Subject: Rob Hahn, Pro Tour, Dueist, and the nvitational Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 09:38:01 -0400 From: "Jamie" Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy Heres a letter I just sent to Rob. Thought I would post it here for public ridicule. Hiya Rob - Your article on the dojo prompted me to write. I feel exactly the same as the majority of people that wrote to you. The Duelist should be about Magic. Only Magic. The Pro tour should get about 15 pages of coverage - with pictures, and reports, and comments from the players, and not pull any punches. It should be full of both praise and slams for the current environment and card selection. It should be filled with comments on play, what decks are dominating, and why. Magic would be NOTHING without tournaments and the Pro tour. In the last Inquest a guy from another card company said - "You cannot release a new product without having some plan for tournaments, and tournament structure. Or else the product is going to fail." Not an exact quote - hell it might have even been in Scrye! But don't ignore the point. People LOVE to compete! Why is this so hard to understand? It drives Magic - and Wotc promoted it for a bit, and now coverage is a joke. No real audio of the finals, better coverage of whats going on on the dojo than on wotc's own web page, and where the hell are the Videos?? So the first one didn't make money - so what! Don't put as much work into it. Just have six hours of random Video for sale at every pro tour. I know the video is there. Its all sitting in an archive collecting dust for NO REASON!!!! They have detailed close ups of each match of the top eight - just sell that!! The Pro Tour *SHOULD* be like the Super Bowl!!!! I guess you know how I feel about it. But don't sugar coat it. Mike Long caught doing something shady? REPORT THE FACTS!!! Bachmann kick a chair out from under someone? REPORT THE FACTS!!! John Chinnock (that som' bitch) cheating again by only shuffling for fifteen minutes? Tell us about it! Tom Guevin on a crusade to get something banned? - report on it. Ask players about their best and worst plays of the day, their top decking skills and what match they enjoyed the most. Ask some players to write tournament reports - the most popular thing on the Dojo - and no this isn't me just asking for a job - I rarely make it to the pro tour. So much more could be done..... Thats my thoughts on the Duelist and the Pro Tour. On the Duelist Invatational - The formats are a joke. They belittle the whole idea of the Invitational. Arena Cards? Reverse crap backdraft? Whats up with that? The Duelist Invitational should have the most popular formats Available. Type one, Type Two, Extended, Straight Sealed, Booster Draft, and one Limited format - like Rath Cycle Block. THATS how the Invitaional should be run. Video Taped. Sell the tape!!!! Not for $49.99 - but $9.99 and $14.99 Use it as a promotional tool to help sell more magic cards and get more and more people into this wonderful game called Magic. Remember how the players were treated by the locals at the last invitaional? Like celebs? I wonder why that is? :-) In the duelist we got what? three pages of coverage? Fly the best and the brightest on an expense paid trip to an exotic local and for what? Later Jamie C. Wakefield Scrub Across Town Pro Tour Wannabe Fattie Spice Author