PLAYING FOR FUN OR PLAYING FOR PRIZE OR PLAYING TO WIN?
By reading this you must be thinking that you are a Magic player who confident enough for attending your local tournament event. You think you are good enough for beating all the players there, or maybe you are just coming for fun. While some says they can't live without Magic, some says they just play Magic depends on their moods, somehow it reminds me with Fritz statement "Magic for life or life for Magic?" So what’s your intention now?
It doesn't matter what your intention is, but when it comes to the tournament, it comes to the question “Will you go for prize or will you go for winning or will you just want to be filler?” I will give you description for the differences between these three.
First just look at FNM, the big differences between FNM in Jakarta and FNM in United State is we are more concerned about the ‘foil card’ while they just come for their hobby and fun. In my opinion, nothing is right or wrong, in FNM you can come bringing your ‘proto-type’ deck (which I recommend so much) or you can just take one of the ‘net-deck’ and play testing it. But the one that concern me so much is the misunderstanding thinking about how some players play at FNM. They are really concerned about those “foil cards” and they do whatever it takes to get the prize, even with cheating. I felt troubled when heard about bribing, swapping cards, fake booster and all the cheating in FNM, while this event should give fun for all the participants. FNM should be a place for your intention to play for fun.
Second look at the tournament; take major tournament for this example. If you join and still thinking you are playing in FNM, just go ahead and make someone’s day. They still want to beat you and get your point though. With this intention you won’t be bothered if you got either 18 points or zero point in 6 round Swiss pair system. We will always welcome your intention for playing for fun in major tournament. ^^
Mostly all the participants will play for prize or play for wining, let’s see the differences; player who concerned about the prize will see the prize first and the registration fee while who concerned about wining will see the tournament format first either type 2 or draft. Player who playing for prize sometimes won’t participate if the prize is small enough even with high K-value, and the most important thing these players are usually tempted with any kind of cheating methods to win and earn points, as a prove look back at last GPT Hawaii; in drafting the judges caught almost 100 participants who did cheating by swapping cards. The reason, you asked? Simple, the prize is huge money. They more likely face weak opponents than a good one. On the conclusion, is this intention a bad one? I think not, as long as they are not doing any cheating methods.
For the player who seek wining, they usually happier to face worthy opponent, they more concerned to maximize their skill and usually go for points. The bad side for this intention, in my opinion, is the pressure level which is the highest. They will play for a real serious one and make their best effort to make zero mistakes. These players are usually seen in National or PTQ.
Is it for prize, winning, or just fun??
For the summary, I can conclude:
PLAYING FOR FUN
- Playing with proto type deck or fun deck
- Not so concerned about winning the match
- More concerned about nice relationship with all players
- Like to buy cards and colleting all series
- FNM is the best place for this kind of intention
PLAYING FOR PRIZE
- Playing with strong deck or net deck
- Getting most prizes is the main goal
- More concerned about winning the tournaments
- More tempted to illegal action such as bribery and cheating
- Any kind of tourney with good prize winning is the place where we can find this intention
PLAYING FOR WINNING
- Playing with winning net-deck or deck which has been approved by a lot play testing
- Beating opponents in every round is the main goal
- Usually concerned about points or just defeating every opponents
- Has the highest stress level and pressure, no mistakes allowed if possible
- Tournament like Major or National is the place for this intention
Let me tell you something, when I am going for casual playing my intention always playing for fun, unless they want a serious deck testing. Before when I started to play seriously in tournament, I had intention for prize for every tournament I attended. In my experiences, I really admitted there were a lot temptation of cheating such bribery and cheating. Such temptations troubled me much indirectly, until one day Vic told me about his intention. He really likes to have a worthy opponent in the tournament, because he just wants to play and win. It is useless for a Magic player which accepts such bribery after he or she spent their time for their deck as Vic said to me. Gladly I heard his intention, and my intention changed by his words.
Over all, is playing for prize a bad intention? Not at all, only if the players follow the temptation which are bad. But I suggest you to start playing with fun in FNM or casual playing and go with winning intention in major tourney. Why? Simple, you want to have fun in magic and be competitive enough. Don’t play for prize yet, at least for now, until we can conduct our own Pro Tour in Indonesia.
May this article inspire you more or less…….
Copyright 2006 by ANCOLL
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