Questions by Lars Harald Nordli.
7th of october this year, Spelens Hus is going to host a charity-event for Suicide Zero. Patrik Fridland, a well known judge in the Europe North-region, is one of the drivers behind this event. We had a quick chat with Patrik to know more about this event.
Hi Patrik. Hosting a charity event sounds interesting. What made you host this particular event, and what is the event about?
Hi. So the main idea is to combine one of the things I love (yes, Magic) with charity. I would say that the main thing is to take Magic and use it for a enlightment of a topic, in this case Suicide Zero, a suicide prevention organization.
That’s interesting! What does the Suicide Zero get from the event besides attention for their cause? Are they represented at the event giving out information to the participants?
So all the money in the event will go to Suicide Zero, that’s entry fee, an auction and donations. We are still working on the final details how they will be there to represent their organization.
Wonderful! I love that you’re hosting this event to raise money for a worthy cause. You mention that the event is “Gentry”. What is that and can you explain why you chose that format?
I’m glad you asked since this is one of the most commonly asked questions I’ve received so far! So Gentry is a twist on Standard, developed by Niels Viane from Ghent in Belgium. It’s like Standard, but you may only play 4 unique Mythic Rares/Rares, 15 Uncommon and the rest has to be common, which makes this one of the cheapest formats and therefore a great Magic-event for a new Magic player to start with. We chose this as I think Gentry is easy for anyone to get a deck assembled to and it’s loads of fun to play!
Cool! I guess it’s running at Regular REL and a lot of newer players will get help from judges. What kind of playernumbers are you hoping for and what kind of player to judge ratio are you expecting?
Yes, we will do it by Regular REL. We will collect decklists but not for deckchecking. We will actually stream this event and we like to have the decklists for the streamers so they can better comment on the match. A realistic goal is 32 players for the event, though we’re hoping for higher numbers than that. At the moment we’re thinking of 2-3 judges and hopefully this will be a first “bigger” event for one of those judges.
Nice, it should be a great first event for several judges. Are you open for applications from interested judges, or are all slots already filled?
We are still looking. As we can’t really compensate anyone we won’t create a Judge Apps-event. If you’re interested in donating your time for this event, please PM me on Facebook or send me an e-mail on saaywhu@gmail.com.
And I guess that if judging isn’t your cup of tea, you can always come to play instead? Any last words you want to add?
Absolutely, all are welcome to play offcourse! If you think this sounds like a good cause and would like to donate money or Magic-related items (which we will auction off), please send me an e-mail and I’ll send details. And please share the event people! 🙂