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[fp]

There really isn't anything. There will be a world champion this year, but that event is struggling to be more fun than serious. The WBC no doubt crowns a champion; that is probably as serious as it gets.

What is that event?

All I know about "that event" (as opposed to the WBC, which is something else), is from the RGG site:

Please visit our booth (925) and gaming rooms (140-141) at Gencon this year. We have a new promo card for Dominion. Also, we will host the US qualifying event for the Dominion World
Master Tournament (to be held in Essen, Germany in October). The winner of this event will win a trip to the convention in Essen to particpate in the Tournament. Preliminary rounds will be held on Thursday and Friday; finals on Saturday. Visit us in rooms 140 & 141 to enter and play.

This seems a bit backwards. I went to GenCon last year with the intention of playing a lot of high-strategy board games (among other things) and was disappointed because WBC happened to land at the same time. Dominion (given that it's Dominion) did not have much presence. The same thing is happening this year. In fact, the two main events for Dominion in Indianapolis and Lancaster occur on the same days!

In any case, given my experience last year, holding the tournament at WBC would probably be a better idea.

[rrenaud]

If you are RGG, you want eyeballs.  I think GenCon draws about an order of magnitude more people than WBC.

(From my experience, convention quality is inversely proportional to size, WBC > origins > spiel in quality, but spiel > origins > WBC in size).

[Taco Lobster]

Non-quantifyable arguments such as "the game is good enough to sell on it's own" are just absolute lunacy.

I'm not sure that arguments based upon quantifiable, but completely made up, numbers are any better. 

If the game will sell itself by selling a single copy, imagine how it will sell itself by flipping that 1 copy into 20, and all the exposure that it gains as well.

And, if the owner of the store purchases a copy for the purposes of generating sales, thereby increasing the revenue of the owner's store, it's potentially a net benefit to him as well.  If having a copy of the game available at the game store increases the sales, it's in the interest of each party to purchase it - there's no reason one party needs to give it away for free.  If the store owner can sell 20 copies by buying 1 and doing a demo, it's most likely in his interest to do so.  I suppose there are always those people on the bubble who would be persuaded by a free game to run a demo, but I don't know that there are enough of them or that they are sufficiently motivated by a single free copy to become an Unstoppable Marketing Juggernaut.

I'd be particularly wary of a guy going booth to booth, asking for free games and promising to demo them at his store (particularly if he already has a stack of games from others who have fallen for the line - unless he's got an infinite amount of time, he can't demo all those games, and I have no assurances he would demo mine in preference to others).

[fp]

If you are RGG, you want eyeballs.  I think GenCon draws about an order of magnitude more people than WBC.

(From my experience, convention quality is inversely proportional to size, WBC > origins > spiel in quality, but spiel > origins > WBC in size).

Conversely, if you are RGG, you want to please the loyal customers you already have, and further you want eyeballs that are you going to more than eyeball. That being said, there are different pros and cons between the two choices.

In any case, I strongly believe that competing against the largest (we are talking 200+ players) and most established Dominion tournament is a bad move by RGG.

[Razzishi]

Dominion suffers from the problem that it does not have a good way of extracting from the consumer exactly how much money they are willing to spend on it.

We do not see this as a problem! Yes, the way to extract maximum utility from customers is to charge different people different amounts for essentially the same thing, such as via bonus tracks, or Magic's scheme. But it isn't necessary to bleed customers dry in order to be successful and make more games.

Oh I assure you it's not a "problem", and I applaud game companies that don't take this philosophy because it is an example of the nature of capitalism preventing certain outcomes due to them not making people enough money.  I don't mean any of it as a criticism of the game, but as a "problem" in the development of a high-level competitive scene.  In order to be able to leverage the advertising value of a funded tournament, there has to be a significant potential upside to make it worth the cost of holding the event.  Even if there's no significant prize, there's significant expense in renting the necessary space and getting staff members who can run it efficiently; a poorly run tournament held in a hell-hole may have a negative impact on players' brand perceptions.  In order to fund something with entry fees only not only might you run into legal issues, you have to get enough people willing to risk their cash.  Low level Magic events are immensely helped by having prizes in product or store credit; the value of such things to the players is up to twice the value of them to the organizer, making everyone feel like they are potentially +EV on the whole deal.  What sorts of things do you have to give away for Dominion that would attract people?

I certainly am not opposed to the idea of highly competitive Dominion play, but I don't think the game design lends itself well to it. 

[Axe Knight]

Here's a question:  What, do you think would be a good money prize for 1st in a Dominion tournament?  Something that is enough to entice people to come, but also realistic considering the state of the game?

[Thisisnotasmile]

At my FLGS, £10 cash or £20 store credit.

National, £50 and some dominion goodies (promos, card sleeves, or something).

Worldwide, £100 + Trophy and maybe something like one of those turntable things that people have made on BGG.

[Jack Rudd]

The chess tournament I run has its sections set up so that the section's prize fund is covered by 20 people entering it. (This year's Open section had an entry fee of £30 and prizes of £240, £180, £120 for 1st-2nd-3rd, with a grading prize of £60. The other sections had lower entry fees and lower prizes. This is somewhat on the high end for a local weekend congress.)

[Axe Knight]

Do you think the attendance would be higher with a larger prize, or would it not matter?  For example, what if it were $500, $1000, or even $2000?  (currently approximately £310, £625, and £1250?)

[Thisisnotasmile]

No. I think that would just encourage people to be in it purely for the money and make the event have a horrible atmosphere. Prizes that big would probably be more likely to dissuade me from attending rather than the other way around.

[^_^_^_^]

Ok First of all I have to say that there was too much text for me to read every single comment but I read a good amount. I would like to say that I play Star Craft as well and follow that pro scene a bit. Blizzard(company that made Star Craft and Star Craft II) tried to force SCII to be a pro scene but it's the fans that make a game have a pro scene with tournaments, stars, etc. If you want tournaments, why don't you start one? Inspire others to host their own and you'll have the pro-scene you've been waiting for.

edit: There have been $100000+ tournaments.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/index.php?show_part=8
Many Star Craft 1 tournaments
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/index.php?show_part=36
Look in this link(SCII). There is a tournament named "€15 000 ASSEMBLY Summer - ASUS ROG Tournament". Now THAT is the type of money you were talking about.

edit2: These are almost all streamed or at least recorded and posted on YouTube.

edit3: A nice show that was made of the "stars" vs the fans
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=66794

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=118879
An old tournament for SCII that got a LOT of hype. Was one of the biggest tournaments during the time.

[Axe Knight]

Comparing Starcraft, a computer game which already had a massive fanbase waiting for it as "Warcraft in space", with Dominion, is probably not a good idea.  Starcraft also costs less to get into the pool, and computer games are far more universal than strategy games.  I think Dominion has a bit more work cut out for it...

[^_^_^_^]

I was talking about SCII as well which costed some people $100+ and others $50+

edit: To poster below me. 1) That is biased and not true. 2) Pro gamers play it 10-12 hours 3) Korea saw it as a good game and the fans there decided to start a tournament and gradually got sponsors and teams and the teams got sponsors and so on... there was talk earlier about Star Craft dieing as Star Craft II gets bigger because of the lack of sponsors/fans.

[Taco Lobster]

Comparing Starcraft, a computer game which already had a massive fanbase waiting for it as "Warcraft in space", with Dominion, is probably not a good idea.  Starcraft also costs less to get into the pool, and computer games are far more universal than strategy games.  I think Dominion has a bit more work cut out for it...

Starcraft also has a unique advantage in that every man, woman, and child in South Korea plays it 6-8 hours/day.