Hey Cort, This is Eugene Innocent Owner of Play N Trade here in Walpole. The reason that 1st and 2nd place are store credit is due to the fact the people in charge of the tournament made up the prizes before i could approve of them. In fact the people who did this tournament without my consent no longer work here at all. So I apologize for the lack of cool prizes. This is the last tournament Play N Trade Walpole will be running where the first prize is store credit. But to make up for it instead of making a 3rd prize I put up a raffle for an ipod that everyone who enters has a chance of winning. I have been busy trying to get ready for Play N Trade Walpole reGrand Opening and after April you will not see lame prizes for tournaments. So if the winner don't find anything they want all they need to do is wait a month before Play N Trade Walpole is fully stocked and ready to go. So I hope people understand my position and I understand the concerns and disappointment.
-Eugene Innocent
Play N Trade Walpole
This is Tom now just saying that sign-ups will stop at 12pm/Afternoon instead of 11am. The tourney will start at 12:15/12:30 the latest
It is most appreciated that you would contact the players directly. I don't have a problem with the prizes, but there were a few rules about the Walpole events in the past that were rather problematic. Please understand that I'm not trying to complain, and I did enjoy the prior events, but since you seem quite reasonable, I would like to bring the issues up so that they could possibly be remedied. If these issues are resolved, I would predict that more players would enter the events in the future and everyone would have an even better time.
The first issue was that friendlies (matches players have for fun outside of tournament play) were not allowed before or during the event. I understand why friendlies might not be allowed during the opening rounds when all the tv's should be used for tournament matches, but before the event begins I don't really see the harm in allowing the players to get some practice in. I know Tom said they would be allowed this time, but knowing we will have the owners permission would certainly be helpful. Part of the enjoyment of a tournament is knowing you can play a large number of matches rather than only 5 or 6 tournament matches, and I guarantee it would increase the amount of players who would be interested in attending.
The second issue is that players were not allowed to watch other matches and had to wait outside the store. Since space is an issue, this rule makes sense to a certain extent, but if only a minimal amount of players are watching the matches, then it wouldn't really be a problem. If it does become an issue and too many players want to watch, then I suppose players will have to wait outside, but allowing even a small amount of spectators would be very nice.
The last issue (and this one is very easy to solve) was bracket problems. I believe that Tom has a program called bracket maker. The program saves a huge amount of time and hassle. You simply have to enter the players names into the program, and the bracket is instantly generated for you. All you have to do is click on the winner or loser, and they are automatically moved to the winner and loser bracket. It would save at least a half hour of time. If Tom dosen't have the program, I could bring a copy with me, but it would make the event much easier to run for all of the PlayNTrade employees.
I'm sure the other players will agree with me on these points, and they would surely make the event even more enjoyable for everyone.