If a GP or SCG Open (for example) is in the area on a certain date, can another store run a PPTQ in the same area on that date or no? Thanks.

Cris Plyler

The only weekend dates when you can't schedule PPTQs are Prerelease weekends. You're welcome to schedule your PPTQ at the same time as a local GP. That said… you won't get very many players if you do this. We've had a PPTQ fail to fire because they didn't hit 8 players when scheduled against GP Baltimore, and another PPTQ that had to be cancelled because they couldn't find a L2 judge who wasn't doing the nearby Open.

So while you can schedule against GPs and Opens, you probably shouldn't.

To my knowledge, the only other event you can't run a PPTQ beside is an RPTQ, unless you are the TO running the RPTQ. In any event, running a PPTQ the same weekend as a nearby GP or SCG Open is a bad idea for the reasons John mentioned.

Scheduling restrictions, along with other appropriate restrictions and
requirements for the next PPTQ season are all listed on the WPN fact sheet
for said event, which I believe constitutes as information on this.

http://wpn.wizards.com/en/event/magic-pptq-pro-tour-1-2016

Cheers,
Hubble

Thanks Adam, that was the information I was looking for.

Wandering in late, to provide the ‘O’fficial answer, which is close to most of the unofficial ones… :p

The link Adam posted is clearly official. Prerelease weekends are the only absolute “blackout” dates, but it's recommended that you avoid scheduling against nearby GPs, RPTQ, or PPTQ.

On that note - a lot of the stores in the Front Range area (Denver plus an hour or so) are cooperating as much as possible, via a Facebook group. I think it's really helped; there's an event just about every Saturday and Sunday but not a lot of tough choices on which one to play. It's hard to get store owners to do this, but you can tell your locals about our success, maybe it'll work there, too.

d:^D

I'll also vouch for getting stores to communicate to each other. Victoria, Australia has a FB group with all the TOs and L2+ judges for organising PPTQs without clashes, and to assist in finding staff for your event.

We managed to get Milwaukee with no clashes whatsoever, and #1 2016 is shaping up to be the same!

On topic, here in the Czech Republic we manage a google doc that is used by Advanced organizers and L2+ judges to cooperate and find the best dates.