Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Annual Pokegym Mutant Booster Draft (SWISS) @Nationals Sat. 6/26

Ryan, thanks for the suggestion, I will pass that to Trish.

To everyone else, sorry, I am still bushed, so I am not going to respond to all the posts separately. I will say this though.

The event did have problems - TOM deciding to pair all 7 rounds at one time really messed things up for operations. That required a basic restart of the event at that point.

243 total players was huge... way bigger than we were expecting. We did not have enough people to handle those numbers - period. That was an issue that will be addressed in the future. Also, having a clear cut staff is going to be addressed. I did not know who was working the event until I got there and is a couple cases, that was not even clear.

To the Staff - Patricia, Chrisbo, Tonja, Dwayne, Simba, Duke, Erin, Ronae, Stephen, Christine, sadly I know there are others there too, Thank you. You guys did an excellent job, even with all the challenges.

To the players - thanks for showing up. You guys being there showed us how popular this event really is. There were problems, but as Troy pointed out, that should be expected at any event. Thanks to those that stuck it out.

This was the first time in my participation of this event that we ran swiss instead of single elim, we made this change for you guys. We are always looking to better the events for the players. We have learned a lot from this one and they will be better in the future.

Wayne - 2010 Mutant Draft Head Judge
 
Overall, I enjoyed the event. I did not find Spookees to be rude at all--I definitely did not expect to see her light up when I gave her my Gym Heroes packs for entry. I would say the only real slop of the event was the lack of prizes.

For problems, EeveeLover highlighted them in his post:
EeveeLover said:
243 total players was huge... way bigger than we were expecting. We did not have enough people to handle those numbers - period. That was an issue that will be addressed in the future. Also, having a clear cut staff is going to be addressed. I did not know who was working the event until I got there and is a couple cases, that was not even clear.
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Why was 243 people not expected? Slaking38 said that staff said they only expected ~100 people. That's really low as an expectation for this event. And yes, it was difficult to recognize who was staff.

To Spookees: Thanks again for running the event!
 
First of all i want to Thank EVERYONE who donated prize support for the event, without you there would be little if any raffles and/or prize support.
Also a huge THANK YOU to those who VOLUNTEERED to help staff the event.
Chrisbo
Simba
Wayne
Dwayne
Tonja
Ronae
Chris
Erin
Stephen
Christine
Anthony

Most of these people worked all day at the main event and then with barely enough time to eat, shower, say hi to a few people, they then show up to help run the Mutant draft and many stayed till the very end 2:40am. Without the volunteer staff we could not have had this event.

Just to clear up a few things: we did expect 120-170, as we started to climb over these numbers the volunteer staff scrambled to set up more tables. I don't know of anyone we turned away. This is a fun event, as long as i was still entering players (which went past the 10pm deadline) we let people enter the event. Some came event later and got a first round loss. We hit a new record of 243 players.

Also EVERY player should be thanking Chrisbo and Simba. The tournament software crashed just as you all started playing round 1. If it wasn't for THEIR expertise, there would not have been any more rounds. It took them 45 minutes to almost an hour to get the program running for the remaining rounds.



Things we are changing for next year:

There will be 3 or 4 computers set up to take registrations and there will be 3 or 4 Mutant Drafts run at the same time. This will eliminate the length of time it takes to enter the players and to enter all the match slips (120 match slips for one person to enter wins/loss and drops takes longer than the 20 minute round).

One volunteer staff person will be in charge of the prize support and/or raffles. We did not have the time to plan out prize support and opted to use everything for raffles given the challenges and delays we faced with TOM and the time it took to enter in match slips.

I do apologize to anyone who felt any negative implications from myself or the volunteers, In order to run the event as well as we could we all needed to keep focused, Distractions always create a slow down and delay. We want to start the event as close to the posted time as possible as much as you want to. We will review all of the posted suggestions for improvements.
We will continue to have this event at Nationals each year.

Thank you to all 243 players for making this a FUN event. See you next year!
 
Please bear in mind, the very first Pokemon Nationals was about the same size as this unofficial side event.
 
Honestly, other than the long waits that occurred before rounds 2 and 1, I had a good time: got to meet a few new people, and actually go a positive record despite drafting the worst lines in the history of the game, lol.
 
I had a good time overall. The no prize support was a little disappointing and maybe I would've been more angry at the waits if I was more then half awake but whatever. I appreciate everyone who ran it. Spookees also didn't come across as mean to me but more stern and making sure things happened.
 
I am really mad. I had to drop, then the next round, people got pokegym dice. Can bds reserve one for me :DDD
 
@ Patricia and Wayne, and the other staff.

Many thanks are well deserved for all of you for the efforts put it. Until you are on the computer side of these tyoes of events, and have the TOM not cooperate, you cant really appreciate how it goes or what it takes for these events. I guess that should have been in my fisrt post. And I know Wayne took a real earfull from me that night. For that I do appoligize. I think that hunger and frustration had taken over my better judgement. Being the TO for a large group that participated in the event made me the first at the complaint line for these folks, and may have also fed to my anger.

Dont get me wrong, I was and still am greatfull for the efforts that all of you put in. To say your had your hands full is kind of like saying the surface of the sun is a little warm. I think that with a little more support from the higher up; ie extra computers, staff, supplies, or whatever it may have needed; would have made for some smoother times at the event. Guess thats why everyone works to improve the events every year. :thumb:
 
Troy,

Thanks for the feedback both here and the night of the event. To say I felt the pain that night is an understatement. However, many of the issues that night and the feedback that we got then and here are being incorporated into next years event.

You heard it here first - next year we will have 500 players!!!!!
 
I had fun. Swiss was the way to go. We should have hit CC before they closed as they had some older packs in there booster bin. Can't wait for next year.
 
gallade said:
I am really mad. I had to drop, then the next round, people got pokegym dice. Can bds reserve one for me :DDD
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There will be more chances to get a PokeGym Dice this year. They will make an appearance at Worlds. There are also some set aside for the prize pack we'll use for the Celebration at the end of the year. As a last resort, you could always trade for one. By my count there should be around 400+ in circulation after Nationals, so someone you know may have one.

BDS
 
Big Daddy Snorlax said:
There will be more chances to get a PokeGym Dice this year. They will make an appearance at Worlds. There are also some set aside for the prize pack we'll use for the Celebration at the end of the year. As a last resort, you could always trade for one. By my count there should be around 400+ in circulation after Nationals, so someone you know may have one.

BDS
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i just found out that if i did not go to nats, i would have gotten an invite, so worlds is out of the question... will they be giving them out as door prizes in oregon???
 
Some people may look at me weird, but why does this tournament have to be held at Midnight? Is that even a safe idea with all the staff needing sleep for the next day of events?

I'd run it on Sunday. If next year's Nationals go the way this year's did, half if not more of the Nationals staff will be relieved of their duties after the top cut gets smaller. And hold it around 10AM. That gives the tournament a good 6 hours before everyone needs to get out.

I think it's a really cool idea, but the whole "midnight" aspect of it wrecks havoc on every facet of the event. The players get little sleep and sleep in, missing stuff the next day. The staff get little sleep, which is not good when the most important rounds coming up the next day.

Just a suggestion.
 
Prime said:
Some people may look at me weird, but why does this tournament have to be held at Midnight? Is that even a safe idea with all the staff needing sleep for the next day of events?

I'd run it on Sunday. If next year's Nationals go the way this year's did, half if not more of the Nationals staff will be relieved of their duties after the top cut gets smaller. And hold it around 10AM. That gives the tournament a good 6 hours before everyone needs to get out.

I think it's a really cool idea, but the whole "midnight" aspect of it wrecks havoc on every facet of the event. The players get little sleep and sleep in, missing stuff the next day. The staff get little sleep, which is not good when the most important rounds coming up the next day.

Just a suggestion.
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the staff that was 'released' from judging top cut was sent to help out in side events. if mutant was held on sunday night, you're asking those who run this to give up their invites to the staff dinner...

'mom
 
I don't think the tournament has to start at Midnight to be a midnight draft, as long as it runs past midnight I feel like were good, jmho.
 
This was the first mutant draft I have ever attended. Normally I just got back to my room at the end of the day to rest and get ready for the next day, but coming in there it was such an amazing feeling to see all your smiling faces and see so many people anxious to have fun. I'm really glad I stayed. Thanks Wayne and Patricia for letting me help! To echo was has been said, it is true that we were overwhelmed with both players and initial problems. I want all of the players who played to know that each of us who volunteered that night had only the best of intentions to help you all have the best time you could. Wow, and 243 players?!! I just might be willing to help next time again :) I have a feeling that next year's will be just as amazing, and much better, so please come! :)

p.s. Gallade, I might have an extra dice. pm me and I'll let you know if I can get one to you:)
 
I must say even though there were some problems in the begining,over all i had a very enjoyable time and met people there that i will never forget. This mutant draft should be used at every nationals it was a blast!
 
SD PokéMom said:
the staff that was 'released' from judging top cut was sent to help out in side events. if mutant was held on sunday night, you're asking those who run this to give up their invites to the staff dinner...

'mom
Click to expand...

Notice, I said to start it around 10AM. I doubt it'd take 9 hours to complete, and we'd have to be out of the hall by 4PM anyways.

I feel like the volunteers can do the side events just fine. Maybe have one judge over each side event, instead of the 3-4 we had on Sunday, and send the others over to run the Mutant draft (before noon).

Seems possible.
 
But the mutant is a fun event, not run by TPCi. Why would they have the people they brought out for Nats on the clock to be at mutant?
 
Like I said earlier, I'm very glad to see Mutant Draft return; however, a couple suggestions for next year's (or the next one this year, assuming an arm of the staff is interested in organizing one at Worlds):

-Do actual draft. Although it's less inviting to new players, and takes more time than sealed, it gives this fun event a whole new edge.
-Do swiss+ top cut. Alternatively, do double elimination to keep things moving, yet allow for variance.

While these may not be the most practical ideas in the world, I think that if they were to be implemented, then the event would be amazingly epic.
 
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