Business Spotlight: The Gaming Pit

For Pate Stevens, it only took one game to inspire him to run his own social gaming shop.

"I've only ever played Magic," he said, referring to Magic the Gathering, a popular fantasy card game that was introduced in the early '90s. It allows players to battle each other with decks of creatures, spells and items. 

Stevens is definitely not alone with his passion for Magic. Stevens' shop, , is a social gaming store that specializes in collectible card games such as Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh, board games and miniature tabletop sets. Equipped with rows of tables and chairs, the shop also hosts tournaments and battles every week, sometimes having as many as 160 people in one event.

Stevens, who's been playing Magic since high school, originally purchased the gaming business in 2005 when it was located in Duluth. After serving in the military and going to college, he started teaching middle schoolers, but then decided that wasn't the life for him. 

"In the same week that I decided to leave teaching, I went into my local card store, and the owner told me he was selling," he said. "I said, 'Well, hey, I'm looking to get out of teaching. What do you want for the place?' It was reasonable, so I jumped in."

He moved into its current location, in the Chick-Fil-A shopping center at 4805 Lawrenceville Highway, three years ago because it's closer to his Lilburn home and was a better fit for him financially. 

Magic is by far his biggest profit-maker: Stevens said the game makes up 80 percent of his business, because of the game's huge following and because the store buys, sells and trades the cards. The store itself has more than half a million individual cards, carrying items from the very early sets, which many stores don't have. 

"We have one of the largest single selections for Magic," he said. "We have a customer base that comes back and looks for the early ones." 

One of the biggest aspects of the Magic industry is its Midnight Flights, consisting of pre-releases of cards every four months. When the releases are held at The Gaming Pit, anywhere from around 50 to 100 people come just to purchase the card packs at 12:01 a.m on an early Saturday.

"These cards sell just like baseball cards," said Stevens. "Every pack has one rare that could be worth thousands of dollars, or hundreds of dollars or a dollar."

Magic drafts, tournaments and competitions are held at the Gaming Pit every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, where sometimes people as far as Alabama and Tennessee come to play one another for prizes. Pro tour qualifiers are held at The Gaming Pit, too, and the winners can gain pro points to join the professional Magic tours, which can win them big-time cash prizes. 

"It's not quite as large as the World Poker Tour, but there are people that just play Magic professionally," Stevens said, adding that there's enough money in it to make a career. 

Magic may be the biggest thing that goes on in The Gaming Pit, but there are other games and items, too. Still pretty popular, Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon cards are played in competitions and sold in store, and it can get crowded. 

During the Pokemon State Championships earlier this year, Stevens said the store held around 100 registered players, in addition to 50 to 60 more people who weren't registered. 

What's interesting to add is that Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh are youth-centered and often appeal to 6- and 7-year-olds, but the older crowd will sometimes compete alongside the younger generation. 

"There'll be 70-year-old grandparents playing with an 8-year-old," Stevens said. 

Groups for tabletop games such as Warhammer 40000 and Dungeons & Dragons come in on a weekly basis, too, just to use the space in The Gaming Pit, which is free for all to use. 

"We don't ever charge anything," Stevens said. "You can come in here and just play." But for something more like an official tournament or competition, there is usually a small entry fee in order to compete. 

Even to those who are new to the social gaming world, the staff is open to introducing and informing anyone on their products. Their games may appear to be aimed for die-hard players, but The Gaming Pit is all about just having fun. 

"We have some very competitive, highly decorated or accomplished Magic players, but then we have the casual gamers," Steven said. "It's fun. We're not overly serious." 

The Gaming Pit is located at 4805 Lawrenceville Highway in Lilburn. It's open Tuesday through Sunday in the afternoons and evenings. For a complete list of its schedule of events, check out its website and its Facebook page.