With all of the uncertainty I wanted to see if a company will be running Magic events this year.
I keep hearing from people that there will be such a small event offering that I question if it’s even worth going this year.
Considering Gen-Con usually has so much going on that you only see about 5% of it, I think this is going to be a cannot-miss year, personally, where you might be able to see like 20% of the happenings instead!
Whoever you are talking to is probably picturing the number of events being held at like a local convention when it will be more like the number of events at a national convention 20 years ago, I imagine.
Given that a Magic set is due to be released the weekend of Gencon, I'm certainly hoping WOTC intends to do something there, assuming they have a presence at the Con (I'm aware it has not been as strong recently as it used to be, and that's before getting into a Covidian era).
Fingers crossed that it's at least on the radar, and that the numbers keep improving (shots in arms, cases/hospitalizations/deaths keep falling) to a degree that we can worry about having enough mana available more than whether or not someone is properly double masked or whatever (it's an off the cuff example).
I messaged Pastimes from the email on their website to see if they respond. MTG at Gencon is make or break for me. I've never been, but I'm such a huge MTG fan that I'd go just for those events and check out the con in my free time.
Response from Pastimes: "We are in early talks with both Wizards and Gen Con to see what can happen safely at Gen Con for Magic. It's currently too early to tell one way or another but if you keep track of our Facebook and web pages we will make an announcement there once we know!"
For what it's worth, in 2019, I never had a problem finding pickup games for the Commander format. I suspect there will be plenty of opportunities for casual play in MtG.
Pastimes is still working on it, but no confirmation yet. I'm optimistic MTG is going to happen!
Yes there is going to be MTG this year. I'm the T.O. for Gencon Old School MTG tournament. This would be our 6th year of running the tournament. I'm limiting the event to 16 players due to space this year. For 2022 we are looking to expand the tournament to 64.
https://www.gencon.com/forums/9-event-organizers-gms/topics/16468-mtg-old-school
Cheers, Arneson
Bring some decks of various formats to GenCon. It is not all about formal play and situations. Sit there with a deck out and people will ask to join your game. Some of the best games I have had were in the hallways of the Indy Convention Center.
For what it's worth Pastimes made a post on Facebook saying that they are in fact hosting events, including prerelease stuff. FB link: https://www.facebook.com/pastimes
I wish someone else other than Pastimes was running the MTG events. They scammed me out of one of their qualifier tournaments years back.