Why You Should Play Local Tournaments

And Why I Don't

I'm fortunate to have developed an international community of friends because of trading card games. One of the true joys of my life is getting to connect with friends from all over the globe. From Canada, to various European countries, all the way to the foreign wastelands that are New Jersey and Louisiana, I've been lucky to meet all sorts of people and have meaningful relationships with them.

This is virtually all upside. I have access to excellent competitive playtesting groups, should I want to participate in them, and I feel like I have a local game store anywhere in world.

Why I don't play local events

Despite my international community, I really struggle at participating in my own local game store.¹ Don't get me wrong, my local game store is full of excellent folks who I'm extremely lucky to know. Teage, for example, is the patriarch of my local game store, and my life is immeasurably better for knowing him. You should go read Teage's Opossum Paper if you haven't already. It's a great example of my local game store's value.

If my LGS is so awesome, why do I struggle to participate in that community? Well, mostly because I'm terrible at scheduling things. I absolutely loathe doing anything after work, and I struggle to leave my house on the weekend. I don't mean this in the agoraphobic sense, but rather a struggle with time management.² Whenever I do go to my LGS, I have a tremendous time. Relationships there are the good kind where, even if you don't see someone for a couple of months, you pick right back up where you left off.

I also struggle with anything short of competitive play. That is to say, recreational play annoys me. Now, I realize how egotistical that sounds, and I absolutely don't mean it that way. I'll be the first to tell anyone that I'm trash at card games and hardly a competitive tier player. My problem comes down to expectations. When a player plays in local play at an LGS, they have a variety of reasons for doing so. Some use it as an excuse to get out of the house and muck around, some use it is an opportunity to practice for a tournament, and others use it as a way to casually engage in a game they've picked up some pieces to.

The vast difference between these players and the way they engage with the game stresses me out. Even when handled with perfect empathy, a disagreement over expectations can be disasterous. The player looking to sling some cardboard just to get away for a bit really isn't looking to play with a person testing for a major event. What they want is diametrically opposed. When they play, one of them (or maybe both) will leave frustrated. Either the recreational player is frustrated at the “try-hardness” of the competitive player, or the competitive player feels like they didn't get in “good reps”.

Regulars at an LGS shoulder some responsibility in making sure a recreational player has a good time. After all, that's what building a good community is about. I'm just not the guy for that. I struggle to get past the expectation barrier. It stresses me out to manage what I want out of a game (to play it technically correct and hold everyone to the rules) with making sure my opponent is having a good time. I tend to lean more in favor of making sure my opponent is vibing, and sometimes that leads me to less of a good time.

The reason I like competitive play is because the expectation is all the same for everyone: playing technically correct is important, and winning is the goal of every game.

Again, my feelings on this are to my detriment. My inability to get out of the house during the week is purely a negative. My inability to hold two truths in my head at the same time is also, simply put, incorrect. It's possible to be competitively minded and also embrace what a recreational player’s goals are. I see lots of bright people do it all the time. World Championship competitors sit down and play with absolute novices and manage to make everyone happy. So again, I want to emphasize: this is a defect of mine.

Why you should

My defects aside, you should absolutely play in your local events. Local, in store play, is one of the best ways to make friends and get better at the game you like. I've never regularly attended an LGS without ingratiating myself to that community and making a couple of friends. These people become road buddies to tournaments, testing partners, and friends outside of the card shop. Take Teage, again. He was the first person I met when I went to my LGS for Flesh and Blood. He's now a person I ask for advice and talk to more about non-TCG things than actual cards.

As far as getting better, I have a great example from the Columbus Card Guys Discord (Dan and I rebranded our podcast) that happened just this past week. One of our regulars noted that they went undefeated for the first time at a local event after grinding out several 1-2s and 0-3s. It was a marked improvement and cause for celebration. The player commented that they “probably got lucky”. A few other members pointed out this nonsense. It's more likely, they remarked, the player got better at the game over time. Months of practice makes someone better. One of the best way to get months of practice, is your LGS.

LGS organized play is also genuinely the best way to regularly play the game you like. I'm addicted to high-stakes, competitive play, but that doesn't happen every day or every week. And even though Tabletop Simulator and other online clients are more accessible now than ever, nothing beats going to the LGS and playing a bunch of games against the other regulars. I've played a lot of card games over the years, and no matter what game I was currently focused on, the in-store organized play was the best way to get regular games in.

Engaging in organized play at the LGS also supports small business. This matters a little less to me than the other things on the list (not that it doesn't matter), but if this is a thing you think about in your decision making, it's a factor in favor of local community involvement.

Conclusion

I don't know what the point is really supposed to be. I'm kind of an elitist that's bad at managing my time, and I don't want you to be either of those things. I don't see enough of my friends that live 20 minutes away, and I don't want you to miss out on those relationships. I'm also terrible at the games I like, and I want you to be as good as you want to be.

Yeah you can “play the game, see the world”, but you can also see a pretty nice part of the world right around the corner.

1. For this blog's purposes, I'm referring to Beyond the Board as my local game store. I frequent The Realm Games in Mansfield, Ohio, but my relationship with store goes beyond simply hobbyist, so I don't really consider it “my" LGS in the traditional sense.

2. Okay, I mean it a little in the agoraphobic sense.