As one who didn't spend 100% of my time in the TCG-Pokemon area, I can say that Pokemon got tons of FREE publicity to serious gamers at Origins.
With Nats gone from a major Con, FREE publicity won't happen this time. So, to fill that publicity void, something will need to happen. Will non-Pokemon gamers/kids travel great distances to check out Pokemon Nats in St Louis? I doubt it.
Nevertheless, I expect this will provide a tremendous boost to Vince's already highly successful Pokemon efforts in the mid-west. That's one good thing.
Back to back posts merged. The following information has been added:
Come on Tom. I could say the same thing about Pokemon. You can play Pokemon any weekend.
Origins is more than just other games. Certainly, it's nothing like Essen or GenCon, but it still attracts some major events from other companies.
I'm not entirely opposed to this idea. One good thing that hopefully will come out of this move is "more time" to run more rounds. Heck, we could even make it a 2-day Swiss round event with best-of-3 matches, much like what WOTC did at their major events (SBZ and Worlds).
Finally, as much as I love Pokemon, I need diversity. 8-10 hours a day for 3-4 days of nothing but Pokemon is a bit overdoing it, at lease for me. I need variety. :smile: