Want to find out how we’re awarding the prizes at North American Sneak Preview tournaments? Read on . . .

The Nitty Gritty

In the U.S. and Canada, 50% of the playmats and deck boxes will be randomly given away as door prizes after the first round. The number of prizes is determined by attendance—the more players at a location, the larger the prize pool. This way, you have an equal chance to win no matter what event you attend. Remember, door prizes will only be given out to players in the first tournament of the day at each event, so make sure you come early!

At the end of a tournament, the remaining playmats and deck boxes will be given to the top finishers. The playmats will be awarded until they run out, and then the deck boxes. Each player eligible for a playmat or deck box will also win the exclusive Extended Art Sneak Preview prize promo.

There are two rules for these prizes:

1) No player can win two of the same prize (deck box or playmat) by winning one as a door prize and then a second one by his or her final standing.

2) If a player would win a second copy of the same prize, he or she still gets the EA prize promo, but the deck box or playmat will be randomly given away to a player who played in the last round but did not finish high enough to win a deck box or playmat. Prizes do not “roll down” for any reason.

For example, a Sneak Preview tournament with 32 players will have a prize pool of 8 playmats and 8 deck boxes. Four of each of them will be given out randomly after the first round. At the end of the tournament, the first- through fourth-ranked players will each receive a playmat and the EA prize promo, and the fifth- through eighth-ranked players will each win a deck box and the EA prize promo. If the player in third place won a playmat as a door prize, that playmat will instead be randomly given away to a player who played in the last round and finished ninth or lower. The third place player will still keep the EA prize promo and the playmat that he or she won as a door prize.

Some of you have asked me, “Why make this so complicated?” Our philosophy is really simple—half of these awesome prizes go to players who do well, and the other half go to people who showed up and just had a good time. I originally proposed that the door prizes be given away at the end of the tournament to players who didn’t win a prize based on their performance. This meant that players would have to stay the whole time to get a chance to win them, which would hurt people who had to leave early if an event ran long. While our method described above is a little clunky, it does the same thing as if we’d waited until the end.

Sneak Previews are for everyone, from brand-new Vs. players to those who have a couple of Pro Circuits under their belts, and the way we give away prizes is designed to make everyone happy. Competitive players have a number of other tournaments, like Pro Circuit Qualifiers and $10,000 Championships, where they can earn cash and invites to the Pro Circuit, but for Sneak Previews, I wanted to reward not only the top finishers, but also the fans of the game.