Draft League

 Hey everybody, welcome to the Draft League, hosted by the Gathering4Magic blog & the Draft Radio Youtube channel!

You can head over to the Draft League Headquarters to sign up, record matches, check standings, and as well as having discussions with other members of the draft league, and of course, find out when the next Draft League 8-man will be hosted.  You should also check out the Tournament Center when a draft is in progress to check the pairings and current standings of those in an 8-Man.

 What this is
This is a Draft League for Magic: the Gathering players who enjoy limited and are interested in playing 8-man draft tournaments online for free on  http://www.Tappedout.net/ (for drafting and deck building) and www.untap.in/ (for matches) with fellow members of the draft league, rather than jumping into a random draft and hoping to get to play at least one opponent a night with a draft deck, if we’re lucky.  We’d rather test our mettle against people interested in playing as well as drafting.  The Draft League Match Recorder is where we record matches results of these tournaments.  The Standings Page is where these results are reflected in your League rating.  Everyone starts out at a base 1500, and the system adjusts this score based on your results in the 8-mans matches. We will be Hosting Drafts of the Gathering4Magic Peasant Cube, as well as whatever the current set(s) is/are.

Getting Registered

If this sounds like it is up your alley, and you want to be a member of the Gathering4Magic/DraftRadio MTG Draft League, there are a few places you need to sign up first, in order to participate.  First, you need to register a username at http://www.challengeboards.net/ (preferably with a univocal username across all platforms, though some of us have screwed that up!) so you can check the standings, report matches, connect with other members and find upcoming tournaments.  Next you need to register at http://Challonge.com/ so you can sign up for a tournament when it goes live so the TO can invite you to their draft queue! Then you need to register/log in at http://tappedout.net/ so you can draft and craft your decks!  Finally, you’re going to need to register/log in at http://untap.in/ so you can play out your matches.

Staying Connected on Twitter
Though not required, we encourage members to sign up for and use Twitter so you can stay up to date when TOs decide to host a tournament, and so you can stay connected with other members of the draft league, as we engage one another and the rest of the MTG community.  I have found that Twitter is a much more conductive site for meeting and engaging strangers (and potential new League members!) than other forms of social media, and is a great way to share content with the community at large, as well as with each other.  Again, not required, but useful.

Gathering4Magic Ethos:

We want this Draft League to be a community that is first and foremost committed to keeping this a fun and friendly environment for all comers, both veteran and newer players alike. We must strive to keep this a sodium-free environment (READ: NO SALTINESS against your fellow drafters/opponents!), for the betterment and enjoyment of all participants. We want to be genuinely humble winners and kind and gracious losers who can be competitive without having to be salty when things aren’t going our way. There is nothing on the line here, so we want to play for the love of the game and the thrill of competition (and maybe some friendly bragging rights!), not for the prizes we can acquire. We want to be able to learn from one another and improve as players and as drafters, and that doesn’t happen when people feel threatened or attacked because they happened to topdeck the right card.

Basic Tournament Structure:

All Participants in a Draft League Tournament need to be registered members of the Draft League at the Challenge Board, with at least one participant acting as Tournament organizer (TO). Then after registering at/logging into challonge.com you need to head over to Draft League Tournament Center and get signed up for the tournament you want to play in. Once TO has 8 people registered, everyone heads over to Tappedout Draft Simulator where the TO will setup a draft and invite the other members.  (TOs: I generally recommend the full minute time setting per pack, so it is harder for people to get unnecessarily booted for timing out during a tough decision).

Once you have 8 league members in the Tappedout draft queue, TO launches the draft! After the draft is over, you will have 15-20 minutes to build your deck (TO needs to announce deck-building time and Match time limits prior to firing the draft). Once players have their decks built, everyone heads over to Untap.in, where the matches will be played out. Once at Untap.in you need to find your opponent and create a match. 

Pairings are to be found at the tournament page you registered at.  Each round will be 50-75 minutes for a match (again, TO will announce Round length prior to the firing of the tournament).  TO will be keeping time and informing matches when time is up at which point they are to begin 5 extra turns after the completion of the current turn.  After player A finishes their turn when time was called, player B will take a turn, then player A, Player B, Player A, Player B. If at the end of turns there is no winner, the player who won the most games wins the match.  If at this point they are tied 1-1, we ask that the losing player of G3 would be gracious enough to concede the match.  If no clear winner/loser, and/or players don’t wish to concede the “winner” is randomly selected by TO witnessed d20 roll off.  I know of no better solution at this point, so if you have suggestions please let me know in the comments.

 After matches are done the results are recorded on the Draft League Match Recorder by the winner, and the loser needs to head to the Match Activity page verify the match.  After results are recorded inform the TO of who won the match so he can update the brackets, and the next rounds pairings will be given, and matches played, until there is a winner! Any conflict or issues need to be brought to the TOs attention (who will likely just be me at first) so they can make a decision. All Judge rulings and questions should be taken to http://chat.magicjudges.org/mtgrules/ by both parties & TO of available (to verify) These would include questions on how something in the game actually functions, how a mechanic works, how two mechanics work together, whether or not you can do that think you thought those cards could do, etc.). Any other questions or comments can be directed to me at: gathering4magic@yahoo.com or on Twitter.  I’m also generally around the Untap.in lobby when tournaments are going on that I’m a part of.

 Good luck and Game on!