Guys I am not accusing anyone of anything. I am asking a question.

Why is "paid" PCQ attendance so low if all these people are willing to play for no money?

It seems like the announcement might have stirred some people from their complacency?

If there were 50ks and PCs to truly look forward to, you bet. I would go to PCQs without cash prizes because there are friends I get to see usually only at these events and can share ideas/thoughts on new cards and decks with.

Hell yes, I would

I would play in pcq without money. This was a big problem with PCQs to begin with. People were not playing to qualify. They were playing to win money. How many people here used the money they won to go to the PC. It probably wouldn't be more than 20%.

What I would like to see is maybe 1 PCQ per region before each PC. Instead of money offer a travel voucher. $250 wasn't enough most of the time. This cuts down on the amount of PCQs and offers the winner an actual chance to play in the PC.

See? Now this is cool. If there were a ton of responses to this thread I bet UDE would reconsider their position.

The draw to PCQs for me was the competition. If you replaced the $250 card w/ other prize that was worth a decent amount (exclusive EA?) or something of that sort, I would still attend. I was obviously not attending for PC points (though I'm sure some people were). You would also likely have to adjust the cost though. I'm not paying $20-25 for a constructed PCQ w/ no cash prize. Maybe $10 for constructed and $20 for sealed?

To be honest, I'm happy the PTOs don't run the VS events. While the Southeast has one of the best PTOs (Unity), the reality is that stores aren't supporting the game right now because they have no outlet for profit. With stores getting the profits for release celebrations and city championships, more stores are going to be apt to support the game in general. And Unity would rather focus on tournies for the larger games (WOW and Yughioh), so it's a win all around.

So no, let's keep to the city championship policy, but make UDE be more "clear" on how you can get invited if you attend city championships. I mean, I could honestly see them opening up the 100K Circuit to anyone wanting to attend at this point... maybe if you play 10 weeks in a city championship it should show dedication enough to let you try your luck at the Circuit? Qualifying is already relatively easy; let's let anyone who wants to show commitment play in the Pro Circuit. It can only help the game.

Ironically, part of the issue with getting in casual players is that the bigger the rewards are, the harder it is for people to enjoy the playing for the PLAYING. A common error is assuming the intended reason for an event's existence is the sole reason people attend it. A lot of the people coming to PCQs in my area had no real desire to go to the PC, but were just trying to get together and play games. The issue there is that while it made it more convenient for the more talented/driven of us to get into the top slots, that also helped to spoil some of the fun factor. Granted, a larger than normal segment of the Bay Area population loves overthinking an environment, which makes it easy for a good netdecker to tweak a solid build and go to town.

Taking the money out of the PCQ solves two problems they have currently. UDE not being on the hook for financial concerns makes it easier to break from PTOs and let individuals help to run these sorts of events. Anyone in the Bay during the post-Innovation period can attest to how helpful that can be. It also allows there to be better revision of the PCQ system to truly work as a casual-competitive hybrid event series. I think while the current PC system is very skill testing in one sense, I'd LOVE to see a tournament format that feels like the Magic Invitational, with skill testing in off-the-wall formats and things to force people to think outside the box. Not sure how that'd be implemented, but there ought to be room in a new system for both styles of events.

Yes Erick, I would play in the fake PCQ if you upload the results from the booster drafts and sunday sneak.

I'd gladly play in an no money PCQ if there were some other form of prize support. At $15-20 entry fees it seems that 4 people playing would be just about enough for 1 box of product as prize support so that in what seems to be typical 12 people now would equate to 3 boxes of product for prize support (plus the usual EAs and cool stuff), instead of the $250 card that certainly should work. I know a number of casual players would go for that.

To me, the problem was people with more than enough PC points taking the opp from people without

Constructed would be 15 and Sealed would be 20. Yugi-style. Hey, it works for them and they get 100+ per regionals. Must be something right.

VS is not Yugi and VS is not Magic, I think this is lesson #1. I've seen 400+ kids gather to play Yugi-Oh for prizes that were a fraction of a $10k. The same VS event might draw like 30 at most.

See reasons outlined above: Q'd pros treating the PCQ's like $250 cash tourneys... consistantly the same top 8/4 individuals (generally already q'd folks).

Some of us have brought up these issues in the past only to be smacked down with "if you can't beat a pro at your PCQ, how are you going to compete on the Pro Circuit"....

Perhaps this is why there are no more PCQ's and, possibly, no more PC.

We get more people showing up for pre-releases (trying to win deck boxes and playmats) than we do for PCQs.

I don't think the money is the issue.