Premium members are supposed to have access to 2 free tournaments a week according to the store. I have premium, but when I tried to enter a premium tournament it asked for points so I didn't enter. Is this a bug or does it not actually take points if you havn't spent your 2 tournaments per week?

Are there only 2 premium tournaments per week? Or should there be something in the interface noting how many more premium tournaments you can enter for free?

Thanks ahead of time for your responses.

Rothmorthau

It doesn't actually deduct any points if you are a premium subscriber. Unfortunately the client still says the non-subscriber point cost even though it doesn't charge you. This should be changed.

The premium tournaments all have Premium in the name. It isn't just any tournament because everyone would pick the expensive Grand Tournaments with the largest prizes or Qualifiers if it was any tournament.

So enter any tournament with Premium in the name if you a subscriber and you won't be charged any points.

Does it actually keep track of the 2 per week though? How do I know if I have done 2 already or not?

There are only two held every week. It's not possible to enter more than two, so there's no need to keep track .

.
Right now Premium membership is described as having 2 of them a week, but the schedules are so different on the tournaments, it makes it impossible for anyone with responsibilities to make them both. I can never make the earlier scheduled one, as it is more for Europeans, and I don't see many of them on at the night ones for America.

Couldn't there be a way to just apply your "2" free entrances a week ? Perhaps have a cap at 25 points or even 12 points, that way Grands are safe? Maybe even prevent it from being used on satellites too.

As it is now, I have used maybe 1 of my free tournaments in the last 6 weeks or so due to the difficult schedule.

Great idea! When you register for a tournament, if you have not yet used both your two free tournaments, you will be asked if you would like to enter for free, pay to enter, or decline to enter. This way the premium tournaments can be removed completely, and there will be a greater population in normal tournaments which will encourage entry from players who either aren't subscribers or have already used their two free weekly tournaments.

Premium is already too good a deal. People are already abusing it. We are not going to make it better. If anything, we will be making it worse. The tournaments are just an added benefit. If you can play them, that is a plus. If you play none, you are still getting ridiculous value versus buying packs, points, and a premium card separately.

Ah, I see the problem. If a premium account could play any two free tournaments per week, then players with multiple premium accounts would never buy points to enter tourneys. But this doesn't change the fact that players with only one account, like myself, often miss both premiums.

Since there are so many free tournaments, its not that big of a deal, but now what I hear is that what was promised to me in my account subscription may now be decreased simply because some players are "abusing" multiple accounts?

I am completely confident that this isn't some deceitful ploy by the company and there are legitimate concerns. But the process of advertising a service with a membership and then completely limiting that service seems like a common scam tactic. If the average person works 8 hours, sleeps 8 hours, and has 8 hours of free time (which is very generous), there is only a 33% chance they will be able to make this tourney. My work schedule is completely random, and even though I may be on break, it may not be enough time for a tournament - I certaintly don't believe I make 33% of them myself.

Maybe you can check how many premium tournaments I have made it to (or maybe I can in my tourney history), but I would estimate that in the 3 months since I have had my membership, I have made it to maybe six premium tournaments... that's just a guess, but that is what it feels like.

My suggestion would be to raise it to four premium tournaments per week with different times, and only allow each account to enter two. If there is a bigger problem with account or membership harvesting, the answer should not be to place the burden on the single account customers, even if its an easy solution for management. I have neglected to ever mention the point harvesting the company is doing through Co-op's->Pro Points->Big Tournament Byes, which essentially forces competitive players to buy and complete co-ops - not for the cards or prizes - but for the pro points. Even though the cards may be a good deal, I may not necessarily need them.

All I know is that I buy points for tournaments, buy points for co-ops, so from my personal perspective, I really feel that the two premium tournaments should be made more available to me than simply two random times I probably won't be able to make. I'm sure there are other players who feel the same. I understand the bigger concern of multiple memberships, so I see why the suggestion by Fantom won't work, but there must be some way to make these two promised tournaments slightly more available. I'm sure there is some middle ground here, we don't need an NFL labor dispute.

Good points you made and well stated, Doug.

We are not going to change premium for anyone that has already paid, so we are not going to change what you were promised. We have considered raising the price for all new premium members.

We have always intended there to be two set free tournaments a week. If you can play both great. This has not changed. We have also added a lot more free tournaments than we have intended. A LOT more.