After going through the discussion of the NJ State possibilities, I came up with an idea for a new tournament level. This would be "Con Level" events. The factor that makes a tournament fit this level is that it is being held at a gaming con. The requirements of this level:
1) Every event is held as part of the con offerings.
2) The number of categories is not set, but can vary due to the length or size of the con. A minimum number of categories may be required.
3) CHANGE: Unlike other tournament levels, the same category can be offered more than once. (So you could have a Friday T12P and a separate Saturday T12P, for example.) This allows players to pick an event, but not force them into a single time slot on the con schedule.
4) A player can still only get one promo card for the tournament, no matter how many events they play.
5) The promo should be a higher level one, such as a State level promo. (A lot of con events are held as districts,but I think a better offering would help offset some of the other costs to the players. Also, unlike a current State level, only one promo is given, not a set.)
6) A little departure from normal practice here: A category winner in Open Deck categories would get a Regional promo, rather than an event winner promo. Closed deck categories still get the regular event winner promo. (If you think I'm being biased here, I'm actually more likely to play competitively in Closed categories.) This encourages attendance at con events, without giving away the store.
7) A con event effectively runs outside the regular tournament schema, and doesn't affect the regular offerings of district, state, and regional tournaments.
8 ) The cost factor would be up to Cactus. There is probably a slight additional cost for the higher level promos, offset by not giving a full set of State promos. (Although it might be nice to offer some choice to players, but that's a Cactus decision.) I would think the current charge for district level might be appropriate, since one of the goals of holding a con level event is to get Redemption some visibility in gamer-intensive settings. The prize level offered may be linked to this.
9) RNRS points awarded at a con level event could be either district or state level. I'm not terribly concerned about RNRS myself (OK, I was in 2010, but that was a fluke), so finding the balance between points offered and the number of slots available to fill with points I leave to others. (If Cactus wanted to encourage players to attend cons, it could even become a new RNRS slot, between distrcit and state, with a limit of 1 per year, but that may skew toward players who can afford to attend and have cons nearby.) If the same category is offered more than once, only one could be counted toward whatever RNRS points are offered.
A con level event becomes a cross between a tournament and a promotional event for Redemption. As far as prizes and points, I'm thinking running it as a "district slot" event, but with "State slot" promos and special prize promos to encourage play, might possibly work.
Of course, this would all be up to Cactus; I'm just offering the suggestion.
Thoughts?
