Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

National Championships and POP in Europe

Rainbowgym,

Once again I was not there, but I had my spies :D

I don't know if the person you're talking about was from Intrafin. He had a WotC shirt ? Quite funny that, if he's working for the distributor, he doesn't know that it's not Wizards anymore. :D

It seems that there was only one judge for the event.
You'll agree on the fact that it's difficult to judge a 56 players event, including deckcheck, alone ;)

I've sent a mail to Ria (the judge/TO) to congratulate her because I really find it's great to do what she has done.

In Paris there were 6 judges for 35 players, all from Asmodee and open to ideas and suggestions.
Of course, none of them has experience of Pokemon main events, but they've done their best to have the rules followed and a good tournament.

Penalty guideline ? I think I've seen one somewhere on a US website talking about something they called OP. :p

I have myself suggested best of 3 in 30 minutes. The schedule of the tournament allowed only 6 rounds of 30 minutes (or less but longer rounds, and a National in 4 rounds would have been completely stupid). I think a National is too important to play single games and give a too big place to luck in the game. Bad opening hand and you lose the match ?

Do I have to tell you that, in Europe, some people are players, judges and TO for a long time ?
Some of them have played events like STSQ, Gym Challenges, Gym Stadiums, Worlds, TMB.
Some of them have judged events like STSQ, Gym Challenges, Gym Stadiums, Worlds, TMB.
But as these people are not needed by PUI and C°, they've already left, or are leaving POP.
They've left that job to real professionals :rolleyes:

And who still cares about giving players a correct base in a POP without correct tournaments and OP ? :lol:
 
Michel, Ria did a good job and we thanked her that we were allowed to join the event.
She understood that we were willing to help out with rulingquestions, so if she needed us she just asked and we answered and that's what I like about her.
No stupid argues about who is doing the event and who knows best, just simple and direct conversation and without any struggle.

I only see in your country the same thing happening as overhere.
Some one is bombed to do a nationals, without proper backup.
But thats what you get if you denie the veterans.

And who still cares about giving players a correct base in a POP without correct tournaments and OP
Click to expand...

I care, and I will keep on taking care about playing correct but not in any relation with official OP.
I felt sometimes running my club during the event, here some frases of Henna and me.

Don't lay away your prices before I have basics.
No you can't attach a DRE to Groudon.
Sorry if Kirlia evolves in Gardevoir EX and a DRE is attached you have to discard it.
Don't throw your supporters on your discardpile, because than your turn is over.
Sorry Aggron EX is not evolving from Magma's Lairon.
No if you flip for a confused Pokemon you only flip to check if that one can attack, you are not recovering when you flip heads.
Does your opponent has a Prof Elm is his deck, call the judge.
You have to put prizes aside from the top of your deck, not from the bottom.
You have marked cards. (yes really)
Were are you flipping for? Can you tell me before you do.

Must I go on?
NO it's what we expected and we are never losing our patience explaining and correcting, but most of these things shouldn't not occure at a Nationals which is "professional".
But that''s the structure of current OP and we are just mad professors.
 
I'd only take out the "Supporter in the discard pile ends your turn" one (since that's really a Judge's penalty call, not a rule), but otherwise, in full agreement.
It's always pleasant when a TO acknowleges that they don't know everything and doesn't see it as a threat.
 
Ben, Lia. Michael, and others: Please don't think we here in North America don't feel your pain as well. There seems to be a cancer growing within organized play. Sometimes little pieces get lopped off, but new tumors keep cropping up. I think there are a few people that actively try to root out these, or those that report them as they start to grow, but it seems too big of a job for the ones that do. There seems to be inequality in many areas, with the greater number of advantages going to those in the United States and Japan, but that doesn't rule out all of them (including the greater number of reverse holo TV reporters to other countries, tournament support given only to UK, until now, value of trips to worlds, and possibly other advantages). Looking at my location, you wouldn't think I am disadvantaged in any way. Yet even here in Canada, we weren't allowed a "States". We were given a "Gym Challenge" in 2 areas here in Canada, but no "Stadium challenge". And guess what? At least you have the advantage of getting a National. We don't. You have the added advantage of being able to travel to nearby countries to compete for a chance to go to Worlds. Being the only judge at our gym challenge ( the only person who was willing to not play) of over 50 people, and not having any other chances of going to any other large tournaments (either due to none being scheduled here in Canada, or even nearby in the States) gives my chances to go to Worlds as non-existant. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter, I love this game. And I will hope that things change. Believe me, things could be much worse. I'm willing to trust that POP is willing to make things better, so I'll take what comes my way - for now. Please don't quit. Keep working to make things better, but on the other hand, don't expect that they will. That's the secret to remain reasonably happy. Do what you can to help, as we all try to help one another. That's the best we can do.
 
Gotta agree p_a but it sure is hard keeping happy when it feels like slap slap slap there they go hitting me round the face again :(
 
PA - This is the first tournament I'm going to play in, and there is no trip for 15+.
The last 3 years I've always judged larger events.

At least we know what to expect: Nothing.
 
I understand what you say p_a, and I'm sure things are not really better in your country.

Believe me, my daughter and myself love our game, and we would do anyhthing we can to make it grow again.

But I refuse to be involved in something organized by people who don't meet their commitments, who don't respect the players, who don't respect basic rules of tournaments organization, ...

In this particular case, the distributors had announced, and confirmed many times, that foreign players would be allowed to compete for all the prizes at their Nationals, including trips to Worlds.

Two days before for Belgium, and nine days before the National for Holland, they proudly announce that, after conferring with the Pokemon company (but who are these people ???), the 15+ trip at the National in Holland is canceled and given to the 10- group, and that foreign players are welcome but will not play for the trip.

If you read the mail published in Eskil's topic, you'll see that PUI has given the choice to the distributors. PUI will say (if they ever say something !) that it's a decision taken by the distributors, and distributors will say that PUI had approved their decision. And the players are messed with one more time !

I'm not ashamed to say that I'm not interested in boosters or any other material. The only prize I'm interested in is the trip to Orlando to meet my US friends, have a good time with them like we've had in the past.


This is the last point of an already very long list of things going wrong, or not going at all, in PUI's POP in our countries.

They are the owner of the game, distributors do anything they want in their market, they have all the rights, they decide and all you have to do is shut up and be happy that there are people like them to do something for Pokemon in Europe :lol:

That's their OP, it's not mine.
And as I don't want to support something I don't agree with, I prefer to quit.
 
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Michel, thanks for letting me in on your point of view. I don't blame you for taking that stand. Goodness knows that if I had been in the same situation as you are, or have been, I probably would have been long gone. I realize the best of intentions don't add up to anything when you are continually disappointed, and especially when kids are involved. If there's anything I can ever do to help you out, please let me know.

Lia, I know how you feel. I haven't been able to play in any sanctioned tournaments for quite some time as well, but probably about 2 years.
 
Nationals are over and 115 players showed up.
42 in 10-
39 in 11-14
34 in 15+

Boosters awarded to the top 8 winners were SANDSTORM. Admission 15 Euro!!!!!!!
3 judges without the proper knowlegde (but I'm not allowed to say that, than I'm destructive)
New rule, you can have 60 or more cards in your deck. (were we playing yugino)?
Expedition not allowed (this gave crying kids, but was reversed so we could play expedition)
Took the headjudge 10 minutes to figure out how a pokemon reversal should be played.
Gengar (hide out) PPchaos move, move damagecounter from your pokemon to your opponents pokemon (nice try)
If a Zangoose attacks an Team Aqua Seviper it does 40 damage. (ruled by judge)

I will hear more the coming days, but will not post it only if it's so funny I have to.

Lots of Belgium players attended and that was nice, seeing old friends.
Also nice my son became first 10-, my other son 3th and my lease-daughter 2nd in 11-14 (and she was only for 2days 11 and the trip dropped to her because nr1 was from Belgium).

And me, again 4th place.
So one son and lease daughter have invitations for worlds.
Me and my other son have to play the grinder to get entrance.
I don't need the invitation I think they will need me as judge/translator, but as long as profs are ignored I don't think they will ask.

Now I have to discuss the travel award because we want to go to the US on august 10th already and I have a strong feeling it's going to be a long discussion.
 
Rainbowgym, congrats to the kids ! ;)

If many Belgian players were in Utrecht, it means that your distributor was right.
Give them a slap in the face, give them a kick in ..., prove that you don't have any respect for them ... doesn't matter, they'll be there.
There's only one black sheep, and it's always the same.

I'm sorry that the players coming from my country don't have more self-respect.
They open a door for the distributors.
Why would they care of players, tournament rules, ... ? The players still follow them.

With 115 players at their National, PS Games (like Intrafin in Belgium) and PUI may say that they're on the right way, that they're taking the right decisions, that POP in Europe is a reality and a success, and that the few people who criticize should better shut up.

Distributors are happy, PUI is happy, players are happy, ... everything's fine, no ? :rolleyes:
 
Michel, untill they will see my nice statistics I'm going to make this week.
Without the Belgiums and the players of the ignored pokemonclubs there not that many players left over.

Yes they will say shut up, but I will point them on it, just like I did the past year.
I don't know which road to follow after summer, but I couldn't let my players stay home while a Nationals was in progress. These kids played the whole year and not showed up means that trips end invitations are going to players who are not really into this game.
 
Yep. It would have been cutting off your nose to spite your face.

(Does that english saying translate well for you, or does it make no sense to a non-native speaker?)
 
I was not talking about you and your players Rainbowgym, I was talking about the foreign players who have been happy to be stolen by PS Games
 
Italian Nationals are eneded now...
3 trips for USA, 1 mother and his daughter winning in 2 different age groups :)
We had Jarrod Nack as special guest and scorekeeper, he tested out the troubles with their software, and we asked out about why italy does not have prereleases, and something else...

There were 51 players, and we had a fun day :)
 
HOw come Italy can have 3 trips with only 51 players while in Belgium 1 trip with almost 60 players and the Netherland 2 trips with 115 players.

Jarrod Nack in Italy, he choose a save harbor .
 
Don't ask me... maybe Nexus wanted to afford all that. Nack told them that - if a category had at least 8 player - there was a trip for that category. We had +8 players for each category.

Trips are up to the local distributor, guys. PUI is not involved in that :\

Neck's there for a meeting with the italian distributor, he told me. Maybe some other news... besides that officially the Modified will change after Worlds, and maybe Italy will have Prereleases... And in october localized Prof test and My Pokémon.
 
How the hell can you have a cohesive International OP programme if Nationals in each country have different Prize Structures, different Qualification Criteria and Different Judging Standards .. NACK is supposedly at the UK Nationals too I doubt he will get an easy ride here ..
 
ukpokemonpro said:
How the hell can you have a cohesive International OP programme if Nationals in each country have different Prize Structures, different Qualification Criteria and Different Judging Standards ..
Click to expand...
I can understand the need for unified judging standards, but why is there a need for a unified prize and qualification structures? You obviously have a desire for more prizes, but there is nothing wrong with each country/region deciding how to find the players to participate.
 
Would it be logical that 2 players from California are qualified for the US National in a 150 players tournament while 15 of NJ are qualified (30 players tourney) and 1 from Florida ?
That's what's happening in Europe, as simple as that.

Sure Marcello, trips are awarded by distributors (and paid by them). How many trips in Germany through their National and (confidential) Gyms ? How many trips in Holland or Belgium ? If you're lucky enough to have a distributor who want to invest in POP, you have trips, otherwize just forget it.

And another question !!!

Did you see how many US players will get an invite for Wolds ??? And how many European will get one ? Let's start the list : Belgium 1

Like I've said, I don't have the money to go to Orlando. But when you see the prize structure about invites in the USA and when you know that the second of a National may not play in Orlando, ... please conclude by yourself :rolleyes:

'We don't want to invest in a dead game' ... are invites as expensive as that ?
 
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