Hello everyone, it's been a very long time. I haven't been very involved in the Versus world/community for a couple of years now and just wanted to get an update on how things are going. Is the game still doing well? Is the player base still growing? You know, things like that. I'm also curious as to what the current and upcoming pro tour is looking like. I'm interested to know what formats will be used and any dates anyone can give me for major events in the US, especially the mid-Atlantic area. I tried to look on UDE's site but the info there was surprisingly sparse. The last Pro Circuit event they had listed was from mid August and it didn't even appear that any info had been put on the site yet about what happened there. The links to the PCQ and 10K schedules were broken, so couldn't get any info on those either.

So anyway, I'm curious to hear how the game is doing and what goodness is upcoming. If there's a good site you can refer me to for tournament schedules, please do so.
Thanks,
Steve

Hey Steve,

You've come back at a very good time.

UDE has decided to change it's OP structure after the game was struggling a bit. Instead of having Pro Circuits we're going to have smaller events that culminate in a World Championships.

PCQs are gone, but there is a good chance 10ks will be brought back.

There will be a very through announcenement on this subject on www.vssystem.com

If you have any more questions about anything please post, or PM me.

-Paul

Hmm, can you expand on the "game was struggling a big" part? When last I was keeping track of things the 10K, PCQ, and Pro Circuit structure seemed to be thriving with more and more players showing up at each as time went on. Was it a problem with failing player interest, some sort of planning/management issue on UDE's end, or what? Feel free to be long-winded as I'm sure I have a lot of catching up to do. Just to give you an idea, I started buying cards when the first set came out and the last set I bought a full box of was Marvel X-Men. I started to fade out after that.

The game mechanics are still great. The character flavor is wonderful. And we just got positive news about the tournament schedule of the future. Indeed a good time to join us here at the realms and VS.

We are all trying to make the experience better for everyone, so yeah, any questions, just ask. Deck ideas, rules questions and tournaments.

Glad you decided to join the best game there ever is and ever will be.

The game hit elements that discouraged growth in the competitive field for a while and that lead to the dwindling attendance of many events. That was followed up by the fumbling of UDE by devoting WAAAAYYY too much time and energy to promoting World of Warcraft TCG and not nearly enough in to promoting VS for a few months. That had a very negative impact on many casual scene.

However, UDE stepped it up and has been putting in the time and effort to move things in the right direction as of late and that will likely see the game climb up the charts again.

And when I have a Black Panther that cannot be targeted by Reign of Terror, I'll agree that VS is the best game ever. ;)

It's a little bit of both.

From what I understand, the PCQ scene slowly started dying off. Many believe this drop off coincideded with the advent of Enemy of Enemy and signifgant toolboxing. In any case, it seems like you probably left around DJL/MAV which is probably the Golden Age of VS.

In any case, hobby league attendance dropped, card sales went down. This has resulted in UDE reshifting their game's focus toward a casual group as opposed to the tournament scene it was previously.

As it was, UDE decided to pull out their million dollar pro circuit. They have yet to release plans for the future, but there is reason to be somewhat optimistic.

Anything else?

In general:

(a) While PCQs may have been well attended in some places, this wasn't the case everywhere. A number of places were barely getting 10 players, which made them money pits that didn't seem to be attracting new players. In other areas, many players were discouraged as many groups worked together to get teammates the points to attend events, and players that were already qualified would run roughshod to get the money, etc, leaving a bad taste in players mouths. They tried some restructuring, but it was a bit late.

(b) The big thing was, there was a restructuring such that OP money would have to come out of the VS budget, instead of Vs being able to basically spend Yu-Gi-Oh profits on the Pro Circuit. This basically meant that having a 1,000,000 dollar pro circuit AND plenty of 10Ks AND PCQs just wasn't feasible anymore.

(c) Recently, there have been very few large events. In this callender year there has been:

(1) PC Sydney, which meant as planned with a third of a million given out as prizes, as advertised in the original plan for restructuring.

(2) Mega Weekend Ohio - They were able to run a 10K, and a few other events the same weekend as Origins, but without having to pay the entry fee for Origins. [Which, by the looks of things, is being abandoned by most companies. Along with Gen Con So Cal drying up, Indy might be the only "real" convention for gaming next year].

(3) Gen Con Indy, along with a 10K. It was awesome, the PC only gave away 100K total, but it was still fun. The 10K format was very cool.

Anyway, that was "it" for high level OP. The PCQs were replaced by Elite Series [by player demand ... they wanted an event similar to PCQs].

The Elite Series takes place once every 3 months or so [4 times a year]. Most take place the same weekend. They are held at select stores. They give out PC points similar to PCQs, and they give out a bit more in terms of prizes than the average "Marquee Event" for Hobby League.

Speaking of Hobby League, there are three marquee events, basically. Release Celebrations have replaced the traditional Sneak Peak. Each store can run it's own events when the new product drops. This means the store is selling it's own product for the event, and thus doesn't have players that are buying a box or so of product from a PTO before the set is released by playing in a Sneak Peak, and thus ordering less and selling less of the new set themselves.

The other is a "format" event, that rotates. Once it was a random punks "no rares" event, another time they created "alter egos" that allowed you to start with different endurance totals and powers, another event had deck restrictions based on building around legends ... and the formats included Golden for one, Single set for another, so it's pretty much a wild card.

Finally, there are City Champs, which were originally the main way to get qualified for a PC, as playing in a City Champ would reduce the rating threshold to qualify by your rating. With the Elite Series, I think it's still possible to qualify by rating, but the City Champ is an event that allows people to try out the newest set in Silver Age [so far they've all been Silver Age]. The first City Champ had a special stipulation where winners would submit decklists and R&D held a special tournament for a "get your face on a card" contest.

ANYWAY ...

For 2008, they've made announcements of a change to the OP again. The only "PC" seems to be Gen Con Indy. It's being refered to as the World Championship Tournament, and that it's taking place in August [which is why we suspect it's at Indy]. They've also announced plans for Mega Weekends ... which would indicate that they'd be bringing back 10Ks [assuming they stick with the Mega Weekend format from Ohio] to be able to hold more events throughout the year.

Related to this is the WoW OP structure which includes similar events. The Worlds for WoW is around the time that Gen Con So Cal would normally have been run ... and they have a single "World" championship instead of the multiple PCs that Vs. was doing before. Also, they have Darkmoone Faire events which travel around and provide a number of events that any player can enter ... the Mega Weekend may end up copying a number of elements of the Darkmoone Faire.

One thing that may result is that money prizes may be replaced with stuff like computers, gaming systems, etc ... But, most of that is speculation.

They have said the details about the Mega Weekends and World Championship would be available in December.

http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/u....aspx?aid=3405

Thanks guys, that gets me up to speed pretty well. So what's the next big format in the cycle (golden, silver, modern) or is that not known yet?

Don't know if "cycle position" will even apply to the new World Championship...

I'd expect it to be Silver (at least the first one), but I'd honestly prefer for it to be modern.

The format system has begun to evolve into a format-hierarchy of sorts.

Most all Casual level play seems to be Golden, including most non-event Hobby League play (although, again, since HL is so "non-streamlined", this may vary based on location). It has become this way largely because it's the most inherently diverse format, among a few other reasons (such as players who don't keep up to date with every new release, ect).

Conversely, most all tournament/event play has started to focus on Silver, for a more balanced and visible metagame.

Modern is something honestly I'd like to push to see a bit more. Most everything now-a-days seems to be Silver or Casual Golden (Yeah, I know, the PC was Modern, but pre-MVL) - and the most recent sets making up modern (MTU,DWF,MVL) have honestly been just outstanding imo.