One of the complaints that I've heard about the new PTQ structure is that traveling to a Regional PTQ might suck if your friends don't also qualify. I'm here to offer a bold solution to this problem.

Make more friends.

If you want to play high-level Magic, you're going to find yourself meeting new people and wanting to go places that your best friends aren't interested in going. Or, if you actually qualify for the Pro Tour, places that you'll want to go with other people preparing for that event. People that you may meet strictly because of such a tournament.

Several years ago there was a tournament circuit called the Midwest Masters Series. The Midwest doesn't always see as much action as the coasts, and this tournament circuit was implemented to provide $5k tournaments in places that tended to get such tournaments less frequently. Top 8 competitors at these $5ks were then invited to a championship tournament at Gen Con.

I played in one such tournament during Jund Standard and I Top 8'd along with my carmate Jens Erickson, who ultimately won the event. After the final swiss round Jens and I grabbed some food with Matthias Hunt and Forrest Ryan, who had also just Top 8'd. Jens and I didn't know Matthias or Forrest especially well at the time, but we made plans to travel to Gen Con together, and I've traveled to many places with them at various points after this trip. In fact, Matthias and Forrest were both among the group that I would later stay with when I qualified for the Pro Tour in Nagoya.

Shortly after my return from the Pro Tour I was contemplating quitting Magic and decided to put things in fates hands by letting the results of an SCG IQ determine what I should do about the game. I ended up splitting the finals without losing a match on the day and locking up an invite to my first Invitational. Once again, I found myself in a situation where I would need to travel to an unfamiliar place without the company of any of my close friends. I looked into people from Minnesota who had qualified and saw that one Mark Hinsz who I had recognized from MN PTQs had Top 8'd an Open, so I sent him a message on Facebook about his travel plans. I ended up staying with a large group of Minnesotans in Charlotte, most of whom I previously had very few interactions with, among them being Mike Hawthorne whom I had met at the IQ and who I now Cube with weekly.

These first few events were a little tough for me to manage, but now I'm substantially more established in the Minnesota community and many more people know me and are willing to travel with me. The same is not necessarily true of your average PPTQ winner, and I have two major pieces of advice to anybody looking for travel mates for an RPTQ.

Be Overly Respectful in Your Approach

The people who you end up traveling with are doing you a favor. Be friendly, send them a message introducing yourself and inquire as to whether their travel plans can accommodate you. It's unreasonable to expect people to accommodate you, and be grateful if they do. You might have to put feelers out for several cars before you find a ride, but being cordial in your approach is really the best way to minimize the amount of effort you have to put into finding a ride.

For Minnesotan PPTQers Matthias Hunt did an awesome job of creating a Facebook group and inviting everybody who won a PPTQ as they won. The group serves as a message board for finding rides and also just for general networking. I don't know if such a group exists for other places, but if they don't and you're looking for travel mates then this is a very easy and effective way to get the ball rolling.

Give People a Reason to Travel with You

If people have no idea who you are, you're at a disadvantage in the travel department. People look for people who are fun and/or great at the game to have in their car, though the former is almost universally more important. Just because you believe you're great at the game isn't a reason for people to want to travel with you. Whether you have an enjoyable temperament and whether you share what you know with others is going to matter a lot more to potential travel companions.

Joining a travel group and just posting "I need a ride." isn't likely to get you anywhere. Everybody needs a ride, and there are a lot of people qualified. What makes you special? Do you have a rich uncle that can host a car full of Magic players near the RPTQ or perhaps some hotel rewards that you're willing to cash in for a room? Even something as simple as having a dependable vehicle and offering to drive and looking for people to split gas and hotel with will get you somewhere.

You need to offer more than just your need, because everybody who wins a PPTQ has that same need. If all you do is say that you need a ride it looks like you're treating other travelers as a means to an end. It turns out that people don't like being treated that way, and when you treat people like this there is a very low chance that they will go out of their way to accommodate you.

This all ultimately ends up being sub-sections of the general rule to just be a polite and respectable person. If you carry yourself well, people will like you and want to be around you, and you'll have a much easier time getting where you're going.