I would go to no cash pcq's, easily. I'm in it for the competition, the ratings salvaging, the ability to play limited, and most importantly, some incentive to go crazy testing with people. I know i didnt get to as many pcq's as i wanted to with work making it near impossible to get there in the summer/dec/january, but when i could i tried to get out there.

We had 25 at the last one I attended in Stone Mountain, GA earlier this month.

Mike, decipher dollars weren't a total waste. I did buy an ipod with the first $400 or so of my 1500D$ and if it weren't for D$s, I wouldn't have made it to PCNY!

They were good in theory, just crap in execution.

The whole no-money pcq thing would pretty much be a bomb at the OP level I think. Pros barely make it out of bed to attend these events already, what incentive is there to go if it's just for points they don't need? Turnout would be a shadow of what it was (for whatever that's worth in some areas) and it would ultimately crumble, again.

What they need are qualifier events where points are passed down at a regional/city level. This requires judges have the ability to create tournaments, not just stores. I realize there's some level of security necessary, but if someone is a legitmate judge, they're in UDE's database. If things go fishy, they can just ban that person from transacting tournaments.

As long as someone is willing to run an event, people will go to q. Points should pass down, but winners should still be prized for their efforts.

As a side-note, what's to stop a store/local-judge from creating a tournament with cash prizes etc? I mean, sure there's no points, but it keeps the people looking for prize support something to play for. I mean, people used to do it in Magic's infancy, wouldn't that appeal to pro-players now? I know I'd travel to a 'local-event' that had its own good prize support if it was 200 miles away.

We were getting between 12-20 people at our store (Dream Wizards, MD just outside of DC).

Well, like I said, money isn;t nessesary, but it sure sweetens the pot and makes winning feel more worthwhile.

I mean how fun is it to finally win a PCQ and get product and points...but since you gennerally live too far away to GO to a PC, never really use those points anyway?

With a smaller cash prize, you can make back $45 you lost spending on the tournament fees and gas to get there, and hell, buy your group some pizza and pay for gas on the way back.

The money orginally was for use to make travel costs cheaper...but the fact of the matter is, since we can pick and choose which PC we can go to, we don't travel anywhere we couldn't go to anyway, at least for the most part.

So why not make it a sort of "Congrats for winning, here's you money back, plus a little extra as a thanks". It doesn't HAVE to be $250.

In NY, we were right around 25 for our last Golden Age one.

there was 23 at the last one in Tulsa I went to.

That's the new Jim Carrey movie right? Terrifying stuff. When we saw the preview Nina busted out laughing and pointing at me. I get strung out on coincidences quite often.

last 2 Seattle area PCQs were over 20.

then why doesnt UDE just continuing having the PCQS in heavily vs populated areas or areas where there have been consistent records of having 20+ at each PCQ. I wouldnt mind if ude spread out the PCQ money or just cut it down some either.

I'd play in them for sure. Hell, I've scrubbed out after driving 2-3 hours enough times to make someone want to quit the game. But, I was a big newb then(I've actually learned how to play now, or so I think), and I had fun losing. At the PCQ I won, I had fun winning. At 10k Columbus this past fall I had fun losing my last matches(Watching Lost in Space's 3rd turn unfold for the 1st time was pretty cool, but it's not so cool when you know it's coming). I never really went for the money. It was nice, really nice the only time I won some, but it was mostly for the competition and the slim chance that I would walk away with any prize, not just cash.