have known through casual play at the store, and who chose to play with only minor begging from me. The remaining nine players were all new to the game (and, in fact, six of them had signed up for their original DCI numbers that week). So I had six pretty experienced players and nine newer players.
Things played out pretty well. The cut to the single-elimination top four contained half of the more experienced folks, and one relative newcomer. Once the dust had settled, the lone female participant was the last one left standing. She was playing a deck that her opponents classified as "annoying," which basically ran four-ofs of the Phantom creatures from Judgment, coupled with Mirari's Wake, Shared Triumph, and Armadillo Cloak. It started a little slow, but once it got rolling, it got ugly. There were several things that I learned and was able to take from this event:
First, the players liked the fact that they had a choice for prizes. Before I went up front to cash out and get the prizes, I asked the group what packs they wanted to play for. The overwhelming majority wanted Onslaught. We cleaned the store out completely of all Onslaught boosters and tournament packs. I made sure to pass on to the manager that Onslaught was the set in demand, and he promised to make sure there would be more than enough in the future to cover our needs.
Secondly, I realized that I needed to wander a little more through the tables as the rounds are taking place. It's not that I didn't wander around, and several times I was asked rules questions... But all of these questions came from the more experienced players. Several times, after matches were concluded, one of the younger guys would come up to me and ask me a question pertaining to a game that had already been decide. I would explain the ruling or the timing issue, only to hear an exasperated, "Man, I got cheated!!" I reiterated several times to the players to call out if they ever have any questions, and I would gladly help as much as I could.
Still, it wouldn't hurt if I wandered a bit more and watched things a little closer.
In every case where I was asked a question after the fact, there were two newer players playing. Sometimes, after you've been playing this game for a period of time, I think you forget the learning curve involved; I know that I do. In addition to providing sanctioned tournaments, I also want to help foster a "learning environment" for the newer players. I can also say that from what I observed, the experienced players do a good job of assisting and offering advice to the newer players as well.
The second sanctioned tournament I held was Standard event that gathered ten players. Five of those players were folks that I had signed up with DCI numbers the previous week, and the sixth guy would have been there as well if not for previous commitments. Two of the experienced players from the previous week also showed up again. Also joining the ranks for this week were my wife, as well as another player who used to frequent the tournaments. He had just learned that tournaments had started again the night before, and was happy to be able to play at the store again. Had his son and daughter (who also play) not already had plans with friends that evening, they would have been there as well. I look forward to seeing all three of them in the weeks to come.
The other player is a visitor from across the pond, John Jenkins, who is in town from the UK visiting friends.
This event seemed to have a decent representation of several of the Standard decks, as well as a couple rogue builds. Showing our outstanding American hospitality, John walked away from the event as the winner, with a single draw against my wife as the only blemish on his record. He was playing a fairly standard R/G Beats deck. My wife played my W/G Beats deck, and played it extremely well considering that not only had she not seen it until about an hour before the tournament, but also had gotten a really pathetic strategic synopsis of how to play the deck from me. She finished 1-1-2. There were a couple Sligh decks, a G/B Reanimator deck, and even a tri-colored Sliver deck.
The most interesting deck I saw was run by Bert, who had a W/U Astral Slide deck that used Scalpelexis as its win condition. Of course, that deck was ungodly slow, and frequently went to time or extra turns. In fact, it was the second deck that earned a draw when paired against my wife.
This tournament ran quite efficiently, and even though we started at 7:30 and had three rounds go to time (with two of those going to the full five extra turns), we were still able to complete four rounds of Swiss, two rounds of single-elimination for the top four, and still managed to be done before midnight. This has worked out well for the store, which closes at 1:00 a.m., as well as for many of the younger players.
During the third round, I was approached by a new player who signed up with the DCI. Obviously, it was too late to play in that event, but he assured me that he'd be back the following Friday to play. I made sure he knew what time signups started, and when the tournament would start so that he'll make it on time. So in the last two weeks, I've managed to sign up seven new players. Of course, to be safe, I searched the DCI database for any previously existing numbers to ensure I wasn't just "resetting" a ranking. Fortunately, there were no duplicates among the people I had signed up. Also, I was assured by John that he'll be there for at least the next four weeks until he heads back home.
Things are starting to look up again for tournament play at Ground Zero. While it looks like we'll get anywhere from two to five of the previous regulars at our tournaments, we are also building a new player base to add to them. And the new players are excited to be there and to be playing. Will we ever get to the previous participation levels? I'd like to get there - and after a month, it is starting to look promising and there has been some regrowth. Regardless of turnout, I will continue to run events at the store, and continue to do what I can to provide learning environment where players can play, learn, and get better.
I'd also like to take a few moments here to express my sincere thanks to everyone who provided feedback to me either via the forums or through e-mail. I had well over fifty responses within the first two days of the last article appearing. Although I have not had the opportunity to write back and thank everyone as of yet, I would like all of you who took the time to respond to know that your input was extremely appreciated. I'd also like to extend a special thanks out to Greg Bartz. It's great to know that I have an audience that appreciates what I write about my life regardless of what I write about Magic.
As for my daughters, I'll continue to let my little ones pump me up, and my older ones knock me down. If nothing else, it keeps be somewhat well grounded. Hell, someday, I'm sure I'll look back fondly and wish for the days when I was "stuck in the middle."
Till next time...
Peace....
Carl Wilt
Brownsfan56@hotmail.com
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