mtgia.com

When: Tonight - Sunday, April 13 7:00 p.m.
Where: 400 3rd Ave. S.W. - Cedar Rapids
Cost: $9
Prizes: Draft the rares at the end - Walk away with 3 rares. No rare-drafting here! Plus we don't have to pay 14 bucks to hope that we get a few rares.

Product provided by Video Games, Etc.

Questions? visit http://www.ccgamers.org

Dan-

I know you don't believe this, but what you do is bad for the community. Bad. The local stores provide a service by opening a play space for players to game. They're also a central resource for new players to get involved with the game where any day of the week a potential new Magic player can wander in for whatever reason and get hooked on the best game around.

What you do is undercut those stores for your own gains without paying for any overhead and with DOZENS of complaints over the years about how you run events. The standard price for a draft is $15. When you charge less than retail for yours you train your group of friends to believe the world is a magical land where the roads are made of licorice and Magic drafts should be run at a loss to the retailer running them lest they be viewed as greedy profit mongers. You also undercut our local stores on the price they charge for packs, but without returning any services to the community. Sure you open up your church space on Sundays for your group of players at no charge to you, but that hurts everyone more than helps and it directly challenges places like Battlezone and Critical Hit Games in an unfair way.

It's great that you like playing games, but put up or shut up. Open a store, start competing, and invest something in this community. Otherwise keep your drafts to yourself and quit undercutting the people who actually contribute to making gaming in the state of Iowa better.

-Bill

Wow, Bill. Just wow. I guess that I thought that what we were doing was good the Corridor community. I guess that since we're not involved with a store, we're somehow hurting stores?? I believe that we're doing the opposite. We are helping to make the MAGIC community stronger by providing another outlet for people to play the game we love. We are helping to make the singles market (something that we're not providing) stronger by making people WANT certain cards. "Wow, that card whooped me, where can I get one of those?" Not here unless someone is nice enough to trade one.

If providing a safe, understanding, non-profit place to play our games and maybe help some people learn important concepts such as sportsmanship and camaraderie, is a bad thing, then go ahead and say your piece. If providing affordable product in the form of drafts and providing some introductory sanctioned events, that makes people want to seek out higher events, is a bad thing, then your speech is justified. If events like ours, as well as those that happen in colleges and universities are bad as well, then please plead your case to them as well, because ultimately, they are pursuing the same thing that I am - a place to play.

I encourage you to rethink your words when Wizards Organized Play representatives announce a grass-roots program at the end of this month from Las Vegas. As a matter of fact, I encourage you to find out what people like Helene Bergeot and Chris Galvin think of events like ours. Our events are truly a launch pad for people excited about possibly going pro. And if, for some reason, our town had no store like BZ or CHG, then what would people do? As we're non-profit, we have NO FEAR of our event closing down ANY TIME SOON. I prefer stability, safety, and flexibility.

So I ask you once again, is what we are doing with our grass-roots event/program truly bad for the MAGIC community? I believe not. Is our group actually a benefit to the community? Before answering that question, I encourage you to read what a given parent has to say about what we are doing for individuals in our area: http://www.ccgamers.org/testimonials.html

Bill, please stop by sometime. We have never seen you at one of our events. A good journalist gets all the facts before reporting. As you seem to be the voice of Magic in our beatiful state, please get the facts about CCG and report your personal findings to the Magic community. Find out what we're actually doing, how we're doing it, and form a solid opinion that way. I see that you have HEARD about the way that my events are run and organized. Instead of hearing about it, please come down and experience it. THEN report your findings. Until then, I believe your words to be unsubstantiated and unnecessary. I guess this is our group's way of "calling you out".

Please evaluate your priorities as a player as well as a member of the corridor communities. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon, Bill. It would be an honor to welcome you to CCG.

Dan Alpers
http://www.ccgamers.org

I have to say that paying $9 to draft without prizes sound an awful lot like a bunch of people going in on a box and then instead of just ripping open the packs, drafting them.

Agree.

Sounds to me like the true definition of drafting. Kinda like when Finkel and his buddies get together to practice for Pro Tours. It's a good time, though.

The +$6 might be paid for organized use of store space, judge attention, sanctioning (which you do have), or having a store-affiliated tournament organizer handle logistics for you. While I can't speak for bad experiences if people have them with any one group or another, involving more people in more magic on a more frequent basis is probably not bad, even if Bill says it is. Part of what stores need is competitive, frequent involvement in the game. This drives enthusiasm, customer base loyalty and growth, and ultimately sales. So long as someone running these kinds of events aren't preaching about how terrible local stores are and how they should be the only Magic involvement for their regular players, it's akin to Magic Club which did a lot of great things for growth in the community here in Ames.

Alpers has consistently been a leech on the Cedar Rapids community and making snide comments about stores in your tournament posts, like he did here, is exactly what you're saying is bad.

Bill Stark says "Don't go play Magic with Dan Alpers." You can make of that what you will.

-Bill

You are a giant giant douchebag.

This was not your original point of contention. The next time you draft without paying a store, I expect you to rake yourself over the coals.

Kyle,

Bill has never met me face-to-face. What a way to make an informed opinion. Thanks for your support.

Hey, Bill. Ask my friends how the events go. I didn't even run tonight's event! We had a great time!

Dan

LOL BILL STARK!

Just to be a bit clear, here: Having not met you myself, either, I definitely wasn't assigning you my utmost support -- which shouldn't really mean anything anyway. I do think that someone organizing drafts is a positive mark in a growing community, though, and you don't deserve the deriding that Bill is giving (or at least not for the initial reason mentioned). If there are problems in how the events go down, as we have heard about before, that's unfortunate and I'd hope that the players vote with their discontinued support of the events. For all I know, though, any previous complaints were unfounded or based entirely in emotion. Hopefully you aren't a douche. :)

Bill - if you read this, I would like to start by saying that I've been an active reader of you articles for some time now, and have grown to respect your opinions and views when it comes to the world of Magic, but I think you have this one wrong.

I have personally known Dan Alpers for the last 8 years, I met him at Excalibur games - a now out of business storefront that Dan was running MTG through. I can personally attest that the only thing that Dan is guilty of - is trying to keep the Magic scene alive in CR. He's not trying to run anyone out of business - if anything - what he provides doesn't interfere with FNM or Saturday/Sunday day events that stores might be running. Sure - he's had his bouts with store-owners over the years - but it's only because he's wanted what is good for the scene - and store owners are generally the ones out for profit. If anything, when a store goes out of business in Cedar Rapids two things are true - they went out of business because of BAD business practice(it goes hand and hand with CR) and Dan Alpers is the only thing left keeping the scene together. I'm not saying trust me on this one - we don't know each other - I know this to be true because I've seen it happen, time and time again, first hand. (not that I think he asked to be the glue that held it all together - I think he kind of took up the responsibility when no one else would - since then it's grown to be something bigger for him. A purpose.)

Look, I'm not saying that everyone on the planet is going to get along with Dan - some people just don't mesh. What your post fails to acknowledge - is that you're commenting one a scene that has over a decade of existence. These people all know each other, and have since high school. I'm sure you've heard complaints, everyone is bound to have their feathers ruffled. It happens. I'm not saying that Dan is perfect. No promoter is. Some have it down to more of a science than others. I've played a lot of places - I can tell you that CCG is by far NOT the worst. On a more personal note - I would tell you to take the opinions you hear in CR with a grain of salt - the people there are some of the more heavily opinionated and moody players I've encountered.

I would also like to state that the international price for a draft IS NOT 15 bucks. I would cordially like to invite you to come draft at my favorite store : Win More Games - in Kansas http://www.winmoregameskc.com/ where you only buy your packs. I'd invite you to come to all of their tournaments - come on down April 26th ... it's a free tournament with over 200 bucks in prizes. Hows that for a money grubbing profit monger? All that I'm saying is that you don't have to be out for profit to be a good thing for the game. Businesses still thrive - take it from someone that lives in an environment that has way more than 1 store. My other issue with this statement is this : it's entirely close minded. Only Sith speak in absolutes. Where's your heart on this one Bill? Check it.

Sincerely,
Matt Rader - player of the game since 1995 - Proud to call Dan Alpers a Friend - CCG fan for life, even if he did get called away from them.

Lorwyn Booster Box:
$84.99

Morningtide Booster Box:
$79.99

Total cost of 36 draft sets:
$249.97

Total cost per draft set (we also call this investment risk):
$6.94 (and some sub-change)

Total difference and potential profit per draft set:
$2.06

Potential profit from 36 draft sets sold:
$74.16

That's hardly murdering the community. At worst, I'd call it "willing to put up the money to get the supplies and organize the draft."

Stores are important for a gaming community to survive. If the stores fail, there will still be little pockets of players here and there, this club would continue to exist, but overall far less Magic/whatever would be sold in the area. For Magic to continue existing it has to be sold. Clubs are fine, but clubs that draw people away from stores aren't. Suggesting that stores charging you $14 are ripping you off also isn't fine. Hell, if all you care about is getting rares, which the OP seems to suggest, you're far better off going to a draft at a store and paying a few dollars more.

I don't think there's anything wrong with people setting up their own draft groups. Come to think of it, I was in one with Bill once a couple years back when some people wanted to get some more practice in. That was held in CHG, though, and most of us bought our packs there. There's nothing wrong with a group of people going in on a box and drafting it. It would just be much better if they could bring themselves to buy that box at a local store.

I agree with Bill's point about cutting the price of a draft to ridiculous lows being bad for the community in general, but to me that applies more to stores giving prize support. If a store was holding a draft with no prize I wouldn't pay much more than $10 for it. Personally, even though I'm not someone who often wins anything in drafts, I'd much rather pay a bit more for a slim chance of winning something and to keep the cards I draft, but that's just my preference.

Finally, note that my personal experience with this group is extremely limited. I went to one event a year ago that was poorly organized and a complete waste of time, but still nothing bad enough to warrant a vendetta. I don't really know anything about the complaints that have been mentioned.

If they were drafting at $9 and offering $40/$20/$10/$10, then I'd see the point. As it stands, I'm left wondering what the big deal is.

Edit: Upon reflection, my real beef here is that Bill purported that Dan Alpers was a community murderer, when really, the issue is entirely personal (apparently).

I fail to understand how it could be a personal matter - Bill has never met Dan. They don't know each other. Bill's never been to a CCG event.

Not sure about that last one, but my brain has imploded from all the clichés.

I'm sorry, are you implying that you are weak minded?