Sunday, February 27, 2011

Reflections on the SCG DC Open

Today I went to Star City Games' Legacy Open tournament in Washington DC. I felt it would be a mistake to let an event this big so close to where I live pass me by. Other plans prevented me from making the first day of the event (the Standard portion) but I wanted to show up and see what it was all like. I've been watching coverage of the SCG events on scglive for the last several events, but wanted to see one live and in person.

The following are random musings upon the experience for your reading pleasure. In no particular order...

1) I am a pathetic fanboy. Just being in the same room with such well known MTG personalities was awesome. Famous players, pundits, writers, podcasters...amazing. I saw @AffinityForBlue and @OMGWTFBHJFTW (the two Joes behind the @YoMTGTaps podcast) who were providing the coverage for scglive:
Evan Erwin (@misterorange), the man behind The Magic Show, was in attendance, himself competing in the tournament:And I got to meet John Medina (@mtgmetagame) in person finally, and watch him in action trading (with no less than Adam Styborski, AKA @the_stybs):

And (without photographic evidence to back it up), I also saw the winner of the Standard event, Gerry Thompson (@G3RRYT), another amazing player named Alex Bertoncini, and everyone's favorite MTGMom, Megan (@LifeOnAuto). To see so many people that I've only read tweets from, or seen on screen from tournament coverage, or heard on podcasts...it was just very, very cool.

2) Medina is a pretty cool guy. It was great to talk to him, and he took a second to Tweet after we got done talking: "Just met @ in person! He's " So cool. I've gained a few followers today, and I'm sure some (if not all) I have him to thank for.

3) I wish I had known more about the atmosphere of the tournament so that I could have convinced my wife it would have been fine for my 10-year-old son "c-bass" to attend. He would have loved it, and we both would have loved teaming up in the 2-Headed Giant competition in the afternoon. SCG will be holding Open events in Baltimore twice later in the year (in June and again in October), and I may look into attending one of them with c-bass.

4) It was amazing to see so many people in one place to play this game that I (we) love so much. And from what I understand, the attendance yesterday was twice as much - I can't even imagine!

5) Related to the above, my advice for any who may want to attend for the purpose of entering side events: go the second day. I imagine that yesterday was INSANELY hectic with so many people in attendance.

6) I REALLY need to make a more concerted effort to get more playing of this game in. I spend a LOT of time sorting cards, pulling orders, etc - but nowhere near enough time playing. Maybe if it's even just going to Friday Night Magic more often, I need to get more in.

So, in all, although I was only there about an hour and a half, it was definitely worth heading down for.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

New giveaway option!

Quick entry this go-round: Just wanted to showcase the newest possible giveaway option: the Ravnica: City of Guilds life counter!As you can see, this plastic credit-card-sized life counter features art from the Sisters of Stone Death card from Ravnica: City of Guilds. It has a spin dial for keeping track of your life total, with values from 1 to 30. And it can be yours - if it is chosen for the next giveaway, and you are the lucky one whose email address gets drawn from the pool of subscribers to my email newsletter!