2014 Continentals Playmats!

by Charlie Plaine, Chairman

16th June 2014

We love talking to the community, and listening to the concerns, suggestions, and ideas from our players from across the world. Many of our major decisions are a direct result of those conversations, and we are always looking for ways to implement new ideas that we think you will find fun. But there are always suggestions and ideas that we can't implement, either due to legal entanglements or financial difficulties. No idea is ever cast away, in case the situations ever change. Today, we're pretty excited to announce that we've been able to do something that has both been long awaited and frequently requested by members of our community: playmats!

At each of our Continental Championship events, we will have prize playmats for our winners and some of our top finishers. Before we get into the details of how they will be awarded, why don't you take a look at the amazing art on these play mats:

Here's a look at one "in the world:"

These playmats are professionally produced, and are the same size (24 inches x 14 inches) as most playmats on the market today. The background is one of many gorgeous images of space provided to the public by NASA, and is suitable for use in any card game (but especially appropriate for games of First Edition, Second Edition, and Tribbles!) The bottom right corner features the logo of The Continuing Committee, and the bottom left corner features details about the events this mat is associated with:

These mats were created by our awesome and incredibly talented Art Director, Johnny Holeva. We're very excited to bring them to you! As mentioned earlier, these mats will be available at all three Continental Championships (Australia from 3 July to 6 July, North America from 11 July to 13 July, and Europe from 25 July to 27 July). The Top 4 finishers in both the First Edition and Second Edition events at each Continental will earn their very own playmats, as will each Tribbles Continental Champion. In addition to these top finishers earning a playmat, one will be given to the Continental event organizers for their hard work (and as a souvenir to remember the occasion)!

But what if you aren't able to make it to one of the Continentals, or end up not placing high enough in the events to win a playmat? You might think you'll be out of luck... but you'd be wrong! We're well aware that these are going to be highly in demand items, and we have developed a plan to make playmats available to anyone that wants one. At the same time, we want to keep the unique prize nature of these playmats, and make sure that the players that earn them are recognized for their achievements.

In order to strike a balance, we plan to offer a nearly identical playmat - without the event branding - to anyone that wishes to obtain one. Here's what we mean:

We're still working on ironing out the details of how to make these playmats available to anyone that wants one. You will find a short survey below this article. You can help us to figure out the best and most economical way to make these playmats available to everyone, everywhere, by taking a few minutes to complete this survey. Once we have the results, we will post another article with details on how you can get your very own copy!

These have been a hotly requested item for a very long time, and we're very excited to finally be in a position where we can bring these to you. We hope that you will be just as excited to win them as we have been to make them!

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