
An email went out today and it is causing a stir with some tournament organizers, namely ones who operate outside of a physical store location:
Stores will earn WPN levels based on all sanctioned OP activity that they sponsor. All WPN programs, including Prereleases, D&D Encounters and FNM, will be given exclusively to store locations.
Most stores and organizers will notice no change with this shift. The vast majority of Organized Play already happens in retail locations. However, we do have individual organizers who are not associated with specific stores. We encourage these organizers to team up with a local retailer so their players can enjoy the great programs at the store's WPN level!
For those organizers unable to associate with a store, we will offer an Event Support Kit starting with Mirrodin Besieged. This kit will be identical to the Gateway Support Kit for the most recent Core set (Magic 2011 in this case), and will refresh with each new Core set. Organizers not associated with a store will also have access to rated and casual sanctioned events.
For more information please refer to the detailed FAQ, or contact your dedicated Wizards of the Coast support team at 800.324.6496 or online at www.wizards.com/customerservice.
What Does This Mean (tl;dr)
This means that TOs who setup events at locations, which are not store locations such as in mall food courts or other event spaces, are being disallowed from running FNMs and other events of this type like Prereleases.
Update
Does this affect you? Long time ManaNation friend Dan Alpers, some of you may recognize his name as one of the winners of the 'My Magic' contest, has volunteered to help anyone this affects, just email him dan@ccgamers.org. He operates Central Corridor Gamers, a place kids can gather to play (but it is not an actual store) and so he has experience working with Wizards of the Coast on this sort of issue.
Update: Tuesday 5pm EST
Many of you are being referred by DeckCheck.net. Please note, Wizards is NOT taking DeckCheck.net down. It is being closed by the owner for his feelings about how Wizards is handling the community.




