Numot Gaming wants everyone to know that our good friend Reuben Bresler has prepared what we hope will be an amazing Magic event. For everyone that isn’t attending there will be a live stream of both the Legacy and Vintage tournaments! Numot Gaming continually looking to find ways to support organizations that want to actively stream their magic events and to that end we asked Reuben to share with you what EE4 is all about.
Roderick @ Numot Gaming
By Reuben Bresler
Eternal Extravaganza 4 is June 18-19, 2016, and Tales of Adventure is working hard to make the experience of all of the players and the viewers at home as unique and enjoyable as possible.
Recently, Hasbro held its shareholders meeting where Magic: The Gathering was touted as having “top 5 ESports brand” potential. While Magic may have that potential, it has been difficult to bridge the gap to become an actual top 5 ESport. This is partially because Magic by its nature is a difficult game to quickly understand if you’re tuning in mid-game or if you are new to Magic. To that end, Tales of Adventure is going to great strides to improve the Magic viewer experience. Some of the ideas we want to implement are going to be in place for EE4, some will come at future events. Tales of Adventure is working hard to make Eternal Extravaganza 4 have the best viewer experience possible.
A lot of articles, videos, social media posts, and podcasts have come out in the last several weeks and months concerning Magic coverage: what is good, what is bad, what needs to be changed, and what should remain. Similar articles come out regularly concerning the pros and cons of the tournament experience as a player. As someone primarily known in the Magic community for my history of live Magic content but also helped coordinate many Magic tournaments, I’ve been involved in one way or another in these discussions. I’ve done some pretty out-there things, like flying to Seattle in the middle of the night to report on the 2016 Sunday Super Series, to try to move the needle and get the ball rolling on some of the things I believe need attention. And it can be frustrating to not be able to change the pieces that I feel need to be changed, and utilize the tools that I feel are being underutilized. To learn from all of the successes and mistakes of those who have brought Magic to where it is today.
I was hired by Tales of Adventure, a large Tournament Organizer and GP Vendor in April. Together, we get to put on a show on June 18-19, 2016, at Eternal Extravaganza 4 that we think will solve a lot of these issues. #EE4mtg is sure to be a highlight of the year for Legacy, Vintage, and Modern, and Tales of Adventure is very excited to be adding a lot of new features for this fourth installment.
If you aren’t familiar with us yet, allow me to introduce ourselves: Tales of Adventure is a company owned by Michael Caffrey, who has transformed his comics and gaming store in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, from a start-up into one of the largest secondary market retailers of Magic cards in less than three years. You’ve likely seen the Tales of Adventure booth at a Grand Prix you’ve attended (we’re at all but 3 North American GPs this year).
People love the older formats, but there just aren’t as many Legacy, Modern, and Vintage tournaments around as many would like there to be to either watch or play. Tales of Adventure is specifically going to be focusing on Legacy, Vintage, and Modern, presenting more opportunities for those fans of those three formats to play and to watch.
The first step towards that goal is to make Eternal Extravaganza 4 spectacular, removing some of the parts that can make any Magic tournament a bad experience. To that end we’re introducing some unique features to make the tournament experience better for all involved.
Nobody wants to go to a small tournament. We’re making all three of our Main Events huge, prestigious, and memorable. EE4 will begin with our Legacy Main Event on Saturday June 18. This event will feature over $15,000 in prizes including $3,000 in prizes to first place and the honor of earning the title of “Eternal Extravaganza 4 Legacy Main Event Champion.” Then on Sunday, the double threat of our Vintage and Modern $10,000 Main Events will crown two more champions, with the Vintage winner becoming the proud new owner of a Black Lotus and the Modern champion earning themselves $2,000 in prizes in addition to both of those players earning the title “Eternal Extravaganza 4 Main Event champion.”
One thing that can ruin a tournament experience is missing out on prize as a result of tiebreakers, so one of the big changes we’ve instituted is that we will be paying out prizes based on final record and not solely on placing for our three Main Events. For Legacy, that means that every player that finished the event with a X-3 record or better will earn prize, and players who finish X-2 or better in either Vintage or Modern will also receive prizes. Tiebreakers suck, but with this payout method we home to soften the blow. If a player misses Top 8 at X-1-1, they don’t need to worry, we’re still paying out the 8th place prize to them too!
There’s no way to be prestigious and memorable without video coverage, so as the flagship event for Tales of Adventure we’re bringing Eternal Extravaganza live to the Magic viewing audience for the first time. I’m excited to get back behind the mic, broadcasting the game I love to the masses and anchoring coverage of both Legacy and Vintage. I’m even more pleased to be joined in the booth by a very good friend and former roommate of mine, who just so happens to also be one of the best Legacy players in the world: Brian Braun-Duin. It helps when you have an expert in the booth, and when that expert just so happens to have won the largest Legacy Grand Prix of all time (Grand Prix New Jersey) then all the better. Eternal Extravaganza will feature live, no repeat coverage on Twitch.tv/TalesofAdventure all weekend. From Round 1 at 10:15 until a champion is crowned, look forward to enjoying BBD and I in the booth, and excellent between round content to keep you entertained all weekend long!
A difficult location can make any good tournament miserable. The location for Eternal Extravaganza 4 will be Allentown, Pennsylvania, which has plenty of affordable food and beverage options,hotel options and free parking. The venue is located off Interstate 78, and is a location ideal for those on the East Coast as it’s within a few hours of New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. As the Northeast is one of the hubs of Eternal Magic, we’re hoping for a big turnout.
The new ideas don’t stop there, as we’ve been working hard for the last few months to make #EE4mtg the best event it can be. Just like our belief that coverage should be non-stop and non-repeat, we believe you should be able to play Magic all day long as well! We will be offering some unique side events, including Eternal Masters 8-Person events, 4-Round Challenges in all three Eternal formats, and the premier of our exclusive Heads-Up Battle Queues, which are 2-person non-sanctioned winner-take-all Magic tournaments available in any, and we do mean any, Magic format. If you’re looking to play Invasion Block Constructed, or think you’re the best Caw Blade mirror player ever, settle the score at Tales of Adventure’s heads up queues.
Another frustrating part of any Magic tournament is the payout procedure. Tales of Adventure is making strides in that department as well, with quick and easy payouts with our new store credit chip system. This new system will not only cut down on wait time at the end of an event, but will allow players to much more easily transform their store credit into cards.
There are a lot more secrets that I can’t share just yet, but I promise you that in addition to all of the goodies I’ve written about above we’re not done yet. For all of the latest news and information, please check out EEMagic.com.
I am writing this article for NumotGaming partially as an advertisement for Eternal Extravaganza and Tales of Adventure, but truth be told I’m also writing because I am truly excited both for the opportunity and to see what the end result looks like. And I hope you all are as well, because I truly think that we have put together an event that will not only make the players excited but also the viewers at home.
So mark your calendars folks, because on June 18-19 Eternal Extravaganza 4 is coming to Allentown, Pennsylvania, and to Twitch.tv/TalesofAdventure. Visit EEMagic.com for more. See you there!
Reuben Bresler
@MoxReuby
