Today was my birthday, and I had just started cleaning up after the party my wife had thrown me. My mind had plenty of time to think, because lets face it, cleaning is boring as hell. I started to think about earlier in the day. I remember looking around the room. I saw Rob Swarowski, Jason Galeski, Kirk Buckendorf, Brian Gates, Niles Rowland, Peter Swarowski, James Hollister, Aric Jack, and Charles Morrison. Having all these people around made me reflect about the years that had passed and how I had met all of these great friends.

I was fifteen and my best friend had passed away. A mutual friend of ours asked me if I wanted to hang out with him. When at his house, he showed me this new game he was playing called Magic the Gathering. He taught me how to play and I was addicted. We played constantly after school, and soon our local gaming store was running tournaments. I ended up getting second in my first tournament and was happy to walk away with half a box of cards. From that point on, I was a card gamer. I loved the competition, and this led to me wanting to compete on a larger scale.

I was sponsored by one of the local Las Vegas stores, and I started traveling to qualifier tournaments. In my first qualifier I was paired up with some kid from the the other local store. This kid smashed my face in, I don’t even think that our match took twenty minutes. Little did I know that this kid (Robert Swarowski) was going to be my best friend years later. In one of the next times we met, I was able to beat him and he took it in what was then typical, “Scrubby,” fashion; he threw his deck at me. The more I played the more people I met from around town.

One of the local stores closed and we all started playing at the last store standing in town. Friendships were born, friendships that all stand to this day sixteen years later.

Throughout the many years, we traveled a LOT. There are so many stories from these road trips that we get the details mixed up when we talk about them. This seemed to be a pinnacle point for Magic the Gathering. The Pro Tour was new and it was gaining popularity quickly. Every qualifier we attended had more people than the last one. Wizards of the Coast’s push to grow the competitive scene seemed to be working and it looked to be working well.

I reflect on how those trips traveling to Pro Tour Qualifiers has brought me to where I am today. All the friends I have now are the ones that I spent years with traveling to events.

So you may be asking, “why am I telling you all this?” There may be the opportunity for you to have a similar experience to what I have had.

There are tournament series that are starting up and it is important that we support these events ran by our fellow players. Today I was privileged to interview Kevin Gray, founder of the Cerywn Lair WoW TCG 1k tournament series.

1. How often "How often do you play?

I tend to play between 3 and 4 nights a week. I have 3 stores in the area that run Battle Grounds. I am based out of Bluegrass Magic Game Shop in Louisville, but I help out and mentor the guys at Something 2 Do (also in Louisville) and Gamers Edge in Elizabethtown.

Depending on what's going on around me, I'll grab a few of the local players and we will travel up to Indiana once every month or two to play with the gang up that way also. Depending on where Darkmoon Faires are at we'll hit those up as well.

2. Do you play competitively?

Yes and no. It's kinda an odd situation for me. I hate to lose, I hate it a lot more than I like to win. But I have gotten to the point to where I don't sweat it too much anymore. About the only time I am dead on serious is when a new BG or Holiday playmat comes out. If it's one I want, I will play balls out to get it. Then once I win it, I’ll go back to playing dumb combos and fun trick decks. I think at this stage it's more about the traveling and hanging out. I've been playing TCG/CCGs in one form or another since Beta Magic, so that's over 15 years now. The competitive nature is still there, but I have more fun in winning with old school, established, or crazy combo/trick decks.

3. What inspired you to start an independent series? Have you organized events before?

Well, that's a long story, so I will try to keep it condensed. I used to partner up with a guy named Brennan Moody (who now owns BluegrassMagic GameShop). We started doing all of the premier events for Wizards of the Coast/Magic in Kentucky way back when. This is back when the Pro Tour was in its infancy and Pre-Releases were a HUGE deal that you had to travel several hours for in most cases. We ran the events under the Bluegrass Magic Events moniker, and as we did more and more we noticed that outside of WotC, no one was doing anything big on an independent level. It was either your local store event or a Wizards of the Coast event or nothing back then.

We sat down and talked and figured that there was a market for doing a big cash event, that wasn't put on by WotC, that was open to anyone who wanted to show. Thus the Kentucky Open was born. It started off as a 1K Standard tournament that we eventually turned into a 5K Standard event, and added a second 2.5K Extended Event to our schedule. At the time, no one was doing anything even remotely close cash events outside of Pro Tour prizes, so we kinda took the ball and ran with it. A lot of the current Magic Tournament Organizers even credit Bluegrass Magic with laying the groundwork for their own events now.

So when Cryptozoic brought the WoW TCG game back from death's door, I took a look at what the landscape of the environment looked like. I sent out some feelers (so to speak) and saw that there was an interest in the WoW community for a Cash Event and so I decided to see if I could do with WoW TCG, what Moody and I did with Magic.

I think I like running events more than playing actually.

5. How are you handling judge and tournament staff?

Normally, in the past when we travel to other areas to run events, we always brought our own staff with us. I wanted to do something different with the WoW TCG 1Ks. I have 2 of my locals, Audis and Susan Turner, that travel with me to work events as floor judges, but I wanted to make sure that I used local area Judges, as well as making sure the Head Judge is someone from the area. This is the reason why I chose to run the 1Ks inside of local stores, instead of setting up in a Hall or Rental Room or Convention Center type place. I want the 1Ks to feel like they are a part of the community, not just some outsiders coming in trying to make a buck.

I know how it is when a big event comes to town for the shop owners, and for players that are unsure about playing outside their comfort zone. A major event comes to town and it shuts down all the local game shops the most part, because it pulls their players away from their store. I want the stores to feel they are involved, as well as the players. I may be coming to your city to run an event, but I want it to be that city's event, not just my event. I want everyone to feel like they are a part of these events. That's partly why I do little things like give the player who travelled the farthest their entry fee back. In the past we have done scavenger events for free entries, dance contest, talent shows, anything that gets the community involved.

6. What are your plans for the future? Are there any locations you are thinking of for 2012?

This is a tricky topic right now. Originally, the plan was to turn the 1Ks into a higher payout, 2 day event starting next year. We were going to do a day of Core on day 1 and a second event that would have been Classic on day 2, much like what Star City does with Magic. However, after we started to make announcements to specific groups in order to work on scheduling, Damien and the MetaMart announced their own independent 5K series, using the Star City model themselves. Now before anyone reads too much into that, I am happy for Damien and I really hope he succeeds, there is no animosity on my end. He is able to jump right out of the gates with 5Ks. This is at least 2K more than what I was going to attempt next year myself. Damien has an entire business behind him and with me, it's just me, no store, no sponsorships, just me. I didn't start the WoW 1K Tournament Series to make money, I just wanted to cover costs and give something back to the community. That being said, I am not sure that the community is big enough to support the DMFs, Organized Play, and 2 Cash Payout Events. That's a lot of entry fee's, a lot of travel, and with economy the way it is, It's a lot to think about and plan for right now.

So looking forward to 2012, I am not sure what I am going to do just yet. There will still be 1Ks at the very least I think, but I may have to re-evaluate how we are going to run them. This may mean a format change, or something else. I do have something else in the works, but it's way too early to announce anything specific. But I have been approached by a fairly large number of players about doing 2 separate series of events to fill in 2 pretty big gaps in the OP Tournament Scheduling Year. Once I have a model in place and a firm plan I will be back here, and on the A Question of Gluttony Podcast, to make the official announcement. I am excited about the potential possibility, but I need to get a firm plan in place before I say anything officially, that and I have to wait until Cryptozoic announces next years OP Schedule, so I can see what time frames are open. I don't want competing dates with anything they have going on.

I wanted to thank Kevin Grey for taking the time to talk with us.

The next stop for the Cerwyn Lair WoW TCG 1k tournament series is at:

The Gaming Goat

2090 Larkin Ave

Elgin, IL 60123 224 856-1388

This event is going on this Saturday, September 10th. Registration begins at 10am and the tournament will start promptly at 11am.

I urge you, if you can, to attend this tournament.