Standard Pauper PRE Data Analysis

As part of my recent project to survey information from our players on the two Standard Pauper Player Run Events that are run each and every week through pdcmagic.com, I have been analyzing data from this year's attendance at both Monday Pauper Deck Challenge and Standard Pauper Deck Challenge. My hope is that after I've had the chance to sort through all this data and talk with individuals within the community that we will be able to make whatever changes need to be made to better support Standard Pauper going forward.

Let's take a look at my analysis from the data from MPDC and SPDC:

Click on the above image to enlarge it.

 Here's my take on this data:

1. Over just 29 events, we've had 96 unique players participate in one of our events. Of those, about ten percent have participated regularly, with another 15 percent playing occasionally. We're actually attracting a fair amount of new players, given that this spans only four months of time.
2. Unfortunately, of the 96 unique players, a full 43 of them have only participated once. While my data doesn't account for new players who have stuck around, it's still fair to say that we have a retention problem. The majority of newcomers don't stick around to play more than once.
3. Of the players who have participated in at least 5 events, only 4 of those only play in either MPDC and SPDC. The other 21 have played at least once in both MPDC and SPDC, although most show a decided preference for one event or the other (although this isn't represented in the graphic above).
4. MPDC has a higher overall attendance, which makes sense given that it's been running at that time slot and day for a whole lot longer than SPDC has been at its current day and time.

Bottom line, we only average about 13 players per event. That's the number we need to change. And that's what all these surveys and data is all about.

The Future of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge: Your Response

Earlier this week, I asked my audience to respond to a set of four questions related to the future of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge and my involvement in the Standard Pauper format. I was happy to see that this was the most commented post on my blog, and I thought I would take some time today to look at what you guys had to say.

For clarity, let's take the questions one at a time:

I. Are two weekly Standard Pauper PREs really viable given the recent trends?

Overall there seems to be solid support for keeping both events. It doesn't seem like there is any agreement on why things are trending down. Suggestions for improvement included making sure we secure long-term prize support, do a better job of advertising, and re-brand the two events to make the distinction between them more clear. But if there are really distinct groups of players for European and American timezones, it makes sense to keep both.

II. Can we find a reliable and skilled host or hosts to run these two events for the long term? If not, do you feel like I should try and take back hosting MPDC?

The community seemed unanimous that there are enough players willing to do the hard work to provide reliable hosts for the future. There was some question as to whether or not I actually have the bandwidth to be one them, which I will address next week. There was also a suggestion of organizing a group of players together to run both events more as a business venture.

III. Is there sufficient interest for me to go ahead and get this "league-style" event off the ground, or is that simply muddying the waters further?

The "league-style" event I have been discussing got mixed responses, with an almost even split between positive and negative. There was some thought that the success of the recent Hipsters league event was due to the fabulous prize, and that this shouldn't be seen as a support for leagues overall. It was also suggested that this league event replace SPDC, which is the Thursday night Standard Pauper PRE. The question was also raised as to whether this is really the best thing for the community going forward.

Thanks again for all of you who took the time to respond. Please feel free to use the comments below to continue the discussion. I will mull over this information over the next few days and then let you know early next week what I think this all means.

Thanks for reading, and sorry that this is so late getting out!