All,

Well it has been a hectic October for me and as we zoom into November
I thought that I would send out an e-mail containing details of my
three events that are happening over a two week period. They are:

[1] PTQ San Diego at Birmingham on Saturday the 14th of November 2009.

[2] Big Bag Draft at Stafford on Sunday the 22nd of November 2009.

[3] Dragonmeet in London on Saturday the 28th of November 2009.

I have cut the information up into sections so that you can find what
you are looking for easily.

Hope to see you at an event soon,

Steve


[1] BIRMINGHAM PRO TOUR QUALIFIER – SAN DIEGO – SATURDAY THE 14th OF
NOVEMBER 2009

As promised, here are the full event details for my PTQ event in
Birmingham.

Event notes:

[1] Please note: We are in the 5th floor rooms for this event rather
than the ground floor suite. Please use the lifts in the reception
area.

[2] Pre-registration places for this event are limited to 90 players
so please make sure that you pre-register to guarantee your place. Pre-
registration for the event ends on THURSDAY THE 12th OF NOVEMBER at
17:30. I already have over 30 places pre-booked so make sure you
reserve your place in the event. I may be able to offer additional
places in the event as tables are arranged. These will be allocate don
a ‘first come first served’ basis from a list of waiting players. Be
sure to sign up on this list when you get to the event if you didn’t
pre-register or pre-registration was full.

[3] We will be using card pool and deck registration as we do at all
limited format events. Please bring pens with you.

[4] Price for admission is £25.00 for two reasons. Firstly, it falls
in line with Wizards of the Coast pricing guidelines and secondly
because the product given to each player to use on the day is six
Zendikar boosters.

[5] The top 8 single elimination playoff will be determined by a
Zendikar booster draft.

I look forward to seeing you at the event.

Steve

BIRMINGHAM PRO TOUR QUALIFIER – SAN DIEGO – SATURDAY THE 14th OF
NOVEMBER 2009

VENUE: Quality Hotel Birmingham, 166 Hagley Road, Birmingham, West
Midlands, England B16 9NZ

The venue is probably only about 15 minutes from the city centre
easily accessible from New Street Station. Road links are very good
from the M6 and the M5 as you will see on the map.
If you are travelling by car, there is parking for over a hundred cars
but most of the spaces are at the back of the hotel. Drive towards the
red barrier at the right hand side of the venue and it will
automatically open. All you need to do when leaving is pick up a
parking token from the hotel reception. Parking is free if you have
used the hotel facilities, so there will be no parking charge for
players attending the event.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT: According to locals, as far as trains are concerned,
it's quicker to go to Five Ways station if possible, walk to the Five
Ways shopping centre and then just walk down Hagley Road. From New
Street Station the 128 and the 129 buses from Corporation Street (1
min walk from New Street) go down the Hagley Road (and I'm sure there
must be others too). If you are travelling by train and you are
running late I'd suggest just getting a taxi to the venue. I suspect
that it is less than a 10 minute drive from New Street Station.

Website: http://www.quality-hotels-birmingham.com/

Directions: These are available from the Hotel's website:
http://www.quality-hotels-birmingham.com/details/GB605%20large%20map.jpg

START TIME: Enrolment from 9:30am till 10:30am. Card pool registration
will start at about 10:45am.

FORMAT: The format for the tournament is DCITM-sanctioned extended
constructed.

Rules Enforcement Level: Competitive

ENTRY FEE: £25.00 for main event

PRIZES: As per Wizards of the Coast premier event prize structure.

SIDE EVENTS: Booster Draft side events available all day long.

ENTRY FEE:  £10.00 for Booster Drafts (3 round Swiss event, 12
Boosters as prizes split 5/3/2/2)

TO PRE-REGISTER FOR AN EVENT:

Send an e-mail to this address: stephen DOT avann AT ntlworld DOT com
with your FULL NAME and DCI NUMBER (If you have one) BEFORE 5:30PM on
the THURSDAY NIGHT before the event, as this is the last time that I
will check my e-mail before the tournament. Alternatively I can be
contacted on my mobile from 6:30pm until 10pm on the following number:
07989201808. Please don't try to phone me before 6:30pm as I will be
busy.



[2] STAFFORD BIG BAG DRAFT SUNDAY 22nd OF NOVEMBER 2009

Do you have what it takes to be a BBD Champion?

Well, the Big Bag Draft for 2008 was great and everyone seemed to
really enjoy the event. The BBD seems to be one of the most
anticipated events of the calendar so it was great to see so many of
my regular players in attendance. We used boosters from over FOURTY
different Magic expansions to draft and when the dust had settled
after 6 rounds of Swiss, Baljeet Samra won the trophy. Please note
that the BBD is an unsanctioned event as it is an unusual format and
therefore does not affect DCI rankings.

Here is a brief explanation of the way the BBD format works:

The BBD works like this. All the players in the event sit in one huge
circle and they will all pass left/right/left as in a normal draft,
except that there may be 20 or more draft players in this circle so
you probably won’t see the same booster twice as it will run out of
cards after 15 players which is probably long before it has gone all
the way around the circle of players. Also, the boosters are chosen at
random out of the Big Bag by each player so you may end up drafting
from Ice Age or Mirrodin or 9th Edition or Invasion or Masques or
Torment or 7th Edition or Kamigawa or Shards of Alara or Time
Spiral.... well, you get the idea. This is a truly fun and interesting
format but is obviously unsanctioned so that it doesn’t affect your
rankings. Once everyone has finished drafting, we all deck construct
like a normal draft and then we play Swiss rounds like a normal large
tournament until we have a winner. There is a trophy for the Champion
as usual, so come along and earn some silverware for your
mantelpiece!!!! The bragging rights potential alone is enormous….

STAFFORD BIG BAG DRAFT SUNDAY 22nd OF NOVEMBER 2009

Event notes:

[1] This event is limited to 40 players so please make sure that you
pre-register to guarantee your place. BBD veterans are already e-
mailing to reserve their space.

[2] Standard or extended side events can be put on if enough players
wish to participate. Please bring standard decks with you if you want
to take part and ask about a sign-up sheet on the day of the event.

[3] I also have an exceedingly rare copy of From the Vault: Exiled to
give away to the winner of the event. If rare, shiny, exile-y goodness
isn’t your cup of tea you could always e-bay it!

[4] I will be doing a grab bag too.

[5] The Big Bag Draft trophy 2009 will be won. Bragging rights
throughout 2010 on offer.

[6] Bounties available on the heads of Peter Stephenson, Nigel Garrett
and Mr Bye.


VENUE: Oddfellows Hall, Greengate Street, Stafford, ST16 2HP

START TIME: Enrolment from 9:30am till 10:30am. The draft will start
at about 10:45am.

FORMAT: The format for the main event is Big Bag Draft

Rules Enforcement Level: Casual

ENTRY FEE: £12.00 for main event

PRIZES: The prize pool will be dependant on the number of players
participating.

I also have a Big Bag Draft Champion 2009 trophy for the winner to
take home.

Did I mention I’m giving away a copy of From the Vault: Exiled to the
winner too?

Many other prizes.


[3] DRAGONMEET IN LONDON ON SATURDAY THE 28th OF NOVEMBER 2009.

I attended Dragonmeet last year and really enjoyed it. It is quite a
busy one day event that has a large trade hall and plenty of
opportunities to try new games out. For further details see:

http://dragonmeet.co.uk/

Hope to see you there,

Steve