Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

WOTC Pokemon professors unable to judge

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P_A

P_A

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I asked this question to PUI, because a former WOTC professor who didn't get his professorship grandfathered into Nintendo's program was considering helping out to judge our city championship. Here is the copy of the question I posed:

I have one person that was a professor under WOTC that is interested in helping judge our CC, but who never applied to get his professorship transferred to POP. Would he be able to help out? Would you be able to get him transferred over into the professor program or would he have to wait until the Nintendo program starts up to re-apply? Would you give him an id#, or would he have to wait until the event to get one?

Here's the answer I received:

While the ex-professor will have to wait for Professor applications to resume, he can be used as a reference (but not a judge) at your City event.

So, just as I expected, only those currently enrolled in Nintendo's professor program can be used as judges. Seems only logical, eh? (Sorry, that's the Canadian in me, eh!)
 
Ironic, given that Nintendo currently has no mechanism for anyone to become a professor.

Essentially, Nintendo is saying that only a person certified by WotC may judge their events.
 
Just to make me understand this clearly.

If you don't have a professor to judge you can't organize a CC.
Where is that info displayed.
How about a prerelease?
 
ROFL yeah I did a double take at that too but with no list of professors t check against who can tell?

So, just as I expected, only those currently enrolled in Nintendo's professor program can be used as judges. Seems only logical, eh? (Sorry, that's the Canadian in me, eh!)
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Clearly this is not happening in Europe!
 
Pathetic. Simply Pathetic that it comes to this.

PUI's attitude towards Organized Play has always been proposing big, large scale events. Great good, nice attitude until it comes to the volunteers running the event. If I could sum up one phrase to describe PUI's support for the volunteers and staff during their one year of working with the game, it'd be "Wing it". They make all these promises to the general public and then lay it down hard on the volunteers. This is just another example of the latter.

Guess what PUI? This is going to happen regardless of what you say now. These arent all PTOs you're dealing with and as such do not all have access to a WotC Professor judging staff. I cant speak for any of the tournament organizers of the City Championships, but if I was running this event, product would be given to my judges. Be it a Professor or not.
-Phil
 
If you were an axtive WOTC professor and were interested in continuing how did you miss the chance to send your name in. Its not like there was a one hour window to get grand fathered in.

Just the devil in me looking at other sides of the situation
 
For me it's not about the product, it's about the need to have a prof as judge.

We are ignored as TO's for doing a prerelease or a City.
No form to fill in, nothing. From what I "heared" some people are asked to organize an CC but NON of the Profs were asked.
We are not getting the change to organize anything more than normal sanctioned event.

The Distributor does not have . A. a Skilled Judge, B. a Professor.
We have the skills and prof status but don't get the change to organize.

Hurray for OP
 
I don't remember seeing a specific requirement listed anywhere that you have a PUI Professor judge your event, but I do remember having to list who I would use as a judge when I signed up to be a PTO. Perhaps that was meant to be a check, and PUI made the assumption that if you put down that you had a Professor to help, you would always use them. Hmmm, a dangerous assumption given how much things change in the Pokemon world.

BDS
 
BDS there are NO PTOs outside the USA. We asked if we could be PTOs and got the quizical reply 'why would they want that? they can sanction more than one event in advance.'
 
In addition to what NoPoke says, PUI told us that local distributors had to contact the Profs about POP and that the same distributor has the right to approve someone as TO or Judge or not. (distributors are certainly experienced enough to take that decision objectively :D )

IOW, you may have the following situation ... a Wizards Master Prof, who has judged different qualifiers and Gym, judged at Worlds, run a league and organized and judged more than 50 local events, and another Wizards Master Prof who has judged different Gym, run a league, organized and judged many local tournaments and has won the 15+ STS San Diego have never been contacted and haven't received any information about POP in their country.
The first one has got info from another Prof who was already running a league in the country. After questions by mail and a sentence 'if you need my help don't hesitate to contact me' sent to the distributor, he has received the confirmation that leagues were already running and kits available (without any further detail) and that he would be contacted if, eventually, his help is needed.

The first guy is called Michel Delhausse, the second one Jean Marc Schosse. :p

How can we run a league or tournaments if we don't even know that POP exists in the country ?

Who will be involved in POP if they don't ask the Wizards Profs or if they don't allow them to be involved ?
The same may be asked about the post sent by pr_alley.

OK BDS, you maybe don't have to be a PUI prof to run or judge an event. But it's bloody stupid to have experienced people who are willing to help and ignore them !
Or is it done on purpose ? :confused:
 
annisarich said:
To hell with them.
Lets march on their headquaters and show them who is in charge.
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Hey Hey Hey Wizards after letting professors go sent us to nintendo and davis shwimmer himself said till October the grandfather clause would be online and it was. All wizards professors had till then to reapply and thats why they are saying this. Over 300 professors took advantage of the oppurtunity including me.
Just wanted to let you in on the truth behind the grandfather clause :pokeball:
 
FireFighter095ReBorn said:
Hey Hey Hey Wizards after letting professors go sent us to nintendo and davis shwimmer himself said till October the grandfather clause would be online and it was. All wizards professors had till then to reapply and thats why they are saying this. Over 300 professors took advantage of the oppurtunity including me.
Just wanted to let you in on the truth behind the grandfather clause :pokeball:
Click to expand...

PUI also promised all those interested in becoming a Professor that a test would be online in Fall 2003. Now they're using it as a way to dictate who receives compensation for their work with a City Championships. The Program was NEVER intended to discourage non-Professors from judging.
-Phil
 
Well crap on a cracker! How does PUI intend to build the judge base that they already have (and may be eroding at a rate that NOBODY can track) if they place an incredulous requirement on TOs like this? In the absence of a "viable" Professor Program, we've got no choice BUT to start hand picking folks at the local level to help with the judging tasks. We're being painted into a corner without a "development" program in place with the game's current stewards.
 
I've judged 2 premiere events and Im not a Professor, because I didnt want to take a 2 hour test on a slow comp. As long as you have people judging who know their stuff, it shouldn't matter if they're certified professors or not.
 
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This is one of those "impossible to enforce" thingees. For all our Colorado CCs, we've made sure the HJ is a Professor. I think the intent here is NOT to rule out the use of WOTC Professors, just to give preference to PUI Professors (which SHOULD be the policy). But, if the TO can't find a willing PUI Professor, I see no problem in hiring a WOTC Professor. I wonder if that's really the situation in your case (there's a will PUI Professor).
 
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I think I have two opinions now.....

POP has to get the new propfessor program and test up soon. this is taking a long time and will hurt them. I also think they are doing a nice job with the OP as the events seem to be becoming regular and thats good. I give an A also for my league support.

Professors who missed the grandfather period and are *****ing now acted too slow. If they didnt know there was a chance to just transfer they didnt read e-mail and or were not that active in the pokemon community anyway.

Until there is a new way to join I say use the most informed person as a judge to make the best event possible. my .o2 before coffee....
 
Annisarich,
I do completely agree with your first point. Here OP events are very regular as there are absolutely none of them ... other kind of regularity. I would also give an A for my league support ... as there are no leagues ! :p

So you think that an email or a response to something is the key for running or judging events ? If you're experienced but have forgotten for any reason to register you may not run or judge a tournament ?
I am PUI professor (still wondering why !).
If I follow your idea, as I'm not informed of what's happening in my country (not because I don't read things on the web but because my distributor don't communicate !), until there is a new way to get info, I may forget Pokemon and play YuGiOh ...
OK, that's maybe the best thing I have to do according to what happens with POP now :D
 
The importance of the Professor Test should not be underestimated. In fact, all judges should be required to pass the test in order to officiate at sanctioned events. I have been to several Premier Events where the judging was simply appalling, and that’s putting it mildly. I saw a boy in tears lose in the semi-finals of a sanctioned tournament because the judge did not know the difference between “doing damage” and “placing damage counters” (and the judge did not listen to three WotC-grandfathered Professors that tried to help clarify the situation). I’ve seen rampant and obvious cheating that was brought to the judge’s attention and simply ignored. These “judges” were not Professors, nor could they pass the Professor test. Because of the shameful judging, many of the players I spoke to after these tournaments said they were no longer going to go to tournaments at this premier site; and the parents who watched these tournaments were equally disgusted.

We need the Professor Test, or some sort of Judge Certification process whereby the players can be insured that the officiating at events will be fair. This is particularly important if rankings will be used to: invite players to premier events, provide byes to players in upcoming tournaments, or to determine prizes. If officiating is not fair and sanctioned event results are to be reported, then something must be done about the judging situation much sooner than “sometime later this year”! Rankings aside, what does it say about the game if cheating is permitted and judges don’t know the basic rules?

That being said, I believe the vast majority of current judges are doing a good job and are knowledgeable. I apologize to any judge who may be offended by this, knowing that judges are for the most part volunteering their time and giving up their opportunities to play in order to permit others to enjoy the game. However, I have seen too many examples of absolutely outrageously bad judging at premier events and premier stores that are hurting players and the game.

 
The email doesn't say the person can't help, or be compensated. That is up to the organizer of the tournament. What is being said is that he can't be used as a judge in any formal manner. I'm assuming that if he has the knowledge, anyone can be used as a judge, but that person's judgements must be verified by an actual POP judge. Those that are used as a judge must be accepted by Nintendo in their program.
 
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