I’m currently writing from about 30,000 feet in the air, probably somewhere over Nevada. I’m on my way to the PAX East gaming convention in Boston, where I’ll be working at the Stone Blade Entertainment booth promoting SolForge and Ascension. I’ve been going to gaming conventions for a long time. I even was first exposed to Magic over twenty years ago at a convention (a story about which I have a blog post largely written, but not yet complete). Despite the fact that I’m working rather than playing at conventions these days, I still really enjoy them, as they’re a great chance to be around and interact with smart people who are passionate about gaming – people like me.

Magic Grand Prix have been progressively becoming more and more like gaming conventions, from the wide array of available activities to their size. In addition to the main tournament and side events, many Grand Prix these days run events like judge seminars, artist signings, pro player seminars and meet-and-greets, and more.

I think this transition is great for Magic. One of Magic’s biggest selling points is the community that surrounds it (which, incidentally, is why I feel so strongly about protecting that community). These huge Grand Prix give players who might otherwise only play at their local store an incentive to travel and experience a real event in Magic culture – a chance to feel like they’s a part of something bigger than themselves, and to be around like-minded people who share the same passion. Even for players who have no real expectation of doing well in the main event, there are all kinds of things for them to do and see.

I think this is the real reason that events like Grand Prix Las Vegas and Grand Prix Richmond grew to the size that they did. Once they got so big via preregistration that people kept talking on social media about how big they were going to be, their enormity was something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. People wanted to be a part of a real community event – something truly large within their culture – and the attendance spiraled out of control. Grand Prix aren’t getting so huge because the same people are playing in more events, but because the number of people playing in them is growing – and the convention and festival atmosphere draws in a crowd bigger than that which cares about the tournament itself.

I’ve really enjoyed interacting with my fellow community members at these Grand Prix. Grand Prix Richmond in particular was crazy, since the fact that everyone in the tournament was guaranteed a playmat and there were so many people in the room meant that I was signing almost nonstop. I really enjoy meeting and interacting with my fellow Magic players, and it’s great to hear how my articles, videos, and streams help them be better players, or – even better – improve their lives more generally. I’m incredibly fortunate to be in the position that I am within the Magic community, and it’s rewarding to hear how I’ve been able to help others.

All that having been said, I’ve been enjoying the actual experience of playing in tournaments a whole lot less lately. This isn’t the result of poor tournament logistics and organization or anything of the sort – far from it, in fact. I’ve been nothing but impressed by how well tournament organizers like StarCityGames, ChannelFireball, Legion Events, Professional Event Services, and Pastimes have adapted to the enormous numbers that have been thrown their way. Recent changes like the elimination of Saturday morning registration, the move toward universally available prereg, and starting at 9 instead of 10 AM Saturday morning have gone a long way toward making what a few years ago might have been nightmarish events into comfortable experiences.

The root of my lessened enjoyment of these events is that there are simply too many people, and the structure of the tournaments can’t support them. With 1500-2000 player events becoming the norm rather than outliers, fifteen rounds of swiss simply aren’t enough to meaningfully break up the field. The records required to put up any kind of meaningful result have become outrageous, with 13-2 regularly missing Top 8 and 12-3 often finishing outside the Top 16 or even Top 32, with tiebreakers playing a huge role.

The result of this is feeling tremendously discouraged with every loss. At Grand Prix Richmond, even my first loss felt crushing, and taking my second felt like I was almost already out of the tournament. Even if I had run the tables on day two, I wouldn’t have even had a shot at Top 8, and a single loss could have knocked me all the way to Top 64, or even out of it.

WotC has implemented some failsafes to cut down on many of the “feel-bad” elements of larger Grand Prix, like guaranteeing qualification to anyone who finishes at 13-2 and extending cash payouts down to 100th place. These do little to nothing for those of us who come to Grand Prix with the goal of collecting pro points, since the points awarded from the events don’t scale at all with size. While larger events are actually a better opportunity for players whose goal is to make it to the PT (since a larger field likely means at least marginally weaker competition, and you need to go 13-2 to qualify regardless), they’re strictly worse for pros, who have to put up better and better results to earn the same rewards.

The thing is, I realize that those of us who are impacted by this are quite small compared to the community at large. It’s certainly great for Magic that so many people want to come to tournaments, and in the long run it’s better for people like me that Magic is growing. In the meantime, though, there are certainly growing pains. Over the past six months or so, I’ve put up probably have a dozen records that would have been good for pro points and money finishes in Grand Prix just a few years ago, and instead I have almost nothing to show for it.

I’d love to see more rounds at larger events – even if it’s just one more, it makes a huge impact on how the field separates, which is a huge quality of life improvement for people who are no longer praying for tiebreakers to hold up. I don’t think that will happen, though – an extra round on Saturday makes it nearly impossible to get out at a reasonable time for dinner, and an extra round on Sunday is awkward at limited events where draft pods complicate matters.

Barring that, I’d like to see pro points expanded much like cash payouts, or perhaps even tied to final record rather than final standing. With the size of fields compared to the number of rounds making the clustering at different records so huge, tiebreakers play a frustratingly big role in one’s final result, especially in the middle of the pack. If everyone who finished with 3 losses got 3 pro points, everyone with 4 losses got two points, and everyone with 5 losses got 1 point, for instance, it would go a long way toward quelling the feeling of hopelessness that comes along with picking up early losses in a big tournament.

I love playing in tournaments, and I love going to conventions, but the needs of each of them are frequently at odds with one another. I love seeing Magic grow, and I think the direction Grand Prix are going is the right one for almost everyone involved. I want to be a part of these big events, but I also don’t want to feel like I’m an idiot for playing in them.

What do you think? Can Grand Prix succeed at being both tournaments and conventions? What, if anything, should change with how Grand Prix are structured so they can best serve everyone involved?