I was asked by a TO that I judge for from time to time about raffling items during their next pre-release event. I explained that there would be no issues with taking a couple minutes while the last results were being entered to determine the winner of the raffle and hand out the prize(s), and this would keep things exciting throughout the night which is a nice boost for the players.

However, he asked me a question that I wasn't able to answer and told him that he might need to talk to his rep. He was wondering if he had more than adequate prize support if he could raffle off a box (based on the conversation my understanding it would be a box of the upcoming set and not just a box of something else).

I figured that with all the members on the forums here that someone would most likely have seen this done before if it was in fact fine to do so. I am genuinely curious for my benefit as well. Is there a way for me to have a better handle on product distribution policy from Wizards so that I know if a shop or TO is breaking that policy? I don't want to put myself in a situation where I am judging and incidentally become associated with the bad habits of a shop or TO.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

Michael,

I can offer a comment as a judge and a TO who dealt with WPN directly on behalf of a store.

For Dragon's Maze, WPN allows retailers to give out additional Dragon's Maze booster packs as prize, while supplies last. There shouldn't be anything wrong with giving extra booster packs out as door prizes as long as the required minimum of two packs per person into the prize pool is met.

As for having a better understanding about product distribution, you can read up on solicitations that WPN sends to retailers at www.wizards.com/wpn

Regards,
Adam Hubble
L2, Ridgeland, Mississippi, USA

Sent from my iPhone

So for example, if the store has 30 players the night of the pre-release event and the store had 4 boxes of boosters then as long as 60 packs (just under two boxes) are set aside to payout to top 4/8 then the other two boxes can be used as door prizes or raffled off?

Obviously not an official answer, but my common sense thinking on this.

You are required to give at least 2 packs per player into the prize pool
for a prerelease event. You can give more if you so choose. So if you want
to give an extra box as door prizes, I don't see an issue with that.

However, you probably want to check with your WPN Rep about an actual
raffle where the players have to pay for a raffle ticket. This is probably
too close to selling before the release so might be frowned upon.

Best answer… check with your WPN Rep. They will either have the answer or
have the resources to find the answer for you.

-George FitzGerald
L2, Sarasota, FL

Obviously it's going to be very different depending on where you live, but some provinces/states require a lottery license to run a raffle. Just something you might want to quickly Google. Some places it's as simple as adding a “skill testing question” to classify it as a “contest” instead of a “lottery”.

Thank you all. It does look like that a pure raffle would be inappropriate for our state so I will advise the TO to look into additional contests they can hold instead.


Has anyone seen anything particularly fun or interesting as far as additional ways to get packs out to players? The TO was really wanting a way to get some portion of the packs into the hands of players who weren't necessarily the best players to keep interest and excitement up even for those who weren't doing all that well, but don't want it to feel like charity either.

Edited Michael Quinton (April 28, 2013 07:27:12 PM)

It should be noted that while 2 packs per player has to go into the prize pool, there is no set distribution of that pool, to my knowledge.

We set a 1 pack participation prize for all players, using half of that 2/player pool, and then distributed the other half among the top X players.

Originally posted by Michael Quinton:

However, he asked me a question that I wasn't able to answer and told him that he might need to talk to his rep

I think you nailed it there, and - unless I'm greatly mistaken - none of those WPN reps are reading and answering on this forum.

I don't think we should continue to speculate on what might be allowed, esp. when the WPN reps are available to those who truly need to know (i.e., the TOs).

I asked our Wizards rep in the UK about this about a year ago. The answer I got was that no, I was not allowed to put surplus boosters from the new set into the raffle. The last few raffles had various bits of tat as prizes, which was a shame, as what players really wanted was a chance to win more new cards.

What I did this time was to put half a box of Dragon's Maze into the raffle prizes, but state that the winner would not be able to collect until this coming Friday. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

Originally posted by George FitzGerald:

You are required to give at least 2 packs per player into the prize pool
for a prerelease event. You can give more if you so choose. So if you want
to give an extra box as door prizes, I don't see an issue with that.

Where is that written?

Edit: found it on the wizards site (http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/events.aspx?x=mtgcom/events/prerelease-facts)

Edited Markus Offergeld (May 8, 2013 11:46:36 AM)

Hello Markus,
Take a look at the faq sheet that comes with the pre-release kits.

They can be found here:

http://www.wizards.com/wpn/Events/Rules.aspx?category=all

Also the specific one for Dragon's Maze is located here:

http://www.wizards.com/ContentResources/Wizards/WPN/Main/Documents/2013_04_23_DGMPreKit_PDF1.pdf

In the Dragon's Maze one take a look under the Prizes section.

Now granted not everyone gets 2 packs. I know our pre-release had a very flat prize payout. Anyone that won at least 1 match got a pack. We did this on purpose to spread things around quite a bit. It also makes the undefeated folks only got 4 packs resulting in a very casual event and minimizing any major incentive to cheat.

Thanks

-Ryan Stapleton
Chantilly, VA - L3