chrataxe
10/15/2011, 12:49 PM
I sat down to make a quick gripe about how little I think the attendance would grow at regionals this year. Well, I'm analytic by nature. Which means I like to research. And, I also like stats. So, this is what has transpired. So much for quick...
I was stoked to hear about having 2 opportunities for regionals this year. Then, recently, I was told the closest "first" regionals is almost 1,000 miles away and is 15+ hours. The obvious gripe is that we will still only get to attend one...within reason. Sure, there will be a handful that do attend two. Then, I realized why this almost seemed like a good idea to P!P. Thus, I present to the court, item #1:
Where ARE the Regionals in the US?
Here (http://pokegym.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=52416&c=15)
So, as we can see, they are they are all up and down the east coast, all up and down the west coast, three in the Midwest...oh, one in Texas.
WHAT?
So, there are tons of things wrong with this picture, but I'll address the obvious: distance from one event to another.
Lets start with the NW and work our way east (the closest few) (I won't do this for everyone as most distances will over lap somewhere, ie Nocal to Socal is the same as SoCal to NoCal):
From
NW Regionals
To
West Canada 330 miles
NoCal 625 miles
Mountain West 800 miles
From
NoCal Regionals
To
SocalRegionals 375 miles
Mountain West 770 miles
NW 625 miles
From
SoCal Regionals
To
NoCal 375miles
Mountain West 700 miles
From
Midwest Regionals
To
Great Lake 350 miles
Mississippi Valley 350 miles
From
Southeast Regionals
to
Mississippi Valley 560miles
Florida 475
Mid-Atlantic 550 miles
From
Mid-Atlantic
To
Southeast 550 Miles
Northeast 250 Miles
From
New England
To
Northeast 304 Miles
And, for my point:
From
Southern Plains
To
Florida 960 Miles
MS Valley 830 Miles
Southeast 815 miles
Mountain West 1500 miles
As we can see from above, if you don't live in the Midwest, East Coast, or West Coast, then P!P just doesn't seem to care if you have the potential to get an invite or not.
Ok, so I know what you are thinking: my opinion is biased ONLY because I'm from Texas. I can see that as a valid complaint against me. But, here is my reasoning.
In the areas not benefiting from a second regionals, this is the P!P we have (worth mentioning:
State Tournaments:
Texas: 230 players
5th only to the "big Pokemon areas" of WA, OR, FL, and CA, all of which benefit from the 2nd Regionals
Notably, 7th was AZ w/ 159, which also does not get any benefit from the 2nd Regionals
AZ: 159 players
Larger than WI, MO, GA, VA, PA, and marginally smaller than IN, all of which have a Regionals tournament in their state.
All of the following states (mostly west of the Midwest) had 100+ people and can only reasonably attend one Regionals: TX, AZ, NM, OK, KS, AL, AR
AZ states was larger than NoCal Regionals, and was about as big as Mountain-West, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast.
Large Cities:
Texas has DFW Metroplex, which is the 4th largest Metropolitan area in the US only to Chicago, LA, and NY. 5 of the 6 largest Metro areas in the US host a regionals, DFW is the only only one that doesn't. Four of the top six areas benefits from 2 regionals EXCEPT DFW and Houston.
Texas has Houst (4), San Antonio (7), and Dallas (9) in the top 10 largest Cities in the US and also has Austin (14), Ft Worth (16), and El Paso (19) to have 6 cities in the top 20 largest Cities in the US. California has 3 in the top 10 and 4 in the top 20 and hosts 2 regionals.
Seven of the top ten largest cities in the US host a Regionals. The only ones that don't are Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix.
Albuquerque and Denver are also large cities that have no "close" Regionals.
So, what exactly is it that I'm getting at? Well, remember how one of the biggest complaints about last years ratings is that places like GA that had marathons made it unfair to other people that can't make marathons? So, remember how this year, P!P put a cap on how many cities (and BR's) you can count toward you points? It seems like making it impossible for large portions of your player base to attend 2 regionals is far worse than marathons.
I know, P!P has already said there will be problems this season as we are transitioning, but what the crap, seriously? Texas has a large Pokemon playing community and will be all but left out in the cold, as will many other states. And, I also am aware that, while at times it appears P!P listens to us, there may be better places to post than this. Either way, I would like to throw out one of two ways to fix it:
1.Make more regionals!
2. Only allow one Regionals towards points
Ok, now I now I could complain until the cows come home about how there isn't enough regionals. And, I also realize that the VGC has been added in this year, which is awesome. But, lets just use some common sense here. We had 15 (including Canada) when we could only count one, now we get 7-8 each time and they are all clumped together (regionally)? That just isn't fair. That's FAR more unfair than people being unable to attend marathons. First, I think there should be an even number of Regionals so we can split them evenly between the spring and fall. As for how many should be added, I'm not talking about a lot. Even it it is just one, that is better than none. But, I think 3 would be a great, realistic number. That would means we would have 8 in the fall and 8 in the spring. That would also give us enough to fill in gaps that exist across the US. As for some locations, if I had to pick 3 spots off the top of my head, I would say OKC, Denver, and Phoenix. Other ideas would be Mobile, Little Rock, or Albuquerque. Personally, I would like to see more added.
But, the other solution would be to limit the number you can count toward your points. Of course, we are talking about high end players here. But, lets just look at some good finishings I can think of off the top of my head from last year. Perry Goin won 2 states or a states and a regionals, can't remember which. Jwittz finished 2nd at 2 states and had a strong regional performance, if my memory serves me correctly. If players of that caliber are allowed to count 4 tournaments toward their points but players of the same caliber can in no realistic fashion attend more than 3 (and even getting to 3 is a pain), they are potentially losing a substantial amount of points only to be ousted in rankings by inferior players that only got more points due to attendance. The difference between Marathons and this is that the PLAYER essentially chose not to attend the Marathon (I said essentially) and cities are worth less points. This here is essentially P!P deciding who can and can't attend 2 Regionals.
Am I alone here?
I was stoked to hear about having 2 opportunities for regionals this year. Then, recently, I was told the closest "first" regionals is almost 1,000 miles away and is 15+ hours. The obvious gripe is that we will still only get to attend one...within reason. Sure, there will be a handful that do attend two. Then, I realized why this almost seemed like a good idea to P!P. Thus, I present to the court, item #1:
Where ARE the Regionals in the US?
Here (http://pokegym.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=52416&c=15)
So, as we can see, they are they are all up and down the east coast, all up and down the west coast, three in the Midwest...oh, one in Texas.
WHAT?
So, there are tons of things wrong with this picture, but I'll address the obvious: distance from one event to another.
Lets start with the NW and work our way east (the closest few) (I won't do this for everyone as most distances will over lap somewhere, ie Nocal to Socal is the same as SoCal to NoCal):
From
NW Regionals
To
West Canada 330 miles
NoCal 625 miles
Mountain West 800 miles
From
NoCal Regionals
To
SocalRegionals 375 miles
Mountain West 770 miles
NW 625 miles
From
SoCal Regionals
To
NoCal 375miles
Mountain West 700 miles
From
Midwest Regionals
To
Great Lake 350 miles
Mississippi Valley 350 miles
From
Southeast Regionals
to
Mississippi Valley 560miles
Florida 475
Mid-Atlantic 550 miles
From
Mid-Atlantic
To
Southeast 550 Miles
Northeast 250 Miles
From
New England
To
Northeast 304 Miles
And, for my point:
From
Southern Plains
To
Florida 960 Miles
MS Valley 830 Miles
Southeast 815 miles
Mountain West 1500 miles
As we can see from above, if you don't live in the Midwest, East Coast, or West Coast, then P!P just doesn't seem to care if you have the potential to get an invite or not.
Ok, so I know what you are thinking: my opinion is biased ONLY because I'm from Texas. I can see that as a valid complaint against me. But, here is my reasoning.
In the areas not benefiting from a second regionals, this is the P!P we have (worth mentioning:
State Tournaments:
Texas: 230 players
5th only to the "big Pokemon areas" of WA, OR, FL, and CA, all of which benefit from the 2nd Regionals
Notably, 7th was AZ w/ 159, which also does not get any benefit from the 2nd Regionals
AZ: 159 players
Larger than WI, MO, GA, VA, PA, and marginally smaller than IN, all of which have a Regionals tournament in their state.
All of the following states (mostly west of the Midwest) had 100+ people and can only reasonably attend one Regionals: TX, AZ, NM, OK, KS, AL, AR
AZ states was larger than NoCal Regionals, and was about as big as Mountain-West, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast.
Large Cities:
Texas has DFW Metroplex, which is the 4th largest Metropolitan area in the US only to Chicago, LA, and NY. 5 of the 6 largest Metro areas in the US host a regionals, DFW is the only only one that doesn't. Four of the top six areas benefits from 2 regionals EXCEPT DFW and Houston.
Texas has Houst (4), San Antonio (7), and Dallas (9) in the top 10 largest Cities in the US and also has Austin (14), Ft Worth (16), and El Paso (19) to have 6 cities in the top 20 largest Cities in the US. California has 3 in the top 10 and 4 in the top 20 and hosts 2 regionals.
Seven of the top ten largest cities in the US host a Regionals. The only ones that don't are Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix.
Albuquerque and Denver are also large cities that have no "close" Regionals.
So, what exactly is it that I'm getting at? Well, remember how one of the biggest complaints about last years ratings is that places like GA that had marathons made it unfair to other people that can't make marathons? So, remember how this year, P!P put a cap on how many cities (and BR's) you can count toward you points? It seems like making it impossible for large portions of your player base to attend 2 regionals is far worse than marathons.
I know, P!P has already said there will be problems this season as we are transitioning, but what the crap, seriously? Texas has a large Pokemon playing community and will be all but left out in the cold, as will many other states. And, I also am aware that, while at times it appears P!P listens to us, there may be better places to post than this. Either way, I would like to throw out one of two ways to fix it:
1.Make more regionals!
2. Only allow one Regionals towards points
Ok, now I now I could complain until the cows come home about how there isn't enough regionals. And, I also realize that the VGC has been added in this year, which is awesome. But, lets just use some common sense here. We had 15 (including Canada) when we could only count one, now we get 7-8 each time and they are all clumped together (regionally)? That just isn't fair. That's FAR more unfair than people being unable to attend marathons. First, I think there should be an even number of Regionals so we can split them evenly between the spring and fall. As for how many should be added, I'm not talking about a lot. Even it it is just one, that is better than none. But, I think 3 would be a great, realistic number. That would means we would have 8 in the fall and 8 in the spring. That would also give us enough to fill in gaps that exist across the US. As for some locations, if I had to pick 3 spots off the top of my head, I would say OKC, Denver, and Phoenix. Other ideas would be Mobile, Little Rock, or Albuquerque. Personally, I would like to see more added.
But, the other solution would be to limit the number you can count toward your points. Of course, we are talking about high end players here. But, lets just look at some good finishings I can think of off the top of my head from last year. Perry Goin won 2 states or a states and a regionals, can't remember which. Jwittz finished 2nd at 2 states and had a strong regional performance, if my memory serves me correctly. If players of that caliber are allowed to count 4 tournaments toward their points but players of the same caliber can in no realistic fashion attend more than 3 (and even getting to 3 is a pain), they are potentially losing a substantial amount of points only to be ousted in rankings by inferior players that only got more points due to attendance. The difference between Marathons and this is that the PLAYER essentially chose not to attend the Marathon (I said essentially) and cities are worth less points. This here is essentially P!P deciding who can and can't attend 2 Regionals.
Am I alone here?