Subject: LUCK VS SKILL
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 22:43:56 GMT
From: rodney6997@my-dejanews.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy

  I have been reading with great interest the "scrub" controversy...
People seem to be upset that new players, or players with less experience are
winning tournaments.  There cries that Magic is dying.  The end is nigh'!
  Well guess again it is not!  With a game like magic there are highs and
lows.  Fallen Empires (low)...  Mirage (high)... Homelands (low) Alliance
(high).  Even these highs and lows are subjective to each individual.  Magic
will change and grow and slide back from time to time, but it will not die.

  Now can we all agree that luck is a part of Magic?  Unlike chess it will
always be a factor in Magic.  Skill is what seperates the greats in magic
from the excellents, they very goods,the goods and so on down...  Yes every
now and then lady luck shows up and some one that is obviously an excellently
skilled player loses to  a player with inferior skills that may or may not be
playing a net deck.  This will happen, but it does not happen as often at the
upper levels of the game.

  How many times does one see John Finkel lose to luck?  Why is it that he and
others (Chris Pikula, Mike Long, Randy Buheler (sp), Sean Fleischmann (sp)...)
consistently do well at pro tours, grand prix, nationals and worlds.   It is
not luck.  Not everyone that plays the game of magic can be as great a player
as these guys are...  Not everyone that plays chess can be Bobby Fisher.
People can practice, study, become a true student of the game of Magic and
never reach the level of a John Finkel.  The difference is not luck or even
skill it is a natural ability to see the game in the way Bobby Fisher sees
Chess.  (Anyone who has seen "Searching for Bobby Fisher" will understand what
I mean.)

  At lower level tournaments we do see luck as a bigger factor. At even pro
tour qualifiers the occasional inexperienced  playeer will, a deck he\she
just threw together, and some luck win against a vastly (skill wise)superior
field. I don't know how to eliminate this seeming problem, or if we even
should.  As I stated earlier in this article luck is part of the game and
always will be. Skill will win more often, but luck will take home its share
of the glory as well.

   Who knows, maybe that "scrub" who hasn't been playing as long as you, is
using a deck from this months issue of Scrye that won pro tour Chicago, that
beat you down in two straight at your local tournament, sees the game in a
differnt light than you do and could be the next John Finkel.

Keep the Faith
   Rodney Sheldon

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