Could Game Universe Be Hosting a Prerelease This Fall?

Gentlemen. I have just returned from the Kalahari. It may not be Kgalagadi Africa, but what's left of Lake Delton sure looks lifeless enough.

You saw it here- swim at your own risk!

I wanted to give Fugie McWizard the first opportunity to speak on the topic (since he is way more in the know on this subject), but I have heard a few people talking about the idea that our local gaming store, Game Universe, might be able to host a Prerelease. The idea originated with this announcement by Wizards that it would be "recruiting locations" to bring "launch parties" (the new corporate tag for Release Tournaments) and (more to the point) Prerelease Tournaments "right to your door." Oh, also the Prerelease is being moved up to six days prior to the release. The announcement links to a page describing the criteria for running a Prerelease. Let's take a look at what it would take for GU to run one.

First, Wizards divides the opportunities for running sanctioned events into three tiers, Gateway, Core and Advanced. There are requirements that need to be met for each level. For the Gateway level, the only obstacle worth any mention is having access to a public venue. Prereleases require Core level support however, so the bar is higher. Here are the requirements and my analysis of Game Universe's capability of delivering on them.

1. "Must meet all Gateway level requirements." Like I stated earlier, the only real difficulty here would be access to a public venue, (and I guess maybe needing to "schedule at least one instance of play so that it can be displayed on our locator.") Since GU is public game store and already runs three weekly Magic nights, it has these issues covered, no problem.

2. "Must have scheduled, run, and reported a minimum of 4 tournaments in the preceding 12 months." See above. Man, GU runs four sanctioned tournaments in two weeks. Even if Wizards means Release level events when it says "tournaments," GU still has the requirement covered.

3. "Must have a delinquency rate in the last 12 months no greater than 20%." Okay, here's where it gets interesting. Uh, Fugie, what the hell does this mean? Does it mean delinquency of the TO reporting results to Wizards? I don't think this really makes sense, since most tournaments results aren't required to be reported, and DCI Reporter won't even pair the next round if you don't enter the match results for the last round. Does this mean players who have been playing at the store and have stopped coming? I don't know, and can't tell what GU's ability to meet this criteria.

4. "Must have issued 6 new DCI numbers in the last 12 months. " You can tell the new focus is on "acquisition," as the Suits say. I see at least one guy getting signed up at any given Release Tournament, so I would have to guess that this would be a slam dunk. At any rate, it wouldn't be hard to find half a dozen new folks if that was all that was standing between us and Milwaukee Prerelease, right guys?

5. "Both tournament organizer and location must not be currently suspended by the DCI ." Heh. I didn't even know the DCI could suspend an entire location.

6. "Must complete a Prerelease application and demonstrate sufficient play space." This criterion is interesting. I assume the application isn't Azorious-level bureaucratic red tape and can be completed. The play space is less certain. Last year (or was it two years ago now?) when GU was renting that space next door this would have been easy, but now- I don't know. Our only real hope is that Wizards expects venues to be smaller than past Prereleases, since there will inevitably be more of them in any given geographic area. Still, I know a Prerelease would be far more popular at the store than a Release, and GU can barely accommodate those. This is likely to be sticking point unless Game Universe takes steps to address the issue.

7. "Must have a permanent structure with bathroom facilities." I think we've got that covered, although I bet there'd be a line after lunch on a Prerelease.

8. "In addition, we recommend that your location have access to food within 1 mile (2 km)." Ding. Frogger anyone?

So there you have it. According to Wizards' new requirements, it looks like there might be two possible sticking points- whatever the hell the 20% delinquency rate is, and available space. Before we even saw these criteria common sense would have dictated that GU's lack of space was their big problem. This bodes well for Wizards (and their list of criteria), since the practical problems of running such an event need to be addressed prior to getting permission to run them. Any more enlightenment on this subject would be greatly appreciated, if people have it. Maybe we'll be busting Shards of Alara packs in Milwaukee on September 27th.

T