The big happy European OP (sorry, Play! Pokémon) thread

[Tego]

Interesting. Somehow I assumed almost all US tourneys were held inside stores - I guess I just have this image of hobby stores being much more spacious and widespread in the USA.

They used to be allowed until quite recently! The shift into allowing only store locations is a massive and horrifically destructive shift, yet our distributor refused to take the sufficient preparatory measures before this critical shift of policy went into effect. I'm sure there are good reasons why this shift happened, but I know for a fact that it could've been handled much better.

Our previous distributor, Bergsala, always had sales people call up stores in all cities that had LLs/TOs but lacked affiliated stores, and propose OP affiliation agreements to these stores. Any distributors out there who still does this? Our new distributor, Bergsala Enigma, wants LL/TOs to do this on their own. Which IMHO means they're putting a very difficult business task into hands of volunteers with no business experience (and who usually are too young to even be taken seriously by the store employees).

LLs age 15-18 have tried to propose OP affiliation with local Norwegian stores, but have been met with nothing but cold shoulders. Either the stores don't understand what these kids are talking about and choose to ignore it, or the stores see no value in such a affiliation, or they don't take the LLs seriously. A lot of the time these LLs just don't know how to talk to stores about this either. No wonder - they're not salespeople, but young students!

How is this handled in your countries?

 

[bullados]

From what I've seen in the US, they basically leave League locations, dates, and times up to the individual League Owners, who have to be 18+ to Organize a League. It's on us to secure a location, ensure that it's suitable to Pokemon's core demographics, and work out with the location when League will happen. Tournaments, Premier or otherwise, are run very similarly. I believe the only restriction that we have for League and Tournament locations is that they must be open to the public while the League/Tourney is happening. I have never received any assistance from anybody within Pokemon about securing a location (though said help would be most appreciated ;-)), and I've basically got two Leagues and the tournaments associated with them.

 

[Starscream]

I know I just registered but I have to answer and just join the discussion here. I'm a former LO/LL and although we didn't have as much players(NONE, which might be my fault but I think I did my part to get people to play) and the lack of support. This isn't the subject, rather lack of supplies. I've seen this through the "special" forum, everyone is wondering where the prizes are. I've never had a problem with this but I can believe how it's irritating. Also, lack of answer from both Tego(no offence, I can understand you're busy) and from Jens. I can understand you're both busy but how hard can it be to send packages? If the main distributor is in Denmark, and it's taking so long, why not move it to Norway?

Yes I know the pros and cons but seriously. We're all getting fed up with the time. If it really is Bergsala's(enigmas?) fault, get some other company that can handle it. I've noticed that Bergsala doesn't care anymore.

~Darius R. L, Norway.(Regarding my spelling-errors if any; correct me)

 

[Dragon Collector]

Their task is simple: Send prizes, record it, then their done.
It's nothing more to it, and still they are able to mess it up. Why can't they just do their work and send us our prizes. It should take maximum 3 weeks, not 5 months.
Why this is so dificult to do is still unknown for me.

 

[Tego]

Seriosly it's Bergsalas fault, 100%

Yes I know the pros and cons but seriously. We're all getting fed up with the time. If it really is Bergsala's(enigmas?) fault, get some other company that can handle it. I've noticed that Bergsala doesn't care anymore.

Current distributor for Norway: Bergsala Enigma, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Previous distributor for Norway: Bergsala AS, based in Oslo, Norway.

Please don't mix up the two. The current distributor may have the word "Bergsala" in its name, which of course is confusing, but Bergsala is a different company altogether.

---------- Post added 01/20/2011 at 12:35 PM ----------

From what I've seen in the US, they basically leave League locations, dates, and times up to the individual League Owners, who have to be 18+ to Organize a League.

In Norway, we always have someone who's 18+ who's affiliated with the League somehow, but the League Leaders doing the actual work during League sessions (distributing points, promo cards etc), and are keeping the League alive, are usually 15/16/17. Either way, even 18/19 year olds are usually not suitable for forming OP agreements with stores, and rarely taken seriously by store employees, who may be twice their age or more, and have no prior experience with anything OP-related.

It's on us to secure a location, ensure that it's suitable to Pokemon's core demographics, and work out with the location when League will happen. Tournaments, Premier or otherwise, are run very similarly. I believe the only restriction that we have for League and Tournament locations is that they must be open to the public while the League/Tourney is happening.

That's the same restriction we've been having until now as well.

I have never received any assistance from anybody within Pokemon about securing a location (though said help would be most appreciated ;-)), and I've basically got two Leagues and the tournaments associated with them.

I understand.
I am sure, though, that if the Pokémon Company were to introduce a new rule that only allowed Leagues connected to stores to continue their existence, they would have taken the neccessary preparatory measures, and actively help League Leaders find a store so they could continue their existence. If not personal assistance to each individual League Leader, then at least send out some sort of official guidelines and tips for finding a store during this critical turning point for Organized Play. I doubt the Pokémon Company would have ignored the problem and would put all this Leagues at jeopardy.

In Norway, individual assistance to each and every League / tournament location is actually possible! We only have 8 OP locations in total. I have rock-hard proof that it is possible: It has been done before, under our previous distributor, when the number of locations actually was higher.

 

[badganondorf]

It has been a while since I last time posted here on the Gym but this topic really caught my attention.

I thought this was only Finland's problem but it looks like the problem is all around North Europe. Surprising.

We never got our National Championhip 2010 prizes. We tried to ask them for about 6 months after the tournament until we gave up. Also we never got our prize support for Autumn BRs of 2010. But something good also! We got our CC prizes for our Cities last weekend. 2 months late, we did get them. Players here were really happy because they are used to get nothing.

About league kits I know nothing. IMO they have been "on their way" for 3 months now. Slow ship to say at least...What about player rewards? Has anyone in North Europe got them? Finland hasn't received any player rewards in over a year.

Due this situation the Juniors and Seniors age groups have been getting smaller but Masters have stayed the same - maybe even grew a little bit.

It's true that contacting the LD is just way too difficult. From what I have heard, he rarely answers to anyone's e-mail. Or if he does answer, the answer comes 4 weeks too late. Our situation is just like Norway's, Sweden's and Denmark's situation altogether. We have to pay for league materials, we haven't got a half of the material we should have gotten, younger players are disappearing due the lack of extra materials and players are unsatisfied.

The thing though that concerns me as a player, is that every City in Finland still misses the Premier Tag. So I have no idea where my ranking is going. Is this the situation in other countries also? Of course the ranking search lags too in the Pokemon.com but it would be cool to at least know my ranking.

I'm thankful that our Pokemon community is strong enough not to care about the missing stuff. IMO BergsalaEnigma just ruins their own business while not paying attention to competing players and leagues. Leagues create the players base for the game and without them every booster that is bought, is bought by random children who don't even understand the game.

 

[Tego]

We never got our National Championhip 2010 prizes.

We got ours the day before Nationals. We were extremely close to not getting Nationals 2010 prizes in time for the tournament either, and if that would've happened, every single Norwegian premier event of 2010 would have been without prizes to hand out.

So sorry to hear the nightmare actually did happen in Finland. But you still haven't received it?!

We tried to ask them for about 6 months after the tournament until we gave up.

Sounds depressingly familiar.

Also we never got our prize support for Autumn BRs of 2010.

Same here. I've been told that it will arrive in January, but I have my doubts. (In fact, I'll eat a Victory Medal if Norway's BR prizes arrive within this month. I can film it on YouTube if anyone's interested! =D)

But something good also! We got our CC prizes for our Cities last weekend. 2 months late, we did get them. Players here were really happy because they are used to get nothing.

It shouldn't be like this. Players should expect all officially supported tournaments to have prizes for them, and be suprised if they once DON'T have prizes. Today's situation is the complete opposite, and that's unacceptable.

Still, I'm amazed to hear that a premier event delivery actually has happened here in the North since our Nationals delivery back in June!

About league kits I know nothing. IMO they have been "on their way" for 3 months now. Slow ship to say at least...What about player rewards? Has anyone in North Europe got them? Finland hasn't received any player rewards in over a year.

League = same here.

Player Rewards = same here. I actually had started forgetting those even exist!

Due this situation the Juniors and Seniors age groups have been getting smaller but Masters have stayed the same - maybe even grew a little bit.

Same here!

 

[hampuse1]

Current distributor for Norway: Bergsala Enigma, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Previous distributor for Norway: Bergsala AS, based in Oslo, Norway.

Please don't mix up the two. The current distributor may have the word "Bergsala" in its name, which of course is confusing, but Bergsala is a different company altogether.

I meant Bergsala Enigma

 

[iLifeless]

We got the same problem here in the Netherlands.
The only thing we recieved so far are the CC medals, victory medal BRA and the league stuff
But we didn't recieve the playmats yet. and i got 2/3 weeks ago player rewards from may 2010.

 

[loppe]

Sweden - my point of view

I have just to add my feeling and thoughts about this.

I started as a Tournament Organizer at 2006 when I had my first pre-release after my son qualified to the Worlds. I start to build up the OP in Sweden with the previous LD Trendus which helped me a lot. One single year I almost arranged all the premier events in Sweden, I think I was in 6 different cities in Sweden arranging CC, STP and National, including Stockholm, Gothenburg and other cities and not a single time was the prize support delayed. After that have I arranged and acted as HJ for several more CC, STP’s and Nationals here in Sweden and even was invited to act as both translator and Judge at Worlds. It has been a great time and I think back to it with affection.
I and my kids have got many friends around in Sweden and the World that we wouldn’t have met otherwise.

At the beginning of this season I had some great plans, they have opened a new conference center I my part of Sweden and I thought it would be a great place to maybe arrange the Nationals for Sweden. I planned to start up a league in the neighboring city etc.

My problem started 2009 with the current LD to be honest, the materials for the leagues started to be delayed, premier events didn’t get their tagging, prize support didn’t arrived in time etc. At the beginning of this season I didn’t receive any information at all from the LD and I sent several mails to them and asked for information without any success. Suddenly, mid October I found out that pre-releases, leagues in Malmö, Gothenburg, Stockholm etc. as well as Battle Roads in Stockholm were arranged without any information sent out to me. You could maybe assume that my previous 5 years as TO would count for something… In the beginning of November I received a meil explaining that due to the new regulations from the Scandinavian distributor it is impossible for an independent TO to perform any events at all. So from this season all TO need to have connections to stores which I didn’t. I asked several stores such as “Barnens Hus” and TOYS"R"US, which I previous time have worked with without success.

Ok, it’s maybe not a big deal for me personally or POP in total but it effectively destroys the game in this part of Sweden and for the ~40-50 players that has been part of the game for several years. The player base in the west part of Sweden have a great mix of both competitive players which has attend the Worlds several times and players participating just for being part of the fun.
My leagues have always been arranged at the public libraries or similar and my tournaments at different places, both public libraries and for example show rooms at different shopping malls etc. I have had a great time arranging the tournaments and give the kids a meaningful spear time and I believe arranging the tournaments in public places have it attract more players.

I just by a last try sent a new mail this week to the LD and they responded that they maybe have a store that I can cooperate with. Great… maybe?
When I read this thread my feeling is really mixed. I want this to work for the players and the same time I’m really fed up with the way of working of the LD. It look that they tried to destroy the customer base....

It cost a lot of effort and energy to drive OP forward and with out proper support from LD is really at hard work that I feel maybe isn't worth it.

 

[hampuse1]

Something needs to be done about Bergsala Enigma and the rules that you can only play leagues in certain places.

 

[onyxek]

Huh? I know that neither Germany nor Netherlands nor Switzerland have them. Any other countries who got that playmat?

in Czech republic are playmats too

 

[Myuu]

The switch from Bergsala AS to Bergsala Enigma has been awfull. Before the switch we got prizes on time, league promos in time and player rewards in time. After the switch prizes have been late or never arrived, prize support has dropped, assistance for events has been nonexistant (and we had this for a couple of events in 07,08 and 09), the quality of nationals locations has dropped and as a result of all of this and what Eskil said player attendance has dropped insanly. We used to have 25-35 players at least for cities but this year we had 12 people attending. Also the amount of people on our league has dropped from around 15 to somewhere between 3 and 7. Very few people accutally play the TCG when the come to leagues too and they usually come just to talk to each other. And when we're talking about player rewards. I got my last one on the 5th of August 2009. I remember this because it was my birthday. I think most problems that Norway is having should be blamed on Bergsala Enigma.

 

[hampuse1]

I think most problems that Norway is having should be blamed on Bergsala Enigma.

This guy tells the truth :nonono:

 

[Tego]

Just want to make two things clear:

1) Everything I wrote in the first post of this topic is 100 % true. The state of Pokemon in Norway really has been THAT bad for the past ten months. I chose every word very carefully when I wrote this, and I made no exaggerations, assumptions or false accusations.

2) When I wrote that our LLs usually are 15-18 years old, I meant exactly that: League Leaders. The League Owners are of course 18+, but the way we run it in Norway, League Owners are usually older siblings / older players, who are not much older than 18 themselves. Our League Leaders, TOs and League Owners have very rarely been older adults. The fact remains that we should not leave tasks such as forming business agreements with stores to teenagers. They don't know how to do it, they don't want to do it, and they are not taken seriously when they try. They need assistance from someone who's older than them and has more business experience than them. And who's an official of the company the store buys TCG stock from.

 

[andceo]

Here in Italy things are going little better.

We got BR and CC prize support (including playmat), League materials arrived (even if VERY late) and the events were held without big problems.

The connection between TO and stores it's a big problem like in the other parts of Europe.

Just want to make two things clear:
The fact remains that we should not leave tasks such as forming business agreements with stores to teenagers. They don't know how to do it, they don't want to do it, and they are not taken seriously when they try. They need assistance from someone who's older than them and has more business experience than them. And who's an official of the company the store buys TCG stock from.

This is a big point.
Something here has been done, as our OP informed the stores about the opportunity to hold a Pokèmon League and to get some discount in ordering the cards.
But the problem it's always the same: TOs are forced to hold league and tournaments in a store, but the LD DOESN'T communicate with the store. The League Leader/TO has to find a store, explain to it how Pokèmon works and hope that he will let him run a League there.
Fortunately, this worked for me because the league is a successful and the store is selling very much, and so it is very easy to me to run my activities. But i saw a lot of leagues having problems, with stores asking for money to let the people play in its area, something which League Leaders and TOs, who are supposed to work for free, cannot always effort.

The solution to me it's very simple: Pokèmon USA has to launch, with its distributors, a global plan to ensure that the stores will have something to gain in running a pokèmon league or tournament.
Discount in ordering the product would be enough, because stores will be interested in contacting all the TOs of the area to organize activities.

I don't know what to say about the problem of Prize Support lack.
I'm pretty sure that many distributors received them from USA but failed to send them to theirs places.
If we have received our Player Rewards last week dated January 2010, it is quite obvious that the distributors has hold it for a year.

 

[Freddy K.]

Hope it gets sorted out Eskil...

 

[Dexermon]

Norway and Sweden(denmark and finland too??) have the same distributor, Bergsala/Enigma. I can say that we could blame almost everything on them. They are slow, slow and slow.

This is not me writing on the behalf of any company, but me writing as a person who have been in the Organized Play buisness for more than 10 years. Not only Pokémon but also other card game. I've judges organized and played a lot of different tournaments in a lot of different games.
But one think that keeps surprising me is that the loudest people are always the ones who don't support their Local community at all.
They keep expeting to get a lot of free stuff, but never stops to think about where all this free stuff are comming from.


I would like you to answer yes or no the the following two questions.


Do you buy most of your boosters in your local store?

Do you buy your boosters online through the US without paying import surcharge? Or maybe you just buy single cards?


This have nothing to do about the situtation in Scandinavia, or the above post. But it's one of the many questions the European community have to ask themself.

If you want your LD's to keep supporing your game, you need to keep supporting your local store.

 

[Bergsala Enigma]

To the entire Scandinavian Community.

We will look through all posts this weekend, and reply accordingly.

But one think We would like to set straight is that every single CORRECTLY REPORTED tournament in the 2009/10 season have recieved their prizes. for various reason and reason that where out of our hands, some materials where delayed, but according to the information we have, everything have been handed out to all winners.

//Bergsala Enigma

 

[hampuse1]

I would like you to answer yes or no the the following two questions.

Do you buy most of your boosters in your local store?

Do you buy your boosters online through the US without paying import surcharge? Or maybe you just buy single cards?

I don't buy boosters in my local store anymore because they have too high price IMO.
I usually buy one box from ebay and singles each set.

But one think that keeps surprising me is that the loudest people are always the ones who don't support their Local community at all.
They keep expeting to get a lot of free stuff, but never stops to think about where all this free stuff are comming from.

I don't support the store by buying boosters. I buy drinks etc. when I'm there so I guess that counts as a little support.
But I do help with the league every other week when the LL can't be there