any word on NY/NJ times/locations?
NY will be Week 3, Mar 24, with registration starting at 9am and play starting at 10am.
Location will be ToyWiz, same as last year.
any word on NY/NJ times/locations?
^^ I agree 100%--like many who've posted here, I was hoping for week 1. I guess I'll have to make up for it by having twice as much fun at WI states week 2!
All of this being said anyone who thinks Iowa States is going to be nothing but easy points your more than welcome to try and take it from me.
Sounds like the kind of conversation a couple of organizers could have on a forum made for those kinds of organizers. Phrased in a more constructive fashion, it may even be a welcome conversation.i am not surprised that they decide to go with week 3. this way there are 2 other states(MN and IL) on the same day, and it is very unlikey that people from out of state, or at least those 2 states will head for Iowa and try to "steal" their prizes.
I only hope that someday someone decides to have someone else run the events in Iowa, not only to provide a better environment for the players, but to also help grow the game.
You know, you and I get along well enough that you could have brought this to our attention directly right? :thumb: Could be we are looking. Could be that there is more to the story. Could be I mainly work on other parts of the program and I am mistaken, but you never know 'till you talk to us.(LOOK NORTHEAST TPCI!!!)
For anyone that cares about it here is the official listing on pokemon.com for iowa states
https://www.pokemon.com/us/account/play-pokemon-tournaments/12-03-000115/
As far as all of the "Iowa players don't want others to steal their prizes" and "Iowa doesn't care about growing the game" comments go I would like to shed some light on the whole Iowa scene. I actually live in Iowa and I for one can vouch for the fact that our state has an extremely low amount of players. I live in Dubuque which is right on the Mississippi River on the east border of Iowa and the closest league in Iowa I ever have had as an option to attend was in Cedar Rapids, which is an hour in a half away. For the past year and a half I have played in basically only Illinois and Wisconsin events and I now have meet more players in those states then I have ever known in Iowa. About 3 years ago one of our main PTO's, Shane, had to close up his league due to venue problems. This basically put an end to all of the primer events outside of Ames. Then about 2 years ago my league in Cedar Rapids closed, again we lost one of our Professors and that league of around 40 players quit the pokemon scene. Since then all of the Iowa events have been run from Ames and Des Moines out of the mayhem stores, which are basically dead center in Iowa. The only activity we have had in the last couple years have been 2 cities and 1 states, and finally this year a small league has opened up in Iowa City.
So what does this mean for Iowa states you ask? First of all I'm happy that there still is an Iowa States this year as we have been struggling to maintain much of a player base for the past couple years. Even a few years ago when we still had most of our leagues and PTOs we had pretty small states and had maybe 10-25% of our attendance coming from out of state. Most of our players back then and even now didn't have very many chances to attend primer events so their skill/experience levels were below most of the out of states players. This did disappoint some of the Iowa players when they were beaten out of prizes contention by out of state players. Since then most of those players have left the game. When attending battle roads this year in my own state I only knew 5 other people. These people being the PTO, a judge, my brother, the person i went with, and 1 other master player. This being said I would love to actually be able to have a states even close to the small size they used to be. I expect this to maybe be the smallest attendance of Iowa states that I have ever been at.
So do I hope that no out of states players show up? Do I hope that our Iowa player base remains small forever? Absolutely not, I hope that as many players come to our states and play as possible. I hope we some day get back to more leagues, players, and tournaments like we used to have. Hopefully I will get to meet and play against some players from out of state this year at states.
Thanks man. I really hope we have a little healthier of a turnout this year though.
me and almost everybody from Nebraska will be there. its only about 15 people, but i hope it will help you guys out!
Alright where to start with this,
Iowas Pokemon group is very small in fact a majority of our league goers don't play in tournaments. At times I feel like our Judge prefers this sort of casual and friendly atmosphere and fears that a more competitive environment would get rid of it (My opinion). I also feel like he prefers tournaments to be more local and have local players win the events (My opinion). Only a very small handful of players from Iowa travel outside of the state so when other States are really isn't something they base decesions on so it seems (My opinion).
All of this being said anyone who thinks Iowa States is going to be nothing but easy points your more than welcome to try and take it from me.