Mage Wars Tournament @ Origins Game Fair 2014

[silverclawgrizzly]

Oh I saw the prize support. You gave away some nice stuff. Not $18 entry fee nice though.

[Lord0fWinter]

Oh I saw the prize support. You gave away some nice stuff. Not $18 entry fee nice though.

They did give an iPad mini to 1st place. MSRP is at least $250, maybe as much as $500, depending on the specs. $18 for a chance to win that is quite a steal really. I'm guessing they expected more people to show up for the event. Of course you need to factor in the time it took to attend, the cost of actually going to Origins, etc, but still.

[silverclawgrizzly]

Oh I saw the prize support. You gave away some nice stuff. Not $18 entry fee nice though.

They did give an iPad mini to 1st place. MSRP is at least $250, maybe as much as $500, depending on the specs. $18 for a chance to win that is quite a steal really. I'm guessing they expected more people to show up for the event. Of course you need to factor in the time it took to attend, the cost of actually going to Origins, etc, but still.

An iPad IS a nice prize, if you don't already own an iPad or you're interested in owning an iPad otherwise it's of no use to you. I know Origins is expensive for game companies to go to, space, tables, etc cost cash and lots of it. But it also costs the players and there's A LOT to do at that convention believe me. You gotta keep in mind, the competition for new players is tough and as this is a relatively new game fighting for folks $18 is steep. I'm not driving up to Columbus OH for a convention I've been looking forward to all year and dropping the better part of twenty bucks on a game I've never heard of that it'll take me around 4 1/2 to 5 hours to play a tournament of.

Of course that may just be my opinion, we charge at most $5-6 locally, but then our top prize is like ice cream or some promo cards usually. We did give away a free pre-order for FiF once but then we drew 10 people for that one. Now I will admit this: had I walked up to their tournament, saw 6 people and a price tag of $18 I'd have entered figuring "Eh I got a decently acceptable shot at winning this at least, and can then go home and tell all my friends about it." 

[vlad3theimpaler]

Only six players for Origins?  That's a bit surprising honestly.  I had thought this game was pretty popular, but six players is a very low turnout, even for a game of this type. 

Not to detract from anyone's victories, but these tournament results really don't tell us much about the meta either.  Six players with no Wizards, Forcemaster's, or Priest/Priestess's just doesn't tell us much about the relative power levels of the various mages.

Also, an all core book winning is very odd to me too.  It makes it seem as if the expansions haven't changed the meta at all, and we're still sitting at square one.  It seems obvious that the expansions have indeed changed the meta, which is why results of this nature are very, very strange.

I just don't know what to make of these results honestly.

I played at Origins last year, and probably would have played this year as well if I wasn't working at the con for Wizkids.  I'm pretty surprised at such a low turn-out, though, as I know there were more people than that in the tournament I was in last year.

[Shad0w]

The prints cost about $60 each
and the trophies ranged form $40 - $70


Anybody I talked to that said they wanted to attend the event did not have all day free to play. 2 of the 6 were last minute sign ups. They figured the exact same since the event is small they can take the time to play.

[Chriz007]

Some people are really stupid, $18 (£10.55) is cheap, I've paid double that to play in MTG sealed events, yes I'm getting 6 booster for that money but the prize pool here is so good. Winning an iPad is great, but what would have attracted me was the chance to win the beautiful art work! Staying you don't have time to play a game you love at a games convention is another stupid reason IMO, it's not like the event is only there for one day. The fact that they winner just started playing and won, hats off to him! That's the right attitude and it paid off!

I recently attended the UKGE a growing convention which is now chasing the numbers of some of the American larger conventions, and people there where crying out for the opportunity to play in a national MW tournament. Give the support to the UK if the people of Origins are too lazy to enter tournaments!

*note this rant is my own personal opinion*

[silverclawgrizzly]

Ok we're not gonna attack my intelligence here Chriz. It's my opinion that $18 is too much for an Origins event, which btw are normally $1 per hour for a ticket so a 5 hour event would normally be $5. See here in America I have the right to my opinion without being insulted in polite society. Keep that in mind please. Here's the base fact:

One of the largest gaming conventions in the country and half a dozen people attend your tournament. In my view that's a very bad thing. No matter how you spin that, it's bad.

[Chriz007]

It was a personal insult to you, it was a general frustration at people in general.

So from your post I gather that the precedence is for cheap tournaments and so to ask more is to much of a culture stock for most people. is that with a cheap prize pool or no prize pool? In which case it should have been researched better. Tournments at UKGE are around £6 ($10.22). So I don't see the stretch so bad a thing. Perhaps instead of the iPad they should have given a copy of FiF away to the winner.

[Lord0fWinter]

Some people are really stupid, $18 (£10.55) is cheap

You may not have meant it that way, but it sounds very insulting. You say "some people are really stupid" and then in the exact next sentence say that what silverclaw was saying is not true. This makes it seem like you are correlating the two together.

[Chriz007]

Again, I wasn't aiming my comment at any one person. I own an iPad so yes the iPad prize wouldn't have attracted me to pay, BUT like I said the art work would have. What it comes down to is people placing a value of 'Worth' on something, personally $18 seems cheap but then if the standard is for tournaments to charge $5 at Origins then AW shouldn't have put up such a good prize in order to keep the price down.

[gw]

Atm, I have no interest at all in any kind of prizes, I just would like to play a nice tournament with as many people as possible. Sadly, there are none in Germany *sniff*
My impression is that this might be true for most others too  - although one ofc shouldn't judge others by one's own standards. 

[silverclawgrizzly]

Atm, I have no interest at all in any kind of prizes, I just would like to play a nice tournament with as many people as possible. Sadly, there are none in Germany *sniff*
My impression is that this might be true for most others too  - although one ofc shouldn't judge others by one's own standards. 

GW you're right. I was about to post a big rant about the standards I'd hold AW to....but eh I'll skip it. Games about having fun anyway.

[Chriz007]

Atm, I have no interest at all in any kind of prizes, I just would like to play a nice tournament with as many people as possible. Sadly, there are none in Germany *sniff*
My impression is that this might be true for most others too  - although one ofc shouldn't judge others by one's own standards. 

Yeah, I think you've hit the nail on the head here. I guess I deem $18 as cheap because we have no MW tournaments here, and yes I too would have paid that just to play regardless of prize pool. I've paid £30 ($51.12) to play a Warhammer 40k tournament before, and they were no prizes. I still stand by my comment of people being unwise / silly about turning down the chance to play in a tournament because of the cost or time, I bet there are some people kicking themselves about their decision not to play.

[kiwipaul]

Now it seems origins has loads of people.  Perhaps most people feel they are not good enough for the tournament so they try demos and visit the stand.  It seems pretty busy from the photos that I have seen.  Sadly I did not get to attend.  Mage Wars is a thriving game that has yet to reach all its potential customers, that is good for us, more mages.

Here in Europe keep an eye on Essen, perhaps there will be a tournament there.  Otherwise you can always visit Arnhem for a game with our group.  We are busy with the Organized Play sessions at present.  13 active mages here.  Plenty of fireballs, lightning bolts, curses and grizzly bears to go around (with the odd zombie or 10 as well)

[Koz]

Personally, I prefer product prizes over trophies/plaques/swords/ipads, etc.  But that's me.  I would have taken the roll up mage wars battle mat any day over those other prizes (although I guess I could have sold the Ipad).  But that's neither here nor there.  Arcane Wonders really seemed to sink some money into the prize support, and that's a good thing, but the turnout is troubling.  It makes me wonder if this game's popularity is waning.  I'd hate to see it, because I believe in this game, but I have to be honest, the only way I can get a game in anymore is if I play on Octgon, which I don't particularly enjoy.  No one in my area will play this game anymore.  So I basically don't even play anymore, and haven't in many months.  Sad really.

I think there are a few reasons for this perceived decline, but that's for another thread.  Hopefully it isn't really in decline at all, because I want this game to flourish, but I guess we'll see.  If Gen Con has a low turnout too, that will be a very bad sign, IMO.