As we recently announced, we've switched our tournament date from Thursday to Friday.  However, this change has sparked a little controversy.  Also, we've been offered the opportunity to start the Friday Night Magic program here in the UAE.  So, in time-honored tradition, we're putting the decision to a vote.

First, we're going to take a look at what Friday Night Magic (FNM) is all about.  Then, we'll examine how this would affect our normal tournaments.  Finally, we'll announce the vote results.

What is Friday Night Magic?

OK, let's take a look at the Friday Night Magic program.  This is a special program designed by Wizards to help promote Magic and introduce new players to tournament play.  The environment is fairly light and friendly, pretty much like our normal tournaments.  Tournaments must be a minimum of 8 players each, and the judge can play if you use the three-judge system.

There are two key differences between FNM and our regular tournaments.  First, FNM offers fantastic prizes in the form of promotional foil cards.  These incredibly rare and highly valuable cards are very hard to get outside the program.  However, at each and every tournament, we MUST give out three cards to players!  One goes to the winner, one is given out at random as a door prize, and the third is a sportsmanship award given out at the discretion of the tournament organizer.  Note that these would be in addition to the normal prizes -- booster packs and such.

The second difference is that FNM tournaments must be run weekly.  This doesn't mean that you personally must attend each week; it just means that we need a minimum of eight players each week.  Also, the only allowed formats are Standard, Booster Draft, and Sealed Deck.  This means that we wouldn't be able to do Extended or Rochester Drafts.

FNM dates and times

FNM gets its name from the fact that in the USA and Europe, it's run on a Friday night.  Players have just finished off a long week, and need to blow off some steam before kicking into the weekend.  So, they play some fun Magic and win promo prizes.

If we do FNM here, it doesn't have to be on Friday nights.  We can do FNM on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday nights.  It's your choice.

As to times, FNM is traditionally done in the afternoon and it runs into the early evening.  We can set the exact time later on.

How would FNM affect normal tournaments?

Well, it would be very difficult to continue normal tournaments if we do FNM.  Therefore, if we decide to start the FNM program, we would cancel all our normal events.  They would be replaced by the weekly FNM events.  As stated above, we wouldn't do any more Extended tournaments, but we'd still have Standard and Draft tournaments.

What if I don't like FNM?

If you decide you don't like the idea of FNM, you still need to decide whether you would prefer to have our normal  tournaments on Thursday or Friday.  (Obviously, we couldn't do it on Wednesday!)  Our tournament schedule would remain the same as what we have posted.

Where can I vote?

The vote is now closed.  The results can be found here.