Great Job, Tim!

This week, I have to give some serious credit where credit is due.

I can pretty easily imagine what goes into making a standard GP or similar event happen.   Physical arrangements, judges, materials/supplies, guests, vendors, VIPs, artists, and more must all come together in perfect harmony to make the event seamless to the participant.   These events, while pretty pat do run into problems occasionally, especially when more than the expected number of participants show up to sling spells.

In the days running up to GP Vegas, the number of preregistrations coming in was astonishing.   I (and many others) made predictions months ago in the 2-3,000 participant range.   Twitter was afire in the final two weeks of preregistration, as it suddenly seemed possible to smash the previously held record for a TCG event.   In the final days leading up to the GP, it became clear that 4,000 to 5,000 or even more participants would be possible.

And what was better is the Tournament Organizer (TO) for the event, Tim Shields, came out on his blog in the early part of the week before GP Vegas and said that he was ready for up to 6,000 or more.

Let that sink in for a moment.   6,000 or more people playing Magic the Gathering in one place at one time.

Over the next two days though, Tim had to step back, reevaluate and change his tune.   Was he right?

Logistics, Logistics, Logistics
It's a well known idea that an army is only as strong as it's supply chain.   No food?   Soldiers don't fight.   No fuel?   Vehicles don't move.   Planning and running a GP of any scale works on many of the same principles.   TO's must find enough qualified judges, space for the mobs, and enough tablecloths for all of their tables.  They have to worry about every little detail.

Following Tim's announcement via his blog that all was well, the next day another blog post came out.   And things were no longer perfect.   He discovered at least one problem to running an event of this size...human error.   It wasn't his error.   It was the approximately 10% of errors made by players when entering their DCI # for registration (note to WotC - is there some way to make the preregistration process validate name/DCI # for prereg??).   In combination with some qualified individuals, Tim Shields made what I know was a tough decision - he capped the event.  And he was right to do so.

No longer would he have to worry about 6,000 or more of his closest friends showing up to party in Vegas. Now, he just had to make things work for the 4,500 that would officially play in the GP as well as assorted guests and those that would arrive to participate in side-events.

Even as D-Day drew closer, it became clear that capping the event was a good idea from other logistical angles.   Last minute calls to judges were made.   Lines of up to 2 hours or more were heard of on Friday.   People waiting from approximately 3am on Friday morning to get one of the last 100 spots.   And we won't even mention the little snafu with product that was a little behind schedule to be delivered.

I Told You...ah, Forget It
It's not worth saying, but I saw this coming.   A GP with 3,000+ participants?   Absolutely possible, and with the popularity of the Modern Masters product, almost a given.   The only question was, would enough people travel at least 200 miles or more to make it a success?

Buried in my feedback for my first Blog posting here as Magic Dad, was a great letter from a TO of some renown    In the letter, the gentlemen who we'll refer to as 'TS' wrote that he appreciated much of what was said and that he is striving to avoid mistakes in the future as a TO.   He talked a bit about what preregistration numbers meant to the final tally - how does one predict attendance based upon prereg numbers was a central theme.   As TS closed his letter, he said, "...I understand that we need to get way better at running complex events as these things go from 500 players at a GP to the 5000 person GP of my dreams."   Wow.

Is Tim...err, TS...precognitive? 

Bitter Pill
It is a bitter pill to swallow, making last minute changes to an event that will shut out some players.   It's even harder to do when you strongly believe in your event and offering the best service possible.   But Tim showed some great character in doing so.   It wasn't an event I was going to be at either way, (I'm on the east coast and traveling to a MTG event more than 2-3 hours isn't something my wife really...understands).   If I could have gone, because I had to make arrangements in advance I would have absolutely included preregistering.

In fact, I'd likely do so at least a month or more out from the event.

So why didn't everyone else?   Why is it that even in the last week, Tim took on 1,500 more registrants?   A full 1/3 of the people attending?   Didn't they know they were going to go?

Let me ask this another way.   You  want to attend a concert to see your favorite band.   Mine is Metallica, so I'll go with that for this example.   To get into a venue with limited seating and to participate in a popular event, you plan in advance.   You schedule time off from work, just to buy tickets.   When they open up ticket sales, you jump online, sweating bullets (sorry, wrong band) that you'll not get the seats you want.   Or worse yet, that they'll sell out in 10 minutes and your transaction will take 12 to complete.   A 60,000 seat stadium can be sold out in less than 30 minutes.   Why is this so different than an MTG tournament?   MTG GPs don't have unlimited resources.   Both gamers and TOs recognize this.

Granted, I don't think I'll get to see Kirk Hammett at a GP, but still...

The point I'd like to make is, Tim made a tough decision.   But he did so knowing several things.   He knew that he had offered preregistration for some time, and that dedicated players had already registered.   He knew that he would still keep it open for another day or three, depending on how many signed up.   Tim tried to make the event as accessible as possible to all players, but he knew that issuing a cap was the right thing to do when faced with the alternative.   He had to choose between disappointing players who didn't plan things out with disappointing players who had planned and payed for the privilege of attending.   You can do the math on that equation a hundred different ways - but every time I do it I come up with Tim's answer to the problem.

One Step at a Time
Tim Shields is a TO who made the right decision in a difficult situation.   He ran an event that many reported to be smooth and without any major problems on a scale never before seen in the MTG community.   He did it by planning far in advance and working his plan.   Yes, he did make a mistake in projecting the human error component (if you can call it his fault people make mistakes).   He offered heartfelt apologies for this.

He also made some improvements to the experience for players, by offering and promoting preregistration as the best way to get a seat at the table.   If we all learn one lesson from this, it's this: Preregistration Works.   I don't want to call it a done deal yet, but I do foresee the next change to MTG events being preregistration is the only way to register for larger events.   To make it really work, you have to do two things though.

First, you should find an incentive for preregistration that encourages players to use this process.   Either a choice product (a special token, playmat or other game gear) or a discount.   I'm not talking to TO's that do this already.   Those that don't need to find a way to sweeten the pot, just a little bit.

The other thing you must do is learn from Tim's one or two miscalculations for this event.   I think it's not unreasonable to state that you need to place an absolute upper limit on the number of registrations you're willing to accept, based on your capabilities to host the event.   Tim did do this, it just ended up being that he had to make a late adjustment based on new information.   Remember, there are only 40,000 seats for that Metallica concert - just as there are only so many judges, lands, or tables available.   Please don't state you can handle X number of players when there is a limiting factor that says the real number is X-500.   I'm not faulting Tim Shields here, but I am stating that his experience is one that all TO's can learn from to provide even better service in the future as GPs continue to increase in size.

Applause
So let's do this.   Everyone who attended the GP in Vegas should send Tim a message via Twitter (@timothypshields), thanking him for the event.   Even if you tilted horribly and dropped day one, recognize that organizing an event of this magnitude and running it as well as he did deserves some special recognition.   When you see a Judge, thank them as well - they helped to make the event what it was.   I'd encourage everyone to thank special people at WotC as well, but don't forget to show Helene Bergeot some love as well via Twitter (@helenebergeot), I understand this event fell largely into her domain.

While we're on the topic thanking people, remember to thank your LGS for supporting the game and giving you a chance to draft or play in a format.   The support for GP's like Vegas really starts there.

When you're done thanking everyone, you can go back to the debate of the day on Twitter or Reddit.   But only once you've made sure to thank these awesome people for helping you set a record and attend an event that was, by all accounts, executed without any major problems or delays.   That, my friends, is a miracle.