I was chatting on AIM with some other MK players and the topic was:

"How in touch is Wizkids with competative MK?"

Multiple comments were made and some theories presented. Something interesting was mentioned in the form of the question " Wouldn't it be neat to play (named wizkids employee) in a MK game?"

So what Im going to try to cook up is a charity event to be run at the summer conventions. Its gonna be a grudge match. The players versus the big bad game designers!

What I was thinking is get a certain number of MK players and a certain number of Wizkids staff members involved. Everyone would donate X amount of money (50$ was what I was thinking) to a prize pool. Then both sides will compete in a few rounds of MK, player vrs staff member. The winning side will get the entire pool to donate to a predetermined charity. That way everyone walks away a winner. The players will get a chance to match up versus the big dogs, the employees will get to defend their honor from the unruly masses, and a certain charity will benifit from the bloodshed.:)

So how does this sound?

I think it sounds like a wonderful idea. Wizkids could even showcase there new product line this way by playing figures that aren't in mass production. I know it would give them the upperhand but would be nice to see some pieces that aren't massed produced yet.


Seminon

I think making this into a charity event is an awesome idea!

Perhaps the donation amount should be a bit lower and compensated by increasing the number of players. This way even more people will be able to participate :)

Sounds cool but $50 is kinda high. Most likely they would pick GenCon to do this at which is like $50+ and then you got to pay hotel fees too. Maybe $10 a player would work better.

I thought $50 was a bit steep too, but then I thought about it. How many people would love to play against a designer or other WK staff member? If it's $0.75 to play, there will be too many people. Maybe $20 would get *me* to participate, but I think it should be a substantial chunk of money.

I also think if you beat the WK employee you should get something, like a pin, or an LE, or a bumper sticker. If nothing else you should have a cool title to put in your signature line here on MK Realms!

;-)
Bri

50 bucks is expensive but the money will go to a good cause. I dont expect more than a handful of players to participate so any less amount would be pretty much nothing at all.

Its for fun, to help a good cause and to have some wizkids people get involved.

I think it is an excellent idea, if I could make it to a convention I would do it for 50.

I would pay a lot more then that to lay the smackdown on Wizkids employees!

In all seriousness though, count me in. Ecspecially since the money is going to a good cause! Grin, I am drooling just thinking about new taglines for my signature.

actually - instead of a predetermined charity - there should be a list of like 12 that the winner can choose from; there are plenty of charities that I would NOT participate in the because I wouldn't want to see them get a single penny of my money.

$50 is a bit steep for a poor single father like myself, but then charity events are supposed to draw large chunks of money from those that can afford it. I wouldn't be able to budget more than about $20 myself, what with flying my son and I 2500 just to be there, but I'm sure others could afford to shell out $50.

The question that comes to my mind is how the charity will be decided. If there are 20 players all with different causes in mind, how will you pick one of them? I would be willing to pay more to help some charities than others, and some charities would actually cause me to avoid this event for fear of my funds being mishandled or misused. So I would put a lot of thought into where the money would go.

I also think that some cool LEs would help soften the financial blow. Perhaps WK could design some figures based loosely on their staff members with their names imprinted on them to give to each person who defeats them. DemoMonkey would be an easy one. Just uglify a Demolishing Ape a bit. You know, run over it with your car a few times, leave it in the microwave for a few mintues, play catch with your pit bull, stuff like that. Oh, I'm trash talking the Wk employees already! ;>

Good luck with this event, it's a nice idea, Shugg.

Sounds like fun, Bshugg, but for $50 it should be a sealed tournament using whatever new set WK will be debuting at GenCon this year :)

That might get players to pony up the cost, if they could walk away with a few boosters worth of new figures as well. Plus, if you did get WK's co-operation on this, they'd supply the boosters and most of the entry fee money would still go to charity.

Well if you lower the cost than you are going to have more people in and than Wiz-Kids couldn't do it on top of their already busy schedules. raise the cost raise more money and make it worth more because you would get to play them all head to head.

if you lower the cost to the 20 or so dollars I think that should make it a single elimination and then the top 8 from there go into the finals paired up against 8 employees. and then a single elimination and the winner (be it employee or player) plays Jordan for the grand championship.

That would be interesting as well and would allow the finals to be played later at night when the floor is clkosed and the employees don't have to man the booths.
Gaidin

gaiden: Thats a really good idea. But I would cut to a top 4 vrs 4 wizkids reps.


The charity will most likely be one predetermined with the money going in the name of the players or the wizkids employees depending on who wins. I was going to try to locate a local (to GenCon) small charity like an orphanage or halfway house rather than something big like the american cancer foundation or united way.

I havent presented this idea to Wizkids, but Im sure they will jump at the chance. It will be fun and nice publicity. I will type something up and present it to them by the weeks end for sure.


As for LE prizes, this is for fun and to help a good cause. Not for getting a set of conquest LE's, you grubbers!:p

bshugg -

If it is at GenCon, and for a charity I generally agree with (i.e., nothing that Barbara Striesand, Alec Baldwin, or Jane Fonda is involved with), you can count me in.

Forgot all about this. Perhaps we can still arrange something on site with the wizkids guys. Most likely they will be too busy (scared more like it :)) but who knows...