Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

The Future of Malaysia’s Pokémon Trading Card Game Community

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KaMewie

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The Future of Malaysia’s Pokémon Trading Card Game Community.​


There aren’t many Malaysian players on the ‘Gym. Most of them are on the ‘Beach and even more of them don’t even come on sites/forums. With this, I am standing up for my country to let the world know the state of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Community in Malaysia.

You see, the amount of Malaysian Pokémon Trading Card Game has blossomed by a lot since the arrival of a new era; Diamond and Pearl. As for now, we are not in a very good situation. This is because of the lack of support from Pokémon Organized Play which is also known as Pokémon USA.

Before this year, every year we have had only two Premier Rated Tournaments per year. City Championships and National Championships. Last year, 2007, a total number of 7 players earned an invite to the World Championships held in Hawaii, United States. Only 4 of them went as 3 of them got 2nd place at National Championships which is not a full paid expense trip. Is this enough to compete with our Asian rivals; Australia? It’s really hard. They have more support from Pokémon Organized Play and their Tourneys are all free. Even with our only two Premier Rated Tournaments, we still have to pay to enter. An average of RM 20 per year, for Cities and RM 40 for Nationals (RM 3.4 = $1 USD.) This may not sound that expensive, but do you guys know that the average wage for a Fast Food Restaurant worker is RM 3 per hour? With this, we are still coping with the financial status.

Now, stressing on Tournament Organizer-ship. There are currently 2 TOs. We had only one TO for like, since Premier Rated Tournaments ever entered this country. We just had our second one like 2 weeks back. There are currently no Professors that I know of. This will mean that at any tournament, there are no judges. The number of cheaters will rise and disrupt the community. The problem of players here is that they do not want to become Professors as they’ll be the one in a few. Other people will be bugging them to judge here and there when they feel like playing. If they reject, you know what’s next. It’s really hard to cope up with these stuffs here. Now, with our 2nd TO we can maybe, just maybe, have one more cities, a couple of BRs here and there. Still, it’s just a maybe. We need support from POP as it is not cheap running these events.

With all of this clearly said, I hope members of POP in the ‘Gym look on this topic and at least give a little co-operation to save the state of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Community in Malaysia. Thank you.

With regards,

Fabian Santiago.
 
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KaMewie said:
There are currently no Professors that I know of. This will mean that at any tournament, there are no judges. The number of cheaters will rise and disrupt the community. The problem of players here is that they do not want to become Professors as they’ll be the one in a few. Other people will be bugging them to judge here and there when they feel like playing.
Click to expand...

Maybe you don't realize it, but it is professors and people who were professors and stepped up to become TOs and PTOs that run the majority of events here in the US.
Without those people stepping up to run things, we wouldn't have any events either.
 
Yes, but on the whole, we still need the attention of POP to get aleast more than 2 Premier Rated Tournaments :/.
 
The local distributor is the entity that supports local events, though.
I'm not sure what you are looking for POP to do.
They can help the LD with advice, but they don't financially support their OP for them.
 
how can you ask for *more* premier events when, as you've stated yourself, you don't have any qualified judges for them?

if no one is even willing to become a professor in order to assure the events you already HAVE are judged correctly, just what is POP supposed to do? keep holding events...and adding MORE events?...that are quite possibly corrupt, with cheaters 'winning'? how will that 'grow' OP in your country?

i'm not sure what you want POP to do, nor people on the 'gym; if all those in the player community there are people who want to play but are waiting for 'someone else' to do the work of ensuring the events are run correctly then there's not much anyone can do for you.

OP here in the US would not be what it is without the people who step up and give back to the game as professors, league leaders, judges, TOs and PTOs; if people there aren't willing to do the same then i don't know what to say...=/

jmho.
'mom
 
I think the best thing to do would be go to elementary schools and promote the game there, so you can get a good player base and get parents involved. The parents most likely wouldn't be interested in playing, but there would almost certainly be some parents that would be willing to assist running tournaments and be judges. Most, if not all of the PTOs and the majority of high level judges started out in this fashion. It'll take time, but eventually you should get plenty of participation. Best of luck.

Off topic - I would GLADLY work at McDonald's for $10.20 an hour, based on the exchange rate you posted.

[edit: Please don't quote a long post for no reason. It just takes up a huge amount of space. - Pop]
 
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A large chunk of the US organized play base is filled with Professors/judges/TO's/PTO's/etc. they are people who not only play the game, but give back to it. If you are able to spark more involvement in the game, you'll be able to get people to start becoming professors and trying to build the state of the game up in Malaysia. It's a lot of hard work, and will take time, but Mondak has a point. Elementary schools, libraries, bookstores, card shops. Those are a lot of good places to start out. Try and get leagues together, and that should be the spark to fuel the fire.
 
Malaysia has a very big player base at it is. And there are alot of world class players there too.

All Malaysian players need to realise though, is that they aren't going to get what they're asking for unless a couple of people are willing to step up and become Proffessor's/Judges/TO's/LL's.
 
SD PokéMom said:
how can you ask for *more* premier events when, as you've stated yourself, you don't have any qualified judges for them?

if no one is even willing to become a professor in order to assure the events you already HAVE are judged correctly, just what is POP supposed to do? keep holding events...and adding MORE events?...that are quite possibly corrupt, with cheaters 'winning'? how will that 'grow' OP in your country?

i'm not sure what you want POP to do, nor people on the 'gym; if all those in the player community there are people who want to play but are waiting for 'someone else' to do the work of ensuring the events are run correctly then there's not much anyone can do for you.

OP here in the US would not be what it is without the people who step up and give back to the game as professors, league leaders, judges, TOs and PTOs; if people there aren't willing to do the same then i don't know what to say...=/

jmho.
'mom
Click to expand...


I think maybe his hope is that if there is a bigger player base with more tournaments and attention more people will step up to become judges. I believe judges usually come about in two ways. The first being a player who decides he'd rather judge, and the second being parents who go with their kids to tournaments. Both of these things would increase if there were more players. And more events = more players. Maybe I just like to be optimistic but I feel that if players there felt they had a more fair representation and a better chance at making it to Worlds that they would be more apt to stand up to corruptions in the system and speak up louder. If they don't think they get anything even if they speak up, they have no reason to speak up.

I am not saying that POP should step in and handle everything for the players, but I think that in general POP showing an area attention is good for the game in that area. People like having foundations structured in something bigger than themselves and their peers.

JMHO.
 
the thing is: POP itself does not run OP in most countries...they contract with the *local distributor* to do so. the *LD* is the one setting the event admission, the *LD* is the the one who runs the events. he's essentially complaining to, and about, the wrong people by doing it here.

imho it's a chicken-and-egg situation: what comes first, 'good' OP or a large playerbase? if the OP they have now is 'corrupt' because people don't want to be the ones making the effort to ensure events are judged correctly, how can they seriously ask for 'more'? more events with inept judging/cheaters 'winning' won't grow OP in a way anyone would want...

'mom

 
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I agree with you on most of that, but I guess I feel that POP should want to try to step in and fix the situation. I'm assuming POP has some leverage in discussions with the LD on how they run things.
 
Shaw, they well might, but whatever they do, they can't discuss it on a message board, since it involves a third party.
 
KaMewie said:
There aren’t many Malaysian players on the ‘Gym. Most of them are on the ‘Beach and even more of them don’t even come on sites/forums. With this, I am standing up for my country to let the world know the state of the Pokémon Trading Card Game Community in Malaysia.
Click to expand...

I suppose it's a *tad* off topic, but does anyone know what happened to the Malaysian Pokemon player that went by lunatone_solrock here on the Gym? I guess this topic would be the best place to find out, if anyone knows...
Again, my apologies if it's too off topic, but I'm really curious...
 
Firstly, 1 MYR (or RM)= .314 USD, not 3.4 USD. So, I'll pass on that McD's job for 94 cents per hour.

Secondly, I'm very, very sorry. POP is well aware of the issues in your, and other markets. However, we cannot FORCE anyone to run more events. We cannot magically deliver prizes and product to your country, and if your distributor doesn't wish to do so, there is not much more we can do.

There are options currently being explored to help the state of OP in your, and other Asian markets, but these are not likely to materialize until next season, and, are likely to require even more 'fan' based support, and not necessarily be as prize rich as the few events you get now.

Market forces have far more to do with the level of support your LD gives you, than anything else. If they aren't making sufficient revenue (or what they perceive as sufficient revenue), they are not going to spend the time and money on OP (which, is an expense).

I hope to be able to offer your market more in the coming seasons, and we will continue to do what we can.

Professor Dav
 
Croftminster Make enough, they're just too lazy to do anything with OP- half the staff said it themselves... they dislike OP Lol :) Then they go fire the one person who did it effectively.

KaMewie: I understand where you're coming from. But don't think it's all sugar coated buddy-buddy OP for us. We are having our fair share of issues too.
 
Our LD, Comics Corner, is not doing a good job. As you can see by clicking this link. When was the last time they updated the site? I know, we need more Professors, TOs, PTOs, Fan-Based support. The thing is, the financial status for us, the mindset of people in this country that this game is for kids. With all that, we cannot get more players to suppor the community that well. There is only 2 modified leagues in the whole of Malaysia. One in Atria, Toyzbar and one in Bangsar Shopping Complex, Comics Corner. How are players from other states going to travel across every week. Just for league? Honestly, I don't think we can do much if players and parents are not going to step forward to become involved. I apologize for the wrong currency exchange it's actually RM3.40 = $1 USD. POP, we are not forcing you to do anything to help us. Basically, there's not much you can do. All we want you guys to do is to knock some sense into our LD, and OPM. You should know our OPM William right? You should know how many complaints you guys have been getting regarding his bad management. Thus, we need you guys to provide more support in prizes, and give some ideas to our lame OPM on how to encourage players to play the game, promote the game, and such.
 
Anyone calling for Malaysian? *raises hand

Although i wish to play in the tourney, But the biggest problem is that i dont live anywhere near KL (the one and only place for tourneys). So, buying the packs carry no meaning to me.

I dont think there's much POP can do. W/o more players, we wouldn't have more PO/judges and the likes. BTW, Malaysians' income is ridiculously low. It's hard to even keep yourself alive here, let alone buying packs to build decks for some tourney w little prizes. Also, Poke-tcg is .... always considered a 'child's game' here. Even cellphone is more popular than poke-tcg!

Can ANYone do anything to help?~
 
PokePop said:
Shaw, they well might, but whatever they do, they can't discuss it on a message board, since it involves a third party.
Click to expand...

Good point, I have to say after rereading the topic I feel a bit guilty. I know POP does what they can and that it isn't so black and white.
 
Nice post by KaMewie and Dav.

As others have implied, the best way to get better OP is to start small. Even in the US, areas without healthy leagues don't have big tournaments. You state there are 2 in your country, so try to organize some more. It sounds like it will be difficult to do with an uncooperative LD, but I'm sure many other international members of this forum can relate a similar story and give you advice.

And at least POP is listening and wants better OP for your country, too. That's all the advice I have to offer.
 
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