Being a qualifier event, must the Call Out event be run exactly to what WizKids stated?

I saw a flier at my venue for the event, stating buy 3 boosters, 300 points, sealed (not draft), and one pack must be indy. (the indy pack thing isnt so bad as it could be, as total cost is 15$ entry)

For this event, can the rules be changed like this?

Personally, the WizKids official rules sound way more fun to me.

No, it cannot deviate from the intended scenario as it is a Qualifier.

Things like qualifiers and Marquees can not be house ruled and must be run exactly as WK tells us. You may wish to polite remind your judge and/or venue of this fact and that, if WK were to find out that things were not done per their instructions, the venue and judge could be in deep doo-doo (venue status revoked, judge status revoked, loss of potential pre-release, etc).

that is what i thought and that is what i told my store (i work there). with this confirmation it will most likely be changed to the proper format. thank you everyone for confirming this. i think this is less the judges fault (though he likes to house rule every single tournament in some way) and more the fault of my manager who always tries to get rid of old stock in this way, forcing people who are going to pay for an event to buy junk they don't want.

normalview it wont let me rep you, but thanks. to the others thanks and rep

I'm not sure using Indy is illegal, just mixing boosters and raising the number of boosters from 2 to 3. At one of my venues, they are completely sold out of everything but Indy, so that is what we’ll have to use there.

Yep 200 points and 2 boosters are fixed and cannot be changes as well as the DRAFT format.

Technically speaking he could choose to sell only Indy for the DRAFT event.

My understanding though is that the Venue is strongly encouraged to sell the newest stuff they have for this Qualifying Event.

So all players must play from the same booster set?

No. They only have to bought at the venue. Whatever they have is allowed to be used, unless a venue / Judge wants to restrict it in some way.

I'm running mine that states you cannot choose 2 boosters from the same expansion - ie you have to choose 2 different boosters. 'Course the venue has a limited supply available anyway - but 'dems the breaks...

From the WizKids Fourms

also, to be fair the judge more accurately likes scenarios, though we normally play with out retirement and purple rings are ok, which is a house rule (?)

Yes, those are both house rules. However, neither one really applies in a draft or sealed format... (And, again, house rules aren't allowed in qualifiers.)

Wow. Do you think that venue planned to run out of anything decent right before an event requiring booster purchase? I can't see Indy boosters getting unloaded any other way.

That seems to be a particularly slimy tactic.

Let us know if they have lots of boosters of newer Heroclix sets for sale the next day...

I decided to play at a different venue last night (thankfully), because I know for certain that one venue I frequent has "questionable" practices. My suspicions were confirmed after a friend called me after his qualifier was over-- all the new stock was removed from the shelves, and the players were forced to choose from Indy and Universe. This morning, he went back to the venue to discover Sinister and Supernova back on the shelves...

Nevertheless, he managed to take second place with U Vision, R Captain America and R Wolverine.