Last week Reid Schmadeka, Events Manager for Organized Play at Wizards of the Coast, sent emails to a number of gamers who had been solicited for Dreamblade 1K events scheduled for May to July of this year informing them that WotC was 'scaling back our 1K program.'  The announcement sent ripples through the fan community with some even speculating that the Dreamblade CMG would be going the way of the Star Wars TCG, but Tolena Thorburn of WotC clarified the situation for ICv2: 'Wizards of the Coast did not cancel any confirmed scheduled events. Due to inconsistent attendance in some areas of the country, we're changing the rate at which we schedule our events and have decided to focus Dreamblade $1K tournaments in locations that have shown the strongest repeat attendance and highest concentration of players.  Consequently, some venues that were previously solicited for an event had to be removed from the list for consideration.'

Postings on the WotC Dreamblade message boards confirmed that the Dreamblade CMG is much more popular in some areas of the country than in others, with organizers of some 1K events regularly averaging over 30 players per tourney, while others struggling to attract more than a dozen.  Ms. Thorburn noted the regional variations in attendance as the major reason behind the revamping of the Dreamblade OP strategy.

Ms. Thorburn told ICv2 that WotC was refocusing, but still continuing its OP (and product) support for the Dreamblade CMG: 'We will continue to promote and support Edge Tournaments all over the country to build player communities at the store level. Our revised tournament schedule is posted on our Website.  In addition to the $1K events mentioned above, we are excited about our upcoming product releases, $10K events and the $50K championship at Gencon Indy this summer.'