It was a long road to get here but here we stand – the aftermath of the Mega-Launch Party held at EPIC Ipswich!
Honestly, It’s been nearly 3 days and I’m still living off the high from that night.
With predicted numbers in the low 30s, we smashed that number with over 43 people in attendance at the event that cost $99 per head. Oh boy was it worth it! For those that have unlikely forgotten it already or were unfortunate and couldn’t attend, here is a recap:
The Event
Set-up for the event was a bit of a shamble (admittedly my under-preparedness for the numbers in attendance). Tickets were given out to those who pre-booked each with a unique serial number that correlated to a raffle ticket entered into our pre-booked draw for an entire booster box!
Attendants signed in using eventlink and after having to familiarise myself with the draft setting on it on the fly, finally, draft pods were generated. Boosters were hurriedly distributed, no seriously, I was in such a rush I cut my finger open on a booster box in the process.
Drafting commenced with a lot of high-end pulls (INCLUDING AN IMPERIAL SEAL!).
Decks were assembled and cross pod combat ensued – 4 rounds of it. Why make it a late night and do 4 rounds? For starters the high numbers in attendance, secondly the owners increased prizes… ALOT and thirdly, a friendly L2 at the event pointed out that despite the lengthy night, it’d be unfair for some people to win every match and still not make the top prizes – Chris if you read this you have my undying gratitude for helping me realise this.
Prizes!
I wasn’t the only one blown away by the attendance of that launch party. The truly benevolent owners in the humble gratitude for the Magic the Gathering community increased the freaking prize pool by alot.
By cracking open the case at the end of the night, the prebook contest booster box was intended to be distributed from among that as part of the giveaways meaning each person in attendance would receive 2 additional booster packs. This was changed to have the box separate from the case meaning more boosters for everyone – moreover, instead of everyone receiving 3 booster packs from a case, they decided to round up and open another case to ensure everyone walked away with 4 Booster packs ontop of the 3 packs everyone drafted!
Their generosity didn’t cease there, instead of top 3 getting 3 additional booster packs each, the top 5 each got prizes!
1st place – 1 collector booster and two draft boosters
2nd & 3rd place – 3 draft boosters
4th & 5th place – 2 draft boosters
Promos were drawn at random using the same serial ticket numbers as WotC hadn’t supplied us with enough to cover everyone at the event.
Hear this. Despite all the sales of collector boosters and draft boosters, the one pack he gave away contained a TEXTURED FOILED EMERAKUL AEONS TORN! For those who aren’t aware, that is (at the time of me writing this) a $300 card.
An Authors Gratitude
We (the staff at EPIC) received a lot of feedback back from that night and all that has reached my ears so far has been nothing but positive.
I wish I could take full responsibility for the night’s success, but am unable to do so. The launch party was very much the brainchild of the owners and their love of the community. It was done to celebrate and give back to this fandom and game we all love.
I myself would’ve struggled to have the venue set up in time had it not been for Jon, Gottie and Ky. You guys rock and I thank you. Chris, thank you again for helping me with the four rounds. To ‘Captain’ Pat, thank you for helping me get the event set up and filming the draw of the Social Media Prize.
Thank you, all of you, in this wonderful community and a huge congratulations to all for the great wins, prizes and pulls throughout what is a truly unforgettable night.
Your Friend and Ally,
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