Zarmakuizz
New Member
Hello,
This is something most of us know, but it is important to remind it : the minimal prizes given for a tournament, both for players and organizers, are boosters from the already released set, sometimes bonus goodies/promo cards. Organizers are free to invest money to have more prizes, by winning at lottery, have a fee at tournament (I heard this doesn't happen in the USA but in Europe this is common), sponsorship, or whatever. But let's just focus on the minimal prize given for tournaments by TCPI (and partners) : the boosters. Both players and judges receive mostly boosters from the last released set.
Acting like this has its pro and cons.
The pros :
_Easy to manage : TCPI just have to send the displays when they have plenty of them in stock.
_When a set is pretty new, this enlarges recent collections
The cons :
_Where a set is released since months, you are not interested anymore into the set, unless you lives in a cave with old cards.
This con is heavier in West Europe. Back in the past, sometimes a set was released in North American, you had to wait 6 months until it comes in Europe. Who even bother winning old cards when they already bought between 1 and 3 American booster boxes ? Then it became 3 months, which is better, but still.
Then TCPI tried to make it one month only. However, due to some problems that doesn't concern us, Europe couldn't get any non-English EP booster in time for Battle Roads : boosters arrived one month after the initial date. In France, it was decided to do all the BRs with Black&White boosters as prizes. Problem happen, but this discourage playing/judging in a way.
My idea is : why not offer boosters of the upcoming set ?
This happened at Prague Cup : dotation was NV boosters while the set would be released two weeks after the event. It worked like a charm. This also has pros and cons compared to the actual system.
The pros :
_TCPI would need to prepare the boosters more in advance. This is a bad time considering the issued they are facing (delaying non-English sets, player rewards late…), but this will help ensuring the BR scenario I described above won't happen again.
_At first you are winning few boosters if you aren't in the top2 of a big tournament. And then you are winning few boosters of a set YOU COULDN'T BUY RIGHT NOW, guys who is going to miss that ??
The cons :
_As I said earlier, maybe not the best time to apply this ?
_The surprise factor. TCPI commercials use it when they release sets to do their promotion, drag people to prereleases, preorder sets, etc. This can be fixed by doing it only for tournaments 3 or 4 weeks before release date, but still the promotion needs to take that release into account.
TCPI people are reading this place, so if you think this idea is at least half good, please comment !
This is something most of us know, but it is important to remind it : the minimal prizes given for a tournament, both for players and organizers, are boosters from the already released set, sometimes bonus goodies/promo cards. Organizers are free to invest money to have more prizes, by winning at lottery, have a fee at tournament (I heard this doesn't happen in the USA but in Europe this is common), sponsorship, or whatever. But let's just focus on the minimal prize given for tournaments by TCPI (and partners) : the boosters. Both players and judges receive mostly boosters from the last released set.
Acting like this has its pro and cons.
The pros :
_Easy to manage : TCPI just have to send the displays when they have plenty of them in stock.
_When a set is pretty new, this enlarges recent collections
The cons :
_Where a set is released since months, you are not interested anymore into the set, unless you lives in a cave with old cards.
This con is heavier in West Europe. Back in the past, sometimes a set was released in North American, you had to wait 6 months until it comes in Europe. Who even bother winning old cards when they already bought between 1 and 3 American booster boxes ? Then it became 3 months, which is better, but still.
Then TCPI tried to make it one month only. However, due to some problems that doesn't concern us, Europe couldn't get any non-English EP booster in time for Battle Roads : boosters arrived one month after the initial date. In France, it was decided to do all the BRs with Black&White boosters as prizes. Problem happen, but this discourage playing/judging in a way.
My idea is : why not offer boosters of the upcoming set ?
This happened at Prague Cup : dotation was NV boosters while the set would be released two weeks after the event. It worked like a charm. This also has pros and cons compared to the actual system.
The pros :
_TCPI would need to prepare the boosters more in advance. This is a bad time considering the issued they are facing (delaying non-English sets, player rewards late…), but this will help ensuring the BR scenario I described above won't happen again.
_At first you are winning few boosters if you aren't in the top2 of a big tournament. And then you are winning few boosters of a set YOU COULDN'T BUY RIGHT NOW, guys who is going to miss that ??
The cons :
_As I said earlier, maybe not the best time to apply this ?
_The surprise factor. TCPI commercials use it when they release sets to do their promotion, drag people to prereleases, preorder sets, etc. This can be fixed by doing it only for tournaments 3 or 4 weeks before release date, but still the promotion needs to take that release into account.
TCPI people are reading this place, so if you think this idea is at least half good, please comment !
