Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

US Nationals Moved...

Prime said:
Your totally right. Nobody has said those smaller events won't be held.

But given your history of Nationals and the amount of staff needed to work both days, do you think there will be any smaller events on Saturday? On Friday, I can possibly see smaller events, but a large amount of the staff will be in the Professor Cup. On Sunday, I can possibly see smaller events, but not as many as a regular non-nats day since many staff will still be needed for Nationals.

Nobody can say that there won't be smaller events, but I think anyone can see that a large chunk of them are going to be thrown out unless they bump up the staff.
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Prime: Who do you think ran those events at Origins? Staff.
It certainly wasn't GAMA staff running them. It was POP staff.
Staff that they brought there for Origins and that volunteered on site.

Why do you think they will need to bump up the staff beyond what they had at Origins??
And at Origins, they had to pay Origins for Judge tickets for all that staff, whatever that cost was.
I think they'll have what staff they need.
 
Well I have read most of the comments on here and I figured I would give my opinion, liked or not.

For some background, I live in WI. Not the largest player base in the country but growing like everyone else's. We have traveled over 600 miles 1 way every year for the last 5 years to go to Origins. We also have to drive 200 miles to attend our states. In fact, its closer for us to go to bordering states than it is to attend our own. Until last year, we have had to drive more than 3 hours to attend a regionals. Heck, not counting the events I run, and if I want to play in an event, we have to travel almost 200 miles just to attend a Prerelease. And as far as Worlds goes, well its a 4 hour flight after a 3 hour drive to St. Paul ,MN just to get a reasonably priced flight to either coast. And I hear folks talking about other events like 10th anniv and GenCon. Well the closest anniv event we had was 170 miles and GenCon, well lets just say thats way out there too.

I bring all of these facts up from my side to point out:

1 no matter how far it is, if you really want to attend, you find a way.
2 paying for 4 people to attend each of these events, I understand all of your financial problems.
3 saving that badge cost at Origins isnt just a $50-70 thing. For me it will save over $200.
4 Given the growth of the game all over the World, I think trying a different location is a good idea. Lets face it, the northeast is the most popular per area, but is it the only growing area?
5 With things like the Pokemon Center in NY, Worlds being on the coasts nearly evry year, and look at the new events like the DS showdown. Just to qualify you had to go to NY or CA. Huge expenses for anyone in the middle of the country.

I know this is a long post and maybe my views are 1 sided, but it seems that many others had done the same, so I wanted to give a middle of the country point of view. I mean wouldnt it fit several aspects of people's opinions in this post for me to say"what about us up north? Why dont we get anything, EVER!"

Sorry if i sound harsh, but what the heck.
 
The Gorn said:
Here's one thing to consider...

PUI CANNOT let this event be a failure.

How do you define failure? Is it fewer attendees than last year? I think that would be accurate.

PUI will do whatever it takes to make sure that attendance is kept high. So it SHOULD be a great event.

With that being said, I just booked my flight to Columbus. LOL
Click to expand...

I don't know. Attendance was higher last year than they wanted!

And that's another issue to look at.
PUI has to pay for player space at Origins.
Part of the reason for the cap is because they had only paid for that much space.
They would have had to pay for another section to allow more players.
Of course, since Origins staff messed up, I imagine they got more space to compensate.
Note, all of the above is speculation on my part. POP doesn't talk with ANYONE about internal financials.

But my point is, having their own event, they get to control the space better. They get to expand where needed.
Think that might have something to do with it?
We were certainly the biggest card presense there. That hall was looking pretty sad outside of our area!
 
For my area, this will be the biggest announcement that I've ever seen. Having Nationals three hours away from where you live? ESPECIALLY when the nearest airport is two hours away? Good LORD, the player base in Urbana will explode when they hear this announcement!

I just hope that I can get there. Senior year in College really sux as far as stuff outside of school (school life is awesome). I'm probably going to be moving in the spring of next year. I just hope that my finances will allow me to get to Nationals this year. That was the MOST FUN I've ever had at any Pokemon event (including staying up until 1am judging the Finals at Midwest Regionals, then driving for 1.5 hrs to get back home). I'm a little biased, though, having a nice shiny trophy sitting on top of my bookcase right now.

I think that the only place BETTER suited for Pokemon Nationals than St. Louis would be the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago, IL. Literally 10 minutes away from O'Hare, and right in the middle of the 3rd largest city in the US.

Still, congrats to St. Louis, and especially to Vince. I'm going to enjoy the flavor you bring to EVERY event you've been a part of! Just gotta get there this year...
 
when the announcement said america's center, i thought they were just calling st louis the center of the country. but then i saw how americas center was capitalized, so i googled it, and found out its actually a convention center. so whats the cheapest nearby motel?
 
PokePop said:
Prime: Who do you think ran those events at Origins? Staff.
It certainly wasn't GAMA staff running them. It was POP staff.
Staff that they brought there for Origins and that volunteered on site.

Why do you think they will need to bump up the staff beyond what they had at Origins??
And at Origins, they had to pay Origins for Judge tickets for all that staff, whatever that cost was.
I think they'll have what staff they need.
Click to expand...

I don't think you understood what I was saying.

There won't be a day like Thursday where the majority of the staff isn't working on a big event (or playing in a big event), since the Professor Cup is on Friday, and Nationals is on Saturday and Sunday. So if a person isn't playing in the National Championships, there won't be a lot for them to do other than League, especially not more than what was available during the National Championships this year at Origins. This might be different 'if they bumped up the staff beyond what they had at Origins'. If they have more staff than this year, they can have the same amount of people doing Nationals and an extra amount of people there just to run side events all 3 days.

What happened this year was the staff there to judge Nationals were the same staff that ran the side events. I remember some side events being held on Friday, but I can't remember how many side events were going on during the National Championships Saturday and Sunday. I only remember seeing pickup events being run after the Top 32 on Sunday was over.

I'm not trying to be overly negative about this change in location, I am just trying to state what I feel will change. Less days means less events, I think that is pretty simple. If the same amount of staff are there next year that were there this year, expect the same amount of side events that were going on during the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday time. My point is that the main focus will be Nationals, and I think the amount of people that was attending the Pokemon 5-day event at Origins and were not playing in Nationals but did other stuff Pokemon-wise might be disappointed if they show up to Nationals next year and see not much going on other than Nationals during Saturday and Sunday.
 
pros

Wow, awesome.

As others have pointed out:

1. [DEL]$$$ for Origins badge[/DEL]
2. More centrally accessible location
3. Less expensive accommodations
 
A lil P*******ed...

OK, I'll be honest. I skipped a lot of the talk from page 2 onward pretty much because it was all pretty much the same shtuff.

Pros:

+Away from Origins, so no GAMA sponsoring hassle and $80 badge (which, for what you're paying for is honestly AMAZING. Play your cards right and you walk away from the con with $100+ in promo cards, demo decks, full game systems etc. I don't see this one as being a positive, but others do and I accept their side of the issue.)
+ Puts focus more on PUI and Pokemon (no qualms with this one)
+ More central location (again, no qualms).

Negs:

--Losing a lot of the crowd who would normally attend Origins (more on this later)
--Less events (per Prime's analysis. I think Pokemon will turn this more into a Magic Nats sort of event, so I don't think event drop will be a big issue. If anything,a larger Staff could be implemented and run more events (and more varied and out-there events))
--Snubbing major gaming completely (more on this as well).

Now, I'm honestly not upset about the area change. In all honesty, Origins wasn't the best place for Nats and putting this in another area as a stand alone is great. As someone who has seen other TCG Nats being held at separate events, I can tell you it works. Really well.

My biggest issue is the date. Has anyone checked that against some other major times.

Yeah, those three days are the EXACT same time as Origins.

I can understand being upset with how GAMA ran things last year. I can understand wanting to move to another area. But when you schedule your biggest events against the major gaming conventions in the US and the World (now Origins and GenCon Indy), your basically taking the rest of the gaming crowd and saying, "No thanks. We don't need you or your stupid trade company." It's like taking your employer and slapping them across the face.

There are those of us who play Pokemon and also play OTHER GAMING SYSTEMS!!! I apologize to the rest of you who play only Pokemon and don't understand this, but I play about two other gaming systems pseudo-competitively and volunteer for another company at Origins (more on that later). There are those of us who come to Origins for other games but also for Pokemon as well. Is it our fault that we don't have Pokemon as our sole devotion in gaming? Not really, we just like to focus on more than one system. moving Nats opposite a big con simply states that Pokemon doesn't need "other gaming crowds" to help them. They just want to go out on their own and abandon us at Origins.

What do I mean by this? With the date of Origins and US Nats on the same day, the distributors at Origins are going to take a HUGE hit. Many vendors depend on the Pokemon crowd to boost their sales. And these are just your Troll and Toad and whatnot. The regular, upstart gaming companies depend on newer players to try, demo, and buy their games at these big cons to survive. With this HUGE wave of people leaving, many of those vendors are going to struggle to break even again. This is just not cool.

And then there are those of us who simply can't make it. And yes, this is coming from an Ohio person. But this is not an Ohio person not willing to travel. I travel for PTQs and other events in other TCGs. I almost went to St. Louis last month for an event but backed out at the last minute because of work constraints. I can't go because of this: I'm volunteering for another company already. I go to Origins every year and put in 20+ hours over three days: Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (and a small bit of time on Wednesday). I take Saturday off JUST to play at Nats. Nats is like my vacation. I love working with my other company, but having that one day where I can just go out and play a game to relax is wonderful. Now, no matter how well i do at States, no matter how highly I qualify at Regionals, no matter how AMAZING my deck design is, not matter how hard I playtest and train and help others get to that same level, no matter where the stupid tourney is, I can't go because, at the last minute after I'd already made plans to be at Origins for free, Pokemon has decided to back out.

I'll be judging until the end of this season. And probably next season too. This TCG has a bright future ahead of it. But PUI, as much as I love you, you've definitely made some enemies over this issue. Enjoy the backlash.
 
All I ask that is that PUI would just consider putting worlds and the grinder in Baltimore. I'm not so much against stuff moving, but more or less the fact that some areas KEEP GETTING LEFT OUT. If we are really going to get into the whole closer to everyone thing, Baltimore would be a very logical location for Worlds or even nats. It's almost the exact middle of the east coast, and easy to get to from all locations as it has a major airport near by. I would love to see nats and worlds move around a bit more (worlds should reamain on one coast or the other), but move around so that more states have a chance to go.
 
Cardzmaster2004 said:
OK, I'll be honest. I skipped a lot of the talk from page 2 onward pretty much because it was all pretty much the same shtuff.

Pros:

+Away from Origins, so no GAMA sponsoring hassle and $80 badge (which, for what you're paying for is honestly AMAZING. Play your cards right and you walk away from the con with $100+ in promo cards, demo decks, full game systems etc. I don't see this one as being a positive, but others do and I accept their side of the issue.)
+ Puts focus more on PUI and Pokemon (no qualms with this one)
+ More central location (again, no qualms).

Negs:

--Losing a lot of the crowd who would normally attend Origins (more on this later)
--Less events (per Prime's analysis. I think Pokemon will turn this more into a Magic Nats sort of event, so I don't think event drop will be a big issue. If anything,a larger Staff could be implemented and run more events (and more varied and out-there events))
--Snubbing major gaming completely (more on this as well).

Now, I'm honestly not upset about the area change. In all honesty, Origins wasn't the best place for Nats and putting this in another area as a stand alone is great. As someone who has seen other TCG Nats being held at separate events, I can tell you it works. Really well.

My biggest issue is the date. Has anyone checked that against some other major times.

Yeah, those three days are the EXACT same time as Origins.

I can understand being upset with how GAMA ran things last year. I can understand wanting to move to another area. But when you schedule your biggest events against the major gaming conventions in the US and the World (now Origins and GenCon Indy), your basically taking the rest of the gaming crowd and saying, "No thanks. We don't need you or your stupid trade company." It's like taking your employer and slapping them across the face.

There are those of us who play Pokemon and also play OTHER GAMING SYSTEMS!!! I apologize to the rest of you who play only Pokemon and don't understand this, but I play about two other gaming systems pseudo-competitively and volunteer for another company at Origins (more on that later). There are those of us who come to Origins for other games but also for Pokemon as well. Is it our fault that we don't have Pokemon as our sole devotion in gaming? Not really, we just like to focus on more than one system. moving Nats opposite a big con simply states that Pokemon doesn't need "other gaming crowds" to help them. They just want to go out on their own and abandon us at Origins.

What do I mean by this? With the date of Origins and US Nats on the same day, the distributors at Origins are going to take a HUGE hit. Many vendors depend on the Pokemon crowd to boost their sales. And these are just your Troll and Toad and whatnot. The regular, upstart gaming companies depend on newer players to try, demo, and buy their games at these big cons to survive. With this HUGE wave of people leaving, many of those vendors are going to struggle to break even again. This is just not cool.

And then there are those of us who simply can't make it. And yes, this is coming from an Ohio person. But this is not an Ohio person not willing to travel. I travel for PTQs and other events in other TCGs. I almost went to St. Louis last month for an event but backed out at the last minute because of work constraints. I can't go because of this: I'm volunteering for another company already. I go to Origins every year and put in 20+ hours over three days: Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (and a small bit of time on Wednesday). I take Saturday off JUST to play at Nats. Nats is like my vacation. I love working with my other company, but having that one day where I can just go out and play a game to relax is wonderful. Now, no matter how well i do at States, no matter how highly I qualify at Regionals, no matter how AMAZING my deck design is, not matter how hard I playtest and train and help others get to that same level, no matter where the stupid tourney is, I can't go because, at the last minute after I'd already made plans to be at Origins for free, Pokemon has decided to back out.

I'll be judging until the end of this season. And probably next season too. This TCG has a bright future ahead of it. But PUI, as much as I love you, you've definitely made some enemies over this issue. Enjoy the backlash.
Click to expand...


Honestly, I don't think PUI cares about the 1% of players who are in your boat. They'd rather appeal to the other 99%.

Pokemon has given so much to Origins, and hasn't seen anything in return. After continually boosting attendance, giving lots of money in the form of publicity, badges for winners/judges, and bringing customers to buy badges just to play, what do we get? Hardly anything, and we still pay for the space there. Origins was holding the game back and not giving enough back for what we put in.

I like a few other games featured at Origins, and Columbus is nice and all, but I'm here to play Pokemon. All other things are secondary, and this is how most people who go to POKEMON nationals feel.

For every young avid gamer like you, there are 2 parents and 3 kids who don't like Origins and would prefer an environment like Worlds.

Oh, and Baltimore is a joke. No major event will EVER be run there. Ever. Ever.
 
I'm excited, a lot of the people at origins were kinda weird. Not saying that Pokemon players aren't, but at least most of us dont dress up in weird, ugly, revealing costumes and mutter really funny and weird phrases out loud. Once again, I emphasize MOST OF US.

lol

Anyway, never been to St. Louis, should be fun, and my bday is the 21st, so I'll be 18 SWEET! Hopefully my parents will help cover some of the expenses. Ah, dang, but I just hope that summer school doesn't conflict with this.

Either way, I'm very excited about this! Origins was cool and all but if I didnt get a free pass via States, I would not have wanted to pay the 50 bucks to get one.
 
ryanvergel said:
Honestly, I don't think PUI cares about the 1% of players who are in your boat. They'd rather appeal to the other 99%.

Pokemon has given so much to Origins, and hasn't seen anything in return. After continually boosting attendance, giving lots of money in the form of publicity, badges for winners/judges, and bringing customers to buy badges just to play, what do we get? Hardly anything, and we still pay for the space there. Origins was holding the game back and not giving enough back for what we put in.

I like a few other games featured at Origins, and Columbus is nice and all, but I'm here to play Pokemon. All other things are secondary, and this is how most people who go to POKEMON nationals feel.

For every young avid gamer like you, there are 2 parents and 3 kids who don't like Origins and would prefer an environment like Worlds.

Oh, and Baltimore is a joke. No major event will EVER be run there. Ever. Ever.
Click to expand...

What on earth do you have against Baltimore? :/
 
^^^ Remember that Worlds isn't just for players in the U.S. but also for players traveling outside the U.S. Places such as CA or FL are more appealing to people who have to fly 10+ hours just to play pokemon since there is an amusement park to go to after.

Getting back on topic, I'm in favor of the move. It's about time Nats was moved. Nats should be just like Worlds in that it's all pokemon
 
There are ALOT of Volunteers that take on MANY responsibilities just so YOU can have a FREE event.

Truth be told... they can just NOT have it...

So stop looking that GIFT HORSE in the mouth and pack your darn bags...

You KNOW you're going...
 
I agree with Cardzmaster2004's post entirely.

Pokemon, while enjoyable, is not the be-all and end-all of my gaming life. I enjoy spending the time trolling the dealer's room, trying new games, and competing in other games' National tournaments (I entered three at last year's Origins); none of which would be available at a stand-alone event.

GAMA will have some extra issues to deal with, now that Wizkids and Pokemon both are gone. I doubt we'll ever find out about the internals, whether GAMA wanted more sponsorship money or whether PUI was upset about the registration problems, but I believe Pokemon is doing what they think is best; as will I.

Enjoy Nationals, everyone. I'll be at Origins.
 
I like Baltimore... but I think the idea is to put it in a family vacation spot. Sure, I dig the National Aquarium and (is it old ironsides?) ship in the Harbor, but I'd be totally shocked if anyone in TPC/PUI chose it for worlds.

As to the Origins > PKMN Nats members... sorry I won't see you there (if it works out that we can go). Upload some Origins pics to the Gallery and send me an e-Card.
 
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