Should Masters get different promos at events?

[atomant]

I have been attending a lot of tournaments this season but with little success on accumulating Championship Points. Like many, I hoping to have a good Nationals run to earn my invite. I consider myself a good Pokemon TCG player making top-cut a fair amount of times. But for “THOSE DAYS”, let’s just say I learned from my loses.:biggrin:

Nonetheless, I have spent a ton of money on cards for my decks, traveling expenses, and of course,

entry fees​

. Now, I am looking to re-coop some of my money but to no avail.

“How so”, you may ask? By selling the “little things” I earned as promotional cards/ prizes that I received for playing in Cites, States, Regionals, etc. However, the problem I am encountering is that no one wants them or the prices are just not worth it. For example, I am trying to sell my States Leafon but other prices are so low that I am in no way going to make-up its entry fee price (not that I was expecting to but at least coming close to it would be nice). I think the problem here is that Masters Players get the same promos as Juniors and Seniors and they get these promos for free! There is nothing wrong with Juniors and Seniors getting free cards, as this promotes the game, but Masters should get something different for the sake of having to pay to play. Thus in return, we as masters can have a more exclusive card for sell, trade or just to use in our decks. As for prizes, that, too, is something I have been questioning lately. Do we really need cases of cards? I think by winning a Pokemon event your deck/collection is very much complete by then, so why more cards? I like what other games have done and offer Laptops, game consoles, money, etc.

That’s all I have to say. Thanks for reading.

 

[chuzzoe]

I guess my question to you would be: Do other card games give special promos to the masters players only?

chuzzoe

 

[Raen]

I don't' know if special promos are the answer, but we need to be given SOMETHING a bit more than extra boosters for our entry fees. I've found myself a little miffed that some PTOs are giving significant (50+ dollars) cash prizes at States, and some didn't give anything extra at all. It felt very unfair, and I think we need a more universal prize system where, yes, money should be included in prizes.

 

[PokePop]

I'm not sure if you're going to see cash prizes continue since it doesn't look like those PTOs saw a return on their investment.

 

[Raen]

I'm not sure if you're going to see cash prizes continue since it doesn't look like those PTOs saw a return on their investment.

If so, then we are going to need something more than the packs we are getting, or a reduction in entry fee prices. $20 for a State championship where getting Top 4 only gets you a booster box (which I have all the cards for, and can only make a small profit on) doesn't feel worth the price, when for $0 before I was getting half a box + the same merch items for the same placing.

 

[ShadowCard]

I think the problem here is that Masters Players get the same promos as Juniors and Seniors and they get these promos for free! There is nothing wrong with Juniors and Seniors getting free cards, as this promotes the game, but Masters should get something different for the sake of having to pay to play. Thus in return, we as masters can have a more exclusive card for sell, trade or just to use in our decks

Considering the number of Juniors + Seniors and Masters, I can see this having an effect of driving up the Junior/Senior promo because there will be less of them instead of driving up the promo for Masters.

Making a promo card exclusive to masters also does not make it any easier to use in decks. Using your logic, it would be harder because there would theoretically be less of them.

- - - Updated - - -

If so, then we are going to need something more than the packs we are getting, or a reduction in entry fee prices. $20 for a State championship where getting Top 4 only gets you a booster box (which I have all the cards for, and can only make a small profit on) doesn't feel worth the price, when for $0 before I was getting half a box + the same merch items for the same placing.

If your goal is to make a profit on the prizes, something is wrong if you "only make a small" profit off of a $20 box.

 

[Swordfish1989]

If your goal is to make a profit on the prizes, something is wrong if you "only make a small" profit off of a $20 box.

Hmmm.. if you could pick between spending $0 and earning $40 worth of prizes if you T4, and spending $20 and making $80 worth of profit if you T4, which one would anyone pick? Especially given the odds of winning... I'm pretty sure anyone would go with the $0 entry fee since it gives you the best chances of making any kind of return.

MTG charges entry fees and their prizes are pretty phenomenal compared to Pokemon's... just sayin'

 

[Jaeger]

Pokemon players were spoiled for a long time with no entry fee. Every other game I have seen has charged an entry fee for playing in tournaments. The only answer to this I see is slightly raise the price of States/Regionals and give everybody 5 packs for playing.

 

[Hikari_Netto]

I disagree with having separate promos for each age division. It just creates another unnecessary hurdle for collectors and will drive up the price of cards in age divisions with lower attendance. It would far better to just print promo variants of more playable cards in general and distribute them to everyone, regardless of division, perhaps with additional copies being distributed to top finishers. These are competitive events after all, why not distribute truly competitive cards? I'll never forget when Garchomp C was printed as a Regionals promo, players had never been happier.

I guess my question to you would be: Do other card games give special promos to the masters players only?

chuzzoe

Pokémon is currently the only TCG outside of Japan that employs age divisions for organized play.

Pokemon players were spoiled for a long time with no entry fee. Every other game I have seen has charged an entry fee for playing in tournaments. The only answer to this I see is slightly raise the price of States/Regionals and give everybody 5 packs for playing.

The vast majority of games charge an entry fee, yes. Bushiroad is now the only company still priding themselves on not charging for their events. All major events for Vanguard, Weiss Schwarz and Buddyfight are completely free. Consequently, these games tend to have weaker prize support, though.

For years the Pokémon community begged for better prizing and now they have it. Naturally, increased prize support comes at a price and now nearly everyone complains about having to pay for events. You can't have it both ways guys, increased prizes will always come at a cost.

 

[Jaeger]

I really don't think a lot of people complain...a lot of people have been happy with the entry fee/prize payout in my experience.

 

[TRAINER HEZ]

Compared to any other game, younger players entering free is just a bonus... older players paying is standard. Giving younger players worse cards is unfair. Leafeon Plasma might not be valuable, but it's a decent card.
The problem isn't bad promos but the fact sets are so unbalanced now there's only a couple of good cards in them and thus, not really worth winning and opening. I remember winning and opening half a box of Dragon Frontiers, it was awesome *__* Half a box now... you're lucky if you pull a good EX, otherwise it's generally worthless.