n00bcon 9 preparations

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

 -T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

April is approaching, and with it Easter and the Oldschool World Championship. A murder of ragtag jesters and spell slingers gathering in Gothenburg. Whatever it may lack in order and sanction, it makes up for in panache and recklessness. This is oldschool oldschool, the way 93/94 was envisioned. April 14th Rotary Pub hosts the 10th annual Easter gathering in 93/94, and the 9th annual n00bcon. Like most times before, it will be the largest old school Magic tournament held yet.

I've been getting a lot of messages about the how, what and when of the tournament, so I used my l33t h4xxor skills and put up a web page with some info.

Party like it's 1994.

While the page could once upon a time be described as "rad", it isn't super user friendly (no WCAG 2.0), so I'll just recap the most common quandaries here:

•  n00bcon, despite the "-con" suffix, isn't really a convention in the common sense of the word; it refers to a single championship tournament. However, players will usually gather for impromptu side events at the site after the swiss, and there will be plenty opportunities to play Magic with new faces at other locations throughout the weekend if inclined. I'll update the homepage with side events in other locations in Gothenburg during the weekend as they are announced.
• The players hail from 14 nationalities and 34 communities. Most of the spots were distributed to tournament organizers in larger communities (for them to with what they liked), plus some extra spots for "small communities" with fewer players. The most representative group is probably Arvika with 11 players. They travelled around and grabbed a bunch of invites from qualification tournaments in other communities ;)
• The 100 player cut-off is a hard cap, and the spots have been confirmed since December. There are currently over 40 players on the waitlist, so I'm sorry to say that there's little to do if someone realize now that they would like to join this year. It sucks that we can't let in everybody anymore, but it's hard to find a location that can let in more people while still upholding the casual ambience that makes the tournament what it is. (But we did manage to raise the cap from 76 to 100 this year.) Don't hesitate to contact me about the tournament anyway though, as there will always be a next year (and a year after that) :)
• The tournament follow the baseline rules as described on this blog. E.g. no reprints after Unlimited, fbb cards, nor CE/IE.
• The prize structure is a Giant Shark for the winner. The "EV" is horrible ;)

So why would anyone want to play this tournament? Well, gathering a bunch of rad people with gnarly cards and tubular beer is bound to be groovy. We play because we like the game and enjoy the company, simple as that.

Some pics and videos from last year.

If you think this looks sweet but didn't get a spot this year, I can recommend checking out e.g. The Ivory Cup in Stockholm in June. It's a fairly large (and growing) tournament that embrace the same values as the n00bcon championship. Or just start hosting something in the underground yourself, community organizers have a big leg up in getting spots here ;)

I'm really looking forward to see a bunch of you guys in a month. This will be the first time I'll get to meet players from e.g. the Spanish and the Dutch 93/94 communities, or battle Italians or UK players on Swedish turf. And it will be great to grab a beer with the returning players from e.g. Russia, USA and Germany again. You make this awesome.

Now check out the n00bcon homepage and then place your bets for the next World Champion!