DOWN
My attempt to assess things. ... Saint Mollari ... 03.20-17:01
>Once again, Star Trek players get the shaft in the Decipher care package. The new opens setting is total moot. There are no States, no Provincials no tournaments to qualify LOCAL players for Decipher Con. Players can win more than one Open, meaning someone else doesn't get their bye. It's a total free-for-all.

It does seem foolish to do away with States (or the non-American equivalent). I know that I would never be off to DCon, but for those people who do, it has become significantly harder. I suspect, for some, too difficult to consider. Is there a point to trying when you have every reason to believe the elite players in a 10-state area are going to converge in force on you?

Also, the allowing of someone to win more than one Open...why? You've already qualified, so what's the point? If it dropped to the highest person who HASN'T already qualified, I could see it...

>And the cost, that's my big thing! $300 to run one lousy tournament? (But wait, you can run a LotR one and a FREE STCCG tournament!) Then Decipher (or DMA, or whatever) has the gull to recommend stores to charge $15 a head?

I know I didn't have to pay for States last year (which is a good thing, since I wouldn't ante money for my Trial by Fire). So...why charge for this? I cannot see a point to it. Furthermore...why link the LotR tournament? Does that not detract from the ST?

> That means each tournament will have to have at least 20 players for the store to break even. Has it ever occured to Decipher that some areas don't have a large player collective? Hence, some places can't afford to hold one of these opens.

This is only relevant so far as those areas would have had some way to get to a State/Provincial on their own. Which, given the (believed) lack of a fee, is quite believable. Again...why?

>(Hold on! Decipher will send TWO display boxes to be given out!) Whoop-de-doo. The last thing we need are old boxes of sets. And we know they won't give out new stuff when they can still make money off them. Most likely we'll get Reflections and Starter Deck 2s. So let's see, assuming we get booster boxes, that's 60 packs, divident amongst 20+ players, meaning each player gets at most 3 packs. The last thing we need are 5 dollar packs from old sets filled with lousy cards we don't need anymore.

This comment is made with the experienced, skilled players in mind. Namely, those players who have the chance to win an Open in the first place. For those other players, Reflections is not quite as useless as you think.

>Supposedly, Decipher is allowing 120 of these tournaments, each for $300 to them, meaning they get $36,000 from them, assuming they run them all (or $72,000 if you count the LotR ones too). But who is getting the $5,000 "premiere" tournaments? Not Star Trek, no, of course not. LotR is. Nevermind that Decipher would be long gone if it weren't for the SWCCG and STCCG (which was it's first brainchild, btw) players' loyalty to the company after countless years. But how are we rewarded? We're not. We don't get World Cups, we don't get foiled card from new sets sent to tournaments. We don't get league kits. We get nothing, nada, zip - oh, except for $15 tournaments with a chance of getting into day 2 of DCon. (And Day 1 of DCon so better not be Warp Speed or Sealed.) We don't even get lousy T-Shirts anymore!

THIS, I am obligated to agree with. Certainly, they hadn't thought it up when they first made ST. So now that they have the idea in their heads for LotR...why not us also? Is there something wrong with us? (Aside that we aren't proving buying as much, since we don't have an immensly popular movie on our side?)

>It's really nice to see how Decipher cares so much about it's players. We feel really good. It's nice to see people leave a game after playing for over five years because Decipher has decided to [drill] us over for a new player group. I myself will not be playing in any of these opens, it's just another idea to make money (which of course, Decipher does as a company) while killing off its player base (which is bad, incase you didn't know; Marketing, jot that down). I just feel sick right now. Sick.

Take two shots of Ketracel-White and call me in the morning. We may have to wheel you into Dr. Moset's operating room.

>- Chris "Brak" O'Connell
>Connecticut, USA Tournament Director
>brak@kedanya.org

Saint Mollari
Minnesota, USA Patron Saint of B5CCG (or so I dream)
lordmollari@kedanya.org

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