I'm starting this thread under the belief that there will be more VS sets produced in our future from UDE.

I'm hearing interesting comments from players lately about release celebrations. It seems like the general consensus is that attendance is down at these events mostly due to the fact that the cards are already owned and there's no "Gee, can't wait to get my hands on those new cards" feeling. I used to think that attendance was down due to the lack of prize support (no more mats, deck tins, t-shirts). I also agree that it was far more "enticing" to go to a pre-release rather then a release celebration. I was wondering what everyone else's thoughts on this situation and what they'd like to have happen at these events. How can we get players back to these type of events that kick off a new set?

i'll just quote myself from the previous thread on my feelings on the matter

i just think if it was switch back to pre-releases more players would actually have money from vs exclusive savings to actually cough up the hefty price. especically since it would be the first time to see/play the cards.

prize support is another thing that should be up'd. i remember with pre releases back in the day that large distributions of pacts were given to top finishers. such as half a box for 1st, 6 packs for second, 4 packs for 3rd and so forth.

now that is rarely done. some times promos arent that enticing since most at time are never seen play. most players would prefer pacts for prizes. at the neutral ground hobby league in the past the prizes were usually just promos. hobby league attence was pretty low since no one wanted to really cough up the cash for the same promos every week( especially when they can easily be bought on ebay) Now recently NG has thrown in pacts for additional prize support and hobby league attence and basically double even old players are contemplating to return playing after a "leave of absence' from playing this glorious game after the demise of the pro circuit...

for a successful event there has to be drive to draw players and prize support is a huge issue...

Personally I would love to see a return of pre-releases.

I live in Vancouver BC, and the only pre-releases that we got were in Everett WA which was about a 2 hr drive away from us. It was always great fun driving through the border and going to the States to go and play VS. Sure the border guards gave us sht for going down to play a 'kids' games, but we still had good fun. We also made great friends down there (WHATS UP TODD! YEAH YOU KNOW IM TALKING BOUT YOU AND YOUR BOYS!) and would love to go back and see them again.

First one I ever went to was the MVA one, and I continued going all the way up to MTU when they last held it. I want them back, and think they'd be great for the game. I always wanted to go to see what the new cards would be like and see what I could do with them. Like it was said before, Release Celebrations are great but don't really generate that buzz that pre-releases did.

I also wouldn't mind if they upped prize support and added more packs to be distributed.

I think it's up to the retailer/TO to make the RCs "worth" something.

We charged $25 for ours... but EVERY player got at least 2 packs of MEV as prizing... so that was a guaranteed 7 packs for $25 plus promos and if you did better you go more packs.

We have to realize that the majority of promotion and prizing in this game is now up to the hobby scene. The subset cards are nice for Hobby League but if you want bigger attendance at your events, you have to start throwing in more stuff.

I will say the release celebs of VS are pretty bad... $20 and I got some bad promo cards, and I came in 2nd? With that said, at least our attendance was up... our shopkeeper has really been promoting the game to the HeroClix fallout group (our store used to be the big heroclix store), so we've gotten a good influx of new blood :).

thats why i strongly suggest for there to be an upping on prizes or just completely switch back to pre releases

Didn't the Pre-Release kits cost more?
I'd imagine that instructions/shirts/playmats/decktins/promos/box/S&H would cost more than instructions/shirt/promos/box/S&H =/

He LIVES!

#shock#

This is one of those "grass is greener" arguments.

Sure... everyone loved PreReleases... everyone except stores where weren't PTOs for UDE.

Now that stores are basically the ones who make money off Release events... they should be the ones responsible for making sure the players are prized out better.

If your store is charging $25 for an RC, and the only prizes are whatever comes in the kit... complain to them. UDE can't do anything about that.

Even at $20 for an RC... there should still be some nominal booster prizing thrown in by the store. $4 per pack of VS is full retail so there's a little juice left to give packs to the people with better records... especially if the turnout is higher.

But Erick you do that for every event.

There is just no extra shine to a release, since its already been released bought abused and played with, sneak is like special, poping virgin packs filled with goodies no one else has seen. Too bad shops can't pre-release or sneak release (likely a distribution and please don't sell before X nightmare).

I've been sad, only when we did sneaks did I feel that I was coming in in the begining now it seems no matter when I get my cards I'm already behind and all the cool ideas have been presented and erratted. It totally disenfranchises me from the Deck Garage for a month or two these days.

Yeah... but the complaints are that people aren't getting value for RCs... that's the store's fault.

As for "never before seen" goodness... all these previews kind of kill that now. I think this set has had the most previews of any others.

They did start a little earlier this time around didn't they?

Wouldn't it be cool though if the stores that held the "Sneak Previews" would be the ones that got the cards before anyone else? By that I mean, ship the cards to the hobby stores before the ones not having the SP's.

Would that work or are there too many logistical problems there?

if they ran pre releases back, even if they were in the states, its all the more reason for me to go down there. I would go down to everyone (provided i have a ride). plus agree with blues on it being the first time you see the cards. Also. if they have pre releases, it means they are having more sets. which means happy me.

bumping thread

You know it would be nice to have release celebration events. I have been trying to get one started here & just haven't been able to do so. I thought after we got our sanctioning done around the time of MUN that we would have one for MUN & MEV. I have been told by our local guy that we order the kits & don't receive them.

Not sure if thats true but whatever.

I think Pre release events should have never been stopped. We would get 40 people @ our prerelease events in KCMO. No other VS event pulled that many people into an event here locally. When we took the TO's out of the equation there in 2006 was the reason VS is now just played strictly on kitchen tables. All tournaments should have continued without much prize support maybe just a few cards, mats & shirts. They should have gotten rid of the 10k's & replaced them with metaweekends immediatley & only had one for every set that came out within the year. Then they should have just said 1 worlds/PC a year @ Gen Con Indy & no mo money folks.

There were allot of mistakes made & if Ude knew what to do then they prolly would have. It is prolly too late to fix it now.

I believe like you that there will be more sets coming out & I hope we can fix our local kinks here so we can get a release celebration finally.

SIGH.