The Greatest Mirror Ever Played - The Champ who should have been Champ

[rroaryh]

Gino, gratz, you did great this year. I don't think anyone has the right to say if u deserved it, you won, gratz. But as a former judge and a referee in other sports, I will say, I think you do need to back off the judges man. I believe, especially in a high quality even such as worlds, that they are on top of their game and totally unbiased. They mad the best call at the time for the situation man, but I do think as younger kids see you and read these threads, not cool to lead an assault on them.

Ror

 

[TomShea]

Judging

The judges at Nats and Worlds do a great job. These guys really care and work overtime to keep it fair. Most of the time when they make a call in a really tight match they do so KNOWING that one of the players will probably be disapointed with their decision. If their decision wasn't controversial then it wouldn't appear on these boards. The community needs to learn to respect the judges call. Anytime anyone on these boards disrespects a judge we as a community should be supportive of that judge. They did their best to keep it fair.

For any player to go to a tourney play in a tight match, not make a big deal over the judges decision AT THE TOURNEY, go home and THEN blast the judges AND his opponet simply shouldn't be acceptable behavior. Gino used to do this stuff in our New ENgland tournaments 3 years ago and at age 15 one can say hey he is only a kid. That only holds up for so long. Now Gino is 18 years old, out of high school, and in fact OUR NATIONAL CHAMPION. He needs to hold himself to a higher standard than he is used to.

This entire situation is very much like the movie Ground Hog Day for me. Been there done that many times with many of the same issues. Nobody is saying that Gino isn't a talented player. What I am saying is that this kind of behaviour is unacceptable from any 18 year old let alone OUR NATIONAL CHAMPION. We have younger kids playing this game who watch and model how the older kids act and play. At times Gino can be a really nice guy who is a great ambassador for Pokemon.

I would like to see that guy show up for the events I run not the person who posted this report.


Tom Shea

PTO New England

 

[Lawman]

We would hope this to be true. I had a judge at Nationals that did not know what a Scramble energy did and had to go ask for help. Yes a Judge. Same guy that put the clipboard down on a top 32 game that was in play but not the game that had a problem. Same guy that read every card that got played in the first round of top cut. Then I see this guy at Worlds. It was good to see that he did a much better job at Worlds. Most of the Judges at Worlds have years of experience, fairness and trustworthiness. And I hope some of them get to bed way before 4:00 am so they can do there best and not be so cranky and quick to hot temper. But you can call me ignorant, it won't be the first time. As for Fish we have had our disagreements but he has always been fair and most of the time right. ( o.k. always) So Gino I know how you might feel but you got the top of the class at your game. Oh cool video.

Nice try at hijacking the thread. Take your sour grapes elsewhere. As HJ in JRs at Nats, I know every judge that was assigned in the area were top notch! Trust me, they ALL know what a scramble does. I talked with you at Nats and again at Worlds. You said you had let it go and did NOT send a report into OP. I told you my name and the judge's name in question to you @ Nats. Too late to continue to rant about this DEAD issue. Let it go, your son lost in T32 and he seems to be dealing with it.....you, on the other hand......well.

OT: Thx to Fish and Tom Shea for chiming in. Btw Tom, Ness is our World Champ, so he has chimed in also on this thread.

The correct call was made T4 to give a 5 min time extention. Both had been verbally warned and the tempo wasn't being kept up. Give a player FOREVER to make moves and they wont ever make an error. Make them follow the time guidelines IN THE RULES and sometimes errors are made.

Keith

 

[StoneCold]

Btw Tom, Ness is our World Champ, so he has chimed in also on this thread.
The correct call was made T4 to give a 5 min time extention. Both had been verbally warned and the tempo wasn't being kept up. Keith

Ness is OUR World Champ. Sounds unbiased to me???? BTW. Shouldn't that time extension be determined B E F O R E time is called? I have all the respect in the world for you Keith, just call this
one properly.
Tom, come on. 18 is still a kid. Eight (TEEN). He'll get it. His recollection may be incorrect, it may
be right on. But he isn't the one that started the Bad Judge thread! He's the one that added his
o p i n i o n to it. He's not protesting anything. He's obviously just HURT.

 

[Jaeger]

I know of a few time extensions were given after time was called at Worlds. Many of them were due to translators and the time extenions weren't long enough IMO. Using a Translator to stall is worse than stalling on your own IMO. I wasn't able to watch the end of the match as well as I would have liked (my position was terrible) but no matter what the judges did we were going to have this controversey. Had the situations been reversed and the time extension gone against Jason well there probably would have been a riot.

 

[DarthPika]

I think you have a problem...... you don't need to worship the guy. :/

WORSHIP THE GUY? Let's see...YOU KNOW WHAT I NEED? LOOK, let me reitorate if you
want to make it a personal bashing of Gino go do it somewhere else. This is a discussion of
him as a player of LEGACY. Not a personal insult fest!
I must also say that when a MODERATOR (PABLO)comes on here to voice his PERSONAL dislike
about another POKEMON PLAYER that to me is ABUSE OF POWER and should not be allowed!!!!!
Maybe you should practice what you PREACH about SPIRIT OF THE GAME!!!!

WORSHIP? NO THE WORD IS R E S P E C T!! Repect for the ELITE! Oh...possibly the better word
for you is JEALOUSY!!:nonono:

I respect Gino as a player, but I don't care for his attitude towards everyone else. You can be a great player without having to try and make excuses for why you lost. I really don't care for the term "Elite", as there are many good players out there who are just as good, but havnt gotton lucky breaks.

In no way am I jealous of Gino. I'm quite happy with how I did this year, and even though I had some bad luck when I needed a break the most at nationals, that still doesn't make me jealous of him, or mean that he is a better player/person then me.

Yes, I would have loved to make it where he was, but I'm not going to dislike him or anything just for that. What I don't like is the compleat lack of respect he has, and the fact that as good as he did he STILL has to complain that it wasnt good enough.

The whole idea of Elite players really bugs be, for many reasons.

For example John Silvestro used Empozong at nats. I used the exact same deck, and from what I saw in the mirror our lists were near identical.

Now who will get more respect for using the deck? Well I can promise you its not going to be me. Everyone is always like "OMG THAT DECK WAS SUCH A GREAT PLAY, THIS GUY IS A GENIUS!!!" for some one like Jhon, but even though I very often build the same decks, I get NO respect for it, and very often get bashed. ( John, no offence to you or anything, was just using you as an example :wink

Basicly everyone seems to think that just because a player is considerd "elite" that they are automaticly better then every one else.

 

[Lawman]

Ness is OUR World Champ. Sounds unbiased to me???? BTW. Shouldn't that time extension be determined B E F O R E time is called? I have all the respect in the world for you Keith, just call this
one properly.
Tom, come on. 18 is still a kid. Eight (TEEN). He'll get it. His recollection may be incorrect, it may
be right on. But he isn't the one that started the Bad Judge thread! He's the one that added his
o p i n i o n to it. He's not protesting anything. He's obviously just HURT.

I have NO idea who you are Stone Cold, but I can tell you this, I was in the ring for the finals since I was on staff. At best, you would have been on the rail in the audience. Although I wasnt judging the final tables (since I was HJ in JRs at Nats 2008, I had a chance at top tbles already this year, we were spreading the experience around), I was right there bc I was "drafted" be give updates and grab the video crews filming the T4 matches for reaction shots, game ending moments etc. BEFORE time was called, the judges huddled up and decided that a time extention was warranted bc of the slow play and warnings given to BOTH players. SO, a ruling did not come in "after the time was called" and the absolute right call was made.

As to the "biased" comment when I said Ness was "our" world champ, I was responding to Tom Shea's 1st post (didnt finish readind the other posts to see someone else told him the same). Either way, Ness is "our" world champ, just like Gino is "our" Nat'l champ. Those are the FACTS. No bias at all. In fact, I shook Gino's hand at the end of Worlds telling him he did great this year. (I was also the staffer who got the bottle of water for Gino in top cuts).

The staff simply wants the players to play to their best ability, within the rules AND time limits, and for the rulings to be fair and consistent. At the end of the day, if the staff has done their job correctly, the "best" player for that tourney will win. At Nats, even with the GL penalty, Gino pulled thru and won the event. Sounds like the best player that day won there. Give Ness his props then too, he was the "best" player on the day at Worlds.

Keith

 

[StoneCold]

I certainly understand your situation DARTHPIKA. I call them players of LEGACY or ELITE because
they play the same decks as we do.(For the most part) They use the same trainers(For the most part)
but if you think that a MASTER like SILVESTRO isn't going to think of something to slide into that
concept deck to make it his own?? To think outside the box?? Think about this...Jolteon * in PLOX
was a great addition. That is why I say that these guys are Elite. Taking the basic premise and testing
against everything out there. Then making slight changes that will keep every opponent on their toes.
Oh, Breloom in PLOX helped someone as well. I will say once again, I hope some of this rubs off on
my kid!
One other thing, I'm not sure who is bashing you for your decisions but I'm sure that it's not any
of these guys and probably no one that you should be concerned with anyhow.

 

[EeveeLover]

I am not going to take any sides in this issue.

I am going to ask that the attacks from both sides of the issue please be ended.

Both sides feel they are right, both sides feel the others are wrong. I see no change in that fact.

However, all the attacks will succeed in one thing, getting this topic locked.

Thank you.

 

[DarthPika]

I certainly understand your situation DARTHPIKA. I call them players of LEGACY or ELITE because
they play the same decks as we do.(For the most part) They use the same trainers(For the most part)
but if you think that a MASTER like SILVESTRO isn't going to think of something to slide into that
concept deck to make it his own?? To think outside the box?? Think about this...Jolteon * in PLOX
was a great addition. That is why I say that these guys are Elite. Taking the basic premise and testing
against everything out there. Then making slight changes that will keep every opponent on their toes.
Oh, Breloom in PLOX helped someone as well. I will say once again, I hope some of this rubs off on
my kid!
One other thing, I'm not sure who is bashing you for your decisions but I'm sure that it's not any
of these guys and probably no one that you should be concerned with anyhow.

I guess thinking out side the box and adding weird techs would make me Elite to. ROFL <3 deck building

No its not the top players, most of them agree with me for the most part on my stuff. Seems to be a large number of scrub players that do the bashing. (I actually had a guy yell at me cuz I was explaning how a deck works with out me posting MY list XD)

I do think that certain players are VERY good at thinking up crazy stuff like Jolteon* or Bannete with Gyaradose, but it just gets tiring hearing how great they are when I do the same thing and no one cares. Either way, I do understand where your comming from.

 

[vietgamer1021]

i must agree, i wish i could i couldve had ginos season (wouldnt most people?) but to complain when youre that far ahead?

you shouldve done that at worlds not here

 

[davidy321]

Ok,

I have been light hearted up until now, but I think it is time for my serious imput.

I didn't watch the match between Gino and Jason, so I can't comment on it.

I can comment on the T8 nationals match, though, because I was Gino's opponent.

I will try to make this as clear as possible. I do not know Gino very well, but I always liked him. I think that he is a difficult person, but he is nice at heart. He gets a bad rap. He deserves some of it, but not all of it.

With that said, he was playing very slowly at nationals. He was given multiple verbal warnings, cautions, and all that jazz before the game loss. At the time, I felt horrible about it. I am not a confrontational person, and I just wanted to play the games. But, the judges in my opinion made the correct call. I do not think it was a biased decision at all. Like I said before, he was given multiple warnings. I even recall them informing him that he will receive a game loss if he keeps it up.

The last thing I wanted was for my opponent to get a game loss, but I completely agree with the decision. I know Danny F. personally. When I first came into Pokemon, he was one of my best poke friends. He even let me stay in his hotel room at a regionals when we barely knew eachother. In my opinion, there is no person in Pokemon with more class and integrity. We have not talked about what happened at nationals since it happened at nationals. Frankly, there is nothing to talk about. Without talking to Fish, I can guarantee you that he did not want to give a game loss. He was simply being fair and followed the rules.

Danny has judged almost every major event I have ever played in, and he has always been harder on his local kids. He so badly doesn't want to be biased for us that he is harder on us. That is a great judge in my opinion.

Gino, you deserved to win our match. You had the better set up and better plays in all 3 matches. I made a terrible misplay in game 3, and you capitalized. Thank you for the great games, and once again congrats on an awesome season. I do not have a problem with you questioning judges, but it can only go so far.

Danny is the best judge I know. I do not know any of the other top judges at nats or worlds personally, but I don't think you get to that point without having a great reputation.

My 2 cents

With all due respect, however good a judge Danny F is, aren't there guidelines on friends juding for friends games?

 

[the_sniper]

I respect Gino as a player, but I don't care for his attitude towards everyone else. You can be a great player without having to try and make excuses for why you lost. I really don't care for the term "Elite", as there are many good players out there who are just as good, but havnt gotton lucky breaks.

In no way am I jealous of Gino. I'm quite happy with how I did this year, and even though I had some bad luck when I needed a break the most at nationals, that still doesn't make me jealous of him, or mean that he is a better player/person then me.

Yes, I would have loved to make it where he was, but I'm not going to dislike him or anything just for that. What I don't like is the compleat lack of respect he has, and the fact that as good as he did he STILL has to complain that it wasnt good enough.

The whole idea of Elite players really bugs be, for many reasons.

For example John Silvestro used Empozong at nats. I used the exact same deck, and from what I saw in the mirror our lists were near identical.

Now who will get more respect for using the deck? Well I can promise you its not going to be me. Everyone is always like "OMG THAT DECK WAS SUCH A GREAT PLAY, THIS GUY IS A GENIUS!!!" for some one like Jhon, but even though I very often build the same decks, I get NO respect for it, and very often get bashed. ( John, no offence to you or anything, was just using you as an example :wink

Basicly everyone seems to think that just because a player is considerd "elite" that they are automaticly better then every one else.

No offense taken. But our lists were FAR from identical. You played claydol didn't you??

I didn't.

I played 4 cess. crystal and 4 castaway, pretty sure you didn't( but can't remember).
But my cess.'s gave you ( and everyone else I played) fits. Slowed down your ability to
get set, by design. I 5-1 ed g/g that weekend, losing in t-16 to mirror.

Put the time in pika, playtest and think " out of the box" a little more. You'll get the
results your looking for

John

 

[Brady1]

o geez
at the end of the day this dude was #1 at nats, 3rd at worlds. Obv a talented player! pokemon is a game to be played and he plays good. he may or may not like certain respected judges & he makes claims about them here (whether true or not) but who cares? in the end he got his scholarship, top 3 and says he had fun. Id call that successful. he doesnt need poke players to like him or respect him which by many posts here ppl seem to think. it doesn't matter if poke players like you because matches are played with the cards. you guys act like he's dissing the 10- kids. We're 15+ people lighten up.
Good job on ur accomplishments dude. =)

Winning is one thing, showing your a man and acting like one is another. He doesn't need our respect? No, but then who needs respect ever? Jeeze, what a poor thing to say. Who cares about what he says about respected judges? Certainly not the judge, the judge's family and friends, or anybody that the judge judges...no, of course not. Saying BDS made an incorrect call opens a door to doubt by for the players he judges for (though I doubt that'll last long). He and all the other judges do this for no pay. They do it for the love of the game. For any player to openly say that a specific judge did a poor job is no laughing matter.

 

[ryanvergel]

No offense taken. But our lists were FAR from identical. You played claydol didn't you??

I didn't.

I played 4 cess. crystal and 4 castaway, pretty sure you didn't( but can't remember).
But my cess.'s gave you ( and everyone else I played) fits. Slowed down your ability to
get set, by design. I 5-1 ed g/g that weekend, losing in t-16 to mirror.

Put the time in pika, playtest and think " out of the box" a little more. You'll get the
results your looking for

John

I was just about to say, umm... I think John gets the respect he does because not only was his EmpoZong deck pretty different from many others out there, but he got T16 at worlds with it. And he did well at nats. And the prof. cup. And he's won states and regionals and CCs and BRs before... among other things. John gets the respect he does because he plays what he plays- no matter what it looks like (cites "the bug" getting him high at nats, his peculiar empozong) and he STILL does well. The guy is one of the most consistent players in the world. No offense, but of course you can't get the same recognition. It takes years of having your name on the top cut list at these huge and major events and consistency through the formats to get the respect he does. It's not just the list.

 

[B_B_C]

Gino your the greatest playa ever!

 

[David's Confused Pokedad]

Nice try at hijacking the thread. Take your sour grapes elsewhere. As HJ in JRs at Nats, I know every judge that was assigned in the area were top notch! Trust me, they ALL know what a scramble does. I talked with you at Nats and again at Worlds. You said you had let it go and did NOT send a report into OP. I told you my name and the judge's name in question to you @ Nats. Too late to continue to rant about this DEAD issue. Let it go, your son lost in T32 and he seems to be dealing with it.....you, on the other hand......well.

OT: Thx to Fish and Tom Shea for chiming in. Btw Tom, Ness is our World Champ, so he has chimed in also on this thread.

The correct call was made T4 to give a 5 min time extention. Both had been verbally warned and the tempo wasn't being kept up. Give a player FOREVER to make moves and they wont ever make an error. Make them follow the time guidelines IN THE RULES and sometimes errors are made.

Keith

Sorry but you have a few that are far from Top Notch. The sooner you believe that than the sooner you can make improvements. Denial aint just a river in Egypt. I bring up my point of view to let Gino know that I understand where he is coming from. I support the Judges and the decision they made in Gino's game but he can't denied the way that he feels about it. Its his side of the story and his post. Hopefully he can learn from his feelings, enjoy his great run this year and get back to enjoying Pokemon.

 

[Lawman]

Sorry but you have a few that are far from Top Notch. The sooner you believe that than the sooner you can make improvements. Denial aint just a river in Egypt. I bring up my point of view to let Gino know that I understand where he is coming from. I support the Judges and the decision they made in Gino's game but he can't denied the way that he feels about it. Its his side of the story and his post. Hopefully he can learn from his feelings, enjoy his great run this year and get back to enjoying Pokemon.

As I told you before, if you truly feel this way, use that little button called "submit feedback" on your my pokemon acc't on that event. I find it humerous though bc the judge you have called out was selected by PUI to be a judge at Worlds too! Guess Mike, Pete, Dave and the gang didnt get the same "vibes" from this judge. He happens to be one of the few judges on staff that knows more than a little japanese, taking trips there each year with students. Betcha didnt know that, eh?

Bottom line: This advice can serve Gino the same. If you really have a "beef" with a judge and/or ruling......send in the feedback straight to PUI. They DO read their emails! Posting here solves NOTHING.

Keith

 

[StoneCold]

A True Master!!

No offense taken. But our lists were FAR from identical. You played claydol didn't you??

I didn't.

I played 4 cess. crystal and 4 castaway, pretty sure you didn't( but can't remember).
But my cess.'s gave you ( and everyone else I played) fits. Slowed down your ability to
get set, by design. I 5-1 ed g/g that weekend, losing in t-16 to mirror.

Put the time in pika, playtest and think " out of the box" a little more. You'll get the
results your looking for

John

This is why you, sir, deserve the accolades that I have mentioned! You, as I said to Pika earlier
didn't just think this way. You have been a pioneer at this since I have known you!!
This is why I really hope that the more my kid see's people like you, Jason, Ballard, Gino and a
handful of others...The more he will learn about this game and reach a level near where you guys are
now!!

 

[David's Confused Pokedad]

Just cause he is from the State of Washington doesn't mean he knows how to play Pokemon. Just shows he knows people from the Company. Its not always what you know but who you know. Still if you had observed the game like I had asked we wouldn't be talking about this issue. Don't you dare say you did. Sorry Gino. Hope we can return you to your topic.