Has there been any word from UDE about the format of the PC? I was just wondering wht a qulified (or hopeful) player should be practicing in order to maximize his or her chances.

There hasn't been any official word that I know of, but I have heard rumors that it will be a mix of constructed and limited. So, start practicing both because you'll need to be on your game for this one.

I would guess on Day One that it would be 3 rounds of constructed followed by 1 draft for 3 rounds. Day 2 would be 1 draft for 3 round followed by 3 rounds of constructed using same deck from day One.

Just a guess.

I seriously doubt that limited will play that big a role or really any role in the PC. They will have to have at least 5 rounds of play on the first day so that they can cut for day 2. Day 2 should be 4 more rounds and a top 8/16/32. There isn't the time or really a desire amongst very many serious and professional players to have a draft. My guess is the way that they "incorporate it" will be a big limited tournament on day 2 for the 150 or so people who didn't make the cut in constructed. I would be shocked if they did something even remotely like GDE suggested. It just wouldn't make sense for UDE to have no big money limited events over the summer as well as really offering limited as a smaller secondary option at PCQ's (considering the times overlap and you have to drop one to play the other), and then all of the sudden have limited play an enormous role in a $250,000 professional event. The PC will be just like any of the 10K CC events, except a little bigger.


-Eric

What I proposed is a 12 round tournament(6 constructed/6 draft). One tournament. Makes you be a good overall player.

How does a mixed limited/constructed format make you any better of an "overall player" than just constructed? At the PC level, everyone has an unlimited card pool so they can make any deck they want. The playing field is level because of this and the players who test the most will do the best. In limited at this level, pretty much everyone is a good player so whoever gets the best pulls will have the best chance. That doesn't sound like much of a test of skill to me, and I'm sure a lot of other PC players agree with me.

You also can't run two 6 round tournaments for the PC. 6 rounds isn't close to enough to determine a winner or even top 8/16/32/64 for the either format, let alone combining them. In order to "fairly" (If you want to call limited fair) do a combined event like you suggested, they would have to have two 9 round cut to top 8/16/32, tournaments. It'll take like 4 days to do that.

-Eric

12 rounds is plenty. Then you Top 8 with constructed.

6 rounds on Friday 6 rounds on Saturday. Top 8 on Sunday.

It's easy.

Example: 350 players

After 6 rounds: ~6 undefeated, ~28 one loss

That's not even close to determining the top players for either format. It gives too much of an advatage to those that get easy early-round matchups because they may have only played 3 or 4 tough matches. More rounds leads to more parity because all the top players get more matches against the top of the field, which is more important than how you did against a couple scrubs in rounds one and two.. Also, there is a pretty good chance that most of the top of the field in limited will be different from constructed. That leaves you with a mess of mediocre records and tiebreakers when you combine. If you try and combine it into a big 12 round event, it just ruins the integrity of both fields (eg. seedings and matchups in constructed are based on performance in limited and visa versa). The bottom line though is that limited doesn't tell you anything about a player that constructed doesn't. It tells you a lot less. There is no reason to have limited play any part in pro cricuit events.


-Eric

Combining Limited and Constructed gives you the best overall player.

The reason you run 3 round constructed and 1 Draft(3 rounds) is so one format doesn't skew the pairing too much.

Once you go inot draft tables, you won't have too many undefeateds. Only the ones who have won their draft table have a chance to be 6-0.

It's the best, most fair way to run a skills-testing tournament.

I'd like to change one thing.

Make it 3 rounds con. 1 draft with 4 rounds per table. Friday.

1 draft with 3 rounds per table. 4 rounds of con. Saturday.

Top 8 with con. Sunday.

Players use same Con deck for all portions of tournament.