Is it true that there is a group still trying to set up events for MTG tournaments?
Yes. The company that runs the entire Magic hall has never been known for their punctuality.
According to Pastimes they submitted their events last wednesday and Gencon is currently formatting/fixing them then they will be posted.
I received another reply to a Facebook message from Pasttimes today ... everything has been submitted (late, of course) and now it is just a matter of GenCon getting them posted. If past years are any measure, that might take a while because there are usually a lot of events!
I really don't understand how this group still runs this when they do things like this. I logged in May 15 to see what cool Magic events would be at Gencon and I found nothing. Baldman games runs D&D and to their credit their games are up. If pastimes doesn't think this event is important enough to get their listings up when pre-registration opens, maybe Gencon needs to start looking for a TO that is a little more punctual.
At this point we're waiting on Gencon since the events were submitted last Wednesday. To be fair the i bet the biggest problem is there are probably hundreds of the drafts and win a box events that need to be put into the system which probably takes forever. I wonder if there's a better way to do the hourly events that nobody signs up for early (hearthstone, Lol, mtg drafts, win a box, etc)? I imagine they account for hundreds of events.
Pastimes has no excuse though. This isn't the first time that they have run events at GenCon and they know when the dates to have their events in is.
All they have to do is get their events in on time to avoid this.
I think it is the first time event reg went live without their events though.
Part of the issue with Pastimes is one of monopoly. They are just about the only company in the Midwest that is capable of running MtG events on the magnitude of Gen Con, or the Grand Prix they host throughout the year. If anyone is willing to step in and challenge their position, Pastimes seems intent on making opportunities for a competitor to look more professional.
GenCon could also enforce compliance with their timelines. It makes GenCon and Pastimes look bad as they can't meet or enforce time lines for when the events go live.
Late events mean more games and more people playing games, so that policy is not going to change.
If you are unhappy with the timeline for event release for a particular gaming group or company, contact them directly and encourage them to submit earlier.
- Derek Guder Event Manager Gen Con LLC
every hour or two I go and check to see if the events are posted. I know they say 1 is the loneliest number but 127 is pretty lonely as well. :)
Pasttimes has said they provided the events on the 11th. If we are having a Pasttimes bashing party I will bring the cake, but this one seems to be on Gencon's ability to provide a quick turnaround.
The event submission deadline was March 14th.
Assuming Passtimes delivered on May 11th, they were around 60 days late.
I imagine GenCon is quite busy during the period immediately before and after event registration goes live (May 15th this year).
This is not about GenCon's ability to perform a "quick turnaround." It is not reasonable to expect that GenCon drop everything and check, format, schedule, and place hundreds of events in a few days when the event host was TWO MONTHS late in submission.
Any idea if there are commander events? I'm just happy that there will be magic events.. I was going to be bummed going to Gencon without it.
They usually have on demand 4 players commander pods. As far as premier events featuring commander I'm not sure.
I didn't start this thread for people to bitch. Just a simple yes or no question.
The convention is named GenCon and the GenCon staff need to start taking more responsibility for things instead of passing the buck onto the people that make their convention what it is.
I realize that Pastimes was late in their submission, but the response I got from Derek didn't sit well with me.