#gpphx

Hey everyone,

Since the 2018 Grand Prix announcement, a couple of things have shifted behind the scenes that have necessitated some changes.

 Grand Prix Providence, which was slated to take place July 6-8, will be moving to August 17-19, 2018. The format for the main event will be shifted from Modern to Standard, matching the format of Grand Prix Los Angeles, which also takes place that weekend. GP Providence will remain in the Rhode Island Convention Center.

In order to maintain the same format spread as previously announced, we will be changing the format of the main event for Grand Prix Phoenix—which takes place March 16-18—from Standard to Modern.

 We are in the process of updating the schedule in the previously announced article and on the web site.

  For more information on specific Grand Prix as they get closer, head over to

cfbevents.com

The End of Ixalan Draft?

This weekend, the Pro Tour descends on my neck of the woods. Albuquerque, New Mexico is as close as a Pro Tour can come to Denver without being in Denver—I can’t be the only person who wants to see that—as the ABQ is about five hours south on the highway. I get to watch the Pro Tour in my own time zone! Alas, I should be playing it instead. This is the second Pro Tour this year where I lost a…

       As I have stated I live deep in the mountains in Colorado with out even a LGS. I was lucky enough to travel 14 hours by car to GPPHX for my first ever Grand Prix. I played all rounds on the first day but the last one, drawing on four (games went to time agains esper control) losing two rounds and winning two. Now I didn't win one until round four so I spent the entirety of the day in the deep end of the losers tables. I had some really fun games against some really great opponents and learned a lot about my jund monsters deck. I lost one match to a kid no older than 12 who was running a black devo deck splashed red. He played well and was very excited to get the round win and seeing that in him was worth it to me. That brings me to my point though, about our perpetually growing community that spans many ages, races, sex, religions, cultural beliefs and many, many other differences and similarities.

       The community that plays magic is imperative to the continued excellence and availability of the product. It is important for all of us to make the gaming environment an exceptional one by being helpful, kind, respectful and above all ACCEPTING. There is never a good reason to discriminate against anyone for any reason especially when we all belong to the incredible brother/sisterhood of Magic: the Gathering. If we all want magic to be around so we can one day play with our children we need to allow the younger generations to fall in love with all aspects of Magic in the same way that we did. This is our community and it belongs to us, if we want it around indefinitely we need to take care of it.

       The gaming environment is such a crucial part of the experience for everyone who plays Magic. Weather your playing on your kitchen table or as a featured match at a grand prix if your not having fun, your probably not going to keep playing. It is possible to have more fun losing than you did winning, and the difference is going to be the environment that is made by you and your opponent. When you are amicable and friendly and fighting tooth and nail for 50 minutes of a round and barley lose on the last turn that can be an incredibly fun experience that only makes you excited for the next round. Conversely, you can win and your attitude or your opponents can be so sour that it is not fun for either players. Its never helping anyone by being a poor winner or a sore looser. The worst way our gaming environment is compromised is by discrimination, whatever the basis for it is. We each are responsible for upholding our gaming environment to the standards we would wish to play in. Turning a blind eye to blatant disruption of that can be as devastating as hurting it your self. This is not the transit system, but if you see something say something.

       When players discriminate against other players for any reason they are not only damaging our current gaming environment and potentially its future, but they are also being detrimental to the players themselves. It is unfair to look at any player as anything other than a planeswalker because inside of the context of the game that is all they are. Female, foreign and very young players are all very important to our entire community and there are many of them playing at the highest level. Those are not the only reasons for discrimination and no reason is ever okay by anyone. When someone acts in that manner they also do not know how they could be permanently and severely damaging the other person. A lot of the time you will no nothing about your opponent other than their name and you won't know how what your saying could affect them. Discrimation is not only wrong in our gaming community but also in the world and life. There is never a good reason to discriminate against anybody and nobody would like to be discriminated against.

       We all need to take part in the development of younger players if we want to keep Magic around for the long term. Unfortunatly, at GPPHX there were middle aged players loudly and crudely discriminating against players by age. As an adult of the world i believe we should know better than to do such things, especially to children. Though Magic is a game of ego's and losing to an 8 year old may crush yours, it is not okay to take it out on them. They are our future and we should feel excitement and pride in the younger generations achievements and accomplishments. It doesn't just make it worse for the youngsters being discriminated against either, seeing humans act that way over a game to children sickened me and truly ruined my gaming environment. We cannot make our younger counter parts feel unaccepted, we need to bring them into the fold and develop them.