Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

PTO Changes Prize Structure

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Without knowing exactly what was sent to the TO in question and the terms under which product was offered it is not safe to leap to any conclusion about the TO retaining product.

The thing that struck me most was that each entrant was given four of the pre-release cards. Over here we were told that cards were to be allocated one per player per tournament. Any excess had to be returned or we would be charged in excess of $15 per promo. Ouch!

From SteveP's post I can infer that we recieved half the USA level of support for the Rainham event. But without knowing the rest of the details of the event that SteveP refers to it is unsafe to say if we were unfairly treated or if we were generously treated. The one thing that is certain is that it would have been impossible for the Rainham event to offer the prize structure on the PUI website, with the product available to us at the cost that we charged for the event.

Now I know for certain that the package offered to the European TO's was different to what some of the USA TO's recieved. I want to stay with DIFFERENT and not focus on who had the worst deal. DIFFERENT because without knowing all the information it is impossible to make any judgement.

Unless you know for certain that all the USA TOs received the same free support under the same contract, all it is possible to conclude is that some events will look better from a players perspective.

I'll post later when I have figured out a proposal that can avoid this kind of difficulty in the future. The bigest problem is ensuring that the pre-release event remains financially viable for all involved in its production.

[edit ooh look.. PokePop is still down as the last poster to this topic. The Gym has thrown a wobbler and I can now make 'Stealth Posting' ;)]
 
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At the Charlotte prerelease, the TO received 33 BOXES of Dragon cards. There were 26 people in attendance over all three age divisions. Our TO certainly didn't give out anywhere close to that many cards. Perhaps there were some shipping errors and some places got too much while others got too little?

(personally I don't think the answer is that simple, but I wanted to put the info out there for what its worth)
 
NoPoke makes a good point that we just can`t jump to conclusions.

With that said,however,the past history of store owners in the US running these events(not to mention my personal experiences with some) suggest that Lizard may have went to a corrupt store owners event.It seems that we always run into one or two per event that tries to keep the boxes for themselves and sell them either in the shop or E-Bay although I don`t seem to remember one for the R&S...

Anyways,as Nopoke pointed out,we can`t jump to conclusions.Lizard did the right thing and e-mailed POP and if the store owner was at fault,then POP will find out and the situation should be taken care of one way or another.

`sensei
 
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I just received an email from the TO.

He stated that he was unaware of a mandatory prize structure and has assumed that the distribution was up to him. He based it on the structure he normally uses for M:tG sealed tournaments.

Had this been such a tourney, with the prizes provided at the TO's own expense, rather than by PUI, I'd have been satisfied.

The TO is a really nice guy, and I believe him when he says it was an oversight. He said will be sending me, and each of the other players, the remainder of the designated boosters immediately!

I will definitely be going back there for the next prerelease: his quick response has earned my trust.

In fact, I have extended an offer to judge for him if he should need the help.
 
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Good News to hear, Broken Lizard.

JimmyHat, the PTOs were allowed to buy extra boxes to sell. Of the 33 boxes you mentioned, only about 7 (258 boosters) were allocated to prize support and 3 boxes to staff support. Your PTO purchased the 23 extra boxes in order to sell them, including the 6-per-player that were used for the tournament.

And, if a particular age category didn't have the full eight players, those extra prize boosters should NOT have been given out. The PTO had to either return them or pay for them (or taken out of his compensation). That's how my PTO explained it to me.
 
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Jarrod,just curious.No one had a copy of the prize structure with them(usually someone does)?

One other point I`d like to make.I`m sure,as with WotC,that the TO`s are sent all information they need for the event including the prize structure.I`m not sure I buy the excuse he gave...he either tried to keep it or was negligent in not reading what he was sent.Just my observations.

`Sensei
 
The TO is certainly responsible for that.

In fact, the very concept of a premier event makes it ridiculous to think that I, or anyone else, should need to bring a copy of the prize structure.

In any event, the TO essentially said that he had not thoroughly read the materials sent him...
 
Ah,so it appears he was negligent in his duties.Let`s hope thats the case.Anyhow,I doubt you will have this problem again with him.

As for the copy,I just mentioned it for what it was worth.Usually someone has a copy that they printed from the internet at these events.Not always,but I`ve seen it several times.

`Sensei
 
Good to see. I would hate to see us lose one of our ranks as PTOs....

In defense of the premiere TO, unlike Sandstorm, there was no paperwork sent with the product, which seemed to be sent out as close to the event as possible.

Yes, everything was available online, but I am giving this guy the benefit of the doubt.

SoSlowpoke, uncalled for jab at the event. As a practice, judges and PTOs do not make a habit of criticizing other judges and PTOs online. Although, yes, this was an easy target, especially considering his post on your thread previously, my understanding is we just don't do that.

There are too few of us who still care enough and expend enough energy at this game to attack others of us in the same situation. If something goes down wrong, it is PUIs job to take care of it.

OBTW, to veer off topic, anyone asked the international shipping charges to get the product overseas? I know ours was sent out 2-day. Must have cost a FORTUNE to Britain and the Netherlands....hmmmm, may provide an obvious answer.

Hope to see you all at my Memphis events....like to ruffle a few feathers once in a while!

Meganium45
 
I heard Europe was charged somewhere in the ballpark of $15 for just the Prerelease Promos...can anyone confirm?
 
No after the tournament the remaining prereleasecards should be returned in 5 days.
If you kept 1 more than you deserve you get fined for 15 Euro a card in the UK.

We didn't got a change even to get 1 more, the national distributors top man (owner) came to our tournament, counted heads and then gave us exact that amount of cards and took the remaining cards with him.
( A bigger way of showing us that he doensn't trust us is not possible)

For example if you had 50 promocards and only 40 players. you had to return 6 of them. because you could have 1 for the TO and if you had 3 judges they all 3 got 1 card.
that's why it's so hard to read some people got more of them, also because the card was the ONLY award for the Judges and TO for running the event.
 
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Rainbowgym said:
No after the tournament the remaining prereleasecards should be returned in 5 days.
If you kept 1 more than you deserve you get fined for 15 Euro a card in the UK.

We didn't got a change even to get 1 more, the national distributors top man (owner) came to our tournament, counted heads and then gave us exact that amount of cards and took the remaining cards with him.
( A bigger way of showing us that he doensn't trust us is not possible)

For example if you had 50 promocards and only 40 players. you had to return 6 of them. because you could have 1 for the TO and if you had 3 judges they all 3 got 1 card.
that's why it's so hard to read some people got more of them, also because the card was the ONLY award for the Judges and TO for running the event.
Click to expand...

:eek: :eek: :nonono:

Wow. That's horrible. No box of cards for the Judges or TO?
They expect you to do all that work for one pre-release card that all of you could have gotten for just showing up at the event?

WOW.
 
Even though I think it is completely wrong what tha TO did, he did give those people who didn't make top 8th prizes.... which is kinna good. Nonetheless in no way should of he changed the T8 prize format, that is just wrong.
 
Pokepop

It's not for nothing that i'm complaining on these boards (and also mailing to POP over and over again).

Yes they expect that from us and that's why i don't want to do any big OP things anymore.
Actually we never ever had one single booster as support for awarding our judges or TO. (not for this event and the not for last 4 years events)
PSG told us to award judges/TO out of our own pocket or raise the entreefee to pay them.
And ALSO we never could buy any product for discount, so we rewarded our judges in the past with boosters ($4.00 each) payed out of our own pocket. For the prerelease we payed travelexpences for them out of our own pocket.

I think none of the PTO's overseas would survived a treatment as this, they would say find someone else putting time into this without having any benefits.
We did it under these circomstances, because we know that if we don't do it, pokemon is dead overhere.
And for keeping to game going we are awarded with, demands, lies, discrimination our players and 1 prerelease card.
 
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The TO may have experienced the same problem our TO in Charlotte did. I talked to our TO and he did not receive any paperwork (like he does for Magic pre-releases) and he had no idea what the prize support was. Based on my assurance of the prize support for the pre-release he did do that. Of course, both he and I were not sure what to do for side event prize support. Also he was concerned about giving out too much since this was his first Nintendo Premier Event. Based on our discussion it was my impression that the product not used would be shipped back to Nintendo. I did ask him to follow back up with Nintendo to find out what the "official" prize support is for side events. IMO it sounds like the TO was just trying to be careful due to the lack of instructions and not trying to cheat anyone.
 
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