Subject: [MISC] Magic - a sport? Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 16:24:06 +0200 From: "Karsten Dürotin" To: Hello Frank, I feel I have to give some random thought which just appeared to me yesterday and set them up for open discussion. Please post these. Thank you! Until yesterday, I was one of the main proposers of the idea that Magic was actually a kind of a sport of the mind. I even agreed with the people who said that it deserves a place right next to chess, and sneered at those who said that even preparing for a tournament was an economical question in and of itself; after all, most tournament decks consist mostly of commons, don't they? But yesterday, I talked to a kid from our town. The boy is very bright, and ever becoming better at Magic. He played me using one of my tournament decks, and won. He even came up with some very good strategical ideas on his own. I mentioned I could take him along for the next tournament, and was startled when he said that he didn't have the money to play a tournament. We discussed about that, and I finally had to agree with him. You see, the kid is using very clever ideas to make his decks work, even if they would get beaten by real tournament decks. Problem is, his pocket money only allows him a booster or two each month - he wants to have money for something else also. So, he doesn't have the money to buy enough packs to get the tourney-level cards (he mostly gets the substandard ones, of course - like we all do), and also doesn't have the time to trade for them until they again move out of Type II. Even getting 4 of a staple common, like Shock, can be quite difficult if you don't have the right stuff to trade away - and things like Cursed Scroll are right out of possibility for a player like him. Well, I have confidence that he will finally get the chance to get tournament-level cards when he gets older and his pocket money increases (if he hasn't decided that Magic isn't worth the effort until then), but this talking got me on another idea. Have you ever wondered why there are so many russians among the world's top chess players, but none (or nearly so) among the top Magic players? Why nearly all top Magic players come from the rich western countries? Well, a chess board doesn't really cost much, but even starting in Magic costs about a month's wage for an adult in russia. Where are they to get the damned money? Also, competing on the highest tourney-level requires playing lots of sealed deck and draft, which even I don't really have the money for. If you look closely, the "original card" rule - i. e. you aren't allowed to proxy any cards in a tourney deck - really hasn't so much to do with the problem of misrepresentation or cheating, but solely with the fact that WOTC has to make money on the game. Can't blame them, but still, the fact remains. As long as there is money to make on it, Magic won't ever be nearly a sport, and sadly, Type II and especially Limited - which I like to play very much - increase this problem by a huge amount. If we want to see a true championship, in which everyone could demonstrate his abilities in the game - the russians, chinese and senegalese, too - we would have to allow the use of proxies in all tournaments. Since this can't happen, I hereby renounce the theory of Magic ever becoming more than a game - tournaments are never a fair competition, the thing just isn't a sport, and cheating isn't really as big an issue compared to the money factor. It's sad, but true. I will probably go on to play tournaments, and you all will probably ignore this post as the ramblings of a madman, but I had to state this clearly, black on white, at least once. Thank you. Karsten Dürotin karsten@hamm.net