Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

In case you ever wondered, I am a massive nerd. I build computers, program competently in a dozen different languages, and play video games for many more hours per week than is (probably) healthy. When I'm not sitting in front of a computer, I play a half-elf sorcerer in Dungeons & Dragons. Sometimes I even dress up. And, yes, I also play Magic: The Gathering, a collectable card game.

I wouldn't call myself a very good Magic player, mind you; the best Magic players have superb, detail-oriented minds and memories, and my brain just isn't wired like that. Still, I enjoy opening packs, buying and trading singles, and playing with friends—and so when I heard that there was a Grand Prix coming to London this weekend, of course I went along.

Grands Prix are Magic's largest open events. They last for three days (usually Friday through Sunday), and, unlike the Pro Tour, anyone can come along and enter the main event. The main event is a slog: one guy I talked to said he "lost count" after playing 21 best-of-three games on Friday, and he had already done another 10 games by lunchtime on Saturday. Magic is a very deep and complex game, and he looked pretty exhausted. The winner of the main event will take home about £2,500: a lot less than the Pro Tour events, which pay out £25,000 to the winner, but it ain't too shabby.

The Grand Prix London, organised by StarCityGames (and presumably with support from Wizards of the Coast), occupied about a quarter of the massive ExCeL convention centre in East London. I'd estimate there were about 2,000 players, all seated neatly in rows, facing each other over long tables. The event was big, but certainly not the biggest Grand Prix: the main event of the May 2015 Grand Prix Las Vegas attracted 7,551 players.

In addition to the "Standard" format main event, there were side events (different formats of Magic that appeal to different players), about a dozen vendors selling rare and valuable cards, and an "Artist Alley," where players could meet the artists who created the art on some of the cards. There were a couple of "featured" play tables, too: one that was streaming to Twitch, and another with spectator seating, presumably for the last few rounds of the main event.

I didn't personally play in the main event: neither my cards nor my skills are good enough. I mostly just wandered around, peering over the shoulders of players much better than I, perhaps hoping to absorb some of their skills by osmosis. I bought a couple of old packs of Alliances, but pulled crap. I acquired some singles that I needed to complete my new red-green ramp deck (yay, Dragonlord Atarka!)—and then I played (and won) a few casual games.

I toyed with entering one of the booster draft side events, but I hummed and hawed for so long (can you tell that I'm not very confident in my Magic playing?) that I ran out of time: I had to be at my next nerdy engagement: a "secret cinema" real-world re-enactment of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Hopefully, by the time the next London Grand Prix rolls around in 2016, I'll be brave enough to actually enter one of the events...