Crossword: Untimed (did it on paper. Felt pretty easy)
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Flying back to California for real tomorrow. It sucked to miss GP Santa Clara, even if I wasn't participating in the main event. I had cards to sell, side events, old friends. I like big tournaments, and I would play in more if they weren't do damn expensive.

GP Las Vegas 2015 cost $100 for the standard package. But that was ok. It was sealed deck, so came with 6 pack of Modern Masters (MSRP ~$60) and some other swag.

GP Las Vegas 2017 (with 3 overlapping events) cost $90 per event. One of the events was sealed, but it was Amonkhet (MSRP ~$25). And it cost the same as playing Modern or Legacy (free to the organizer, but putting together a decent deck in Modern will cost the player hundreds of dollars, possibly thousands in Legacy). And the sleep-in special was mandatory, whether you had byes or not. Yes, it's a big deal. There are artist signings and a convention-esque experience. But is it really worth it? You could sign up for all 3 events, but in order to make money, you need to make top 100, which means making day 2, which means, if you registered for more than one event, you're resigning yourself to scrubbing out in one of them. I hope it was Friday and Sunday, or you're out your registration fee for Saturday.

PPTQs are getting this way, too. Nobody should have to spend $45 in a constructed tournament just to play when they already spent time and money building their deck. When you have weekly $5 tournaments at your game store, it takes chutzpah to ask for 9 times as much money to try and take their game to the next level. We may not get back to $20 PTQs, but $45 for the benefit of playing with your own deck? Its even more egregious when the TO owns the space people are playing in. If you have to rent a hotel ballroom or something, that's one thing, but if all you really need is hiring some judges, the excessive cost of tournaments isn't justified.