Ideas that PUI could consider for next year...

[Prime]

Optional entry fee would never work. It would never be consistent enough to calculate before hand and it would be impossible for a TO to buy extra prizes early because they wouldn't know who would choose to pay the entry fee.

What I feel would work would be an optional pokemon club (kind of like what they have in japan), where if you choose to be a member of it, it costs $__ a year, and you get points everytime you go to a tournament. You can cash in those points each year to get decent promos. I said the word decent, meaning that these promos wouldn't be POP promos. I know I'd be an instant member in a system like that, even if it cost $20 a year.

 

[DarthPika]

^ Same here. *sigh* Why does Japan get all the fun?

 

[Team Cook]

TCD -

That was me who wrote about inappropriate language. I said that it is on the rise. I did not say that I take no action.

Foul language is one the rise. Period. I, my fellow NE judges, and PTO all have zero tolerance. My point is that I don't know how consistent language control is being handled by the organizers/judges of events across the whole community.

I know it was you and my post was directed at every PTO, TO, and League Leader, not just you. It's just my opinion that if foul language is on the rise, then someone isn't controlling it properly. Here in my area, foul language isn't on the rise and the reason is, I believe, that the players know I won't tolerate it. Period.

Now my thoughts as a PTO / Judge on a few other things on this thread.

1) There are so many ways to think outside the box to keep the players interested. Jimmy is a smart man, he'll figure this out.
2) Keep the "free" tournaments.
3) Last couple of years, players made some noise about more events after Regionals, and we got more Battle Roads. See, they listen.
4) Ratings and Rankings are not bad. It may need some work, but it's fine.
5) Deleted. This "I'm in it for the fun" thing, then whining about everything else drives me crazy. I find it SO HARD to believe that people are whining about winning stuff in a FREE tournament. Here's an idea, QUIT BEING SO GREEDY!
6) I know a lot of people disagree, but I really don't think we should have a tournament that gives out a free trip to Worlds (other than Nationals). Winning a fully paid trip to Worlds at "ONE " tournament is crazy. Big deal, you're #1 for a whole day. Yehaw, great job! But, I think you should have to work ALL year for a chance at a trip to Worlds. You should have to show that you're good enough to play in Worlds. To me, that means being a consistent winner all year round. In my eyes, if you can finish in the top 25 in North America after everything is said and done, then you've proven yourself.



Have a GREAT day. Get out there and learn something new. Lend a helping hand. Tell somebody you love 'em.

See ya at Nationals.

Elvis has left the building. Now back to your regular scheduled programming.


Yes, I'm crazy. I blame it on Hannah.

 

[BANGINBOX]

Now my thoughts as a PTO / Judge on a few other things on this thread.

1) I'm not sure what "struggling store owners" has to do with any of this. But since it was brought up, I will say that there's so many ways to think outside of the box to keep the players interested. Jimmy is a smart man, he'll figure this out.
Where does it say anything about STRUGGLING store owners? I do not need to figure anything out. I was mearly looking for a way to get OTHER store owners more activly involed with OP. You obviously missed that.
2) Keep the "free" tournaments.
Easy to say. However, with no reasoning, this statement just dont cut it.
3) Last couple of years, a few of us made some noise about more events after Regionals, and we got more Battle Roads. See, they listen.
HUGE, HUGE difference between REGIONALS and BATTLE ROADS. The trade off is just not balanced.
4) Keep the ratings and ranking. It's fair, I think.
You THINK? It does not effect you directly and you could probably careless either way. We are trying to look for some suggestions to make this better. The consensus across the board is that it is seriously flawed and needs to be fixed. A statment such as this is not helping.
5) Deleted. This "I'm in it for the fun" thing, then whining about everything else drives me crazy.
Do you not see the changes in determination and demeanor of the players in your events? Can you honestly tell me that people are having the same enjoyable times that they were 2-3 years ago? I see more cut-throat matches and people crying at events, whats fun in that.
6) I find it SO HARD to believe that people are whining about winning stuff in a FREE tournament. Here's an idea, QUIT BEING SO GREEDY!
Again.... Easy for you to say.... Tacking on an entrance fee is being greedy? I dont get it, we as players are willing to dip into our own pockets to help with prize support, but that is GREEDY? Please explain....
7) For all of you complaining that you don't get enough events. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Become a TO, apply to be a PTO. Do what it takes to get more events. Get on your PTO, your TO, your League Leader. Tell 'em you want more events. YOU, as players control what goes on. Don't be afraid to be heard, voice your opinion, but do it the right way.
I am the primary one complaining Mike.... Are you telling me that I am not doing anything about it? I could get into what I AM doing but this isnt the place. You know as well as I do, there are more than enough people in the country willing to run events. There simply arent enough events annually to utilize all the people who want to help.
8) I really don't think we should have a tournament that gives out a free trip to Worlds (other than Nationals). Winning a fully paid trip to Worlds at "ONE " tournament is crazy. Big deal, you're #1 for a whole day. Yehaw, great job. Gimme more Mr. / Mrs. player. I think you should have to work ALL year for a chance at a trip to Worlds. You should have to show us you're good enough to play in Worlds. To me, that means being a consistent winner all year round. In my eyes, if you can finish in the top 25 in North America after everything is said and done, then you've proven yourself.
Again.... I really think that you could careless either way. Why is it that, if I do well all year then lose 1 match and possibly knock myself out of contention. You call this an accurate depiction of who is really the best? I am sure you do not really mean this. Have you not read all the threads by Chad about the ranking sytems? If not, try to familiarize yourself with them PRIOR to making a blanket statement like this. If Junior wasnt doing so well you would seriouly have a differnt opinion here. If I happen to win a MAJOR event such as a regional with attendance of 150+ wouldnt I be worhty of an invite. Not looking for paid trips, just invites.
9) Have a GREAT day. Get out there and learn something new. Lend a helping hand. Tell somebody you love 'em.
Mike, I LOVE you!!!

See ya at Nationals.

Elvis has left the building. Now back to your regular scheduled programming.


Yes, I'm crazy. I blame it on Hannah.

Mike, I have addressed each of your statements above. It is easy for you as STRICTLY a judge to sit back and offer up your opinions about issues that would not directly effect you. This was supposed to be a thread where we could have some new ideas to make things better. Statements are not suggestions to help better things. I am sorry but I never expected things like this to come from you of all people. You are to involved with this game to leave statements as simple minded as the ones left above. You are a smart man, I am sure you can figure it out.

Jimmy

 

[Charisychulee]

I personally don't think there should even be a Worlds Championship! It makes people crazy. It is slowly killing the game. Here's why.

1. Little kids that have no chance of ever getting into Worlds are getting upset and dissapointed.
2. Players are cheating, and stealing just to try and "get to the top" so they can go to Worlds.
3. People, like myself, are getting fed up with the fact that the poeple who can afford to go get all this extra stuff. Like I said before it is a slap in the face to all of us who can't afford to go!
4. Why is Worlds always held in Florida, California, or HAWAII??? Come on! I think this is the PUI employees picking the places that they get a FREE vacation to! Why hasn't Worlds been held in New York, Texas, Ohio places where they haven't been before?


Now about the rankings. Here are some reasons why I think the rankings should be abolished!

1. The rankings are rewarding players who are able to travel to multiple events during the season. With rising gas prices this just isn't fair. The rankings are supposed to weed out the best players from the rest, but instead the players who can afford to go to more events are the ones with better rankings. I've seen very good players not even close to making it to Worlds because they couldn't make it to "every event" that season, whereas players that they could beat 8 times out of 10 where going to Worlds because they went to more events.

2. The rankings are also, making players cheat and steal so they can get better rankings in an attempt at getting to Worlds. I don't like it, I just don't like it!


And NOBODY wants to play in Prereleases anymore. After you pay $25 to play and pay for the gas to get to the event it's not worth the few packs that you yet. Lets' say your a parent with 2 or 3 kids. It's cheaper to buy a box on e-bay and you're getting more packs! Which is hurting the gaming stores that run the events.

I will also restate the fact that a person who has already graduated college and has no children is in NO NEED for a $30,000 scholarship! Why is POP giving away scholarships instead of packs! The packs for prize support have been cut down every year, but the scholarships have gotten BIGGER! And some people can't even USE a scholarship! Either give out more prize packs or more paid trips to Worlds.

I'm sure I'll think of a few more things to rant about later, but you guys can think on and elaborate on what I've said for a little while!

-Charisychulee

 

[DarthPika]

^ You do realize that for a lot of us those Scolarships really help.

 

[Charisychulee]

^ You do realize that for a lot of us those Scolarships really help.

Maybe if you can't afford to go to private school you should be going to public shoool. And if you're in college maybe you should get a part time job to pay for your college like everybody else instead of relying on winning a Pokemon tournament!

 

[meganium45]

cc actually had a really good point.

Is Worlds really the root of all of this complaining?

Could the simple solution be to remove Worlds?

What would that imply...

Well...we could potentially add that in to another set of Regionals Events in the summer, branching out all across the US and the World (Nationals Part 2?) where people got to enjoy another major event, with scholarships and the like on the table.

It would mean that not just a miniscule percentage of players registered with OP get to play in Worlds, the biggest stage (in the US it is only 99 out of 7780 registered players who get to play in Worlds, that is essentially one in 78 registered players).

Given that there are probably 2 times as many unregistered players are registered players, only one out of every 150 players gets to play at Worlds in the US.

We had almost one in 3 registered players get to play at Regionals. That is HUGE. That is spreading the game out over a wide stage.

The "door prizes" at most all Regionals were elite. OK, I know mine were, I know Cook's were, I know Derek's were, those are the only ones I "know".

What a way to spread the Pokemon Love over the Nation and World.

Get rid of Worlds. There is an idea to debate.

Ratings system...don't need it anymore. No more grapes about that.

Nationals becomes, well, HUGE...

Vince

 

[Diaz]

I'd really like to see more worlds invites, even with out the trip. I feel like this year is a lot better than last year in terms of invites/trips and how they're given out. However, I think that the system we have now + regional winners would be best. Even if we need to drop a couple of rating invites for regional invites, I think it would be a change for the better.

Also, I'd like to see POP consider a top 64 at nats, because the numbers there are getting crazy.

 

[ryanvergel]

PUI already charges for an event... it's called nationals in the form of needing to buy a badge. Judging by the incredible growth of participants at nationals, the HUGE entrance fee hasn't stopped the game from growing.

New counter-argument, please.

Charging for cities or BRs isn't a good idea, but for regionals? nationals? Evan a 5 dollar entrance fee. or a fee for masters only. There are options.

 

[BLiZzArD]

PUI already charges for an event... it's called nationals in the form of needing to buy a badge. Judging by the incredible growth of participants at nationals, the HUGE entrance fee hasn't stopped the game from growing.

New counter-argument, please.

Charging for cities or BRs isn't a good idea, but for regionals? nationals? Evan a 5 dollar entrance fee. or a fee for masters only. There are options.

But It isn't PUI charging for the event it's the Origins Game Fair that nationals is held at.

BLiZz

 

[ARMondak]

Why not get sponsors for some of the bigger events??? There are probably several gaming companies such as Ultra-Pro that would be more than willing to put their brand on a tournament that would have nation-wide publicity.

 

[Robbgobb]

Maybe if you can't afford to go to private school you should be going to public shoool. And if you're in college maybe you should get a part time job to pay for your college like everybody else instead of relying on winning a Pokemon tournament!

Thank you for what I consider a really greedy and mean opinion. There are people who compete for scholarships in all shapes and forms. I know of doing good in school/sports. I know of writing essays/short stories/poems. I know of doing debates and interviews. I know of playing games other than Pokemon. This is what I consider a truly unenlightened statement. If I win a scholarship that I can not use then I will find someone I can help and feel good about myself. I have already seen people talking about signing over scholarships to someone else. I am glad that Pokemon Organized play is trying to promote getting as much education that one can go for. It is funny also how statistics talk about young adults living with their parents after high school and college have a better chance at success as they don't get into debt the way others do. Scholarships should be helping to keep debt down so don't understand how that can be considered bad.

cc actually had a really good point.

Is Worlds really the root of all of this complaining?

Could the simple solution be to remove Worlds?

What would that imply...

Well...we could potentially add that in to another set of Regionals Events in the summer, branching out all across the US and the World (Nationals Part 2?) where people got to enjoy another major event, with scholarships and the like on the table.

It would mean that not just a miniscule percentage of players registered with OP get to play in Worlds, the biggest stage (in the US it is only 99 out of 7780 registered players who get to play in Worlds, that is essentially one in 78 registered players).

Given that there are probably 2 times as many unregistered players are registered players, only one out of every 150 players gets to play at Worlds in the US.

We had almost one in 3 registered players get to play at Regionals. That is HUGE. That is spreading the game out over a wide stage.

The "door prizes" at most all Regionals were elite. OK, I know mine were, I know Cook's were, I know Derek's were, those are the only ones I "know".

What a way to spread the Pokemon Love over the Nation and World.

Get rid of Worlds. There is an idea to debate.

Ratings system...don't need it anymore. No more grapes about that.

Nationals becomes, well, HUGE...

Vince

Seeing this is truly something that I agree would be an interesting change. I have been to one Worlds and would not miss going to another though my nephew does want to attend again. Nationals is where I enjoy going and that is because Pokemon is not the only thing. I truly think of it as a fun 4+ days of gaming fun. I pay for the passes into it because there is so much to do and so much fun. Taking away the Worlds event would be fine with me. I could also live with the ratings being taken away because of that or invites just being given out to say 1st place States, top # at Regionals, top # at Nationals as those are Tier 2 events.

PUI already charges for an event... it's called nationals in the form of needing to buy a badge. Judging by the incredible growth of participants at nationals, the HUGE entrance fee hasn't stopped the game from growing.

New counter-argument, please.

Charging for cities or BRs isn't a good idea, but for regionals? nationals? Evan a 5 dollar entrance fee. or a fee for masters only. There are options.

I would not pay for Nationals if it was to play in one tournament. I pay for an Origins pass to do all sorts of things at Origins. Need to get a new counter-arguement yourself since most people I know do more than just Pokemon there. It is in a place to allow more people to see and possibly get interested. I don't know of any other event that has the number of things to do that the location Nationals is held has.

Will say now that I will stop playing if events are charged to enter. It is not that I am cheap as it is that there is not a reason to do so. I will go to league or find some other game. I know of some others who would stop as well. I know that if someone asked me that had little chance of making the cut would be told that unless just wanting to accept paying to getting some learning then might not be worth it. There is a BR in Dallas that will be at the library and will require paying for parking. I don't know how many won't show up for that and then there will be ones who fill a vehicle to make the parking cheap. I have been part of tournaments at another convention. I can tell you now that the Gym Challenge had numbers but then other events had almost nothing and most that did show up was someone already at the convention and decided to try it out (again for some of them). It is funny to bring that up when I can see a central location event that needs to be paid to attend has less than an event out of the way of most people has more people and is free.


I can say that prize support does bother me at the BR and CC level. I am not going to say it doesn't but I know that I view it differently. I will honestly say that longer events would make that matter less to me. Being able to have bigger top cuts and maybe more rounds would be great to me. I attend a great many but am looking at attending less events because spending an hour+ to get to an event then the same to get home for 3 rounds and top 2 cut is not really fun and is worse with the prize support. I don't see why limiting the top cut is necessary. I would prefer to see it based on PTO/TO and time rather than say an event running smooth and 5 rounds are done in 3 1/2 hours then seeing only 4 people making the cut. I go to events to play as much as possible. The prizes do matter to me (even if not winning them) but getting to play is more important and the combination of the two is really making me think on whether I want to try and attend events.

 

[DarthPika]

Thank you for what I consider a really greedy and mean opinion. There are people who compete for scholarships in all shapes and forms. I know of doing good in school/sports. I know of writing essays/short stories/poems. I know of doing debates and interviews. I know of playing games other than Pokemon. This is what I consider a truly unenlightened statement. If I win a scholarship that I can not use then I will find someone I can help and feel good about myself. I have already seen people talking about signing over scholarships to someone else. I am glad that Pokemon Organized play is trying to promote getting as much education that one can go for. It is funny also how statistics talk about young adults living with their parents after high school and college have a better chance at success as they don't get into debt the way others do. Scholarships should be helping to keep debt down so don't understand how that can be considered bad.



Seeing this is truly something that I agree would be an interesting change. I have been to one Worlds and would not miss going to another though my nephew does want to attend again. Nationals is where I enjoy going and that is because Pokemon is not the only thing. I truly think of it as a fun 4+ days of gaming fun. I pay for the passes into it because there is so much to do and so much fun. Taking away the Worlds event would be fine with me. I could also live with the ratings being taken away because of that or invites just being given out to say 1st place States, top # at Regionals, top # at Nationals as those are Tier 2 events.



I would not pay for Nationals if it was to play in one tournament. I pay for an Origins pass to do all sorts of things at Origins. Need to get a new counter-arguement yourself since most people I know do more than just Pokemon there. It is in a place to allow more people to see and possibly get interested. I don't know of any other event that has the number of things to do that the location Nationals is held has.

Will say now that I will stop playing if events are charged to enter. It is not that I am cheap as it is that there is not a reason to do so. I will go to league or find some other game. I know of some others who would stop as well. I know that if someone asked me that had little chance of making the cut would be told that unless just wanting to accept paying to getting some learning then might not be worth it. There is a BR in Dallas that will be at the library and will require paying for parking. I don't know how many won't show up for that and then there will be ones who fill a vehicle to make the parking cheap. I have been part of tournaments at another convention. I can tell you now that the Gym Challenge had numbers but then other events had almost nothing and most that did show up was someone already at the convention and decided to try it out (again for some of them). It is funny to bring that up when I can see a central location event that needs to be paid to attend has less than an event out of the way of most people has more people and is free.


I can say that prize support does bother me at the BR and CC level. I am not going to say it doesn't but I know that I view it differently. I will honestly say that longer events would make that matter less to me. Being able to have bigger top cuts and maybe more rounds would be great to me. I attend a great many but am looking at attending less events because spending an hour+ to get to an event then the same to get home for 3 rounds and top 2 cut is not really fun and is worse with the prize support. I don't see why limiting the top cut is necessary. I would prefer to see it based on PTO/TO and time rather than say an event running smooth and 5 rounds are done in 3 1/2 hours then seeing only 4 people making the cut. I go to events to play as much as possible. The prizes do matter to me (even if not winning them) but getting to play is more important and the combination of the two is really making me think on whether I want to try and attend events.

I agree with everything you said here, except that I would pay a small fee for better prizes.

Just a little idea. Why couldn't the US have 2 nationals? California has 2 states because its so big, so I dont see any reasone why the US couldnt have 2 nationals to make it a little easier on everyone.

 

[meganium45]

I don't think California had 2 states, just 2 regionals.

Vince

 

[Rainbowgym]

Charging a fee is killing the game for JR and SR players.
We are paying €5 for each tournament (and €10 for Nationals) and we see attendance not really growing like in NA.

What I would love to see , is getting back, best of 3.
For largers tournaments they can use pods (small pods so not the 64 players ones but 16 players pods orso)
And yes I know stalling might become a bigger issue, but still I prefer to have another game after loosing with a bad hand.

 

[Scizor]

We need Stadium Challenges or Super Regional type events.

 

[Mystery Thing]

4. Why is Worlds always held in Florida, California, or HAWAII??? Come on! I think this is the PUI employees picking the places that they get a FREE vacation to! Why hasn't Worlds been held in New York, Texas, Ohio places where they haven't been before?

No offense intended to people that live in those states, but how many Japanese, European, or Aussies want to go to Texas or Ohio? You need to have Worlds in a place that is going to be universally attractive in order to keep international interest in it. Everybody wants to go to Hawaii. Everybody wants to go Disneyworld.

It would be one thing to argue that you should move US Nationals around. We've done it here in Canada with our Nationals being Toronto the last few years and in Vancouver this year. I expect it'll be back in Toronto next year, and in Edmonton in 2010 or 2011. That being said, I totally see why PUI wants to keep the biggest (numerically) tournament in the world at a convention.



But no international player wants to go to Texas in the middle of August.

 

[Mew]

We need Stadium Challenges or Super Regional type events.

Thank you! Please see my earlier post! http://pokegym.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1104856&postcount=12

Also, the guy below me has a great point.

CC, and Vince talking about no worlds has me thinking, but worlds is such a staple to this game.

Finally, Ryan Vergel brings up a great point. Charge an small entrance fee for the masters. That's an interesting idea. Please if anyone reads this, don't bring up how Wizards tried to Kill the 15+ division. Comparing the WOTC era to the PUI era is like comparing Blech to Apples as Vince clearly pointed out.

 

[Bohn]

i keep saying: half of the rankings problems would be solved if nats wouldnt be premiere rated. its not fair a full consistant play during the season be ruined by 2 donks at 1 single tourney (no sour grapes, my nats is this weekend).
also the best of 3 like Lia said would be good.