Tips For Traveling
I am so excited that the competitive MetaZoo season is about to kick off with the Water Tower in March, I love traveling and playing MetaZoo, so I thought I would drop some tips I have gathered along the way since attending MetaZoo’s first ever sanctioned tournament to now.
Preparing for tournaments that are on the road is quite a challenging task. There are a lot of aspects that factor into the trip and can make it all very overwhelming or exhausting. No one wants to show up to a tournament full of sweaty competitors while being burnt out just from the trip there. A lot of people are local to Texas or Florida and haven’t really had to travel too far to compete in major MetaZoo events since MetaZoo frequents these states and has a lot of local players. If you fall into that category, then maybe some of the tips I’ll share with you will help out, as you prepare for the Water Tower and the journey to Ohio.
A great place to start is booking your flights and hotels at least a month in advance minimum to avoid drastically overpriced accommodations. Another thing I have learned that I find beneficial is to fly in on Thursday nights, and fly out on Monday mornings. This will give you plenty of time to settle in on Friday and brush off any jet lag and get freshened up for the tourney to come. Oftentimes you can book directly with the hotels over a phone call rather than a listing you found on the internet and save a pretty penny along the way. Another key thing to remember is that it is very convenient to be within walking distance of the event, so you don’t have to rely on an Uber or Lyft, which can become expensive very quickly. When booking your flight it’s important to remember that you can bring a carry-on for free with most airlines and you may bring a backpack that you can stuff under the seat on any flight, that’s two free bags, and you should have more than enough room to fit everything for the weekend.
Now that you have your trip planned, it’s time to get your deck lists together and get your collection put together in an orderly fashion. This can be rather tricky given that there are so many sets released and so many key cards from each set that you may need access to at any moment. If MetaZoo decides to do an unusual Terra format, such as the one from Caster Cup, which allowed each player to craft new builds in each different biome they played in. What I highly recommend doing is purchasing a rigid card box that is divided into several rows. This way, you can organize each aura type respectively in each row. Make sure the box you are looking to bring with you will fit inside your carry-on of choice and allow room for your toiletries and clothes for the weekend. I DO NOT recommend packing any of your cards into a checked bag, as airlines are famous for losing people’s luggage. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend a checked bag at all. It will save you money and time.
You made it, you arrived a day early, and you have all of your cards ready to go. Well, the next two days are bound to be very long, and mentally exhausting. You probably won’t have time for a lunch break and I wouldn’t count on having dinner until late that night on the days of the tourney. Since this is the case it is so crucial that you eat a hearty breakfast and get super hydrated. You will need to pack plenty of water for the tourney and ready to eat meals on the go. Something easy like granola bars, a PB&J sandwich or whatever you feel like, the key takeaway is that you WILL get hungry and you won’t have time to do anything about it unless you show up prepared. I highly recommend some electrolyte mixes that you can dump in your water to keep that energy high and your brain functioning at peak performance.
Hopefully something I shared here helps you out, and I’ll look forward to seeing you all at the Towers.