I'd echo that I'd "rather" have all the events in the system when registration goes live.  BUT, I fully understand why they can't all be in there.

At the end of the day, we all want to set up our "optimal" schedule.  I may get the exact tickets I want when events go live, but find out that there is another event that I equally want to go to, but it overlaps.  Had I know the schedule before had, I could have selected a different slot, and been able to do both.  Thus, I have to skip the event entered later.  That's the point.  Want want to have the best schedule possible, but inevitably, late events are going to be harder to slot in a preexisting schedule...

Pat E

I like that there are second wave events although i know that they are not "on purpose" for the most part. Some companies did not get their events in on time or had a delay and became part of the second wave, not to discount that some companies maybe waited to see what time slots were being fought over the most and picked "downtime" to schedule their events. Either way the second wave is good for people who did not get a good schedule the first time around due to the lottery and their original events selling out.

This year the second wave greatly helped out myself and my group though we got into some big events a lot of the rpgs we wanted either weren't there or filled up during initial registration. With the second wave though for once since we started going to gencon about 7-8+? years we ACTUALLY got into a call of cthulhu game. We also found a bunch of nifty side events that filled up our otherwise barren saturday with near non stop events (i don't schedule back to back to allow for walk time/lunch).

Are there really no eternal masters events? I'm shocked if that's true and incredibly disappointed. 

Not all events that come out after Event Registration are because they are submitted late.  Some events like my own need special consideration and get put to the back of the line (even if you submit as early as possible) and don't get placed until after all other games are reviewed.

So it is possible that they submitted on time but didn't get placed due to special requests and unless Gen Con says its because of a late submission, you cant really know why they got placed later then the event registration day.

Also unless you have something special that you don't want to fill up right away (maybe you have a ton of friends that will try and get tickets) almost everyone that runs games at Gen Con want their games to be ready by event registration day for exactly the reasons you stated.

With a Con like this its expected that not all games will get placed before tickets go on sale and Gen Con would be much more worse off if they cut anything that didn't get reviewed/submitted in time. 

As a GM there aren't bonus points for your event selling out on the first day. While some RPG's are dependent on having a full table of gamers for alot of other types of games selling out isn't so important. In fact if you know you have space available you can tell walk-ups right away that they can get into an event without them having to stand around for 15 minutes waiting to see which ticket holders actually make it.

https://www.gencon.com/event_finder/Host/Pastimes?ag%5B%5D=un&ag%5B%5D=eo&ag%5B%5D=tn&ag%5B%5D=ma&ag%5B%5D=tw&exp%5B%5D=no&exp%5B%5D=so&exp%5B%5D=ep&opt%5B%5D=ta&opt%5B%5D=hh

Are there any rules against bringing boxes of eternal masters and finding random people interested in drafting it together? With money exchanging hands I don't know of you need a true "event" or if they don't care. 

You're more than welcome to submit a normal ticketed event if you want to reserve space - there are a couple independent Magic events each year.

You can also just bring a box and see who you can get together to play, but space won't be reserved without an event submission, so you'll just have to ask the HQ for open space, like any other pick-up game.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Hi Derek, 

Thank you for the quick response. How much is it to host an independent event like that, or is it free? I assume I'm not allowed to charge people, it'd need to be tickets? How would that work then? 

You'll want to go through the Host page and Event Host Policy, but in brief there is no cost to run a ticketed event and you're more than welcome to charge if you want or need to.

You just submit the event details, we'll assign you space, you collect tickets from all players and turn those in to us to track attendance. If you added a fee to your event, we'll send payment out after ticket reconciliation has been completed.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Hey Derek, 

Is there anything from a legal standpoint that I would need to worry about if I wanted to host an eternal masters booster draft or two? Would I need some gaming license or agreement with wizards of the coast to do so? I just have a generic badge, what would I need to do to ensure there's no issue with me trying to setup some drafts? 

I'd like to not get sued or anything, but would really love to draft this awesome set; I assume there would be a ton of interest from other magic players. Deeply puzzling that pastimes does not appear to be hosting any of these drafts. 

Thanks, 
Eric 

You're not going to be able to host an WoTC sanctioned event without... WoTC sanction.  Of course Derek can't help you with that - you can google Magic Organized Play yourself to figure out what's involved.

You can host a casual non-sanctioned event (i.e. no official judging, no DCI numbers, etc.) - people do it every year at Gen Con (see, for example, the Pauper tournament).

You can't collect money from people to participate in your events at Gen Con other than via ticket price (which Gen Con takes a cut of).  The event hosting guide spells it out.

You could also try to host some magic events where people have to bring their own product.

Broadly, I doubt you are going to be able to fill a table with Eternal Masters drafters for your home-brew draft due to the high expense associated with such an event - it's asking a lot for someone to pay $30+ for a ticket to a draft with 7 strangers that isn't DCI sanctioned and has no judges, timekeeping, etc.

It also seems like asking for trouble - as you only get reimbursed for tickets you return to GenCon that are handed in at your event, so if 8 people sign up, and 5 show to your tournament, you're not going to be able to collect the funds for the 3 other tickets, and you'll be left holding the bag with 3 draft pools worth of Eternal Maters.  Also, you're probably going to have 5 po-ed people because they signed up for an 8 person draft, not a 5 person draft.

Of course - if you're willing to provide the product for free/cheap you should have no problems (other than all the problems you'd have running a tournament - e.g. are you sure you know how to do pairings, how to do tie breakers, how to handle drops, how to handle rules disputes and cheating, etc.).

We can't provide any real official comment on legal concerns, you'll need to make sure than anything you do obeys local Indiana laws as appropriate. You could try asking local stores if there are any things they need to be aware of or take special concern with.

But broadly, as long as you don't claim that the event is official sanctioned or supported if it is not, you're welcome to run something on your own.

As long as you keep it at a reasonable scale (looking at maybe a dozen players at once, max) and make it a compelling event, I suspect you'll do fine.

Considering the timeline to the show, though, you will want to make sure to broadly promote the event as much as you can to get the word out and round up players.

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Derek Guder
Event Manager
Gen Con LLC

Yeah I mean, there would be more than enough interest to get 7 other people out of the thousands there for magic to draft a hugely anticipated and sought after set like eternal masters. It sounds like legally it may not be quite as simple as it first was made out to be, which is unfortunate. I wouldn't need or want it to be an officially sanctioned tournament...would really just want the 7 other people to help split the cost of the booster box and then draft it because it's awesomely fun to do so. 

Sounds like it would need to be more of a "round up 7 other random people while there and draft" type of "event."