Hey everyone! We’ve had a lot of questions and feedback about our announcement for the 2012 StarCityGames.com Open Series schedule, so we wanted to clarify some points, and give explanations about some of the changes. Let’s dive in!
HOW MANY STARCITYGAMES.COM INVITATIONALS WILL TAKE PLACE IN 2012?
We offered two Invitationals in 2011, and will be doubling that number to FOUR in 2012. The first will take place in Baltimore on the weekend of March 23-25, 2012. The other three will be held, in no particular order, in the Midwest, in the Southeast, and on the West Coast. Each StarCityGames.com Invitational will award a prize payout of $50,000!
WILL STANDARD/LEGACY/DRAFT OPENS CONTINUE TO TAKE PLACE ON STARCITYGAMES.COM INVITATIONAL WEEKENDS?
Yes! Each Invitational will be held alongside a full Open Series Weekend. However, starting in 2012, Invitationals will begin on Friday instead of Saturday. We made this change because we are anticipating larger Invitational turnouts, and wanted to give Invitational players who don’t advance to day two the chance to play in the other Open Series events taking place that weekend.
WHY DO STARCITYGAMES.COM INVITATIONALS FEATURE BOTH THE STANDARD AND LEGACY FORMATS?
Based on the numbers from past Invitationals, slightly over 85% of players who qualified played in at least one Legacy Open during the previous season. Given the growing size of our Legacy Opens, we believe that having the format equally represented at our Invitationals is a good representation of our tournament series as a whole. Our attendance at Legacy Opens has continued to grow throughout all of 2011, and we remain firm in our commitment to the growth of that diverse and popular format.
WHY DID STARCITYGAMES MODIFY/CHANGE THE BENEFITS TO THE PLAYER’S CLUB?
When Wizards of the Coast drastically modified their own Organized Play program – heavily increasing the number of Grand Prix events and switching over to the new Planeswalker Points system – those changes placed us in direct competition for the exact group of players that the top benefits of the StarCityGames.com Player’s Club program were originally designed to cater to. Since the StarCityGames.com Open Series exists to complement – not compete with – Wizards of the Coast’s major Organized Play initiatives, we opted to modify our Players Club program in a way that greater benefits the majority of players. The money formerly budgeted for the Player’s Club is now helping to fund two additional Invitationals in 2012, along with a major expansion of the Open Series overall.
HOW DO MY 2011 PLAYER’S CLUB POINTS/LEVELS WORK FOR THE 2012 PLAYER’S CLUB?
Your level for 2012 is locked at your 2011 Level or point total, whichever is higher. Let’s look at some examples.
Scenario #1: You end the 2011 year with 10 Points. This is Level 1 in 2011, but for 2012 you will be locked in to Level 2. While in 2011 you needed 15 points to reach Level 2, in 2012 you only need 8. Therefore in 2012 you’ll be Level 2 and receive Level 2 2012 benefits throughout 2012. You will not receive an Invitational invite in 2012, as you were not Level 2 by the end of 2011, but do quality for Level 2 2012 benefits.
Scenario #2: You end the 2011 year with 15 Points. This is Level 2 in 2011, and for 2012 you will also be locked in to Level 2. The benefit of an Invitational invite does carry over and you’ll receive Level 2 2012 Benefits along with an invitation you can use at any time in 2012.
Scenario #3: You end the 2011 year with 30 Points. This is Level 3 in 2011, and for 2012 you will also be locked in to Level 3. The benefit of two Invitational invites does carry over and you’ll receive Level 3 2012 Benefits along with two invitations you can use at any time in 2012.
Scenario #4: You end the 2011 year with 50 Points. This is Level 5 in 2011, and for 2012 you will also be locked in Level 5, even if Level 5 in 2012 requires 60 points. Your ending 2011 Level was the highest and as such trumps the 60 point requirement. You will receive Level 5 Benefits all year.
Scenario #5: You end the 2011 year with 100 Points. This is Level 7 in 2011, and for 2012 you will be locked in to Level 6, as Level 6 is the highest level in 2012. You will receive Level 6 2012 Benefits all year.
Scenario #6: You end the 2011 year with 125+ Points. This is Level 8 in 2011, and for 2012 you will be locked in to Level 6, as Level 6 is the highest level in 2012. You will receive 4x sets of each new Standard release in 2012 and Level 6 2012 benefits all year.
WHICH 2011 PLAYER’S CLUB BENEFITS CARRY OVER TO 2012?
As stated above, whatever level you earned (either by points or by level) in 2011 will carry over to 2012, so you will start the year with the appropriate 2012 Player’s Club benefits. If you earned the following benefits in 2011, they will carry over to 2012 but cannot be earned as part of the 2012 program.
1. Players who reached Level 2 in 2011 are automatically qualified for one Invitational of their choice in 2012
2. Players who reached Level 3 in 2011 are automatically qualified for two Invitationals of their choice in 2012
3. Players who reached Level 8 in 2011 will receive four copies of each Standard-legal complete set (Dark Ascension, the third set in Innistrad Block, M13, and the fall large set)
WHY ISN’T THERE A STARCITYGAMES.COM OPEN SERIES WEEKEND SCHEDULED IN MY CITY?
If you look at the 2012 1Q schedule, you may notice that we didn’t schedule any Open Series weekends in the Northern part of the United States. This was intentionally done in an attempt to avoid winter weather — we had a couple of events last year that ran into snow troubles, and that’s no good for anyone. Rest assured that the 2nd and 3rd Quarters of 2012 will feature a heavier focus on the Northern part of the United States.
We will be adding many new Open Series cities to the schedule in 2012! Our 1Q stops in Tampa, Sacramento and Salt Lake City are just the beginning!
WHY IS THE SALT LAKE CITY OPEN SERIES A ONE-DAY EVENT?
StarCityGames.com is proud to have been chosen by Wizards of the Coast to be the Tournament Organizer for Grand Prix: Salt Lake City over the weekend of March 30th-April 1st. We will be holding a StarCityGames.com Open Series event on the Sunday of Grand Prix: Salt Lake City, and the format of this event will be determined by the format of the Grand Prix itself.
Thank you all for your questions and suggestions, and thank you most of all for your support of the StarCityGames.com Open Series!