Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Are there going to be enough Masters able to qualify for Worlds this year?

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meganium45

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I look down at every division, and it appears that there are a limited of players within "putter" distance (50 points) of a Worlds Invite for North America.

Masters Currently have only 10 players qualified and 6 in "putter" distance.

I know we are still up against the stretch of 3 states, 1 regional, and battle roads to make up points, but compared with other divisions, the masters looks like it could end up light.

For comparison, Seniors, 20 players qualified and 14 in "putter" distance.

Juniors, 14 players qualified and 4 in "putter" distance.

Juniors could be an issue too, as most Junior Champions will not simply "get out of the way" for other players, and will try to maximize their points, not for an unsporting reason, but simply because it is kind of tough to tell a junior kid who loves the game why they can't (or shouldn't) play. No fun to have that conversation.

Hopefully, the season will play out, and enough people will qualify, but if not, I wonder if they will adjust the finish line at the end.

Vince
 
I've never been to worlds and won't pretend to know much about managing tournaments. That said, I would imagine that they would indeed adjust the "finish line". If they are short 20 players, they can just pull the next 20 highest-ranked players.
 
meganium45 said:
I look down at every division, and it appears that there are a limited of players within "putter" distance (50 points) of a Worlds Invite for North America.

Masters Currently have only 10 players qualified and 6 in "putter" distance.
Click to expand...

Compare that number (4 people already qualified without an invite from Worlds) to last year's CP rankings after Cities. Last year, the highest rated player had 44 points after Cities, still short of the 49 that ended up being the threshold. This year, there are already 4 players who have qualified. TPCi set the threshold of 400 CPs pretty liberally.

There will for sure be more Masters qualifying for Worlds this year compared to last year. I think the question at this point is "Are there going to be too many Seniors?" not "Are there going to be enough Masters?"
 
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Certainly another way of looking at it. With essentially 34 Seniors qualified at this point, it could make for a MASSIVE Seniors Division!!!

Vince
 
meganium45 said:
I look down at every division, and it appears that there are a limited of players within "putter" distance (50 points) of a Worlds Invite for North America.

Masters Currently have only 10 players qualified and 6 in "putter" distance.

I know we are still up against the stretch of 3 states, 1 regional, and battle roads to make up points, but compared with other divisions, the masters looks like it could end up light.

For comparison, Seniors, 20 players qualified and 14 in "putter" distance.

Juniors, 14 players qualified and 4 in "putter" distance.

Juniors could be an issue too, as most Junior Champions will not simply "get out of the way" for other players, and will try to maximize their points, not for an unsporting reason, but simply because it is kind of tough to tell a junior kid who loves the game why they can't (or shouldn't) play. No fun to have that conversation.

Hopefully, the season will play out, and enough people will qualify, but if not, I wonder if they will adjust the finish line at the end.

Vince
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3 states, 1 regional, battle roads, and Nationals are still left. I think the "putter" distance could safely be upped to 160 points. I dont know where that would put the numbers but i would assume that would put the number near 30-40 in putter distance
 
The biggest thing I noticed when they introduced the new system:

400 championships to get in this year, 490 last year. They cut 100 possible points from city championships and 70 from battle roads, while adding an additional 20 to regionals, which obviously has a smaller reach. So they lowered the point total to get in by 90 while taking way ~110 points, realistically a little more since regionals has a smaller reach than the local events, so just based on the numbers it should work out to fewer people gaining invites from the actual season (Fall Battle Roads to Nationals), but I think the number of invites gained will end up being around the same because of the residual world points.

So not much of a difference for players that gained points from worlds, but it is harder this year for people that didn't get points from worlds.
 
Juniors could be an issue too, as most Junior Champions will not simply "get out of the way" for other players, and will try to maximize their points, not for an unsporting reason, but simply because it is kind of tough to tell a junior kid who loves the game why they can't (or shouldn't) play. No fun to have that conversation.
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Vince this is totally true about Juniors. Why tell them they cant play since they already have the trip? Isnt the goal from Tcpi perspective is to get more Jrs playing? Unfortunately with the same Jrs winning over and over again this is having the opposite effect. Some jrs arent playing because they know that they cant beat that particular Jr Champion.

My solution would be is to have the points pass down to the next players if the winning player already has his or her invite. This will make it so the Jr Champion can still play and keep up with the Meta. Along with other Jrs will still play because they know even if they get beat they can still get the points passed down to them. This absolutely costs ZERO money to Pokemon to pass down points. So what are your thoughts to this solution?
 
But Johnny, there is some serious programming changes necessary (developed and tested) for that methodology to work. Let's take an example: Xander needed like 22 more points before this weekend for an invitation, and ended up with 100. Did any 78 of those points pass down? I wouldn't think so, that's really hard. But next week we're going to Wisconsin where he will try to win that State title for the fourth year in a row. Can't really tell him we're not going just because he has an invite, right? So let's say he does win and earns another 100. That passes to 2nd, 90 pts for 2nd pass to third, etc etc until 9th place gets 50 points they wouldn't normally have gotten? That's the result you suggest?

I wonder if the TPC servers could be reliably coded to do that.

If so, it's not like the Juniors thinking of attending Wisconsin can possibly know ahead of time that someone with an invitation already is going to show up, and conceivably place high enough to cause a passdown. So I don't necessarily see this logic encouraging any more players to show up at any particular tournament. It just possibly rewards the players that did. Instead of hoping to make Top 8 for points, they hope to make Top 10, given the two invited players may be in Top 8?


In the end, the 400 line was drawn as a best guess. It may be adjusted further (up or down) after this full season. If such a pass down mechanism as above were implemented, with the net result of more points being distributed near the end of the year, that just becomes a new factor in deciding where the line is drawn. Without passdowns, maybe the line will be 375 next year? But with passdowns, maybe they make it 425? See what I mean?

 
JohnnyBlaze said:
Vince this is totally true about Juniors. Why tell them they cant play since they already have the trip? Isnt the goal from Tcpi perspective is to get more Jrs playing? Unfortunately with the same Jrs winning over and over again this is having the opposite effect. Some jrs arent playing because they know that they cant beat that particular Jr Champion.

My solution would be is to have the points pass down to the next players if the winning player already has his or her invite. This will make it so the Jr Champion can still play and keep up with the Meta. Along with other Jrs will still play because they know even if they get beat they can still get the points passed down to them. This absolutely costs ZERO money to Pokemon to pass down points. So what are your thoughts to this solution?
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This solution seems far to complex, and shouldn't even be necessary. If you top 8 in States, you get 50 points. You don't have to win the event. It is possible to win no event and get into Worlds this year as long as you consistently do well. Four of the Juniors in the Northeast were qualified after this weekend at PA States, so it is likely the next two weeks in this region will have half of top eight with invite in hand. We're still playing, too. Like Carlos, I am not going to be having that discussion with my son when there are $500 stipends, hotel suites, and titles to play for.

Also, this statement concerns me

JohnnyBlaze said:
Some jrs arent playing because they know that they cant beat that particular Jr Champion.
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If a child chooses not to try to rise to the occasion because he feels he can't beat a particular Junior Champion, then this is a loser's attitude that requires some serious parental involvement and coaching. One of the great things about Pokemon is that given the right circumstances, any player can take a game off of any other player at any time. I watched a local NJ player, 10 yr old Lucas S., beat Victor A. during his 11-1 Nationals US championship run a few years ago. I also saw 9 yr old Syndey M. beat Yamato at Worlds in Hawaii 6 months ago. These are the stories we need to tell these children.
 
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Dont forget the points for states haven't been added yet. For example I was at 290 and after states I'm now at 380 but they haven't updated so after they update everything there will be a lot of people. Lets not forget nationals either. Also if there isn't enough people they will let it more people at grinders
 
CP = Championship Points = Points you get when you are in an official tournament's top cut.
PP = Play!Points = Points you get when you are part of any official tournament or league season.

Outside North America you need at least 5 PP to enter Nationals.
 
If a child chooses not to try to rise to the occasion because he feels he can't beat a particular Junior Champion, then this is a loser's attitude that requires some serious parental involvement and coaching. One of the great things about Pokemon is that given the right circumstances, any player can take a game off of any other player at any time. I watched a local NJ player, 10 yr old Lucas S., beat Victor A. during his 11-1 Nationals US championship run a few years ago. I also saw 9 yr old Syndey M. beat Yamato at Worlds in Hawaii 6 months ago. These are the stories we need to tell these children.
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Ahh Funny Bear your explanation mentions all the best Jr players. Im referring to your generic Jr players whose Parents arent into the game and dont go to Worlds or NATS. These are the same kids that have subpar decks and when they hear such and such kid has won Worlds and has an invite they dont want to play against them. Maybe as adults we accept the offer to play a better player but most kids are afraid. I saw it first hand this weekend at CT States with the 2nd place finisher at Worlds last year. And guess what he just won CT States. So advocating for this player to continue to play since he loves playing but since he already has the invite just pass down the points.

And Im not saying to pass down the money award just the points if that player has already qualified. And believe me there are plenty of smart people/programmers at PUSA that can figure out a system like this.
 
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