“Are you going to the tournament this weekend?”
“Unfortunately not. I don’t have the money.”
How many times have you been a part of this exchange? In this article I will offer you some money-saving and money-making strategies that will keep you from ever having to be the guy (or girl) saying you can’t go to a tournament because of money constraints.
The first thing to consider is the different kinds of tournaments being held, and then from there what expenses are involved in each, as well as how to avoid or minimize these expenses for each kind of tournament.
So, to start, here are the various kinds of tournaments that cost money, by ascending order of cost.
1. Local Friday Night Magic (FNM)
2. Regional or across-town Prerelease or Release event
3. Grand Prix Trial
4. Pro Tour Qualifier
5. StarCityGames.com or Comic Con Open tournament
6. Grand Prix
7. Pro Tour
In order to attend an FNM, you basically just need $5 for Constructed (and a deck) or $15 for Booster Draft, and a mode of transportation to the local shop. If your problem is finding cards for a deck or a ride to the shop, I would recommend making friends with some of the other players that frequent FNM at the shop. This way you can let each other borrow cards and possibly offer rides to each other. This is the first step in networking, which will be an important asset to you if you ever decide to start competing in larger tournaments. Besides, the social aspect of Magic is one of the more rewarding aspects of the game, and probably the biggest reasons why paper Magic is so much more appealing to most than digital Magic.
I would highly recommend to anyone who has never played in anything larger than an FNM to attend a regional prerelease event in the near future. Back before there were local prereleases, the only way to get your hands on the newest product before it hit the shelves was to travel to a regional prerelease. I would usually go to Detroit or Columbus where there were easily 500-1,000 players in attendance. Many players would make new friends, trade for exciting cards they never knew existed, and simply be a part of a large semi-competitive Magic weekend. No other tournament in existence can attract so many competitive and casual players alike.
The best way to defer the cost of traveling an hour or two to a regional prerelease is to convince a group of friends to make a road trip of it. Some of my most memorable Magic experiences involved road trips with friends, and attending a regional prerelease is the best way to start creating such memories of your own. The cost to enter a regional prerelease event is the same as that of a local prerelease event, and when you take into account the free promo and booster packs they give you for your Sealed Deck pool, you pretty much break even in terms of value regardless of how you do in the event. Any prizes you win are pure profit! Also these are the best places for trading. Unlike at a PTQ, there are many more casual traders than there are sharks, so you’ll be able to get plenty of good/fair deals in trades. You can also trade off any of the new cards you don’t want at a premium since no one has any of the new cards yet.
If you don’t feel you’re ready for a PTQ just yet, I would recommend playing in a Grand Prix Trial. These are much less competitive than a PTQ, and they usually offer a reasonable amount of boosters as prizes for those who do not win, in addition to the 3 byes to the winner. Usually the more competitive players in your area will be the ones interested in traveling to a Grand Prix Trial, and a lot of times there will be an open slot in the car since fewer competitive players are interested in traveling to a GP Trial than to a PTQ. So just ask around and let people know you’re interested in going and there is a decent chance you’ll find a ride. Also, getting to the tournament early is a great way to do some trading before the tournament starts. Many people are looking for cards to complete their decks for the tournament, and so if you have a card they need, you can recoup some of your tournament costs by trading for value.
Pro Tour Qualifier tournaments are really the threshold events that separate the competitive players from the semi-competitive players. If you have aspirations of taking your game to the next level, I would recommend pursuing the PTQ circuit. In just about every area there exists at least one group of players that regularly attends PTQs within driving distance. These are typically the best players in the area. Even if you are not as good as they are, let them know you’re interested in going and ask if anyone has an open spot in their vehicle. Better yet, if you have your own vehicle, offer to be the one that drives. This would be a great first step to being part of the ‘in crowd’ of the local Magic scene, even if it means you’re the one doing a lot of the driving in the beginning.
Trading at PTQs is give-or take. There are times where literally zero people in the room are trading, and other times when there are dozens. Constructed PTQs generally offer better trading than Limited PTQs, but one tip I can offer is to bring a box of draft sets with you to a Limited PTQ and offer to trade draft sets for individual cards. A lot of players at Limited PTQs are, for the most part, Limited-only players and would gladly trade the cards from their Sealed pool for boosters to draft with.
Aside from trading, in order to make a PTQ profitable you will need to Top 8 them at least once every three tries or so. Most tournament organizers offer 36 boosters of current product to each of the Top 8 competitors, so in order to balance out the cost of entry fees and gas money, you’ll have to do well. And in order to do well, you’ll have to do some play testing. And the best players to test with are the players who are frequently attending PTQs, who (generally speaking) also happen to be the best players in the area. So getting the word out that you are interested in attending and possibly driving to PTQs will get the ball rolling and get you in the in-crowd among local competitive players — which will in turn help you to do better in the PTQs and hence make up much of your costs.
StarCityGames.com Opens are about on par with PTQs in terms of level of difficulty and about twice as high in terms of willingness of people to attend. Sure, you will never have to face Luis Scott-Vargas in a PTQ, but there is something about a PTQ that puts people in the hungry mindset of “I will not lose this match.” The allure of qualifying for the Pro Tour is a dream not easily crushed. The other upside of SCG Opens is that there are more people in attendance than there are at a PTQ (at least for the Saturday Open). So there are many more people willing to trade, and every event I have attended I have recouped all of my costs simply by trading for value (which does not always happen at PTQs). I haven’t yet attended a Comic Con, but this new tournament series sounds like it will attract the same crowds as the SCG Opens.
Unlike PTQs, however, SCG Opens require you to get a hotel room and stay overnight, assuming you want to play both days and you live too far away to make the drive again the next morning. Sometimes there are not enough local players willing to stay overnight, so this is where networking with other players in the region can be helpful. Call up some of those people you met at the regional prerelease event or at a PTQ and see if they’re planning on attending both days of the SCG Open. That way even if there is only one other person in your area willing to stay for both days, you can make the trip work by rooming with two (or more) other people from a different area who are in the same situation. If you hadn’t yet caught on, networking and traveling together is an important way to save money in Magic.
The next threshold of tournament is the Grand Prix. The best players from all over the world are in attendance, thousands of dollars in cash prizes are awarded, and 16 invitations to the Pro Tour are on the line. If you manage to make Day 2, you’ll experience the professional tournament setting in all its glory, a kind of Magic that is much more deliberate and serious than Magic at any lower level of competition. If you have 3 byes, your chances of profiting at the event are much higher than they otherwise would be. Having byes, however, is certainly not necessary. If you’re serious about qualifying for the Pro Tour, you should make every effort to attend as many Grand Prix tournaments as possible. It is easier to Top 16 a GP than it is to win a PTQ. Trades are also much better.
For those Grand Prix tournaments that are not within driving distance, you should consider flying to the event. Especially if you are flying out of a large airport, or can drive to a large airport, you can often find relatively inexpensive flights to the Grand Prix location. Determine how much money you can afford to spend on the trip and then figure out your costs. Try Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, etc. to find the cheapest airfare. Let’s say it is $250. Then go to hotels.com or look at the GP facts document posted by WOTC and figure out how much it costs for 2-3 nights in a nearby hotel. Let’s say that is $300. Then ask around and find out who either has a room already and has space in their room or is looking for a room to stay. I try to stay 4 in a room, but there are plenty of players attending GPs that have a much higher preferred occupancy number than I have. So ask around and you can often get away with spending $60-$100 on hotel after splits. Figure in any taxi or shuttle costs and your entire trip may be around $350-400. I intentionally do not include entry fee since the promo and play mat they give you when you sign up can be sold to a dealer onsite for all (or almost all) of your entry fee back.
$350-400 may sound like a lot (and yes, it is a lot), but if you consider the prize payouts, there is a trick to being able to attend multiple Grand Prix events off the same initial investment. Let’s say you win a GP Trial for Grand Prix: Portland. Then you front the $400 to attend and you start the event with 3 byes. You go 4-2 after the 3 bye rounds to make Day Two. You then go 4-3 or whatever Day Two and finish in the Top 64, earning $250 of that money back. You then put that money toward attending the next Grand Prix where maybe you do slightly better and win $400 for making Top 32. The next Grand Prix is an 8 hour drive, but you get some people together and make the drive, saving $200 on airfare. This time you have your breakout and make Top 16, earning $500 and an invite to the Pro Tour! You then put that money toward attending the Pro Tour.
Sure, there will be times where you do not win money, but after a while you will have free hotels and airfare off frequent flier miles and hotel programs that offer free stays after so many visits. Besides, the goal is not just to chain Grand Prix events; the goal is to make it onto the Pro Tour — right? If you’re good enough, or get good enough, you will spike a big finish at a Pro Tour or Grand Prix and that finish will pay for numerous future trips. Also, if you level up high enough, Hasbro will start paying you to attend events and will take care of all your travel expenses for you. So it’s hard to figure out exactly how much prize money is on the line at each individual tournament. The more tournaments you attend, the better your chances of receiving bonus incentives. Take into account any profits you make from trading cards on the floor and selling cards to dealers, and the expenses for attending Grand Prix events really become smaller than they seem at first glance.
Attending your first Pro Tour is a whole new experience unlike any other. Grand Prix tournaments come close, especially Day 2, but the shear amount of money on the line at the Pro Tour, along with the amount of coverage of the event, can be quite daunting. If you win the tournament, you just made $40,000 and are instantly Level 5 or better. So qualifying for the Pro Tour and not going is, in some sense, a travesty. Sure, if Magic is not the centerpiece of your life, it might not be that big a deal, especially if you have a career and family outside of Magic. But to most players who investment themselves into Magic enough to qualify for the Pro Tour, you are attending no matter what. Ben Stark, while still a teenager, once told his parents he was going to Barcelona for a Magic tournament (PT: Barcelona 2001), to which they promptly said “No you’re not,” to which he responded, “Incorrect.” I had already won scholarships off Magic tournaments, so my parents were a little more understanding when I told them I was going to that same Barcelona tournament. I did, however, have to make some difficult sacrifices.
I was a senior in high school at the time and had won a PTQ for the event, and so obviously nothing was going to stand between me and the Pro Tour event — not even my senior prom. Funny story actually; there was this girl I liked, who had rejected my advances in the past, but then had a change of heart and wanted me to be her prom date. I still remember the exchange:
Her: So you’re skipping prom for a Magic tournament?
Me: Yes.
Her: I want you to be my prom date.
Me: Sorry, I’ll be in Barcelona.
Her: What if I pay for everything?
Me: Everything?
Her: Yes, everything.
Me: Even my tux?
Her: Yes, even your tux.
Me: And the hotel room?
Her: What?!
Me: No deal without a hotel room.
Her: Okay, fine, and the hotel room.
Me: Sorry, I’m going to Barcelona.
I ended up not winning any money in Barcelona, nor did I get the girl, but I still feel I made the right decision. Magic was, and still is, a very high priority to me. Anyone who shares that same passion for Magic will likely make the same choice if put under similar circumstances. The nice thing about the Pro Tour prize structure is that if you divide the total $250,000 prize purse by the 400 or so participants that show up, each player on average is making $625. This does not even account for the additional payouts in Pro Player Points that contribute to Pro Level bonuses. So basically if you qualify for the Pro Tour, no matter where it is in the world, it is at least even EV to attend. And if you feel you are better than at least half the participants, it is substantially positive EV. Even though Pro Tours are the most lucrative tournaments, there are still ways to reduce costs.
Much like for Grand Prix events, sharing a hotel room with friends is the easiest way to recoup costs. I’ve stayed alone before, and it is costly. If the tournament is in Europe, consider staying in a hostel. These generally run $25-$40 per night. This is an especially good deal if you don’t know anybody on the Pro Tour and are just planning on going alone. If you are on a team or know others who are going, splitting a hotel room is a viable option. Also, winning a PTQ means your flight is paid for by WOTC, but if you qualify via Grand Prix, rating, or by making Top 50 of the previous Pro Tour, you’ll have to pay for your own flight. In general, the earlier you book your flight, the better the deal you will get. Sometimes there are last minute deals on flights, but if it is an international flight, there is a good chance the prices will go nowhere but up. So figuring out your travel arrangements early rather than later can save you hundreds of dollars, and will also make it such that you get the best deals on the ideal lodging close to the site before they sell out or raise prices.
Good luck saving and making money at Magic tournaments!