Good afternoon Planeswalkers!
Some of you may remember a while back that we had cancelled Standard Showdowns on Mondays, due to a lack of attendance. We've spoken to a few members of the community and have worked together with management to try and find a compromise that would allow Standard to come back to GameKnight Games.
And it just so happens we were able to find a spot on Saturday evenings to hold our event! Starting August 31st, we'll be hosting a weekly Standard Showdown every* Saturday at 6 PM.
Another chance we're looking at is to make Standard Showdown more competitive with more aggressive prizing. Though Standard is meant to be the onboard format into 60-card constructed events where we'd like to see new players come out, we also recognize the importance of providing an entry level Organized Play event so new players can get used to less casual environments. To help ensure that, we're looking at the following Prizing Structure:
- Each Round win (A round being a set of Best of 3 Matches) will net the winner a GameKnight Voucher — valued at $6 towards sealed product or singles.
- Any players that place 3-0 will receive an Ossification Cowboy Bebop Promo (while supplies last)
- To ensure that no one leaves with nothing, any players that do not get any Vouchers will receive a Promo Pack from a Standard legal set, meaning if you score 0-3, you're still going home with something for participating!
We would like players to have a chance to practice their decks, to figure out what works and what doesn't, and to become familiar with the local meta before jumping into larger events like the Store Championships. With the change to have Standard on Saturdays, we're hoping that the more agreeable timeslot will see an increase in attendance from the player base.
I realize that there's a bit of an elephant in the room with regards to Standard, as we had only just cancelled it at the end of March. The reaction from the community was mixed when we initially broke the news, but since then it has become clear that there's still a desire to play the format. It was not an easy decision then to cancel weekly OP, and it was an agonizing conversation that myself and management had for weeks before the decision was made.
In observing our other Organized Play events for other games, we've come to realize that the weekday timeslot may have been the largest issue for Standard. 6:30 PM on a Monday can be pretty late for some people, and I know myself that I'm pretty bushed after a Monday shift, to say nothing of navigating traffic to get to the store on time for your event. 6 PM on a Saturday should prove to be easier for players to attend.
We recognize that there may be some growing pains with Standard and building a community after we just shuttered the previous one so recently. We will be striving to make sure that we can keep Standard going as long as there is an interest in the format.
Any feedback with regards to this announcement, or about any of our weekly Organized Play, can be sent to tcg@gameknight.ca. We would love to hear from the community what you think of this news.
Cheers,
Boregard
TCG Department Lead
* Please be aware that while we would like to have Standard every Saturday, there will inevitably be weeks where Standard will be cancelled for various reasons. Currently on our calendar, Sept. 14th will not have a Standard event, due to the Store Championship, and Sept. 21st will not have a Standard event, due to the Duskmourn Prerelease happening that weekend. We will strive to give as much notice as possible with regards to cancellations, but we do not expect frequent disruptions to Organized Play events to become the norm.
