We know a lot of our players have been waiting for an update regarding upcoming prereleases Magic The Gathering Kamigawa and Pokemon Brilliant Stars, so we’ll just jump straight into it.
We have made the decision that we will not be running either of these events in store. I understand this will be disappointing for many, but we simply are not yet ready to bring back organised play.
Recently we shared a longer post detailing our reasons for pushing in store gaming back – if you have not read it yet, I strongly recommend taking a look here, as it provides context for our decisions. If you have already read this, you may remember one of the things we were keeping an eye on was the number of Covid cases in Cheltenham. We shared an image of the case rate at the time of writing – and at that point, we could see a downward trend, with significantly less cases with each week, which made us hopeful.
Unfortunately, over the last two weeks, there has been a complete reversal of this trend. Here is a look at the case rates for Cheltenham as of Friday 4th February:
With Covid cases rising again, and all our other circumstances unchanged, we do not feel it is safe enough for either staff or players to run an event in store. We will be continuing to monitor the situation on a weekly basis, and plan to reinstate organised play as soon as we are ready. (Please be aware that the number of cases is not the only factor we are considering, but at the moment it is certainly one of the most concerning.)
Prerelease At Home
As we won’t have any events but will have the prerelease kits, we will be offering these for sale from the official prerelease dates!
MTG Kamigawa: Available in store and online from Friday 11th February. You will receive two additional booster packs if you give us your Wizards/Arena email address when you purchase your pack(s)!
Pokemon Brilliant Stars: Available in store only from Saturday 12th February. You will receive three additional booster packs if you purchase your pack by Thursday 24th February!
Restrictions apply: max one prerelease pack per customer, not available online, in store collection only.