Recently, Wizards of the Coast announced changes to their Wizards Play Network (WPN for short) and how stores could qualify for it. Before, there were three levels:

• Core - these are the stores that are setting up or else small in scale. They might have a fairly small player base or do a low business volume.
• Advanced - Advanced stores were the ones that had an established player base and ran regular events. These stores were given more opportunities to run bigger events and be given special products.
• Advanced Plus - Advanced Plus stores were very similar to Advanced but were granted even larger product allocations and specialty items. These were also the stores that would often host large events like Pro Tour Qualifiers and the like.

Now, everything is under one level, allowing for Wizards to scale based on the needs of each individual store. There is a small exception, however, given to stores that excel beyond the rest in every way. That is the WPN Premium Store status.

Now, as you know, I write articles with CoolStuffInc.com and have since September 2018. What you may not know, however, is that I actually work at their main location at Maitland, Florida. Numerous things are being done every day to ensure access and availability to an excellent stock of products, but that's all in the back.

The front houses CoolStuffGames - Maitland, the premier location for games in the greater Orlando area and my own local game store. The store recently attained WPN Premium Store status and to commemorate this achievement, I sat down with Alex, the manager for the Maitland storefront, to see just what makes his store stand above the rest.

First and foremost, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about what you do at CoolStuffGames?

Hi! I'm Alex Carroll, store manager here at Cool Stuff Games Maitland for the past 3.5 years. I'm in charge of general store front operations.



It's great to have you here Alex! Can you tell everyone what makes CoolStuffGames such a special place to go for tabletop gaming?

Well, I'll just quote from our mission statement. "We strive to provide a positive and inclusive environment for all players regardless of age, gender or skill. To create a welcoming and positive environment for all who play here, encouraging sportsmanship and the power of community."

That's not only our mission statement, but our creed. This is a store of gamers who love sharing their passion with other gamers.

Why is it better to come to a CoolStuffGames location than other stores?

All Cool Stuff Games locations provide a clean, safe environment for players to indulge in their passion for gaming. We stay away from this "clubhouse" mentality that some stores have that really only benefit certain players. Too often that mentality is just plain gatekeeping for others trying to get into these games. A growing community is always a healthy community and we really try to foster that here.

That's a really wonderful focus to have! How do you and your staff strive to maintain such an inclusive, family friendly environment?

We maintain a clean, well-lit store front that's always welcoming at any hour. We also understand that this is a destination for families, so we're quick to call people out on excessive language and unsportsmanlike conduct to create a welcoming atmosphere. We're also always happy to teach interested players the games we sell and deliver outstanding customer service.



How do you keep the store looking as amazing as it is?

A lot of hard work! We always try to keep our guests in mind when we look at the store and take a look at what can we be doing to make sure this is a place our guests want to keep coming back to.

What kinds of products do you offer in the store itself?

We sell the latest sets of Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Dragon Ball Super and a variety of other collectible and trading card games. We also carry a wide assortment of board games for all skill levels.



Plus, we're attached to the singles warehouse for Cool Stuff's online website, CoolStuffInc.com, so we have thousands of card singles for guests to purchase and walk out with same day.



Do you run any events for those games at the CoolStuff Games - Maitland location?

We sure do! We have an eclectic event schedule for all of our games. Any night of the week you can come in and find something going on. D&D on Mondays, X-Wing on Wednesdays, a wide variety of Magic: the Gathering tournaments throughout the week, Pokemon on Thursdays, and of course, Friday nights are always hopping thanks to our Friday Night Magic and weekly Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.

If anyone is interested in the specific events we run, including our special events, they can check out www.coolstuffgames.com/maitland for our complete calendar.



Can you tell me some more about the kinds of events you and your staff run? Anything really cool coming up in the near future?

Outside of our weekly event schedule, we also run special events on the weekends. This is our chance to try out fun new formats, give some love to games we can't fit on our weekly schedule or run massive events for crazy amounts of prize support!

In terms of what's coming up, the War of the Spark Prerelease is coming up on the last weekend of April and there's no better place to play one than a CoolStuffGames. You get the check out the latest set early, have the chance to win a fantastic amount of prize support, and you always get cool gear like exclusive playmats and our Heavy Metal Magic tokens. We run multiple flights through the weekend and it's always a great time.

Tell me about your staff. I know there are lots of friendly faces who run the store front and I'm sure players at home would love to hear about them!

My staff is really my second family. They're a diverse and eclectic mix of personalities who have gathered here because of the love they have for the games we all love. Whether it's Magic, Pokemon, board games, etc, they're knowledgeable in the games we sell and love sharing that passion with our guests.

Special shout out to Jordan, James, Hunter, Joe, Lexi, Brent, Elijah, Josh, Sam, Jonathan, Justice, Mark, Matt, and Anthony!



Those are definitely some amazing people to shout out! Lastly, how do you feel about the new Wizards Play Network and the changes the new system brings with it compared to the last one?

Change is always difficult for people, and it's definitely going to be a period of adjustment for stores, but I think this will ultimately be a change for the better. The marketplace is different now than when the WPN was introduced, so this is going to allow Wizards to cater more to a store's player base.

And for us, our new Premium status is only going to benefit our players, giving us access to exclusive events and products. This is definitely an exciting time for Cool Stuff Games Maitland.

And what an exciting time to be a tabletop player! Thank you so much for your time, Alex.

Wow, Alex sure had a lot to say! CoolStuffGames - Maitland is a fantastic store and one I'm proud to call home. You can find games going on of just about any variety every day of the week in one of the cleanest and friendliest stores you could ever hope to set foot in.

Some events are even streamed now on the CoolStuffInc.com Twitch page (twitch.tv/coolstuffinc), so be sure to give the channel a follow and turn on notifications to see when events are streamed. You might see the regular Pokemon League, the weekly Monday Magic Modern, specialty auctions, and more!

Whatever your needs, CoolStuffGames has it. If you're in town, be sure to make the trip out and come see us. If you drop by on Tuesdays and you might just see me jamming some Pauper. Even if you don't, there's still plenty to do. Make sure you stop in and see just what a WPN Premium Store has to offer!