International TOs and League Leaders would you do it again?

[Glumanda]

Where the heck did I say that you are lying? I said that I have heard nothing that international players are not allowed to play there. Now you informed me that this assumption is not correct. I will ask Amigo-Spiele where this stupid regulation came from. You are correct that this is not fair and I am very dismayed to hear that.

My opinion: Stadium Challenges are for everyone, Nationals only nationwide and I said that to Amigo, too.

Furthermore, I can only speak for myself. You will not see ME at your Nationals. I hope other Germans will not get knowledge that your Nationals are free for everyone.

And for your information: I play Pokemon since the Base Set and attended STSQ´s by myself. And for these tournaments it was okay to travel there because they were not Nationals.

OP in Europe has to change, this is absolutely clear. As long as every distributor is allowed to do what he wants, there will be inequalities. And becuase it´s inequal there have to be one event which is reserved for the nationwide players. I think every country with a community should have at least one spot in every age group. How can you assure that? In having the Nationals reserved for the players in that country. PUI does not care about what the distibutors are doing and some distributors are doing very wrong. I think that this is the main problem. We as the Pokemon community should not blame each other for the things our distributors are doing.

And BTW: I think you should reconsider the tone in which you are posting. I found your post very hostile. Some parts sound like that I am guilty of that. Maybe they are not meant this way, but they arrived in my ears that way.

 

[Michel]

A long time ago, nobody was talking about Nationals, and people from all over Europe were happy to meet each other and play together at tournaments called Gym or STSQ.

We've played in Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Spain, England, and we've always been welcome, even when my daughter won a trip to the USA in these countries.
We played not only the tournament, but drafts at the hotel or anywhere else. We met friends, had a good time together. For most of us it was far more important to see the other players and make new friends than sitting in front of other players all day long trying to win, or not to lose.

You may protect your own market and your own players by refusing foreign players at your tournaments. That's another way to kill the game and the community.
Nationals ? :lol:

There were Gym Challenges and Stadium this year ????? International events ????? Where was the information ? On a distributor's website ? Who gave the info to the players of the other countries ? Did we have GC and GS in different European countries ?

To those of you who want to compare PUI's Pokemon with Magic, I'd answer that I prefer to compare Wizards Pokemon with what happens today

 

[Tahna]

To put this this a bit back on topic: I'm quite certain my local GL will not take the chance now if he was given te opportunity. He recently ended his career as an official GL per PUI regulations, as he didn't think the mess that was made by our local distributor was quite representative of the effort he put into it. (can you say 'bureaucracy'?)
We're still waiting for the money he used to rent a City Championship location.
So far I haven't seen any commercials or otherwise clearly visible evidence of Dutch Nationals on any of the more logical places. Fox Kids which airs the show has no commercials as yet. Pokemon.nl doesn't even list the TCG. The distributor has a very inconspicuous link to the tournament and no reference of it in the Tournament Agenda.

Even stranger news has reached my ears: there are only 50 places available for Dutch Nationals, quite the feat as the location can hold up to 120 people. But who would have guessed it, they are also hosting the Dutch MageKnight Nationals there, which will probably take considerable space, not to mention valuable resources such as judges' attention.

 

[ukpokemonpro]

The bottom line is that the distributors are all (just about) failing, the current set up allows them to blame PUI and PUI to refer any complaints back to them.

On top of that Distributors are playing with the discount they are given to run OP and are looking to maximise thier profit from that rather than use it to grow OP. Hence you get the Distributor picking a location not because it is the best for the game but because they are holding.. Mage Knight/MtG/YuGiOH/insert other game.. Tournaments there and can get a discount thus milking more out of the moneys they get for OP.

The system is therefore screwed with distributors holding on to discounts and giving the impression of delivering OP whilst blaming PUI for non-delivery of promos, support and advertising. PUI themselves seem unwilling to bring distributors to account whilst they have any illusion of OP in place.

BUT just look at the International pages, look at the lack of information on Gym Challenges, Nationals, Leagues it just isn't there with the exception of a few countries..

WHY because the real truth is the distributors don't care and neither does PUI. Oh and if you happen to comment you will be "misinformed" just who does the misinforming is of no importance to PUI; them or the distributors it matters not, the froth, spin and appearance of delivery are far more important than actually doing it.

The only experience the US has of this is with the Professor Programme where PUI still appear to be doing something but the reality is NON-DELIVERY.

Would I do it again NO NO NO.. will I continue to do it..... mmmm

 

[Rainbowgym]

Glumanda, I was only repeating the things who were told to me, meaby they were bad translated this happens.
From the start of POP we always knew that things were going wrong if there was no influence of veterans. Our hopes were on Germany, because in the past Amigo showed they are more involved in OP than any other distributor in Europe.
And they still are, seeing that you have contact with them, that's more than we have.

I like the structure of the UK with top 8 invitations for Nationals if you win a CC, but as long as overhere nobody is allowed to organize a CC or antything else this is far away.
If it's well structured I don't have problems with Nationals reserving for habitants, we even tried to get that done last year september. But again we were told we don't know were we are talking about.

Meaby my tone sounds unfriendly and I can tell you it sometimes is.
If I could tell things in my own language they probably only sound ironic.
We like to argu also between professors overhere but none is taking this personal, we argu points of view.

You will not see us either at German events, it's to far away and it will be for most European players not possible to do. It's more about the idea that some groups are not getting a change.

Tahna, 50 people only, we just pre-registered 50 players so I think in case this rumor is true the event is full.

 

[Glumanda]

Okay, then I have understood you the false way.

But, rainbowgym, don´t lose your trust into Amigo. After I received your shocking post, that Amigo "is supposed" to let foreign people not play in their SC´s, I mailed them today wanting to get an official answer. And the answer was, what I expected: No, we did not impose such a rule on the SC´s. The people at Amigo are shocked that there was such a rumour going around and are very disappointed that this rumour caused such "low" attendance numbers (33 in Stuttgart and 30 in Berlin). The infos at Amigo´s homepage state, that everyone is allowed to play in the SC´s. And it´s posted that way on PUI´s page, too. I don´t know where you had your information from, but as long as your source was not Amigo, your source either had understood something wrong or was lying on purpose.

And to Michel: The SC´s in Germany were posted Mid-May on both PUI and the Amigo-page. So this information was accessible for everyone around the globe.

When I hear of your problems, I´m feeling like I live in a fairy tale. Amigo put very much effort in doing POP. They organized City Championships throughout the country, they provided us Prereleases, they did Stadium Challenges, and we will have Nationals. Every professor in Germany is invited to give feedback and Amigo is very pleased to get feedback, even if it´s bad one. If we have problems with OP, we can ask Amigo for help. The Nationals will be judged by the German professors as Amigo asked us for help. Nationals will even be HJ´ed by a professor as Amigo is thinking that it is making sense that an experienced Pokemon judge should do that. So Amigo is definitely not a failing distributor.

 

[Rainbowgym]

Glumanda, the low attendance is not because of rumors, it's the way the state of this game is at this moment.
And Berlin and Stuttgart are not really near the border.
Koln is much easier to reach, but those are Nationals.
Amigo has a good history in OP so if the same people are still around your country will get a growing playersbase.

We were invited to in september to give feedback and suggestions , but they handled us as minor kids and sorry I'm to old for that. I'm not in their duty I was at their duty (but not anymore)
We have a nice playersbase and know what those players like and if a distributor thinks he knows better and don't need advice, let it be.

I'm curious about the amount of players in Austria.
Next week we will know.

17-06
Today something happened I have no words for.
The distributor changed the price structure of Nationals. (10 days prior)
Not by adding a trip for the 10 and younger, but by taking away the trip from the 15+ and giving that to 10-.
Also people from outside the Netherlands are disclosed from winning a trip.
They can earn the invitation, but not the trip.

This was done with approval of the Pokemon Company, that's what the email says.
I can only shake my head; Guys Guys what are you doing with our players and this game.
This is not giving anyone trust in your company. Why not simply add a trip.
I prefer to have a trip for 10- because that group is larger than 15+ at this moment, but taking away something that's announced is rude.
Again a proof that decissions are made without thinking about the past and future.
What are we talking about 3000 Euro?
If I see that a stupid TV commercial costs around 10,000 Euro and now for 1/3 of that you are messing around with players (customers) I can only think " I'm glad I don't know the market and didn't study for this".