GPs Return Isn't What You Actually Want l Unsleeved Podcast #47 l Magic: The Gathering Podcast MTG 

Cedrics take might be reasonable for those in the US. For everyone else in the world, the one gp we got a year in our country was absolutely amazing

it's combo for the sake of combo, not control for the sake of control

I feel like after channel fireball took them over the price exploded as well. I used to go to a ton of GPs along the east coast for years from like 2009-2015, and it was usually $60-80 entry and you got free merch like a souvenir playmat or sleeves for signing up, so you still got something if you scrubbed out. Towards the end it was like $100 with no playmat, or you could pay VIP $150 for a playmat and sleeves addon. That ruined the cost benefit for the main event for me. Especially when you consider travel costs and hotel and food etc. They basically doubled in price and you got less or no merch.

I knew that 70k tournament happened, however it happened at the same time as the Pro Tour, so there's no chance I remember anything from that tournament

The massive thing with GP's was always that there were way too many in specific areas and way too few in the rest of the world. We went to literally every GP that was reasonably far away with our playgroup, which meant it was maybe once a year if we were lucky, very rarely there was two. (and it was always different formats between the two) I don't think nothing is holding GP back except price. If you look at any GP-like event now, you pay 30-40 Euros to even enter the venue and then you have nothing. You still need to pay a hefty amount for side events, or another 90-140 Euros to participate in the main event. If we add travel expenses, food (which is very expensive at and around these events as well) and maybe going out for drinks in the evening, you are paying a small fortune for the entire thing. Then I'm even assuming you are not also staying two nights near the event and are able to travel home, which would otherwise add another 300+ euros to the total. At the time GP's were still a great thing, you paid maybe 50-75 Euros, that gave you entrance to the main event, a promo, a playmat and one or two days of excellent magic against players from around the world and I even felt that was a very exorbitant spending of my money. Now you might be lucky to see a player that you know, let alone face off against international players more than actual local ones. The whole scene has collapsed and the price outscaled it's worth. It is very hard to justify spending a few hundred Euro's for a weekend playing some magic, when the competition isn't as fierce, the prize money lackluster and the actual amount of money you would have to spend, could buy you a week's vacation instead.

Anu won a Brainstorm but I only know that because he himself tweeted it

The loss of the pro player club ended the reason for people to grind GPs. When pro points went away, that was around the time I saw attendance numbers drop. I can’t say attendance was 100% tied to this, but at the same time SCG events were getting larger main event numbers. That said, main events might have been getting 400 players, but sides were packed. At GP Portland 2019 for example we had 300 players in the main, and the rest of the hall was packed with players. This was the weekend after Christmas.

going to 1 or 2 gps a year rules but most people don’t fly to gps so the fewer there are the less people get to experience it. the importance of each one is basically inversely proportional to the average players experience

Unsleeved is on Spotify? I'll have to check it out?

Small nitpick: the plural of Grand Prix isn't Grand Prixs, but Grands Prix.

yes

This is interesting, I didn't catch at the time the CFB was contracted through WotC to hold events. It is interesting that the Boom in events starting around 2015 very quickly fizzled because by 2017, the trend in all organized play events attendance was down.

Grand Prix are back. Except they are in Flesh and Blood.

Once they ended the DCI the GP's were not as fun anymore

I like how disheveled Patrick looks in the thumbnail.

wotc's switch to focusing on commander over competitive play has helped the game explode in popularity which is good for everyone. but i do miss watching pro mtg every weekend and learning what the top strategies were

MTG is dead