So we ran our first casual FNM last night (Chaos booster Back draft), and encountered some interesting details:

1st) There is the standard 8 person attendance minimum (we had 6 at first, with 2 late entries to fire an 8 person event). The event won't let you even start without 8 players.

2nd) The events are rated. All players received full seasonal and yearly planeswalker points for the casual format event.

Are these details supposed to be normal, or is this a new issue with WER? I was under the impression that we could run casual format events like any other casual format event (not with details 1 and 2 above). We haven't tried EDH yet, or league, or the “player list only” function, but I imagine some interesting results.

Ben,

Sanctioned casual events have no minimum usually- they just do as much as you can, and each player gets 1 lifetime PWP point total. Never have seen ratings points for casual formats.

The official sources that can actually answer this question are on vacation. Until they return, I am going to delete the unofficial (but well-intended) answers, and lock the thread.

Patience, please.

From Charles Rapkin at Wizards of the Coast:

The answer is two players, and the official source you can quote is on Planeswalker Points: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/PlaneswalkerPoints/Information#LifetimeTotal

See the Lifetime Points section, first bullet on the “Here’s how it works” subsection, last sentence:

Casual events are always worth at least 1 point, and don't include participation points or event multipliers. A casual event can have as few as two players.