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Inside the World's Biggest 'Magic: The Gathering' Tournament

33 points by pmcpinto 11y ago

rawnlq 11y ago
Pics from Grand Prix Richmond is the 3rd most upvoted post ever on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/202wd3/i_participated_in_one_of_the_biggest_magic_the/ http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/202wd3/i_participated...
- aw3c2 11y ago
  People should be allowed to wear what they want and not be harassed or shamed about it.
  - arcatek 11y ago
    Not exactly. Buttcracks are gross, and may easily tarnish a community ("hey, look at those fat ass nerds"). I've been at the Utrecht tournament last week: from my seat, I had a direct view on at least two buttcracks, which were both much bigger than in these pictures. Even for the players, it's not a great sight. However, shaming these guys on social networks is a big no-no. This guy should have went to a judge so that they could talk and educate the concerned people, rather than taking pictures without their consent and posting them online. For this reason, WotC banned this guy from official tournaments for something like a year. The Magic community (especially the pro community) has a sad habit to publish everything on social networks, even when it should remain out-of-sight (in the past month, two other 'scandals' like this happened, which clearly show that we have something to work on).
    - aw3c2 11y ago
      Would you suggest the same if they were girls, suggesting they should dress differently?
      - MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
        If he wouldn't, that would be sexist.
- nhanb 11y ago
  That's in extremely bad taste.
  - ubernostrum 11y ago
    The person who created and posted that album was suspended from competing in organized tournaments for 18 months as a result of it. Similarly, there was an example a couple years ago of someone who took to Twitter to post photos and insults at people he saw at a tournament, and he was also given a suspension from play. Harassing people, or otherwise working to shame or cause discomfort to people at a tournament can, should and does result in real consequences.
    - MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
      The people's faces were not shown in these photos, so unless you want to identify them by their ass cracks, theres no personal shaming involved. You don't have to find it funny, but apparently lots of people do.
    - pubby 11y ago
      >Harassing people, or otherwise working to shame or cause discomfort to people at a tournament can, should and does result in real consequences. Events like these have a huge hygiene problem. People don't take showers, and man, do they start stinking. I have zero problem with shaming such people; it's a public event and having foul smelling people there makes it unpleasant for the rest of us. Now, are buttcracks really all that different? I'm grossed out at the sight of a crack, and I imagine many other people are too. It seems absurd to claim that crack-showers are victims of harassment here. Just pull up your damn pants!
      - ubernostrum 11y ago
        I'm grossed out at the sight of a crack 99.99% of the time what people actually mean by this is "I'm grossed out by seeing this on someone I find sexually unattractive". You may want to think through the actual consequences of trying to articulate that into a policy -- it goes to some genuinely (pun intended) ugly places.
arcatek 11y ago
The author didn't really went into detail. This tournament was the biggest one in history, but not just for Vegas alone. WotC actually set up three tournaments in three cities accross the world (Vegas, Utrecht, Chiba), the same day. Utrecht and Chiba had around 4,000 players each, and Vegas 11,000. Utrecht was really well organized. It was the first 'pro' tournament I was attending, and everything went quite smoothly. I strongly advise you to do it if you have a chance (especially during those kind of monstruous events, which may be a bit less pro-oriented than usual).
- ubernostrum 11y ago
  The main event(s) at Vegas (since it split to two parallel GPs, and then each of those split into multiple sub-events which merged for day two) officially had around 8,000 players prior to drops. So the weekend saw about 16,000 players in the various GPs themselves, though of course there were more people total when side events and spectators/traders/etc. are counted.
ericcholis 11y ago
Magic continues to amaze me, it has some serious staying power. It also seems to still be able to attract young players. Analog success in a digital age.

33 points by pmcpinto 11y ago

Pics from Grand Prix Richmond is the 3rd most upvoted post ever on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/202wd3/i_participated_in_one_of_the_biggest_magic_the/ http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/202wd3/i_participated...

aw3c2 11y ago
People should be allowed to wear what they want and not be harassed or shamed about it.
- arcatek 11y ago
  Not exactly. Buttcracks are gross, and may easily tarnish a community ("hey, look at those fat ass nerds"). I've been at the Utrecht tournament last week: from my seat, I had a direct view on at least two buttcracks, which were both much bigger than in these pictures. Even for the players, it's not a great sight. However, shaming these guys on social networks is a big no-no. This guy should have went to a judge so that they could talk and educate the concerned people, rather than taking pictures without their consent and posting them online. For this reason, WotC banned this guy from official tournaments for something like a year. The Magic community (especially the pro community) has a sad habit to publish everything on social networks, even when it should remain out-of-sight (in the past month, two other 'scandals' like this happened, which clearly show that we have something to work on).
  - aw3c2 11y ago
    Would you suggest the same if they were girls, suggesting they should dress differently?
    - MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
      If he wouldn't, that would be sexist.
nhanb 11y ago
That's in extremely bad taste.
- ubernostrum 11y ago
  The person who created and posted that album was suspended from competing in organized tournaments for 18 months as a result of it. Similarly, there was an example a couple years ago of someone who took to Twitter to post photos and insults at people he saw at a tournament, and he was also given a suspension from play. Harassing people, or otherwise working to shame or cause discomfort to people at a tournament can, should and does result in real consequences.
  - MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
    The people's faces were not shown in these photos, so unless you want to identify them by their ass cracks, theres no personal shaming involved. You don't have to find it funny, but apparently lots of people do.
  - pubby 11y ago
    >Harassing people, or otherwise working to shame or cause discomfort to people at a tournament can, should and does result in real consequences. Events like these have a huge hygiene problem. People don't take showers, and man, do they start stinking. I have zero problem with shaming such people; it's a public event and having foul smelling people there makes it unpleasant for the rest of us. Now, are buttcracks really all that different? I'm grossed out at the sight of a crack, and I imagine many other people are too. It seems absurd to claim that crack-showers are victims of harassment here. Just pull up your damn pants!
    - ubernostrum 11y ago
      I'm grossed out at the sight of a crack 99.99% of the time what people actually mean by this is "I'm grossed out by seeing this on someone I find sexually unattractive". You may want to think through the actual consequences of trying to articulate that into a policy -- it goes to some genuinely (pun intended) ugly places.

arcatek 11y ago

The author didn't really went into detail. This tournament was the biggest one in history, but not just for Vegas alone. WotC actually set up three tournaments in three cities accross the world (Vegas, Utrecht, Chiba), the same day. Utrecht and Chiba had around 4,000 players each, and Vegas 11,000. Utrecht was really well organized. It was the first 'pro' tournament I was attending, and everything went quite smoothly. I strongly advise you to do it if you have a chance (especially during those kind of monstruous events, which may be a bit less pro-oriented than usual).

ubernostrum 11y ago
The main event(s) at Vegas (since it split to two parallel GPs, and then each of those split into multiple sub-events which merged for day two) officially had around 8,000 players prior to drops. So the weekend saw about 16,000 players in the various GPs themselves, though of course there were more people total when side events and spectators/traders/etc. are counted.

ericcholis 11y ago

Magic continues to amaze me, it has some serious staying power. It also seems to still be able to attract young players. Analog success in a digital age.