Pokemon Tourney At Wal-Mart!!!

[cursedinfinity]

On Sunday, April 3rd at the Wal-Mart in Streamwood, IL (850 S. Barrington road) there will be a FREE pokemon tournament. It looks as though there will be a modified tournament first followed by an unlimited tournament. Registration starts at 1pm. Prizes will be awarded, including Wal-Mart gift cards. Play your best deck, trade with friends and win prizes. All are welcome.

[TheDancingPeanut]

[QUOTE=cursedinfinity]On Sunday, April 3rd at the Wal-Mart in Streamwood, IL [QUOTE]

How on earth did you manage that?!?! Please tell us how you approached walmart, what you said, waht they said, etc.

Being able to host local tourneys at walmart would be huge...

[Shadow Zangoose]

(-_-)Why can't my wal-mart do stuff like this...So unfair..
I BASICLY PAY THE MORTAGE I SHOP THERE SO MUCH!
KAHN!!!!

S~H~A~D~O~W (Is insane) Z~A~N~G~O~O~S~E

[bullados]

Yeah, I'd kinda like to know how you got a free tourney with prizes at a WalMart... Wierd... I've never even SEEN Pokemon TCG at my WalMart...

[The Gorn]

(-_-)Why can't my wal-mart do stuff like this...So unfair..
I BASICLY PAY THE MORTAGE I SHOP THERE SO MUCH!
KAHN!!!!


Bonus points for ST:2 reference! EXCELLENT!

[David's Confused Pokedad]

The person you need to approach to push for the tournament at walmart is the beckett rep. that supplies the cards for them. My son who plays yugioh, duelmasters and pokemon went to a walmart yughioh tournament this past weekend. They gave all kind of free stuff just for coming and then he kicked butt and finished third in the 14 and under division at age seven. He went on to play pokemon the next day and won the 10 and under tounament here with the luck that so many of the people he played benched out. Thanks to all here that have helped with input building his deck . His last deck he built on his own but still could use some help. Look for it tomorrow in the deck post. Hope you find your local walmart beckett rep and push for a tourney.

[David's Confused Pokedad]

Hope I did not confuse anyone. The yugioh was at walmart and the pokemon was at JJK cards.

[Dek]

O_o

Cursed, you have been here the entire time!?!?! And I have not noticed!?!?!?

*Grabs keyboard and smacks forehead with it*

Anyways, Im surprised that this was pulled off. I highly doubt I'll make it, but still...

just...O_O

[ST Pika]

Hope to see as many people as possible there... since there is nothing else going on after the Kenosha tourney on 3/26 until 4/30 pre at Pastimes. Here's my random Star Trek quote, since The Gorn and Shadow Zangoose seem to like them:

"I've been dead before... contact Excelsior, she'll have the coordinates"~ Spock

[Team Cook]

Dad here. We've had our league in Walmart for almost a year now. It's actually in the McDonalds area. It's a win win situation for all of us. :thumb:

The WalMart store never really had any Pokemon sales and only a few packs were available for sale. **I** got to revamp the Pokemon inventory. They listened to me. No more old, useless packs. No more repacks and foreign cards that never sold. Now, we get all the new stuff as soon as they're released! Wal-mart has a whole end cap display of nothing but Pokemon and the kids and parents are buying like crazy. :smile:

The McDonalds has their # 1 day in sales when we play on Wednesday nights, we're averaging OVER 35 kids a night. Add to that all the parents and siblings that tag along, and that's a whole lot of Happy Meals and Combo Meals sold within our 2.5 hours!!! :eek:

And for us, WalMart & McDonalds let us play for free, sponsor us with prizes. We get tons of foot traffic. Parents & kids are always stopping by.

WalMart has only one rule for us. We have to keep the kids in McDonalds, no kids allowed to run around in the store area.

HINT: Get in good with the manager, you'll be in Pokemon heaven. :thumb:

[dld4a]

I'll be running it. It'll be sanctioned. There will be more to come, on a large scale!

[TheDancingPeanut]

Cook; is your McDonald's in the front or the back of the Wal-Mart?

[Team Cook]

The McDonalds is up front, about 100 feet from the main entrance.

[TheDancingPeanut]

One of the things I keep hearing is that they don't want us hauling big bags all the way through the store (Our McDonald's in in the back).

Thanks for the info on this.

[Poliwag92]

Is this the Wal Mart by the chuckke cheeses and Movie theatre and also the pizza hut express?

[bulbasnore]

HINT: Get in good with the manager, you'll be in Pokemon heaven. :thumb:


You sir, are amazing. Wish I could get our Target to do this. They're remodeling right now, we'll see.

[SLOW DECK]

We will be able to make it, (Yeah)

[dld4a]

Registreation starts at 1:00 PM. The store doesn't want a group showing up durring their lunch rush so don't show up early. There will probably only be time for the one tourney because of this.

[ST Pika]

Sounds good... and... (Gasp)... I don't have to work the night before a Saturday or Sunday pokemon tournament! That most certainly is the sign of the end...

[cursedinfinity]

Thanks everyone for all of your support about having Pokemon tourney's at Wal-Mart. Hopefully this will start a trend, then this will happen on a regular basis. David's Confused Pokedad is right, if you can get together at least 8-10 players that can show up regularly this can be done at all Wal-marts. Just have a sit down with the store manager and/or someone who works in department 82 with your ideas. Right now, all Wal-Marts have the option for running Yu-Gi-Oh leagues. When I saw this it incouraged me to want to show that pokemon is back bigger and better than ever since the nintendo takeover. I believe it can compete and surpass the amount of Yu-Gi-Oh play. It WILL last longer than Yu-Gi-Oh and achieve the greatness of Disney. Game sales are high, 4Kids just ordered another season of the cartoon series, new figures are being released as are new TCG sets. Japan is opening its first Pokemon theme park soon. Its only a matter of time before the United States gets there own. I want to become apart of that victory!

[bullados]

Just found out that I'm working that day. Sorry, can't come.

[Team Cook]

Dad here. I'm a firm believer that if we get more WalMarts involved, we'll get more players. Team Cook will be here if anyone needs help with this.

[Ice'Cold]

Sounds good... and... (Gasp)... I don't have to work the night before a Saturday pokemon tournament! That most certainly is the sign of the end...

This is sunday though, isnt it?

[ST Pika]

Post edited. Good catch... I have to get some more sleep, these 56 hour work weeks can kill yah...

[Shadow Zangoose]

Dad here. I'm a firm believer that if we get more WalMarts involved, we'll get more players. Team Cook will be here if anyone needs help with this.


Good let's work on mine :lol:

[Ice'Cold]

Well this was a nice little tournament, taught some moms and their kids how to play and won a $25 gift card. My brother won a $15 gift card and a torchic plushie, sorry no pictures from this one, didnt feel like doing to whole digital camera thing. Lots of fun though.

[menoknow]

How many people showed up for this and what was the overall prize structure like?

Also, will this become a regular thing at this wal-mart now?

[dld4a]

How many people showed up for this and what was the overall prize structure like?

Also, will this become a regular thing at this wal-mart now?

25 people + Cory and I judging. The best thing about this is that I signed up 10 new POP id's. 2 of them were brought by an existing player, but 8 of them were purely as a result of the flyers that were put out only a week or two before the tourney! The new players are out there it's just a matter of getting to them! Wal-Mart (or something simular) is the answer.

We ended up splitting the prizes between the age groups, 25/15/10 store cards for each of the first places. Cory, I, and I think Adam threw in some other stuff (the plushes/boosters/T-shirts/Promos).

Major Props to Cory for getting the ball rolling on this and more for buying 4 Theme decks so kids could play. I decided to go Modified because doing this unlim. would only encourage the newer kids to continue to use and purchess older cards. It can be a real pain to begin with but it ends up being easier and better for them in the long run because they would make the switch to Modified eventually any way, and this way you nip it in the bud right away. If you already have an Unlimited league set up then something like this might be better to go unlim then ease them into modified. When establishing a new venue though you should always push Modified. Like I said though it can be a pain. It means a lot of talking (explaining and teaching) and some deck borrowing and trading but it's always good.

Thanks to everyone for all the help.

Major slops to Marshal and the store for not having a display set up with product for sale. I know for a fact they lost out on the chance to get some sales!

We are trying to work this out to at least a once a month thing.

(all this is not in responce to any one/thing, but just to impart the lessons I'm learning on the way)

[ryanvergel]

I'm going to try to do a similar thing here in the Orange Park/jacksonville area.

We'll be getting a new league up very soon, and I know for a fact there are alot of old players here, just no league/tournys to participate in. Hopefully this wal-mart alliance can take off

[Ice'Cold]

Good tournament. I threw in extra promos I picked up at worlds (mudkip treecko and torchic, Salamence Holo and Flygon Holo, Beldum, plus one or two tropical wind (; ) And I threw in some extra stuff from my personal collection. Corey did really good though with the theme decks. I helped the players he gave decks to incorporate their existing cards and the promos into the theme decks to make them a little better.