I don't see myself as a tournament organizer. I am a casual player. I've been playing Magic since Revised/Ice Age. I played for years before realizing that Magic was originally designed for one on one play. I played in a few tournaments, but always knew that I was not a tournament player. Magic has always been my "poker night" with my friends. I am a casual player who enjoys picking up some new cards regularly and playing Magic each week with a group of friends. What does that have to be with being a tournament organizer?

In addition to being a casual Magic player, I have other roles in my life. One of those roles is "Dad." I am part of a select group of Magic players who has children old enough to play Magic. I like to remind my youngest that I have Magic cards older than he is and I intend for them to still be in the house long after he leaves. My role as Dad has made me into a tournament organizer.

My youngest son, 11-year old Spencer, started playing recently. Actually, that's not really true; he started playing about 3 years ago. My family was enjoying a two weeks at a quiet cabin on a sleepy lake in New Hampshire when after 4 days we found ourselves stuck inside, watching the lightning and rain bounce off the lake. It was during the next two days that Spencer, his older brother Max, and their older sister Chloe learned to play Magic. They were excited and right into it. Chloe dropped it as soon as we left the lake, but the boys hung in there long enough to buy some cards, then they let it drop after about a month. That was fine by me; I was playing every week with my usual group and having a good time.

Almost 9 months ago, Spencer started playing again. It wasn't because I played; he discovered many of his friends also played Magic. Two of his friends organized a Magic club that met at the local community library. Spencer quickly discovered that if he promised to take extra special care of "Dad's" cards, he could use them with his friends. Full access to a collection of 12,000+ cards can give you plenty of success against friends who have only the 200 or so cards they've bought in the last month or so. Spencer was hooked.

The Magic club included a regular Saturday "tournament" that they organized. The small group of 6 or 7 boys had begun expanding and the tournament regularly had reached 12 people attending. Every week everyone would throw a rare in the pot and the winner would get the prizes. I knew about the WPN and looked into it to see what I could do to get the kids some free cards from Wizards. I mean, if I could get them some free cards, that would be a good thing right? I figured I could sign everyone up to the DCI and report their tournaments. Soon enough, the Magic Players Reward Program would be sending them cards from Wizards.

The WPN signup process seemed to take forever, but I finally received my package of DCI membership cards and the go ahead to schedule tournaments. I scheduled the first few weeks as casual play, since the boys don't follow any particular format carefully. When I discovered that no one was getting Rewards Points because I was calling them casual play, I set up the next one as an extended tournament. After the tournament I logged on to list who was at the tournament and discovered they wanted to know who played who and who won. I had never kept track of that before since casual play had never required it. My son Spencer and I managed to piece together who played who and who would have had to have won to get the results we knew, then I sent it in. A week later the submitted report was accepted, and the points started to show up.

I organized things a little better on Saturdays, so when I couldn't be there, they wrote down who played who and who won. Hardly a great tournament organizer, but I saw myself as a facilitator, not an organizer. The boys weren't old enough to sign up as WPN Organizers, so I was just doing it for them. It was good.

Then I discovered I could request a Zendikar kit for free, so I did. After waiting so long that I had forgotten I requested it in the first place, the kit arrived. The kit included two different foil cards as part of the promotion. The boys started using the foils as a prize for the winner and one as a door prize, to be "fair." It didn't seem right that the players who weren't as good would never get a prize. The foil alternate art cards were a big step up from throwing a rare card from their collection they didn't want as the prize, so everyone was happy about the change. There were even enough Planechase cards in the kit (Horizon Boughs) that every kid got one the next Saturday. I started keeping a closer eye on things, since I feared the foil cards were all going to just a couple of kids. It turns out the foils were being spread fairly, but I still kept a close eye on things. I wasn't an organizer, but I should probably stay involved.

When the option came up to host a Launch Party, I jumped all over it. I figured maybe 7 or 8 kids would be willing to pay to play in the Launch Party. At this point, none of them had ever even considered paying to be in a tournament. I couldn't imagine that they (or more appropriately, their parents) would be willing to pay $25 to get into a tournament. I was shocked to find that they all wanted in. I sent a short letter to their parents saying I would run the tournament for up to 12 people. I figured that should cover everybody that was playing each week that would want to play, while still being small enough for my first tournament. Ten of the 15 kids brought money in the following week! Two more brought money in the following week. I had a dozen boys for the tournament, and they'd all prepaid. It was then that I realized that the parents were all paying $25 for someone to watch their son for an afternoon in a safe environment. You can't buy childcare that cheaply! I figured out how many cards I'd need and ordered enough to cover that.

The week before the Launch Party, I went to the big Worldwake Prerelease here in Boston. I took my son and a few of his friends who heard about it and wanted to come. It was like I'd released them into some kind of Nirvana. There were all these adults playing Magic! They had believed that I was one of maybe 10 adults in all of Massachusetts who played Magic. We each received a free foil card just for showing up to play! And the dealer tables! They have thousands of cards! All for really cheap!

None of the boys that I brought won a single match at the Prerelease, but no one cared. They had each opened, what they thought, were amazing rare cards and just had a great time. When these boys returned to their regular group the next Thursday, and told everyone about the Prerelease, they couldn't wait for the Launch Party in just a couple of days.

My Worldwake Launch Party was a huge hit. I managed to get deckboxes for each of the guys, so there weren't cards strewn all over the place. Deckbuilding proved to be a raucous affair as shouts over what mythic and what rares were being opened echoed through the library. No one even considered dropping, even when they were out of contention for prizes. As far as they were concerned, it was a smashing success. Several parents thanked me for organizing it. What? But I'm not an organizer, I'm a casual… when did I become an organizer?

Since that point, I've embraced my new Tournament Organizer role. More and more of the boys are signed up for the Player Rewards program and the size of their group is regularly 16 or more boys. The Rise of the Eldrazi Launch Party was another hit. My organizational skills are improving so the tournament moves quickly, the boys always have something to do, and the library doesn't look like a disaster when we are through. I managed to get play mats for everyone involved, so that made the Launch Party even better. I've become a Rules Advisor and I'm considering taking the Judge test. I've reached Core Organizer level now and I'm looking into possible FNM's and prereleases.

Magic has always been a time for me to spend time with my friends and enjoy the camaraderie that comes with it. Being a WPN Organizer for me has taken the same role that other fathers have as a Little League coach for their son's team. It is a chance to get to know his friends and encourage all of them to do something that doesn't involve staring at a monitor for hours. It is a chance to spend time with Spencer and share something I've loved doing for a long time.