State of Philippine Magic

Wow!!! What a great Grand Prix weekend!  Coming from that high of the Grand Prix experience, I would like to thank everyone for their support during that event and for their continued support in making the Philippine MTG community what it is today.  A strong and thriving community.  I would also like to take this chance to address a few questions consistently asked me during the Grand Prix weekend and give some observations I have as well.

First of all congratulations to the Filipino MTG fan for making this the biggest Asian Grand Prix outside of Japan ever.  For all intents and purposes we should have broken the record, so I’ll consider it a broken record.  (If the people from the DCI had just listened to us during the preparations running up to the event when we told them we were expecting a minimum of 400 instead of their estimation of 400 being the maximum, we probably could have accommodated everyone.  But, what’s done is done and we move forward and look forward to what MTG has in store for us.)  The magicthegathering.com coverage got it wrong.  We did not need to recruit the judges to play to break the record, all we really had to do was open the registration. :P  All I can say is that I love mono block tables and chairs, they literally saved the day during the Grand Prix, it was a good thing NG owns quite a number of those nifty little things that could be transferred and built up at literally a moment’s notice. We sincerely apologize for those who registered after the 400 mark was hit on Friday, for not having the shirts for you anymore.  I certainly hope you still enjoyed your Grand Prix experience.

It was really a great event, graced by known Magic pros who were not fazed by the news of the “kaguluhan” in Mindanao.  We had people coming all the way over from France and Germany grace the event, we had a bigger group of Japanese come over, along with bigger delegations from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.  But most importantly it was a success because you the Filipino Magic player was there.  We had very good representation from our friends from Baguio, Cebu, Davao, Ilo-Ilo, Bacolod, Pampanga etc.  Thank you for traveling all the way to Manila to join in this event.  I think most of the regions had at least one of their bets land a money spot for day 2.  The amount of people who came was so heartening.  Magic is truly alive and strong in the Philippines. 

Magic has truly grown for the time we have been given the privilege to take care of it in the Philippines, from the measly 60 participants we had during the Prophecy pre-release (our first official MTG tournament as NG under the DCI) to the  400 or so we got with the GP last 2006 to the whopping 640 plus plus people who joined this Grand Prix, and the usual 600 or so unique individuals we usually get during pre-releases.  In as much as we appreciate all the congratulations and kudos NG has received for the recent Grand Prix, it would not have been possible without the consistent help and support from our friend at WotC and the  DCI  Dalte Aitken and Sinclair Yuen, who have been very supportive of the direction we wanted to take Philippine MTG organized play, and more importantly you the the Filipino Magic player, without whom we wouldn’t even have this Grand Prix.

We certainly have put ourselves on the map once again with this event.  Let’s keep on looking forward and move Philippine Magic for the world to recognize.

Enough patting on the backs and let’s address some questions.  During the Grand Prix I received the same question from people over and over.  “Are we getting another Grand Prix next year?”  The answer to the question is unfortunately “not likely”.  As it is There are two Grand Prix yearly rotating in South East Asia, one of them alternates between Singapore and Malaysia, and the other one goes around the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.  The reason behind this is the relative size of the market, not in terms of playing population but in terms of sales.  (We have often told the people at WotC, that as their Philippine distributor when we make the same amount of sales as  our counterpart in Singapore, we are actually working three to four times harder, because the per capita spending of the Filipino Magic player is pretty low compared to other countries, so what we lack in spending power we have in sheer numbers.)  I therefore call on all of you to help us in sharing this hobby with even more people, (Basically ang gusto ko langgamin natin ang WotC, hehehe... also sa next GP pag mas marami tayo, pag nilanggam natin mga pros baka matibag na natin sila.) The fact that we managed to get the GP this year after we had one in 2008 was already a feat.  We once again ask you for your help in lobbying for the GP again, with your continued patronage and support through your purchases and consistent attendance during events, I’m sure we will manage to get another GP our way very soon.  ;)

During the event, I also noticed the amount of Filipinos asking the pros for autographs.  Most of them have been very gracious and not snobby and signed as many autographs as people would ask them to.  This truly is a great opportunity for our locals to meet and greet some of the best Magic players out there, but with this came a realization for me.  As long as we are fans and they are our idols we will never beat them.  I am not saying that we should not ask them for autographs, but the moment we sit across them, we should have the mind set not of a fan, but of a competitor, and the mind set that we can beat them.  I still think majority of us lack this mind set, the mind set that we are World Class, that we can do as well as them if not better.  It still a dream of mine to have a Filipino win a foreign Grand Prix or Pro Tour, we have come close several times, I think the closest being Eric Salazar’s top 4 performance in a previous Grand Prix in Hong Kong,  but we’ve never actually taken the whole kahuna outside of the Philippines.  We need to start believing in ourselves, Magic is actually something Filipinos can excel in.  For one thing it doesn’t require a lot of height like basketball (something of which the Filipinos fondness and insistence on confounds me, being a country of relatively short people), just a lot of ingenuity and brain power and a bit of luck. 

Another thing which I found distressing was how we seemingly wilted during day 2 of the Grand Prix.  Going into day 2 a lot of Filipinos were doing very well.  The standings were split with 34 pinoys and 30 foreigners,  We also had Filipinos topping the the standing going into day 2.  However, it seems that the Filipinos all of a sudden got cold feet.  People started underperforming.  I don’t know what exactly happened. Was it the pressure?  We seem to have wilted under the pressure.  We also got quite a number of locals get into problems with tardiness for the first round on day 2, and for succeeding rounds thereafter.  Being 15 seconds late for a round and getting a round loss really sucks, but at this level there are no excuses. It really sucks to lose a round due to tardiness.  I know we have this thing which we call Filipino Time, but we really should get that out of our system if we want to make ourselves world class. We really should start getting stricter with our local tournaments with regards to time, so that we can better compete at this level.

By the end of the second day our ranks have been whittled down with us only managing to send in one Filipino to the top 8.  It is interesting to note how the Philippines seem to have had an unlikely hero in Luis Magisa (fondly called by friends as “Harry Potter”, whom we shall henceforth call “The One” pun intended in more ways than ONE).  Certainly, going into the the tournament, no one had him picked as the Filipino most likely to have the best finish in the Grand Prix, yet there he was proving himself with the best. We’ve had a lot of new talent come into their own this year, not the least of which is Ralf Santos, who had a perfect record on day 1 of the Grand Prix, Richard Badlon (our local POTY) who also had a very good showing this year, plus a whole lot more.  I assure you some of these guys will become household names in the realm of Philippine Magic.  This goes to show that with a lot of hard work and dedication, the Filipino does really have what it takes to be great in this game.

We have another year or two to develop our play and mental attitude and hopefully we get to defend the Philippines next time.  Looking forward to the next Grand Prix Manila in 2010 or maybe 2009... ;)  When we try to defend our National Pride again.

See you in the upcoming Shards of Alara pre-release events, and the upcoming 25K Gold Rush.