Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Is it fair to make worlds an invite only event??

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With such a huge amount of money in scholarships on the line, I personally feel that only the "Best of the Best" should compete. Why? For the most part these are the people that have spent enormous amounts of money on cards and also they are the ones that have been playing the longest. There will be exceptions to this but like I said for the most part. Also like other people have said there is a grinder the day before and there will also be other things to do there.
 
I agree and understand why this would be an invite only. Sure other games (like LOTR) has their World Championship open to all but they also do not provide trips and the prizes I think only go to Top 8 (no age groups here like Pokemon Worlds with 16 times 3). I think it is phenomenal what Nintendo has done in less than a year and they are trying to give players multiple chances to qualify. We plan on going regardless of whether my son qualifies or not. This will be a great event to attend (even if only for the side events)!!!
 
Interesting, I didn't know there were "announced" side-events for Worlds, at least not official side-events. I suppose there will be side-events though.

davechi, you haven't discredited my oppinion about unknowns one-iota. Your example of a player barely missing the last Worlds CERTAINLY doesn't make that player an unknown. My definition of an unknown is someone who DOESN'T play at CCs, SCs, GCs, etc. Do you remember that Marley guy from Lubbock TX a few years ago? He was ranked #1 in the world with about 300 rating-points more than anyone else, yet he NEVER attended an STS (at least that I'm aware of).

furthermore davechi, invitations to the Top 16 ranked players are just that, invites only, no trips. It's a chance for those players to prove once and for all if they REALLY ARE the top players in the world (something that Lubbock-Marley failed to ever prove).
 
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feraligatr said:
Sure other games (like LOTR) has their World Championship open to all but they also do not provide trips and ...
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Actually, LOTR gives initial-round byes out to all the Territorial and Continental top players (which you probably already knew). The first day at LOTR Worlds in kind of like a Grinder for players who didn't place high at the Territorials, Continentals, and previous Worlds.
 
Steve, I wasn't trying to discredit your position, only pointing out that it's an over-generalization. In 98% of the cases, you're spot on. But there are players out there who have skills who can compete and still be unknown.

But what's an unknown? How "known" do you have to be to no longer be an unknown? I think we're just talking semantics for the most part.

As for the guy in Texas, that's my complaint against the rating system. You can stay home and beat the same old people with the same old archtype week-after-week and rack up the points. Does that prove anything? Yeah, that you can beat the same people week-after-week if you have a great deck. I've seen people drop out of tournaments (or refuse to play in tournaments) for fear of damaging their ratings.

Remember that at Worlds, we had a Team side event (was this the first large team event? Feraligatr's son and I played in it and did lousy. Sorry Mike!) and I think there was a pre-release constructed draft (with theme decks) for Expedition (isn't that right?). On top of that, there were numerous single-elimination modified and draft events. Just a TON of good things going on and I have no doubt that we'll see much of the same at Worlds this year.
 
davechri, point taken about the semantics of "unknown."

As for the rating system, it's also flawed because if there are 2-3 decent players in one area that regularly beat each other, that prevents their rankings from elevating. For example, Big East and ACC college basketball teams sometimes don't climb as high in the Polls, but often fair very well in March Madness. Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference top teams drop early in the NCAAs.

Nevertheless, I don't think ratings should be ignored when inviting the best players to Worlds. It's just a way of rewarding a few good players who DO value trying to be the best in their region.
 
which is one of the reasons why the DCI has tiered K values... If you want your rating to rise then you generally have to seek out the bigger tournaments.

With just local games being played a single good player will rapidly rise in the ratings system. With three good players that doesn't happen as those three (or more) good players just end up swapping points with each other.

As to unknowns: you can pick up the pokemon game and become very good within 3 months if you have the aptitude for it (and the cards!). Would I compromise the invite only nature of a Worlds tournament to allow these unknows in? No. I'd have a grinder the day before.

Invites aren't the problem: what seems to be being discussed is the fairness of the underlying system that is being used to determine who gets invited.

Just my 2cents
 
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That's exactly my point NoPoke. It is true that with practice, a good deck, and a bit of luck a person could rise above others in the standings. True also is that someone could conceivably benefit from a dishonest tournament organizer (let's hope there are very few of those). The top 16 people obviously worked hard for their standings, except for perhaps one of them (snicker, snicker). I certainly wouldn't begrudge an invite to someone who worked hard to be on top. But perhaps Nintendo should also consider those that give more to the game than just a first place win at a local weekly tournament.
 
lets just amagine taht by some freak chance both my father and i both win an invite and since im only 16 would i still have to waste a plain ticket and have to still name his as my gardian. or would i be able to bring someone else since he already got the free trip.
 
Hmmm...

I seldom get to play in any sanctioned tournaments, though I do run some occasionally. The main reason I don't run more is the hassle of dealing with the TMS software (and yes, I do think it's a hassle).

I have a few local players who are quite good. Many of them just can't go to tournaments out of town, so that route is closed off for them. I guess I should have been running lots of sanctioned tournies including plenty of imaginary opponents with made up names for my players to 'beat'. That way, I could artificially up the ratings of my local players so they could get invitations!

No, wait. That would be wrong. NO ONE would ever do that. ;)
 
Heh. I wouldn't mind you running some sanctioned tournies, Lizard! Don't bother with those fake players though because I'll do fine without them. ;)
 
Usually for me, travel expenses are not the problem. The problem is that most of the time, someone either gets sick, or cannot drive for whatever reason. (I'm 12, so I can't exactly drive myself) In addition, I don't have alot of extra cash to spend on cards. I always play with the cards I have. Not to mention that there are almost no players in my area to trade with, and there are no leagues in my area. A lot of times when I try to trade online, I don't have anything people want. Out of the many CC's in Florida, I only attended one. I would have one my division if not for a cruddy hand against a Gardevoir. This player had not won a single game all day. But sometimes you just have bad luck. That's the way it goes. I have been playing the game for a little over six years, and I consider myself to be a good player. I have seen the metagame in the area that I play. I don't really find it fair that someone with a load of money can just go and buy eight boxes of whatever set, build an outrageously powerful archetype, and wipe out all the players who, for whatever reason, don't have the cards to build a reasonable counter. I am often dominated by bad luck. Right now, cards are going off for amazing prices on E-Bay. Rayquazas are going off for 20-30 dollars. I personnaly think that it should be public, but I can understand invites, considering the huge amount of players that would show. I personally would play just for the scholarships... Thats a lot of money!
Just my two cents.
 
Rainbowgym said:
A minor gets 2 tickets, an adult winning gets 1 ticket. That makes 3 in that case.
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Are you sure about that, or are you saying that based on how WotC did it?
 
I agree, the top 16 punishes players from a strong area. I will take my State as an example, 3 of the top 4 players are 10 and under. Quite simply, they are by far the best 3 players of their age division, and with age-modified swiss, they get a lot of wins against other opponents before they have to face each other or the older competition. As several other venues have found out, it does not matter if the competition is older than they are, they just flat win.

The 15+ division at our area is a HUGE competitive nightmare. I would dare say we have some of the best players around, especially those that are NOT highly ranked. The trouble is, they have to beat against each other at every event, will never go on a 16-0 streak, and will therefore never dominate the world rankings. I know that NEO, and SoCal, Seattle, and other areas have had this problem in the past and present. In Stadium Challenges and Gym challenges, they will make their presences known, and snatch a lot of the trips I am sure - most of them are already conspiring to make travel plans throughout the area!

I doubt we will ever see any of these players in the top 10 in the world, but at the world championships and nationals, that is where the mettle will be tested.

So I feel they are punished, but it will pay off in the end. they will go to worlds, via invite or grinder, will get in and make their mark.

I cannot wait to see how this all shakes out. this is a GREAT year for Pokemon - nice promos now too! Boy, we are running out of things to complain about. Boy, I would hate to be promoting YGO right now!

Meganium45
 
Yep... with out play area, 11-14 is the biggest division. By the end of the year though, a sixth grade girl, my brother (who resently turned 11) and I (who will not turn 15 until April, 2005) will be the only ones left in the division in the SE Wisconsin area. That is somewhat of a plus! More prizes for our family and less competition within age group. Even though our league will be developing a greater (currently only 2) 15+ division, our league won't be very competitive. I say that about 3 or 4 people from our league at tops are worthy of invites to worlds. I doubt more than 1 or 2 at tops will be invited, but hey! Everyone deserves a shot!
 
I really think that the Top 16 Global players represent a decent mix of demographics. Generally, you're not going to see more than one player from a specific region in the Top 16 (due to the issue of "beating-up-on-each-other" we've discussed above). With "diversity" being a "hot button" topic in this "politically correct" world, invitations to the Top 16 should satisfy many proponents of diversity.

Now, if there was a way to recognize multiple strong players from a given region, I'd be all for it. However, I know of no such way to do that, other than a subjective ranking system like they use in college sports.
 
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SteveP said:
Now, if there was a way to recognize multiple strong players from a given region, I'd be all for it. However, I know of no such way to do that, other than a subjective ranking system like they use in college sports.
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We've already identified this as a need, and have a plan in place that we believe will address just this issue for next year's tournament season. We'll likely announce all of our program info for next year as we get closer to Worlds.


Prof. Dav
 
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