Hey everyone! I hope your summer has been going well (all things considered). I'm sure this is an announcement a lot of you have been waiting for, but we are finally ready to start having a VERY LIMITED number of people in the store for tournament play! There are obviously going to be a bunch of new protocols in place to account for the current situation we find ourselves in, and we appreciate your patience and consideration as we slowly and safely bring our operations back to scale.
I want to give a quick run-through on how event signups and in-store play will look like for the next while.
Signing up for an event
Every event will be available to sign up for online through our website. You can check out our calendar at the bottom of the homepage to see our event schedule. This is the only way to enrol in an event. We will not be accepting walk-ins for any of our events. We will start with 4 person commander pods, and slowly grow into 8-person prerelease events for Zendikar Rising and drafts. If you are interesting in playing in any of these events, you have to use the online event ticket submission to enrol.
If you would like to sign up as a group for an event we are more than happy to provide support for that. Send us a message on Facebook to coordinate a time and place for you to play in-store!
Playing in an event
There will be several tweaks to your in-store experience when we get the ball rolling with events. Our store has two rooms - the retail room and the tournament room. Your event will be assigned to one of these two rooms. For those unfamiliar with the store, a staff member will aid you in finding where your tournament will be located. These rooms are completely separated and isolated from one another and have separate entrances from the street, meaning those playing in one room will never be in contact with those playing the other room. In addition to this setup, there are some rules we will be enforcing regarding in-store play:
- You must wear a mask at all times. If you feel the need to take your mask off, we ask you to step outside for some air. If this policy is not respected we will ask you to leave.
- If you are feeling any symptoms of COVID-19, stay home! If you have already signed up for a tournament we will provide a full refund.
- Hand sanitizing is required before the start of the tournament and between rounds (if applicable). Both rooms have washrooms and hand sanitizing stations will be available.
- Your seating will be assigned. Because you are signing up for the event before it starts, we will have assigned seats for you as you enter the tournament space.
- Your opponent is not entitled to shuffle your deck. We understand that this is problematic, but we hope the community will not take advantage of this to try and cheat. If you feel like the integrity of your match is compromised, a staff member will assist in randomizing your opponent's deck for you.
- All tournament results will be submitted digitally. Whether it is through Wizards EventLink or through a message to the Facebook account, you do not need to (and are not allowed to) submit tournament results to the front desk. We are trying to minimize the amount of moving around that occurs in the store.
- We will use your provided e-mail address if needed to aid in contact tracing. We sincerely hope (and firmly believe that if the above protocols are honored) that we won't have to use this step, but if need be individuals will be contacted if a player is discovered to test positive for COVID-19
I know that this is a lot of information to take in, but as I'm sure you are all experiencing in your day-to-day lives this is the new normal we are living with. Again, our staff thanks you for staying diligent on keeping yourself, us, and your play group safe.
