Outside the US - What is left?

[ukpokemonpro]

Okay,

I am trying to get a handle on what is left of Leagues and OP outside the US?

Here we have kept going as ever on our own, just like the bad old wotc years..

And yes we have tried in the UK to work with Nintendo and TPC since the first announcements of WotCs loss of the TCG License and well lets just say they have been pretty poor at working with us.

TPC have at least talked to us but the response from Nintendo inside the UK and from the US has been very poor... Emails and calls going unanswered, no involvement of non-US professors in shaping future floor rules.. and despite our protestations that there has been no OP in the UK supported by WotC since MAY! and unwillingness to bend a rigid timetable.

Now we see 14 Professors outside the Americas and the majority of those from the UK where we struggle on regardless of the lack of support or knowledge.

Nintendo continue to promise OP for Europe


A: Pokémon Organized Play will start after the product is released internationally later this summer.

Erm Summer... we're in September and October talking about it ... come on guys hardly summer!

The truth is that had Nintendo talked with those few Master Profs in the UK and Europe they could have had OP and Leagues NOW... just send the MPs some league kits and hey presto we can at least get the ball rolling and pick up straight from where WotC stopped..

Instead it will be 5 Months at least between WotC support ending and Nintendo organising anything and that is based on October being the month when OP starts.. most of us suspect December is more likely ... 7 Months after WotC UK stopped sending league kits!

Bravo Nintendo no wonder Michel and crew are playing YuGiOh!

So it's awful here in the UK and Nintendo are silent.. what is it like in the rest of the Non-US world?

[Tego]

The thing is: it isn't as easy as you think. They cannot just send us kits all of a sudden. Nintendo are planning OP all over Europe, but they need to speak with all of the distributors first. It's a longer and harder to get everything going in Europe than in the USA.

But it is a shame that it takes so long. But I trust Nintendo on that OP will start this fall here. We are later than the US, but there is no need to panic. Michel's decision to play YGO is his own. Many great old players leave, many new ones rise up. That's the way it is.

I am getting frustrated too about how long everything takes. Let's just all hang in the last weeks before Nintendo's OP starts in Europe. It may all seem hopeless right now. It may seem like the game is completely dying. But it isn't.

There is hope.

[Ultramew]

At least Europe HAS Nintendo looking out for them. Oh how much I would love OP in Australia, oh how I would.

[ukpokemonpro]

The thing is: it isn't as easy as you think. They cannot just send us kits all of a sudden.

Why?

How can WotC all of a sudden send kits to the MPs and Profs and Nintendo can't? What it takes is a corporate decision and the will to do it! After all we are not talking a lot of kits here ... following WotCs terrible running of leagues and OP in the UK at least.

If WotC stopped promoting leagues and OP in May (for the UK) which they did why no interim support from Nintendo? Why is because of a lack of will that's all..

I trust Nintendo on that OP will start this fall here

It's great that you trust them TEGO, but we do not.. you have to earn trust and you don't do it by not talking to us, not replying to emails, PMs and phone calls.

Let's just all hang in the last weeks before Nintendo's OP starts in Europe.

What few weeks? We know that the meeting to discuss OP won't be until the 10th October and we know that in the past program timescales seldom match reality and that we are really looking at November or December as a real start date. That's winter to me and to most other people... hardly fall! So the trust is earn't by not delivering on the first promised dates anyhow!

Add to that the US centred prof program that has failed to get all the UK and European Professors signed up.. why because they couldn't! So how many will bother after weeks of trying to return?

Where is the email from NOA to the European Professors letting them know they can now sign up? Nowhere that's where!

Tego we know you know someone inside Nintendo really well ;) But they are being too slow, too quiet and too damn complacent at the moment.

Now tell me what it is like in your league now, how do you cope with no support, no promo's since may and no news from Nintendo?

[)v(ajin_ipg21]

=/

Been there done that.

How long has POKEMON USA had Pokemon?
HOW much time do they have to COORDINATE all of this?

FROM what I hear THEY ARE SLAMMED *to put it mildly*.

THESE RANTS on the WotC perhaps made sense because the MT's get their information from the board, ok so we have a few members from POKEMON USA but I DON'T know how THIS is going to change anything.

OK, so the more things change they stay the same... BUT Pokemon USA has SO MUCH to have to do and I don't expect miracles overnight.

Am I asking you for patience? Hell no.
You've heard that WAY to often.
BUT am I telling you to GIVE up on POKEMON USA? Hell no.

If the POKEMON interest is there with you guys it will survive (I was BLOWN away by the SBZ held there by you guys... simply amazing) BUT even here STATESIDE we ain't sure about what is happening.

You are not alone... and WE ALL MUST wait.

*PS just that NEW board same old posts =(*

[Prof|l0ne]

Here in Italy we still have leagues. We still have a community. We still hold tournaments.
We - the Italian professors - organized a tournament, the last DCI-sanctioned in Italy, on August 31st. We invited people from all the leagues we could get in contact with, and we made a great event with Constructed, booster draft and TMP tournaments.

What's left in Europe? WE are left. We're still here, and as long as we'll enjoy the game, we can't be easily ignored. Nintendo, sooner or later, will see us and find that our passion can turn into profit for them. And they'll come. (They have promised to: http://op.pokemon-tcg.com/international_faq.html)

- l0ne

[ukpokemonpro]

Don't get me wrong here in the UK we still have leagues and we are still organising look at southeastchallenge.com (http://www.southeastchallenge.com) for details on our next big tourney.

The problem is not what we can do but can we be bothered to struggle and rage yet again to get anything going.

We are so tired of being second best in Europe, the after thought, the also rans... WotC UK blew OP and the leagues when they had a chance WotC France did the same, Italy almost died and the rest of Europe just hung on.

Without our hard work and comitment to the game in the UK there would be no OP on which Nintendo could build... All I am saying is that refusing to talk to us, ignoring us and cutting us out of the loop is not the way to keep us comitted and working for the game.

Jimmer and Co take note.

[Michel]

Europe ? Where is that ??? :lol:

Do you want my point of view ? (if you don't, stop reading here ;) )

Situation in France : no Pokemon OP for a VERY long time, more than 2 years. Will Nintendo find leagues and players there ? Not sure.

Situation in Belgium : the following leagues have more YGO players than Pokemon players : Charleroi, Vise, Brussels, Gent and probably Aarschot ... and when I say more, I mean for example 20 YGO players for 2 Pokemon players in Vise !
Leagues in Antwerp and Kappelen have still Pokemon players, but I know the best players are shifting to YGO.

You say I play YGO now ... yes, but not because I want to quit Pokemon, simply because I don't want to play with my daughter only. More funny to meet people who play the same game as you, no ? :p

The Pokemon distributor in Belgium is also distributor of YGO. They put a lot of efforts in YGO OP in the dutch part of the country (they don't work with the French speaking players).
The French part of the country work with the French distributor who's very active in France and starts OP in Belgium too.
YGO world is moving, and moving fast in France and Belgium.
Pokemon is asleep for a too long time !

Please understand what I say ... I LOVE Pokemon, I want to keep on playing, judging, meeting people, having fun, collecting cards, ... but I see our Pokemon community going away because they're alone, because there is nothing new for a too long time.
You know that TO's and Profs in Belgium have fought hard, like in the UK and in other countries.
You know too what I say for months ... we can do a great job together, but not alone (without the support of a company) or against someone.

I maybe believe that we are more important than we actually are, but I'm sure that Wizards, or Nintendo, can't do anything without the TO's, Profs and Master Profs.
As far as I know, and my information are quite good, nobody has heard from Nintendo in Belgium.
I've received an email from TPC-USA in May saying Europe will have OP, and then nothing at all, neither from the USA, nor from Europe.

In addition to that, Nintendo will work with local distributors like Wizards did. Wizards did OP themselves in the UK, Italy and Belgium.
Why in Belgium ? Because there were too much problems with the local distributor when that company was in charge of Pokemon OP in Belgium. It has been a Wizards decision, and the TO's and players have seen a big difference after that... in a positive way !
The same distributor is in charge of YGO OP (Dutch part of the country). I don't want to explain my personal reasons here, but it is very clear to me that if these prople run Pokemon OP for Nintendo in Belgium, they'll do it without me, and certainly without other people I know and who are involved in our game.
I've had too many bad experiences to be involved in OP with them.

Will I keep on playing ? Sure, if I'm not alone ;)

And, BTW, who was complaining about differences between the USA and Europe when Wizards had Pokemon ?
We had the sets, league kits, ... some weeks after the USA (sometimes with some difficulties, I agree). We had a chat on Thursday, chats with Wizards UK and Europe, OP, Profs mailing list, rulings, people to contact in Europe and in the USA, ...
But wee felt, and we were right, that the USA had more than we did.

Now it's very easier ... you want to have news about Pokemon ?
Let's go to the USA :clap: ... in Europe there are only some old dinosaurs dreaming of the past and watching their screens to see if Europe in mentioned somewhere on the web when there is talk about Pokemon, trying to know if their dreams for the future of our game in our countries will become reality.

Don't want to be pessimistic, but my last European experience with Nintendo is called ... Expedition :rolleyes:

[Michel]

Uh, sorry ... my answer to the question of the topic 'Outside the US - What is left' is ... 'nothing' ;)

(why do I always write a long text when one single word is enough ??? ) :lol:

[NoPoke]

wakes up...
has a look around....
nothing
just dreaming
goes back to sleep...

[Mr. Raichu]

Hi I am new here not even sure how to do this posting stuff but i really love playing pokemon the card game and am glad to find a place where I can talk and read about pokemon... who went to the prerelease tournament already and how did you do?

[SD PokeMom]

1straichu, welcome to the 'gym.

Rather than take an existing thread off-topic, please take the time to look around at the different forums and see what types of posts go where. There are already several threads in the tournaments forum about the prerelease tourneys; look at those, and I'm sure many of your questions will be answered.

If you have not done so already, please be sure you read and understand the 'gym rules, posted in the sticky topic at the top of each forum.

Thanks for your understanding and cooperation...

SD PokéMom, moderator

[GymLeaderPhil]

I've been waiting for some news for awhile too, while it may not affect me, it sure is something that I want to be established before this winter when most kids bug their parents for stuff more often. You have no idea how many times I have typed in http://op.pokemon-tcg.com/international.html and hit refresh. Well, mostly to check if there is some more info I can post up on Pojo. ;)

But regardless, no news is bad news. If distributors are established and the product is translated, why wait for other languages to be released in Europe? The money is all going to the same people. Perhaps not distributor, but many dont buy foreign language cards. Instead many die hard fans and retail owners purchase cases via the secondary market... which is probably another reason Nintendo wanted distributors to run the show. They are very irate about North American games shipped over in to the UK, when they could stop the problem itself by setting universal release dates for international popular products. Then there would be no conflicts with ROMs and cards IMO.

It's hard to be looking in from the outside seeing what Pokemon USA/TPC/Nintendo is cooking up for anything. The Professor List and aforementioned meetings does look like progress, albeit slow. Our best bet would to start asking questions, not when since those dates usually like to disappear. We need to know how far are they in the process.
-Phil

[Duskull master]

I understand what UKPOKEMONPRO are saying and I can feel the frustration you 're mentioning time and time again.I hope Santaclaus is going to deliver some goodies this winter.

I checked DCI tournament reports in the UK and I was amazed to see you managed to organise 6 to 10 tournaments a day at your local league each with small numbers of people (4~6) everyweek.Some people managed to enter 5 tournaments a day.(I don't know if that is quite possible) If all the winners are getting prizes every week I am sure your BTK kit will dry out quickly.May I suggest you can organise a tournament like 2 tournaments a week..... maybe 1 for under14 and 1 for over15 for the time being.A lot of winners a day makes people happy with good DCI point earnings but with prizes or no prizes I am sure people of your league appreciate your effort to keep Pokemon going until Nintendo will deliver good news .
A little bit of patiance..... ;)

[ukpokemonpro]

You have no idea how many times I have typed in http://op.pokemon-tcg.com/international.html and hit refresh.

And guess how frustrating that is for us Europeans to see the same thing every week... coming soon ... yeah right :(

But regardless, no news is bad news.

Absolutely agree and getting a reply to queries would be nice ..

If distributors are established and the product is translated, why wait for other languages to be released in Europe? The money is all going to the same people. Perhaps not distributor, but many dont buy foreign language cards. Instead many die hard fans and retail owners purchase cases via the secondary market... which is probably another reason Nintendo wanted distributors to run the show. They are very irate about North American games shipped over in to the UK, when they could stop the problem itself by setting universal release dates for international popular products. Then there would be no conflicts with ROMs and cards IMO.

Amen to that but does Nintendo listen and do they even consider that for the UK there is definitely no need to wait as we never see an English (British) version. Heck most of us Grey Import anyhow trying to keep the kids excited and involved.

However by insisting that we can only access OP if we buy from one exclusive distributor, one source, has got to be a good way for Nintendo to reduce grey importing. Funny I would have thought having your promotional OP linked to having to buy from just one source would limit its impact... but hey ho Nintendo know what their doing don't they???

Our best bet would to start asking questions, not when since those dates usually like to disappear. We need to know how far are they in the process.

And ask them we do Phil but I am afraid NOA won't talk to us and distributors tell us one thing and NOA will not confirm? Heck even a request for Jimmers number so we can talk on the Phone at my expense was met with Silence!

NOA are not making friends in the UK with the lack of info and lack of response ... will OP work without the professors .. probably for a short while but retailers chase the cash and without the hardcore fans and help they soon get fed up and move on .. YU GI OH anyone?

[ukpokemonpro]

I understand what UKPOKEMONPRO are saying and I can feel the frustration you 're mentioning time and time again.I hope Santaclaus is going to deliver some goodies this winter.

And pigs fly like reindeer too!

I checked DCI tournament reports in the UK and I was amazed to see you managed to organise 6 to 10 tournaments a day at your local league each with small numbers of people (4~6) everyweek.Some people managed to enter 5 tournaments a day.(I don't know if that is quite possible)

Not sure what you are getting at here I run a league with 30 odd players at various stages of developement ... therefore losers lose quickly and can play in many more 4-8 player KO tourneys than in Swiss.

At 30 mins a round a player could play 5 tourneys in 2.5hrs.. given we meet for 3 hours and that play rarely goes to 30 mins for less experienced players that is easily acheived... I do hope you are not accusing me of cheating the system?

If all the winners are getting prizes every week I am sure your BTK kit will dry out quickly.

Exactly I received extra kits due to the size of the league but have to horde prizes, eek out the promos and buy other pokemon related goodies and promo's from Ebay.

May I suggest you can organise a tournament like 2 tournaments a week..... maybe 1 for under14 and 1 for over15 for the time being.

It doesn't work during the week with players dropping into league at all times and staying for varying lengths of time. 4-8 player KOs are the best way I have found after 4 years of running the League!

We do organise 4th Sunday tourneys that are bigger and Swiss plus quaterly SE Challenges.

Go to gamers-guild.co.uk (http://www.gamers-guild.co.uk/content/tourneys.htm) and southeastchallenge.com (http://www.southeastchallenge.com) for details.

A lot of winners a day makes people happy with good DCI point earnings but with prizes or no prizes I am sure people of your league appreciate your effort to keep Pokemon going until Nintendo will deliver good news.

Unfortunately we are being told some info from our sources within the distribution chain and the news is not good :(

Carrying on carrying on but for how long can I keep it going....?

[Tego]

Why are you so sure that we won't get our OP this fall? What do you think the Pokémon Company are doing on all their meetings all over Europe? Talking about the weather and drinking tea?

[GuardianTIM]

Well, to put my 2 cents in - The other day we (our card place) talked to Nintendo Australia about why we weren't getting anything much at all from them (Promos, sets, anything), and they had absolutely no idea what we were talking about - almost like "card game? what card game?"...
In fact, some people have been posting about Sandstorm, and we've only just recieved the EX cards a while back. I bought a Sapphire deck as soon as it was available here, and that was a fortnight ago!!! *seethes with anger* Getting anything from them is like pulling teeth / drawing blood from stones / pulling bloodied teeth from stones.

And let's not even mention OP...

Tego, they're not talking about weather and drinking tea, they're laughing at Australia.


Oh!!! Nevermind - I see a box of Sandstorm cards, along with an E-reader being carried by a flying creature - looks half-pig, half-reindeer!!! :-)

[Michel]

Guardian TIM, there is another topic about places to buy cards on the web. I think it's the best Australian solution.
Like in Europe, I don't know what you'll do with the new sets, but you'll have the cards in your collection anyway ;)

You're right Tego, we're not sure if we'll get OP this fall or not. Good to hear that Nintendo has meetings, but they could talk about the e-card reader instead of OP and cards :p
I remember someone at the European Nintendo office telling me 'No Expedition without the ecard reader'. :rolleyes:
Do you know we've never fighten for the ecard reader ??? :eek:

I think we don't learn very quickly in Europe !
We've never had the sets at the same time as the USA, we've never had the same league schedules and kits, never had main events like they had in the USA (just compare the amount of events these last 3 years and compare that to the amount of players in each continent !), never had ...

5 things have been the same and at the same time on both sides of the Atlantic : rulings - formats - Prof Program - Delegate Program - banning of 15+ from the main events.
All these decisions have been taken in the USA and applied to the entire World directly from Renton.

We still haven't learned that, if decisions or actions have to be taken in offices out of the main office in the USA, it takes much more time than we need to run a tournament or provide the new US sets to our players ;)

Japan has always been the first to see the new things, USA second, Europe third, and some countries, like France, Australia, Chad, Saudi Arabia, Easter Island and some others, have seen the news on the web only (do they all have a connection ?).
Will it change in the future ? Not sure at all.

Sets and OP will come when Nintendo will decide it. Will it be too late or not, will it be before or after Christmas, will it be in hands of competent people in every country, ... ? Once again, not sure at all.
But anyway, even if we are the players, the customers, the people who certainly know the best what happens in the Pokemon community in our countries, these decisions are not in our hands.

Keep on sleeping NoPoke, and have a nice dream, ... I just hope they don't do the same during the Nintendo meetings :lol:

Ben, if you ever see a flying pig with big horns, I may assure you it's not a new Pokemon. My friends in the USA told me that this animal was not in the new sets. :p

[Dunjohn]

Just wanna chip in with my own two Euro-cents. The game was never anything more than a fad here a few years ago, and died out gradually when the post-Pokemon anime influx (Digimon, etc) diluted everything. Recently, though, a couple of players have been wanting me to start up a league.

For the past few weeks, all I've had to tell them, despite their constant reminders, is that Nintendo have yet to organise anything for Europe. If it takes much longer, I'm afraid that the newfound interest will simply fade away again. I don't want that to happen, because I wanna see that League happening too.

[ukpokemonpro]

Why are you so sure that we won't get our OP this fall? What do you think the Pokémon Company are doing on all their meetings all over Europe? Talking about the weather and drinking tea?

Okay so why are our distributors and NOA talking about their meeting on 10th October about OP in Europe ... TPC can meet all they like NOA can tell them there's OP come October the 1st but if you are not meeting to finalise it till the 10th I am damn sure nothing is gonna happen until November at the earliest..

Experience with the personalities and companies involved makes me beleive no OP until December... I mean we can't even sign up our leagues yet so how can we get OP rolling ... :(

[ShadowCard]

What do you think the Pokémon Company are doing on all their meetings all over Europe? Talking about the weather and drinking tea?Would that surprise anyone? *heh heh*

Nintendo waited too long. They should have come in at August, even if WOTC still had some control. Most big chains, not including those little card shops, close down their league operations around November for the winter holidays due to the huge crowds. This leaves no more than 3 months for nintendo to do something. Anyone who only attends those stores that close their leagues during that time (by choice or cause it is the only place around them) will most likely sit back and wait for January, as opposed to looking out for those tourneys nintendo speaks of.
I know I'll be waiting for January because the sandstorm tourneys are scattered and aren't in close places and that card game-game boy game merge wasn't the best idea to be their premier event.

Honestly, ukpokemonpro, I know my approximation will make you angry, I expect nothing big in the US until January, which is the smartest choice now seeing as they started their support too late, if they expect better attendance.
My prediction for Europe to receive league support, since the US will most likely get the stuff before Europe, will be late January at best, maybe into February. (just to babble, in astrology, in late January, the Sun moves into Aquarius, a sign of change through breaking down old barriars and restarting fresh, if that brings any thought...).

Australia? they still play Pokemon down there? :D Sorry, forgot all about you guys.

Just don't go into yugioh, it is a cheap (though quite expensive) game that will only waste your time, and you'll regret it. Unless you intend to snag back Pokemon players through the yugioh league, that's what i'm doing and it's working :clap:.

[pokeprofRaymond]

I don't know if I would brag or frustrate of anything. We are still in Season 3 of Battlezone and ends about March. (Being late in OP has great advantages as I observed). My only frustration is the introduction of Yugi-Oh with the same distributor of the Pokemon league. Actually it is not serious because our local distributor still waits on International OP on October. Pokemon has its presence in Asia. (slight or very present)

I was thinking of the possibly for Nintendo of Japan will be the International distributor for Asia with English-Asia based cards for their products like the ones Yugi-Oh had.

Still......long waits are stressfull but paitience has its rewards!!!

[viper111]

PokeprofRaymond, where in Manila do you play? My daughter and I might be interested in playing. We are planning a vacation this December. Do you play unlimited or modified? I would appreciate it if you can give info. Thanks. :)

[Tego]

If they just could inform you better. It's just so clear that few of us have any idea of what's really going on.

[Tego]

Sets and OP will come when Nintendo will decide it. Will it be too late or not, will it be before or after Christmas,


Before. Before, before. BEFORE! They're not evil.

[ukpokemonpro]

Dunjohn

Just wanna chip in with my own two Euro-cents. The game was never anything more than a fad here a few years ago, and died out gradually when the post-Pokemon anime influx (Digimon, etc) diluted everything. Recently, though, a couple of players have been wanting me to start up a league.

For the past few weeks, all I've had to tell them, despite their constant reminders, is that Nintendo have yet to organise anything for Europe. If it takes much longer, I'm afraid that the newfound interest will simply fade away again. I don't want that to happen, because I wanna see that League happening too.

Dunjohn,

PM or email me and I will send you some league promos from the WotC era... I have more than enough to spare for a league to be run up to Nintendo finally moving next year? Eh Tego ;)

The reality is Tego is that as part time co-ordinator for your region you are privy to certain "facts" that Nintendo and TPC are sure of .. like OP in October from the 1st.

But like I say if the meeting to finalise it all is not until October the 10th and there may well be other problems within the UK that I will gladly explain to you off-line. Given that I think that November/December is a more realistic time frame... and like I say that we cannot even register our leagues yet and we are coming up on 2 weeks into September ... not Long to October now guys and gals is it!

If you want to tell us where you sit on the statement ...

If they just could inform you better. It's just so clear that few of us have any idea of what's really going on.

I think you are being hoodwinked by officialdom and your closeness to it. And still NOA does not comment, even when distributors confirm to us direct...

So TEGO who do we believe the distributors we have known for years the personalities we know and understand or the company that won't talk to us and just has ..

Q: When will Pokémon Organized Play be launched internationally?

A: Pokémon Organized Play will start after the product is released internationally later this summer.

Summer is over guys and gals and look no OP! .. at least no Nintendo OP still we got OP at our league and the South East Challenges but that is off our own backs and with our own will and support and like I say my will is getting mighty close to packing up and shipping out!

[Tego]

Ok, here is what I can tell for sure:

I work at Nintendo of Norway. I will work part-time as Norway's TCG OP staff. Nintendo of Norway have ordered Sandstorm, and it's on its way. I expect it to be released in September, as soon as it arrives.

On October 20th, our OP will start. We'll start it all with a nationwide Pokémon TCG learning program for stores all over Norway. Here, people can come and learn the game for free and check out the new Sandstorm cards. The idea is to get lots of new players, and revive those who've almost forgotten the game exists.

After this learning program, we'll start having tournaments all over the country. Nice tournaments. This will be end-October/November-time.

These are the plans so far, remember they're not 100 % exact yet.

[NoPoke]

Store based OP in the run up to Christmas??????

ROFLOL

sorry Tego but the last thing the stores will accept in the UK is any disturbance to shifting merchandise during the Season of Goodwill to All.

[ukpokemonpro]

That's great TEGO one country down and 36 or so more to go ... Let's hope we can say more soon ..

[Tego]

Store based OP in the run up to Christmas??????

ROFLOL

sorry Tego but the last thing the stores will accept in the UK is any disturbance to shifting merchandise during the Season of Goodwill to All.

I never said anything about the UK. These are Nintendo of Norway's plans. He Christmas season doesn't start until late November at the earliest here.

[NoPoke]

I know you didn't say the UK... (wasn't trying to suggest that you were) just reiterating the point that any attempt at store based OP in the UK in the run-up to Christmas won't be accepted by the retailers. I also doubt that the Malls will want any kind of promotional activity occupying valuable retail/customer space that doesn't return a sizeable profit for them. Even when pokemon was at its peak in the UK, ah memories, there was no room for OP at Christmas.

We have lots of reasons to believe that official OP will NOT happen this year in the UK, and precious little indication that it might.

The distributors have been speaking to Nintendo: and if the result was 'good news' then we would have heard something.

You don't promote a product by keeping quiet about it!

[pokeprofRaymond]

PokeprofRaymond, where in Manila do you play? My daughter and I might be interested in playing. We are planning a vacation this December. Do you play unlimited or modified? I would appreciate it if you can give info. Thanks. :)

I play at Glorietta Mall in Makati and Robinson's Galleria.

Here are the schedules:

Glorietta Mall Pocket Collector Glorietta 2 12-2 P.M. (note: the 2-4 time is the league/demo is for Yugi-Oh, but you can play Pokemon TCG in that time and are still welcome to play and trade. Some even play beyond 4 P.M. ;) (That is how loyal the players are)

Robinson's Galleria Pocket Collector: Sunday 2-4 (it is in the third level near the Olympic Gold Store).

The predominant format is Ulimited!!!

See ya!!!! :)

[Prof Donphan]

Sorry Tego....
Any news for League and Tournaments in Italy?

[farbsman]

Jimmer and Co take note.

Last time I knew Pokemon USA had nothing to do with Europe. If I remember right TPC said they would announce there international partners this summer. According to my calendar you still have until September 23rd before fall begins. Also, Pokemon Leagues just started this month in the US, so I doubt it will be this month that they start them in Europe.

It takes time to start from scratch and build a company. Sure Wizards set the pace, but Nintendo and Pokemon USA don't have access to all Wizards old stuff. Copywrite laws and stuff have to be obeyed to keep from getting sued.

You act as if we have had OP from Pokemon US for months. It just started 9 days ago. Pokemon USA just started on September 1st here in the US. Wizards was still in charge of organized play until August 31st. So if you want to complain for lack of support from May until now call MTM. Pokemon USA couldn't do anything until contracts with Wizards were done.

Contacting Nintendo will not get you anywhere, not even in the US, you have to try getting ahold of TPC. Nintendo is the parent company, kinda like Hasbro was with Wizards.

[Professor Dav]

Okay,

I am trying to get a handle on what is left of Leagues and OP outside the US?

Here we have kept going as ever on our own, just like the bad old wotc years..

And yes we have tried in the UK to work with Nintendo and TPC since the first announcements of WotCs loss of the TCG License and well lets just say they have been pretty poor at working with us.

TPC have at least talked to us but the response from Nintendo inside the UK and from the US has been very poor... Emails and calls going unanswered, no involvement of non-US professors in shaping future floor rules.. and despite our protestations that there has been no OP in the UK supported by WotC since MAY! and unwillingness to bend a rigid timetable.

Now we see 14 Professors outside the Americas and the majority of those from the UK where we struggle on regardless of the lack of support or knowledge.

Nintendo continue to promise OP for Europe

Erm Summer... we're in September and October talking about it ... come on guys hardly summer!

Firstly, you're talking to the wrong people. Nintendo is marketing and distributing the Pokemon TCG in NORTH AMERICA. Nintendo, at this time, has nothing to do with Organized Play in the US or abroad, we here at PUI (the home of POP) are handling organized play.

Secondly, the statement they made is true, our organized play programs launch AFTER the late summer release of Pokemon product internationally.

Our international OP programs are in the works, and are a priority for us. Do not think that we only care about North America, it just so happens that NA is the first market we could roll into.


The truth is that had Nintendo talked with those few Master Profs in the UK and Europe they could have had OP and Leagues NOW... just send the MPs some league kits and hey presto we can at least get the ball rolling and pick up straight from where WotC stopped..


You aren't seeing the whole picture. If we had done that, it would've caused far more problems than it would've solved. How do we make sure that the UK professors are running leagues in an appropriate venue? How do we explain to all of the core retailers that don't get league kits that we're only supporting a few select people in the UK? A move like this would've potentially done more to damage the Pokemon brand than it would've done to help. We simply cannot survive without the support of two distinct bodies, the fans AND the retailers. We have a far better chance of continuing the life of the brand if we support both groups at once, rather than separately. What would the fans in areas that weren't allowed to have a league say if other regions in the UK were allowed to have leagues at this time? We cannot piecemeal a program like this.


Instead it will be 5 Months at least between WotC support ending and Nintendo organising anything and that is based on October being the month when OP starts.. most of us suspect December is more likely ... 7 Months after WotC UK stopped sending league kits!

It is extremely unfortunate that WotC decided to pull thier international support so early, but we can't do anything about thier business decisions. However, for PUI to jump the gun and not roll out our organized play programs in full at one time would likely cause many more problems like the ones described above. We wish that it would've been possible for us to roll out our organized play programs around the world at the same time we launched in the US, but that just wasn't the case. We are working very hard at getting our international programs launched as soon as possible, so that everyone who wants to play in a league or tournament, anywhere in the world, can do so.



So it's awful here in the UK and Nintendo are silent.. what is it like in the rest of the Non-US world?

Again, Nintendo is silent because they are NOT affiliated with marketing, distribution or organized play in the UK, not because they don't care.

I hope that helps explain some of the reasons that things are the way they are, if not make you feel better about it.

Thanks,
Prof. Dav

[Michel]

Thanks for yout post Prof.Dav. We finally hear an 'official' voice about Europe.

Great to read that you're working on OP in our countries, but I must admit that I'm lost.
Who's doing what and where ? I don't know anymore what Nintendo, PUI, POA, ... are doing in the USA and in Europe.
We're probably talking to the wrong person because we don't know who to talk to ;)

Some remarks about the other posts ...
Congrats Tego, I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job there like you've done in Europe with Team Europe :clap:

You're talking about Norway Tego, and the information you give are very positive for our game in your country. This doesn't change what other people said, we don't know anything about the other countries.

Sorry Shadowcard, but I don't agree with your opinion about YGO. That game is good and funny, and I know many people who like it.
Like it or not is a personal question. Some of us play other games and love them, some of us play Pokemon and don't want to hear about other games.
I've never told anybody that they have to play YGO or not, I don't think I can do that.
What I say it's that it is always interesting to know what happens in our TCG world, have a look at the other games, try them and make your own opinion.

Tego, Christmas, Eastern, my birthday, ... I really don't care. When will we have OP in Europe I don't know.
What I know is that when players ask me what will happen in the future, my answer is honest, it is 'I don't know'. I can't tell them what will happen with the leagues, the tournaments, the formats, ... and I can't tell them when I'll have an answer for them.
The same players have info about YGO, about Duelcenters, demos, tournaments, qualifiers for Worlds, Regionals in France, new sets, ... and if the Pokemon machine has stopped, the YGO one is running faster every day.

I've told it a long time ago, and for the first time when we've had the Expedition discussions. Stop OP and releases for a while, and a lot of players will quit. I still say the same, and I add that they now have an attractive alternative, there is another game their friends are playing.
When you go somewhere to run a tournament and have 20 players, and six month later only 6 players, you try to know where they are. I've tried and the answer has been very clear and easy : they're playing YGO in another shop.
That happened in June this year in a place where I run tournaments every month. And believe me, it is not the only place like that in Belgium.

Sorry, but I talk about what I see, and it's the Belgian market and community. Will Pokemon and Nintendo find new players ? 100% sure of that.
But we had a good group of players, more friends than players, and I'm sorry that most of them quit, even if they'll be replaced by (maybe more) new players.

I've talked with different shop owners, shops with Pokemon leagues, and their message is very clear. No news about Pokemon, news about YGO, players are asking about YGO ... we'll run a YGO league. Where is the profit ? Giving the answer to what the customers want.

I honestly don't know the impact of YGO on the players in the other countries. The only thing I know is the situation in Belgium and France.
And if a company is distributor of both games in a country, where do you think they'll put time and money ? In a growing game with high demand or in another game ?

NoPoke, still asleep ? Are you dreaming about Pokemon or about Arsenal winning the Premier league ? :lol:

Tego, you're talking about Nintendo of Norway. You don't talk about the local distributor. I thought OP would be run by local distributors in Europe.
Like I said at the beginning of this post, ... HELP, I'm lost :confused:

[ukpokemonpro]

Well said Michel once again you get right to the core ...

David .. nice to have you post, I echo Michel and say AT LAST an official voice...

I have Pmed with Jimmer about OP and not once did he refer me elsewhere? Indeed I see Jimmer is attributed with games development and with working for PUI so I was talking to the right people then? Or rather I was trying too.. it all got a little heated and then I just stopped getting any replies?

I did offer to phone at my own expense but got no reply.. and this whole post really is a result of Non-communication..

Please excuse my misunderstanding of the corporate layout for Pokemon but like others I look on the bottom of the Boxes of Ruby and Sapphire I have and it says NOA ... the distributors in the UK tell us they have been speaking to NOA and they draw no distinction between NOA and PUI?

Perhaps this means we should all just talk to each other a little more?

... it would be nice if you can take some time to talk direct with the UK and European professors, so that we can understand what is happening... we do keep saying no news is bad news... and we do need to know what is happening... I do hope you will take this as an opportunity to talk to us direct?

[Dunjohn]

Dunjohn,

PM or email me and I will send you some league promos from the WotC era... I have more than enough to spare for a league to be run up to Nintendo finally moving next year?

That's a terrific offer and I appreciate your generosity. However, my local store did recieve the Battlezone kit from a while back (The one with the holo Dark Persian, the Flying Pikachu, etc), which surprised everyone, and no-one more than the shop owner. He never ran a League, ever. Not knowing what to do with it, he either gave most of it away ("You want a Pokemon booster? Here, have a stack of Scythers, too!") or lost it. I managed to get all of the badges, because he sure didn't need them. Must be at least a thousand of them up in my room. I have copies of all the promo cards, and he still has some.

Long story short, I'd say I have the tools to run a rough league. I'd say the guys want to be registered too, y'see, and have an online ranking and all the stuff they're used to with Magic. Ultimitly, I get the feeling that they'd be uncomfortable if it was just me running it, without the sense of having Nintendo or someone behind me. I'm just one of them, y'see. I'm working on it, though.

Thanks again!

[Professor Dav]

Please excuse my misunderstanding of the corporate layout for Pokemon but like others I look on the bottom of the Boxes of Ruby and Sapphire I have and it says NOA ... the distributors in the UK tell us they have been speaking to NOA and they draw no distinction between NOA and PUI?

Perhaps this means we should all just talk to each other a little more?

... it would be nice if you can take some time to talk direct with the UK and European professors, so that we can understand what is happening... we do keep saying no news is bad news... and we do need to know what is happening... I do hope you will take this as an opportunity to talk to us direct?

Don't worry about the misunderstanding of the corporate structure, its confusing even if you work here.

I just wanted to point out some of the challenges we're facing in getting our programs up and running across the world. WotC produced, marketed and distributed Pokemon under thier licence to all markets. We don't have the same agreement. We are producing, and running OP, with NOA being the sole marketer and distributor in North America, and other strategic partners handling those tasks overseas.

Everyone calls us Nintendo, no matter how many times we point out that PUI is not Nintendo, it's just too easy a name to use, and since they are a part of the puzzle, it's the Nintendo name that gets used.

I don't want to seem put-offish, but, right now, we're a very small office and my responsibilities include Leagues (not just one league, but LEAGUES!)development, implementation and maintenance , the Professor Program , our OP web pages and development, all back-end database development for our league, professor and tournament programs as well as content writing and copy writing for the web and product. I am happy to speak with you personally, however, be aware that it does impact my ability to get the work done that we're talking about in this thread. A half hour conversation with someone means that I lose a half hour in my quest to have the message boards developed and launched for the Professors and League Leaders, etc, etc....

Add to that the fact that I may not be able to say much more than I've already told you here. Our international team has been gone for the last two weeks meeting with European distributors, and are in the process of hiring an international OP director. So, the information I have, or can divulge at this time isn't going to go much further than what I've already relayed here.

Thanks much,
Prof. Dav

[NoPoke]

1) How do we make sure that the UK professors are running leagues in an appropriate venue?

2) How do we explain to all of the core retailers that don't get league kits that we're only supporting a few select people in the UK?

3) We simply cannot survive without the support of two distinct bodies, the fans AND the retailers.

4) What would the fans in areas that weren't allowed to have a league say if other regions in the UK were allowed to have leagues at this time? We cannot piecemeal a program like this.

Prof. Dav

1) Ask us?
1) Have a look at the regular coverage in Pokemon World magazine?
1) If Appropriate = Retail then goodbye to OP in the UK :(

2) As far as I'm aware there is NO retail support for pokémon OP in the UK. Now there may be a few retailers out there but they are very quiet and I haven't met any of their players.
2) OP in the UK has been club based for a very long time now... retail floor space is just too expensive in the UK.
2) A major distributor I used to use in the midlands shipped ZERO pokemon product for most of this year, in the same period they shipped $250,000 of YuGiOh.
2) When Warner Bros pulled out of OP four years ago, pokemon was at its peak then too, no other retailer stepped in to fill the void.

3) The retailers ARENT interested in OP in the UK. All OP in the UK is FAN based.
3) We are regularly organising events that average 40+ players. These numbers are greater than are being attracted to the majority of the USA events that you have recently sponsored. Please don't forget about us in your desire to get retail OP running.

4) We are constantly encouraging others to start leagues and approach shops to set up league. MacDonalds are acting as a venue for a league in Mitchem, London runs from out of a cafe, Crawley uses a room at a council sponsored adventure playground, (there is also a restricted league at a Crawley school ), Rainham runs from a games club. Glasgow runs from a book shop. If you saw the retail environment in the UK you would understand why the retailers are unable to provide facilities for OP: they just don't have the space.

Dave, I hope that the above helps to give you some idea of the difficulties that you will face in the UK. We are willing and ABLE to run OP and premiere events in the UK for you..after all its what we have been doing for the past few years anyway.

[Tego]

Thank you for your posts, Dave. I hope more of you now understand that "Nintendo" (sorry) are indeed not drinking tea or talking about the weather on their meetings, and that they are moving forward and have a lot to do.

There's a small team and there's lots to do. But they are working 'for us', they're on our side! And they're trying their best to get OP started. Please do wait and see what they can do. Don't panic before they get started.

Michel: I'm talking about the company who distributes Nintendo games and hardware in Norway, Unsaco AS. They will be Pokémon TCG's distributor in Norway too. They are Nintendo of Norway, but I never said all countries would have OP from the Nintendo offices.

Dave: hire an International OP director? May I suggest an ex-worker of Wizards of the coast called Harlan Levey? Who knows what he's up to these days, but I think we would welcome him back like the return of Elvis. ;)

[NoPoke]

Harlan Levy: heard lots of good things about him and his commitment to pokémon.. Good suggestion Tego

[Android17a]

I'm taking the "wait and see what happens" stance right now. Just don't do to us what NOE did with Animal Crossing (i.e. decide it is too obscure for the Europeans and just never release it)

[Tego]

Android: there is no official reason why AC wasn't released here. I doubt it is because of its "obscurity", it's more likely to be because it was too hard to translate. But in my opinion, they could have just released an English language version.

But anyway, your point is good. We have to wait and see now.

[Michel]

NoPoke is awake !!!!!!! :clap:

Thanks for your explanation about Norway Tego ;)

This topic has been started because we didn't know what happened, because we had no information about what will happen in Europe.
One person, because he has closer links with Nintendo, had information the others didn't have. :thumb:

We didn't know anything about plans for Norway, about Nintendo's meetings, ...
Thanks to this post, and the answers given by Prof Dav, we have now more information. :thumb:

Yes, it seems that PUI is working for us and if you read the post about OP in the USA http://www.pokegym.net/showthread.php?p=10660#post10660 you'll see that the future could be bright in Europe too.

I agree with you Tego, wait and see. According to what I've heard these last hours, YGO is not as played in the other countries as it is in Belgium or France.
That's a good point too :)

[Tego]

Nobody plays Yu-Gi-Oh in Norway. And i mean literally nobody. There are NO tournaments for Yu-Gi-Oh at any of the big card shops here. I haven't seen a single booster for sale anywhere.

[Tego]

Michel: remember that I can't be a super inside source who tells you everything. I won't ever tell anything else than what I'm supposed to, and I asked for permission from my bosses to tell you (and Norwegian fans) about Norway's OP plans.

[Michel]

Sure Tego. I was in the same situation when Wizards had the game.

Sometimes I had 'private' information that I had to keep for myself.

Like you do now, I tried to calm down the people on the boards because I knew things were going to happen and that people were working hard on it.

But on the other hand, I understand the impatience and sometimes the frustration of some of us. These impatience and frustration is also a sign of their love for the game and the community !

I certainly don't ask you to be a spy for the European community and give information that may not be public ;)

Companies change but communication remains so important ! Two posts of Prof Dav and the situation is completely different ;)

[Skywolf1]

Let me be frank here just for a minute...

I have either met or established a rapport with many European players who play this game.

Truth is, I KNOW what Europe has gone through with WotC. I am really trying to get answers for you folks up there. I was talking with PUI this morning at length, and one of the first topics of conversation is Europe, and I ask the questions, and I keep asking the questions, until I get the answers. Like many have stated in one way or another, Silence in this case, IS NOT golden.

Chances are that many of the YGO players will probably come back to the game ONCE the OP is in place. I feel that this game CAN and WILL grow. I have contacts in high places, and both Jimmer and PUI KNOW of the situation in Europe.

Please understand something though, I am doing all I can right now, for the game. I want to do more, however, right now, I am barely able to keep a roof over my head, let alone send Ben the materials I have promised him. Do I feel bad about this? Damn right I do, however, it is either try to get out of my siutation or suicide, and as much as I have contemplated the latter, I understand the this might not be the most prudent course of action for the European community right at the moment.

What I will do, is e-mail Jimmer Sivertsen again, and make reference to this thread, so he is PUT ON NOTICE, with regards to the situation in Europe, that is what I will do.

Tego is trying to maintain a positive attitude for the game in Europe, as are most of the European Player base, especially you folks in the United Kindom and Belgium.

The OP program hasn't even begun here stateside yet, and I have heard people complain that Nintendo isn't doing enough. Truth is, at least from my stand point, Nintendo acted very intelligently in NOT divluging OP plans while Hasbro/WotC et al, still had anything remotely to do with the license. This was a smart business move, because Hasbro could have, if they so desired, made things MUCH worse for the game, and shot any semblence of OP down for this game BEFORE it even had a chance to get off the ground.

Thankfully, that did not happen. I know Jimmer, and I know most everyone at PUI, so instead of assuming what you'd like me to do to help with the situation in Europe, please e-mail or better yet, post to this thread.

Because I will NOT ACCEPT EVER, this game just being just one that can be played (and enjoyed) by Americans and Japanese. So help me God, I will die trying before that ever happens, and that is the God's honest truth.

So, let me know, what problems you are having, I want everyone to write with their concerns, because I will see that these concerns are heard and addressed. Many didn't think that I couldn't get a chat started with WotC Europe, but damn it, I did it, and I will do it again if necessary. But, I also want all of you to understand another thing, laws and customs regarding sales, exports etc. I am sure are different in Europe then they are here. Also, language issues are a concern for you folks up in Europe. Now, while I don't condone the "silent treatment" that you folks up there have been getting, which I don't, I do want you to know, that the author of this post DOES LISTEN and is PASSING ALONG your concerns and issues, and I have been met with the following response everytime; "EUROPE WILL NOT BE IGNORED!" That came right from PUI, and if I have to, I will contact TPC about your issues.

Please also understand, that this game is in NEW hands now, and those hands, have had a VERY LIMITED amout of experience in this sort of thing, so it is a learning process for them as much as it is a waiting process for you folks.

I have gone on record saying that YGO will start showing signs of stress. That is not to take anything away from that game or its players, I am merely stating my own personal opinion about the game. I feel that many of the players who are now playing that game, will give Pokemon another shot, once a coheasive OP program gets put into place. Hofefully the distributors will support both games equally.

I know that perhaps some of what I said would strike Ire in some of you folks in Europe, however, these are just the facts as I see them right now. I will always go to bat for you folks in Europe. I just want you all to know, not to expect results overnight, because I can only do so much as a single individual.

I look forward to hearing from ALL European players soon.

Don't Give up, this game WILL flourish once again.

Marsh Schneidau
(aka Skywolf1)
Skywolf1@pokeschool.com

[ukpokemonpro]

Marsh hey I am not fretting on the materials you promised and certainly not worried when or even if the arrive... You keep the roof on first matey and don't stress yourself over us.

We do understand that OP has not started in the US yet but with Pre-release Tourneys, Ruby and Sapphire Challenges, News on leagues, league kits on ebay and all it does look like the US is just about set and that delivery is all ready to roll.

Compare that to a Europe that cannot register even existing leagues! And well we do get a little envious :(

Anyhow Dave has reassured us a little but it is the details we need to start getting soon if we are to deliver to the promised timescale.

International so far = we still can't get a Non-Continental American Phone number in the professor sign ups and there is no Non-US or State/County box for us to use.. and you wanna try getting a usable post code into an American Zip Code box... can't happen!

This is a minor niggle but it does make us feel like after thoughts despite assurances otherwise..

Still the blue sky picture looks good but we gotta see the delivery

[Skywolf1]

Ben,

If you need to use a US address, I can provide you and other European players if you need it.

Take Care,

Skywolf1

[NoPoke]

GOOD NEWS:

the pokemon-tcg international pages have been updated!
There is now a list of distributors!

EU,Norway : to be annouced????

Finland, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, New Zeeland, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Nederlands, UK, Austrailia, Brazil, Belgium, Estonia, Denmark, and Hong Kong all have a distributor.

Hey Goldie how come Norway is being ignored ;) and the European Union gets its own 'to be announced' even though many of the member states have distributors detailed.

:thumb: :clap: :D :thumb: :D :clap: :clap: *bounce*

[Michel]

European questions and problems ... Skywolf is back.
Thanks Marsh for all the great job you've done and will do for us in Europe ;)

Like NoPoke said, a first list of distributors is available. Things are moving, and that's a very positive point.

If you read some of my other posts, you'll see that I've announced that, if OP in Belgium was given to the distributor of YGO (and Wizards Pokemon), I would quit Pokemon OP.
One of the two Belgian distributors on the list published today is that distributor (the other one has never done anything for our game).

That means that I quit Pokemon OP.

Wizards has had to take Belgian OP away from that company to run it by themselves, YGO OP is run for 50 % of the country only (the French speaking people are not supported by the Belgian distributor), YGO Worlds qualifier run by that company was unbelievable (changing of format 8 days before the event, swiss rounds announced but changed into single elimination on the day of the tournament, manual pairing with the result that some players believe it hasn't been done honestly, ... )

I'll keep on playing (as long as thay let me play ;) ), and I'll keep on saying what I have to say about our game and our community. No organization of tournaments, no leagues and no judging anymore for me.
My last tournament as judge and TO will be run next Saturday in Brussels ... have a lot of Wizards stuff to distribute ;)

I deeply regret to have to take that decision, and I would have really loved to be more involved in our game, in our community and in OP than I was before, but I love our game too much, and I have too much respect for our players, to start OP in these circumstances.
Working with a company is OK, working against is stupid and useless.


OP plans that we've seen for the USA are great, and the communication that starts with PUI and on the website is a very positive and encouraging thing.

I truly hope that all my European friends who'll start the big new European OP adventure will have as much fun and great moments I've had for the last two years.
I know most of them, and I'm absolutely sure they'll keep on doing a wonderful job for our game and for our kids. :thumb:

[ukpokemonpro]

Michel,

I hope you reconsider ... you are a great European Ambassador and will be missed by all... having said that I know exactly where you are coming from my friend..

Now if you are going still ... have you got any July Kits there are a lot of hungry leagues over here would love to see the TR Hitmonchan ...

Well gotta try eh ;)

[NoPoke]

EU law generally forbids trade barriers within the EEC.

You could always deal with a distributor in the Nederlands or even the UK? If it's French product you are after then I guess you have to wait for the distributor for France to be announced.

I too am tempted to give up being an organiser and just play. After hitting your head against a brick wall for a long time the question as to why you should continue to do so does eventually sink in. The past few years have had there ups and downs. OP in the UK has been much like trying to push water up hill, with the added feature of those responsible for the delivery of OP chucking proverbial rocks at you. If things don't show a big improvement in the UK quickly then I'll be joining you on the sidelines Michel.

For me the touchstone as to PUI's commitment to the rest of the world rests upon the delivery of pre-release tournaments outside the USA. If PUI can't manage that then I can't see why I should bother either.

[Michel]

Thanks Ben ;)

NoPoke, it's absolutely not a question of product but of OP responsibility. I can without any problem find cards of any set anywhere I want, but if OP in a country is supported by a local distributor, I may not be linked to a distributor in another country, except if the main company (Konami for YGO for example) agrees with it. According to what I've already seen in the past (last time last July), I think it will not be possible for me to properly and trustfully work with that company and, as I don't want to fight every week and spend a lot of time in useless discussions, I prefer to quit.

Reconsider ? Maybe if PUI, or the responsibles of Pokemon Worldwide OP, assure me of the fact that OP in Belgium will be organised and followed exactly the same way as in any other country and that no difference in terms of delays, organization of leagues or main events, respect of rules (game, tournaments, ...), treatment of TO, judges, players or Professors, ... will be accepted by PUI.
Or if OP in the French part of Belgium is supported by the French distributor ;)

TR Hitmonchan ? 24 'winner stamped' can be sent to you as soon as you tell me where I have to send them. I may add some winner stamped TR Mewtwo if you want. Sorry, I don't have 'non winner' copies of them.
But these are not from the July kits, but from the August/September Belgian kits :D

email me the address, ok ?

[Skywolf1]

Michel and Ian,

While I respect your decision not to continue with OP SHOULD the Belgium distributor, take up OP for the game.

I sincerely hope you'll reconsider should Belgium get another OP distributor.

You have been a vital asset for OP in Belgium, and I very much hope you decide to keep your active role as the premiere ambassador for the game in Belgium. :)

Remember, I am on your side. If there is an issue you want me to address with PUI, please let me know, so that any past mistakes with distributors can be avoided. From what you have lead me to believe, this distributor doesn't have the game's best interest at heart, and indeed if that is the case, this is an issue that needs to be addressed IMMEDIATELY!!

Ian,

What can I say, you and Ben have been the strongest and most steadfast supporters of the game in the UK. I can understand your frustration, however, I would also like you to read my other post in this forum.

I think some good things are afoot here. I hope that you both will be involved, so that we can usher in this new era for the game we all love.

Take Care,

Skywolf1

[pokeprofRaymond]

GOOD NEWS:

the pokemon-tcg international pages have been updated!
There is now a list of distributors!

EU,Norway : to be annouced????

Finland, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, New Zeeland, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Nederlands, UK, Austrailia, Brazil, Belgium, Estonia, Denmark, and Hong Kong all have a distributor.

Hey Goldie how come Norway is being ignored ;) and the European Union gets its own 'to be announced' even though many of the member states have distributors detailed.

:thumb: :clap: :D :thumb: :D :clap: :clap: *bounce*

Wow it is great :clap: !!! Now I will have inform the people in my local distributor of the cards about (in case the do not have it yet) !!!!

It is OK for me if the two TCG's are played. In our situation it is a little bit difficult for pokemon TCG players here to play one more TCG or shift. We had a increase number of new players from the past two weeks (and got clobbered as always :lol: )!!!

[ShadowCard]

Will France welcome back Pokemon? I heard they removed the show from their tevevision airwaves :(. I want french cards.........

[pokeprofRaymond]

Will France welcome back Pokemon? I heard they removed the show from their tevevision airwaves :(. I want french cards.........

Don't lose hope. We never had the TV series for 3 years. But the game is still alive. If it can happen here in my country. It can anywhere. ALWAYS THINK POSITIVE!!!!! :thumb:

[pokeprofRaymond]

BTW does anybody out there have an idea how these International partners were selected? :)

[Michel]

ShadowCard,
As far as I know, R&S will be translated in French.
If you're talking about cards for your collection, it should be OK ;)

OP in France is something completely different.
After the French Championship in 2001, Wizards France has stopped to support OP in their country.
There were many players there, and some of them were really excellent. I understand the reasons why Wizards has stopped OP, but I don't see why the French market wouldn't deserve OP like any other country.

The first YGO main event in Paris last July has been played by 215 players. Not bad uh :(
There are TCG players, and there is still a lot of Pokemon collectors. These people are very active, but we may not forget that most of them are interested in cards in French.

I really hope PUI will not forget France because there is a lot of nice things to do with, and for, my southern neighbours.

Now the question is : will Pokemon make a come back now that YGO is present in the country with a very active distributor and a very good OP ?
I think it's like in Belgium where YGO is growing fast every day ... it will depend on the distributor who will be supporting OP and the efforts he will put in Pokemon.

Main event in Paris ... if you want to meet me, I'll be there ;)

[Michel]

As the subject of this post is linked to the subject of the topic, ... I'm back to this 'old topic' instead of starting a new one ;)

I still read here and there, actually almost everywhere, that there is nothing outside the USA, and it is TRUE.

But let's try to be positive :

1. nice OP plans for the USA (according to the Nintendo's website, OP will be the same all over the World)

2. Sandstorm announced in Europe only 2 weeks after the US release

3. Nintendo's website becomes really great with the new updates and modifications

4. Prof Dav gave us information about the rest of the World and confirmed that people at PUI don't forget us and are working for us

5. Eskil is working for Nintendo Norway (but is that positive for us ??? :lol: )

6. some info, not much but it's a beginning, has been put on Nintendo's website about 'International'

7. Professors outside the USA are on the Professor's list

8. ... don't remember but there must be a point 8 :p

So why shouldn't we wait a little bit and give PUI time to prepare something great for us ?
And if what they prepare is not great ? We'll then let them know what we think about it ;)

I'm sure that we, and the kids at our leagues, still need some cards for their collection. I'm still after WotC cards and I'm going to take some time to complete my collection before the new OP plans are announced for Europe :)

Uh ! My daughter says it's not my collection, but HER collection ! OK, let's say it's OUR collection ...
Who said Pokemon is not a family game ??? :lol:

[Tego]

Michel, I hope that even if you quit as an OP Organizer, you won't quit the actual game. I hope we'll continue to see Laetitia sweep through every European Qualifier she attends, and that you will be eating breakfast with me in a hotel in the USA again some time in the future. ;)

[Michel]

Sure Tego ;)

I will not quit the game, neither will Laetitia.
We love that game, and we've had so many great moments with the other players, Wizards staff, parents, ... that we couldn't stop.

I don't want to quit OP either, but I know that, if things remain the same, it will not be possible for me to work 'on the field' as TO or judge with the local distributor.
If I do something, or if I say I'm going to do something, I know I'm going to do a good job. If I'm not sure of that, I prefer to be quiet and don't be involved in it.
Unfortunately, it is the case as TO, judge or Gym Leader in Belgium now.

Things could change, we will see, ... and I'm already on the Nintendo's list of Professors ;)

Breakfast with you ? Sure. Or a celebration of your Prof title in the middle of the night would be ok too :p

[NoPoke]

All this talk about quitting...

Well from a UK perspective we are not quitting OP, rather OP is quitting on us.

[pokepsy]

if you guys think you have it tough over at the UK, you should try going to TJ, Mexico. my friend and i are the last 2 professors probably in all of Mexico, i'm the only person that runs these events in all of Tj. and i get about 20 kids per tournament(with no help from nintendo or WoTC for 3 years know) so every week i have to figure out a way to keep everybody interested in the game. I used to compete in the SD Wizards store(so i could get some prizes to give out in my tournaments), but know what?, i love this game and i don't play any other game or do any other kind of card tournaments so i would really hate it if pokemon drops out of the card buisnes.

[NoPoke]

pokespy.. my sympathies.. we do know what it is like. Can you hook up with some of the good guys (and gals) in san Diego? I'm sure they'd help with promos and stuff.

In the UK we have been getting much of our supplies through ebay :(

If you check back through some of my earlier posts you will find that I have never claimed that there wern't places worse off than the UK. Just that the position in the UK has been bad for a long time (much worse than mainland Europe) and is continuing the slide down to complete oblivion.

[Michel]

Pokepsy, one suggestion ... wouldn't it be possible for you and the kids at your league to go to a league in SD from time to time ?

Not far from Tijuana (many players have to travel more to play at their league ;) ) and I think that you could be included one way or another in the US OP.

Man, if I could leave so close to SD, I would be there every week end, ... and I would be a happy Pokemon player ;)

Maybe Pokemom could help you and give you some advice ?

Congrats anyway for the great job you do for your players :clap:

Pokemon drop out of the card business ??? I'm sure Pokemon TCG will be there for a long, long time, even if it is, for some of us, more difficult to keep it alive in their countries or area.

[Pokemonboy2003]

Why not just move to the US? Duh... :confused:

[Tego]

Pokémonboy2003: because they are Mexicans and they want to live there. 'Duh'!

I agree with Michel that they could try to drive to SD by car in the weekends. There are many nice Pokémon players in San Diego. :)

And Michel, I agree that Pokémon will stay for a long while. I actually think they'll continue to print new expansion even a year after the last bit of OP for the game has stopped. And I don't think OP will stop within the next 3 years. If everything goes fine, not even the next 5 or 10 years.

[irwinmalek]

Michel, you've done a great job with the game in your country....

Anyway... do you have any other spare TR BZ Promos? It looks like we won't get them at ALL in the UK now, and I know of a "few" London players who'd like to win one. SO far, I've only been able to put up 2 of each, and those were the only ones I had (straight from my folder :(

Oh well, thanks anyway, just 4 or 5 would be great!! :)

[Michel]

Irwin,
I still have some promos. Email me the cards you want and your address.
I've just sent R Hitmonchan and R Mewtwo to Ben.

[ukpokemonpro]

Okay I have been ruminating on just why I am feeling so angry and fed up with the current situation and it isn't just about long delivery times on OP it's about consultation.

Let me expand a bit .. in the WotC days Team Compendium kept a repositry of the card rulings and that was/is great; but now with no consultation and more importantly no International involvement they are the rule makers together with PUI! I for one would rate NoPoke a rules Guru who has the talent and the knowledge to help form future card rulings yet he is ignored along with the rest of us outside the US.

Now tell me where is the involvement of the MPs outside the US? Where are we getting involved?

I myself and several of the other European Professors run regular large tourneys and yet our involvement in drawing up floor rules, reviewing reporting software and deciding the future of the game has been zero...

I understand that some but not all of the US professors and TOs have been involved so why not the International Guys and Gals?

It is this, together with delayed OP, No Mall Tour, No R&S Challenges, No Pre-Releases, No listing of existing Leagues, No Support for current Tourneys that really does lead us to believe that PUI is truely not interested in OP and Leagues outside the US.

There is no need to delay in listing the existing UK and European Leagues ... and if Ninty/PUI want to hide behind is the venue suitable well it was for WotC and why should it not be for you?

It is a shame that I and my fellow UK and European MPs are being ignored and sidelined. Despite talking with Dave Schwimmer for 30mins (thanks for the time Dave by the way) I have yet to hear from anyone about any support for Interantional Tourneys that are taking place now ahead of PUI/Destributors getting their act together.

This can not go on because so many of us are feeling what is the point in trying to support a game when those whose job it is to help us do so will not commit to us.

We are here, we are organised and ready for action but we are left rusting in the garage, unloved and unwanted.

PUI need to start moving now on involving us, moving now to support us and moviong now on utilising our talents and time before we take them elsewhere.

[PokePop]

Let me expand a bit .. in the WotC days Team Compendium kept a repositry of the card rulings and that was/is great; but now with no consultation and more importantly no International involvement they are the rule makers together with PUI! I for one would rate NoPoke a rules Guru who has the talent and the knowledge to help form future card rulings yet he is ignored along with the rest of us outside the US.

Now tell me where is the involvement of the MPs outside the US? Where are we getting involved?


Just to be clear:
TC does not make any of the card rulings.
Pokemon USA, the current owner of the franchise, makes the card rulings.

Since there were no chats running to get rulings out, Team Compendium took it upon ourselves to work out an arrangement with PUSA to create a channel for getting new rulings out as a service to the community.

We have a long history of working closely with the producers of the Pokemon card game and PUSA felt comfortable working with us in this manner.
Through our new boards, we've managed (we hope) to provide an island of consistancy and stability in the transition from one card producer to another. I might note that this transition is still ongoing and some functions won't be assumed by PUSA until Oct 1.

This is probably an interim arrangement. I'm sorry you feel put off by it.
I will also note that WotC experimented with using TC as Judges before creating the Prof program. The sucess of our involvment opened the doors for Profs to do the same.

Again, if we weren't doing it, you would have no new rulings at this point. I don't think that would be preferable.

[Michel]

PokePop,
I'm sure everybody knows the wonderful job made by the Compendium team for years now. The fact that Wizards first, PUI now, work so closely with you and your team is logical when we know your experience, knowledge and dedication to the game.

Without TC, no updated rulings, no chat transcripts, no forum, no ...
I think we all agree to say that the TC website is the bible for all the players, judges, TO's, ...

But I may understand Ben's 'frustration'.
When you look at the game from Europe, when you go on the web, when you have contacts with US friends, ... sometimes Pokemon looks like an US game and not a worldwide game, and like Ben says, some US Profs and MP's seem to be involved in the 'heart of the game', which is certainly not the case for the Profs and MP's outside US ;)

Ben, don't forget that, even if it was later most of the time, if it was sometimes after a lot of discussions, Europe has always had almost the same as the USA.
Maybe less, like for the main events or Wizards support last summer (but it was great anyway, no ?), maybe with a lot of difficulties, but we've followed the USA.

'Followed' is probably the key word. We've never been the first or at the same level, we've always followed. And always been frustrated because we saw nice things in the USA and we didn't know if it would happen in Europe.
Still the case now ;)

We may not forget that Wizards before, Nintendo/PUI now, are based in the USA. The decisions are taken there, and applied on their own market first.
In addition to that, one office for the USA and different offices in Europe, and one more step in the European OP structure, the local distributors.

I may assure you that it was really easier to give a call to Peter who worked 10 miles away from my home, go to see him and ask what I needed instead of trying to contact someone who, most of the time, doesn't know what you're talking about, needs info from Wizards, and gives you an answer if he doesn't forget.
Uh, talking about Wizards Europe ... not UK :rolleyes:
and easier again to contact MTM or DMTM directly instead of our European offices.

We feel far from the 'source of the game', and that's probably one of the reasons I was so lucky to go to the STS or Worlds. It was a great opportunity to feel closer, to talk with people, to meet people, to feel less isolated.

Frustrating ? Sure, sometimes it can be. But certainly not a reason to question TC's work, involvment and importance for the community. :thumb:

[ukpokemonpro]

As I have posted elsewhere PokePop I am not ranting against TC, I am not ranting against Heidi or any of the rest of you who do such a great job for us all in this game what I am concerned about is the lack of involvement of the Talent that exists outside the US.

I myself am no rules Guru but NoPoke certainly is and his talent and knowledge is being ignored.

Here we are now 2 months into PUIs reign and all we see is US centred programmes and consultation. Even if PUI cannot yet deliver OP outside the US, cannot deliver Leagues outside the US the one thing they can do is get us involved and consult with us on the future.

I hope the US centred nature of PUIs consultation changes but I suspect we have just discovered a new 5th ... that will refer us to the distributors as PUI does not support OP outside the US :( .. that will be just the same as WotCs refer to your local offices..

[NoPoke]

Ben, don't forget that, even if it was later most of the time, if it was sometimes after a lot of discussions, Europe has always had almost the same as the USA.
Maybe less, like for the main events or Wizards support last summer (but it was great anyway, no ?), maybe with a lot of difficulties, but we've followed the USA.



Michel this is ABSOLUTELY NOT THE CASE.

WotC
Year one: terminated prematurely
Year two: delays delays.. after nearly two years it gets terminated at season 6
Year three: cancelled COMPLETELY
Year Four: delayed then terminated prematurely (May)

PUI: Initially announce that they will be looking at providing world-wide inclusive programmes. Not they are saying that PUI deals with the USA.

This is sounding all too familiar :(

THIS IS NOTHING LIKE THE USA and NEVER HAS BEEN, Mainland Europe hasn't had it as bad as this because of the likes of Harlan, but by no stretch of imagination has Europe had anything like the commitment that was provided to the USA.

[/rant]!!!

[Michel]

Nopoke,
It is true that the situation in mainland Europe was different than in the UK where you had more problems and difficulties.

We've had Harlan (more involved in tournaments than in leagues as leagues were organized by the distributors) and after that we've had a direct contact with Wizards Europe.
I know it's has always been harder in the UK ;)

Leagues ? We've started really later than our US friends, and we've missed a part in order to start new programs approximatively at the same time as the USA (3 months instead of 18 months).

My previous message was maybe not clear enough ... what I want to say is that we've always had almost the same OP programs as the USA (leagues, BZone, Delegate progr, Prof program, Gym challenges and stadiums, ...). OK, things were missing, were late, and most of the time really hard to get.

I don't know exactly how PUI will work. They'll have a director for international OP. That could mean that this guy will work in the direction that is mentioned on the pokemon-tcg website : same OP everywhere in the World.
Maybe with some differences due to the reality (city Championship in Brussels would be silly :D ), but following the same line.
Quite different from what we've had with Wizards where each office was working on his own way, following moreless indications from Renton and the MT's.

If the European distributors may work in harmony under the leadership of one single person, if that person is the contact for every OP important problem, if (sometimes stupid) delivery problems are solved, ... things will be really easier for Europe.

Quite funny that, so long after his decision to quit Wizards, we're still talking about Harlan.
Funny but somewhere logical. That guy was 'community oriented', he listened to us, talked with us, answered to us.
He was paid by Wizards, but he had understood that without that community of players that he loved, nothing would ever happen. Wasn't it the same with guys like MTM or DMTM ?


Ben, am I right to think that you want to work for the game in a more positive and constructed way instead of fighting all the time to find a promo card, a league kit, the date of a main event, a basic information, ... ?
That's maybe a difference with Profs and MP's in the USA. They may put their energy in something positive, they don't have to put it in attempts to correct things that have been done wrong, or not done at all, by other people ;)

I'm sure PUI know what happened with Wizards, in and outside the USA. And I'm sure they're not stupid ;)
In addition to that, they're working on Pokemon, not on Magic and after that on Pokemon :p

[Prof Donphan]

I would tell my little experience in Italy.
Nintendo has announced the New Media as a partner in Italy.
I've sended an email to New Media about Tournaments and League.
The New Media courtesly answered that is only a distributor and don't know "who" will support the organized play.
The organized play will be supported from January 2004 (unknown subject) when the new sets RS & Sandstorm will be translated in Italian language!!!!!
Delay, delay, and after.... delay....

[Michel]

Your post confirm what I said about distributors, Prof Donphan.

"I may assure you that it was really easier to give a call to Peter who worked 10 miles away from my home, go to see him and ask what I needed instead of trying to contact someone who, most of the time, doesn't know what you're talking about, needs info from Wizards, and gives you an answer if he doesn't forget."

Obviously, the Italian distributor hasn't got all the information, or you've been in touch with the wrong person.

I was talking about distributors working in harmony under the leadership of PUI's Director of international OP. That's an example that shows why it has to be done. We must give time to PUI and not ask them now something we've never known with Wizards in some countries ;)

Where does the info about January 2004 come from Prof Donphan ? Is that official or is that a rumor ?
If it is true, we'll be unfortunately in the same direction as we were with Wizards ... various OP timings according to the countries. Or the whole continent will start in Jan 2004 ?

Translations ? :lol: :D :lol: :D :lol:
I've always wondered why some countries need translated cards. Very expensive for Wizards and now for Nintendo, limited markets, long delays in set releases, translations errors, ... These arguments are not only mine, but were shared by some of the WotC staff.

Are kids in Italy, and in the other countries where the sets are translated in local language, more stupid than the kids in Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Czech rep, Portugal, Belgium, Russia, Poland, ... who play with cards in English ?
Is my daughter, like many other kids, a genius because she speaks French but won international tournaments with English cards when she was 10 ?

I invite you to come and judge tournaments in places where players play with cards in English and in local languages ;)
Some sets have been translated in French, and when a kid asks you what's the second attack of Farfuret or the power of Roigada, try to remember that it's Sneasel's Beat up and Slowking's power !
One card is ok, but 10 players with decks of mixed English and French cards is not always easy to follow :p
And to these 10 players, you have to add Jean Marc Schosse who plays a Gatr deck with 60 Japanese cards he swapped in Hawaii !!!

OK, I'm talking here about the players, and the players are not the biggest part of the Pokemon cards buyers. The justification of the translations is probably in the other part of the market and in the fact that GBA games have translated Pokemon names. But OP is for players, right ?

I've talked different times about this with WotC. My proposal was (too ?) simple : instead of printing translated cards, release a spoiler with the text of each card in English and in local language.
These spoilers could be distributed to the shops, leagues, league players, could be available on the web, ...
Less expensive, available for everybody, quickly distributed, sets released without delay, ...
Who could do these spoilers ? Profs and MP's who know the game, the cards, the rules, ... and who have a perfect knowledge of the local language.

One example about translated cards ? I've translated the WotC Prof test from English to French (never been on the web BTW). How do you translate question about cards, attacks or powers coming from sets that have never been translated ? Gym H and C have never been translated in French. Do you think French speaking players didn't play Rocket Zapdos in their 'Farfuret' deck ? But you may try to translate all the questions about Brock's Ninetales ? :p

[pokeprofRaymond]

If the others have delays then we had trouble opening OP. When Neutral Grounds was chosen to handle the OP for Pokemon TCG, we were proud because they made Star wars, Legend of the Five Rings and other hobby games popular for years. From the players of Pokemon, support is not lost, many got frustrated because we naver had a tournament from our existing distributor for a long time and that what the players want. ;)

The other problem is they cannot open the OP yet for them it is because they waiting for the BZ league to end here from the previous organizer, which is targeted to be January next year. The team to handle the game here in Manila wants a smooth transition and in our part we are informing the "old" players and the newbies about the game transferring to another play area which has been known (Neutral Grounds) to handle hobby games very well as it comes to player info and organization (14 years I believe).

I have fears on the transition on how the players who have grown with the store feel about the game. But still we must continue as we did the previous distributor. Who knows, we might see the game live on its own (Just a thought)!!!! :cool:

[NoPoke]

Dont kid yourselves people.. Pokemon OP is dying outside the USA. Nintendo had a chance to show us that they cared but they aren't taking it.

Just look at the number of posts in the tournament forum on places to play and new leagues starting. ALL USA guys. Note that this is occuring ahead of the officially released information because many in the USA have an inside track to PUIs plans. However everyone else has to wait!


Pre-release tournaments.. card availability.. its ALL USA.
PUI think that they can wash there hands of earlier promisses by sticking up a list of distributors. Distributors who know NOTHING and are having enough trouble just getting hold of the cards.

No, I hoped for different from PUI. We were told it would be different. But it isn't.

League kits over produced - but can't be sent outside the USA.

Promo cards - USA distribution only.

Consultation on rulings - USA ONLY

Inside track on PUI - USA only

Sanctioning - USA only

League Locator - USA only

Prof List - USA centric...you can get a non USA address in but only by ignoring all the fields!

Consultation on Floor rules - USA only

PREMIERE EVENT ORGANISERS - another USA ONLY

NEW SOFTWARE - USA ONLY.

*shakes head*

Would it have been hard for PUI to send over some promos? Arrange ONE pre-release outisde the USA? No of course it wouldn't. So why hasn't it happened?

Well in big business you get what you measure.. and my guess is that the guys at PUI aren't being measured against anything but delivery within the USA. Untill the rest of the world gets onto their list of Measured Job Targets its back to excuses and occasional scraps from the table.

Don't be fooled by any smokescreen of words..its delivery that counts. So far there has been ZERO delivery of OP outside the USA.

[in case you think that the list of distributors helps..it could but sadly it doesn't, the UK distributor is convinced that they are out of the loop and OP is to be via a third party. Now just who told them that you may ask? Ask Michel about the Belgian distributor? The Austrailian distributor similarly knows nothing about OP. Same for Italy ]

[Tego]

A few weeks ago, I had hope. Reading this topic makes me more and more sad. ._.

[NoPoke]

Don't blame the Topic Tego.... I wouldn't even suggest that blame or fault lies elsewhere. Rather think of the topic as a Statement of the current status with predictions for what might happen if nothing changes and what could happen if things do change. The topic is also trying to find out what is ACTUALLY happening outside the USA.

Its going to be hard to sink lower than where we currently are in the UK...UP and sideways are all that is left. Pity about SIDEWAYS :(

[Michel]

Sad Tego ? Why ? :confused:

When I read this topic, I'm more and more convinced of people's will to do something great for the game, the players, the kids, the community.

I read a message that sounds like 'Hey, we're here, don't forget us, we want to do our best for the game, please give us the same opportunities as in the USA'.

Sure there is sometimes frustration, impatience or irritation. We've probably thought that Nintendo/PUI would be a sort of god that could make miracles.
It's not the case, they need time too to organize OP in Europe, to put all the pieces together.
We have to wait while things are moving faster in the USA. And old memories are coming back, sets released really later than in the USA, promos and league kits never delivered, information not given, ...
I think that people don't want to live what they've lived the last months anymore, they want to go forward, to do something positive and constructive instead of spending a lot of times trying to find things that should have been normally given (infos, kits, ...).

I think we now know two things : we'll not have OP as soon as we hoped, and PUI is working on it.
The childbirth takes longer than most of us thought or hoped, and we're impatient to see the baby. But if the baby is as nice as the US one, and if he grows up without difficulties, it's probably worth waiting a little bit more :)

[NoPoke]

Please Not another offspring

But a few promo cards? that isn't much to ask. Is it?

[Prof Donphan]

[QUOTE=Michel]

Obviously, the Italian distributor hasn't got all the information, or you've been in touch with the wrong person.

Yes...

Where does the info about January 2004 come from Prof Donphan ? Is that official or is that a rumor ?

They answered that from 1.1.2004 a subject named "Nexusgame", (in Italy supports the organized play "Lords of the rings TCG")
will start, probably, for official Tournaments.
I've sended an email to "Nexusgame" and I'm waiting for a reply.
I talk with our Master Professor Marcello, you know, that Nexusgame is not a good choice for Italy.
Marcello told me: it would be better that the Italian Professor Community treats directly with USA......



Are kids in Italy, and in the other countries where the sets are translated in local language, more stupid than the kids in Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Poland, Czech rep, Portugal, Belgium, Russia, Poland, ... who play with cards in English ?
Is my daughter, like many other kids, a genius because she speaks French but won international tournaments with English cards when she was 10 ?

Totally with you...
My daughter too, 9 y.o., play with English Cards!
She has got 2 RS box and she is waiting for a Sandstorm Box and not yet translated!!!


OK, I'm talking here about the players, and the players are not the biggest part of the Pokemon cards buyers. The justification of the translations is probably in the other part of the market and in the fact that GBA games have translated Pokemon names. But OP is for players, right ?

Totally with you.. the e-reader for GBA is announced in Italy for November....


I've talked different times about this with WotC. My proposal was (too ?) simple : instead of printing translated cards, release a spoiler with the text of each card in English and in local language.
These spoilers could be distributed to the shops, leagues, league players, could be available on the web, ...
Less expensive, available for everybody, quickly distributed, sets released without delay, ...
Who could do these spoilers ? Profs and MP's who know the game, the cards, the rules, ... and who have a perfect knowledge of the local language.

Totally with you... but a few business for who will translate and print the new cards...............

[Michel]

I was not talking about a new Baby Cleffa, but you may ask to Faisal what's the most difficult to have, baby Cleffa or Pokemon promos :lol:

Prof Donphan,

First, would you say hello to Marcello when you see him ? ;) I hope I'll meet him, and the other Italian Profs, again in a main event like in Lucca last year.

I could agree with him. From our experience with Wizards in some countries, and with local distributors in other countries, it would be easier and more efficient to have a direct link between the Profs and MP's and the USA.
But we must admit that, for PUI, it wouldn't be possible, except if they have a lot of people to work on that.
In addition to that, shipping costs would be really higher too.

To solve this question (problem), I hope PUI will inform all the distributors, give them info and instructions, and will not allow 'local adaptations' to these instructions in terms of leagues, rules, tournaments, tournaments rules, communication with the community, respect of the players, Prof program, rankings, ...

Translations ? E-reader has not been announced in Belgium ... Do you remember that the release of Expedition was linked to the release of the e-reader in Europe ? :lol:

I'm not sure that translations is such a good economical (different from marketing !) idea for the producers. According to what I've heard (guess where ;) ), it is really expensive to produce cards in local languages because of the translations, prints, ... on a smaller scale than English cards.
Seems to be interesting for the company in terms of marketing, something different.

With what you say, you confirm what many people think ... if you want cards, you find these cards.
Translated cards are another door open to parallel import and grey market. If the sets are released later, some customers (and shops !) will import boxes from the USA. And a lot of players prefer to play with 'original' cards instead of translated cards.
I don't think that someone who has bought US boxes of a set will buy the same cards in local language.
And what's more interesting for a shop than selling something highly desired by the clients but not officially available ? Buy cheaper in the USA, sell at a higher price in your shop ... clients are happy, but they're not alone :D

[Michel]

The website of the Belgian distributor announces that Sandstorm is available NOW ! :clap:

I haven't been to shops today, but usually this is announced when the cards are in the shops working with that distributor.

If I'm right, it is only 7 days after the USA. Never happened !
Next set will be released in Belgium before the USA :lol:

[NoPoke]

USA release was the 17th. Unless you were called Target that is. Still waiting in the UK, Fingers crossed for end of the week. It was announced last monday...but they then had to phone everyone up and tell us it was delayed again.

Michel, Jimmer did say to me that Sandstorm could be available in Europe before the USA. Make of that what you will.

[Rainbowgym]

Prof Donphan.

Meaby you are the person to makes things different in Italy.
For the Netherlands the remaining Profs have put their heads together and made some progress.

We decided to translate all the English cards to start with R/S in Dutch. This is a privat initative, not supported by the distibutor. It will take us a lot of time but it's the only way to let OP survive overhere.
The translations will be put on a real up-to-date Pokemon website (also a privat one) but it's one who's getting 10,000 visits a day!!!!!
We don't need the cards printed in our local language, we just teach out kids to read English and by making the translations the game will be more open for new players and can work as backup for older players.
I also made a request to the Compendium people if i'm allowed to translate the compendium EX and asked if they will mail me future changes.

This all will take a lot of time and dedication to our game, but we will do it.
Try to talk to your OP distributor, try to find people to help with proper translations. Let your distributor go with that plan to PUI.
If they are good salesmen they will listen and count out that (meaby by paying) someone to make proper translations (some profs) and put that on a website, while they can sell the English version of the cards (much earlier and black out grey market).
For OP this could even mean you can be (almost) simular to the US leagues.

Overhere we are going to try to let that first leaguekit (R/S) and the second (announced for oct1) to get in one turn. Then we really can catch up with the USA. Must be possible but like everyone in Europe knows it takes much time/energy to let all of this happen.

Another option is go you own way (without the promo's) and introduce the English cards in your league. Grey import is not illegal and i know it's already very big in Italy. If they don't want to listen let them feel it.
I can assure you that someday they will awake, find out they are not having a nightmare but losing costumer very very quick.
Overhere it even resulted in lowering the price for a boosterbox.

I will inform you all overhere if i know more about OP in my country.

[Tego]

Sorry for my last reply. I just became sad by reading through the last pages of the topic and seeing that all hope got lower and lower and there was no news of Sanstorm, which I all the time believed would be released in Europe in September. Before October, I was sure.

But seeing now how positive you guys still are, and that the spirit is as high as always, makes me happy. :D

Michel, the news of Sandstorm in Belgium is GREAT! And Rainbowgym, that's a fantastic initiative, and wonderful volunteer work for your country's players. ^.^

My fellow European players continue to make me proud. That's Team Europe, folks. Thank you.

[Tego]

The childbirth takes longer than most of us thought or hoped, and we're impatient to see the baby. But if the baby is as nice as the US one, and if he grows up without difficulties, it's probably worth waiting a little bit more :)

Michel, you and your pregnancies. First you were pregnant with Team Belgium, now this. :lol:

[Prof Donphan]

Rainbowgym.
Thanks for your suggestion.
I think that the language cards is not a problem for us.
Many of kids in my League know English Cards and, as you told me, we are teaching every single new card. For example, in Italy there is only the Expedition set in local language. We have played, and play now, with Aquapolis, Skyridge and EXRS English cards.
The real problem is how to start League and Tournaments and how got the new two kits....
We run "old League" in a store supported by Wizards Italy.....
but now there's not a "correspondant" of Nintendo/PUI/and so on....
So we are in stall!!!!!
From one side there are professor an players that "push" for starting organized Play. From the other side there are distributor and stores who does nothing without official news!!!!
So, now we think to treat directly with USA for support prize (kit) hoping that stores understand what's matter....

Bye

[Rainbowgym]

Newmediaonline shoot be the one to talk to for Italy, according to the info on Nintendo's website.

But first you have to find fellow profs/gymleaders to make a plan how you like to have OP in your country.
That's what we did, we are not asking anymore to the distributor we are going to tell them what to do.

It's a change which i can't tell if it's good for OP, but it's always better than the past situation.

[ukpokemonpro]

Unfortunately Rainbowgym we have a plan to support OP, but PUI will not buy into us... we have approached the distributors and they know nothing about OP ... indeed one of the distributors who are advertised on the Nintendo website said we don't deal with members of the public only trade.. trade customers only!

Add to that the frustration of WotC UK confirming that they may now be unable to send us the league kits we should have got in June and July because Nintendo/PUI say they can't and yet Nintendo PUI are telling us they can't send us stuff because WotC are still involved!

Madness all round...

So to summarise, PUI are in fact PU (no International about it), Distributors don't know squat and some don't want to know, but we will have International OP from October... NEXT WEEK!

Wow .. :(

[Prof Donphan]

Ukpokemonpro has described exactly all that happens now in Italy.
Italy and Uk can shake their hands!!!!!!!

Bye

[NoPoke]

Does that mean I get to play 'Good Cop' for a while now Ben?

*scratches head*...???? ... *thinks*...*scratches head again*

*crosses fingers* hoping for inspiration for a 'good cop' post :( :( :o

[Kyfogre22]

aight, while im sure europe is having alot of problems with pokemon cards, but canada is too. We JUST got ru/sa EX, theres no prerelease tournaments at all, and theres no tournaments in general really! I think Nintendo is not just ignoring Europe, but they are ignoring any area that doesn't gross more than $1B a year. Nintendo, seriously. Don't be so narrow minded.

Nick

[NoPoke]

Hmm something wrong with your bit of canada... I got my ruby and saphire from Canada months ago.

Toronto FWIW. Even with sea freight and customs clearance it still arrived weeks before the official UK product.

[Kyfogre22]

seriously? well, i actually travelled around ontario and quebec to track down the Ru/Sa sets on one of my recent trips back (I am currently taking residence in Japan until the pokemon situation gets better in the great white north) and i couldn't find any... this was august, and my friend called yesterday to say he got some packs, but in any case, there is still my beef with the SERIOUS lack of tournaments.

[ranmasaotomes]

Ok then. This thread was originally about which Pokemon leagues were still available outside the US. Instead it has become a Wizards/Nintendo Bashing ground.

I agree that it it taking far too long for Pokemon USA to start distributing the EX card sets and when they are planning on releasing them here in Australia. We are getting two sets at once, (Ruby Saphire and Sandstorm) To me this is ludicrous and needs some heavy thinking on nintendos Part.

I am with GuardianTIM with the matter that we can not get any information from Nintendo Australia. As a gum leader myself, I have called up nintendo and they did not even know that there was an EX game out there (At least their customer service anyway)

My Point: Currnetly in Australia... Or at least South Australia, There still is a league. We are trying to keep people happy and with this it is getting harder and harder to do if we don't get the support.

Hopefully Pokemon USA will read these posts and realise that there still is a fan base around the world and it might get lost if they act too slowly.

[ukpokemonpro]

ranmasaotomes

You have summed up the position of the UK leagues perfectly we are trying to keep people happy and it is getting harder and harder with no support from PUI and Nintendo.

Local offices are GBA centred and do not know that a Pokemon TCG exists and local distributors are not much better.

Everyday we are trawling eBay for prize support and every week we look for news from PUI that includes us but it is not forthcoming:

Looking at the League situation as I understand it at the moment we have in the UK and Australia:

Rainham, Kent at the Gamers Guild (www.gamers-guild.co.uk)

Slough, Berks 10am - 1pm Every Sunday, Top Floor, Burger King, High Street SLOUGH

Oxford Pokémon League

Blidworth Pokémon League

Oasis Gym Pokémon League

Crawley Pokémon League

Suffolk Sci-Fi and Fantasy Pokémon League

The Pit: Pokémon League

Replay Games Pokémon League

Marquee Models - Harlow Pokémon League

Battlenet Battlezone - Norfolk Pokémon League
Tuesday evenings, 2a Queens Road, Norwich

Millenium Café - London, Homsey Road (just off Seven Sisters Rd), Holloway London. Every Saturday from 1:30 pm till around 6pm.

Scottish Pokemon - Borders Books & Music Buchanan Street Glasgow every Saturday 10.00am-1.00pm

Fishermans Wharf Market Cards. In the Fishermans Wharf Markets. Port Adelaide In Adelaide, South Australia

See the list with telephone numbers at http://www.members.aol.com/hairyclefairy/leagues/leagues.htm

Thanks to Freddy K for maintaining the page.

So how about we list all the other Non-US sites so there is a list that players can refer to as the pokemon-tcg site does not show anything outside the US except the dimly aware distributors.

First non- uk site listed :

Fishermans Wharf Market Cards. In the Fishermans Wharf Markets. Port Adelaide In Adelaide, South Australia

[ranmasaotomes]

Thanks. UKpokemonpro

I agree that its the customers of the leagues also customers or other products around the world find that we don not get things quickly. But instead of harping on and turning this in to a bashing thread. I will assist in helping people locate the various leagues around the world (Well at least *** one to the list)

Fishermans Wharf Market Cards. In the Fishermans Wharf Markets. Port Adelaide In Adelaide, South Australia.

Fortunatly I have started there as a gum leader and so get a little access to some info that my boss can get

Also. In case anyone is interested. Look at the Australian distributers web site for australia. I think the last time it was updated was 2001 when the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TCG was released. No mention of Pokemon TCG at all.

[Rainbowgym]

Tomorrow we have our meeting with the distributor, i don't have much hope because they are to selfish to admit that they don't have knowledge.

But if Europe has to be under a brainless regime of not involved, nitwits of OP distributors. Then it's time to make our own plans and create our own OP.

Don't forget the few profs left in the different countries are the only ones who really have knowledge about OP, rules etc.
Your distributor needs you to promote the game by playing it, explaining rules. Take advantage of this because i expect that one of these days they will approach those profs of the mailinglist on -tcg.com

If that situation appears contact between European profs will be more important than ever.

[Skywolf1]

Hello Everyone,

For those of you that have been on this forum a while, you know who I am, and what I have tried, and been somewhat successful at, with WotC with regards to OP and International support, and I am committed to making sure that PUI/TPC DOES know and understand that there is an international player base for this game, and that something must be done to address these issues, as from what I am hearing and understanding, is that current distributors KNOW NOTHING of the new Pokemon TCG out there, and this to me is not going to bode very well for this game's future successess as an INTERNATIONAL tcg, like TPC/PUI envisions.

I do not work for Nintendo, nor do I hold any official capacity at PUI or TPC. HOWEVER, I do have contacts at PUI, that tell me they want this game to be a world wide game.

What I will do, is forward this post on to the director of OP at PUI, and hopefully he can offer his insights as to the status of International distributors

Take Care,

Marsh Schneidau
(aka Skywolf1)

[Rainbowgym]

Skywolf i have seen the things you did for this game.
If you have sources or anything at TPC there is only one thing Europe needs the most.

PUI should tell the distributors which are going to the European OP convention (yes there is one coming) to go around the table with the remaining Profs in their country en listen to them, not only listen but let those profs arrange OP in their country.

That distributors don't know anything about the new TCG is their own mistake, they are only interested in selling much boosterboxes and that's it.
Now they are in pain because they have to go to an meeting and talk about something they ignored for over the last year.
Yes i'm talking about ignoring the players of this game.

If they had listened to most profs posting on this board than there could be a smoot turn over to TPC new tcg without any wrinkles.

But by ignoring people with the knowlegde, giving gymleaders no change they created their own .....

If all the OP distributor had one person (payed or hired by them) to arrange OP everything could be arranged in no time.

All i can see, bad luck for them because now you have to bleed for what you have lacked in the past.

[djcati]

"Replay Games Pokémon League"
*muttermutter*
I keep seeing this listed, and I'm telling you, it hasn't run since April last year (2002). I think they must order the kits and just make up numbers for reports, because they do have all the latest promos, yet every time I phone up, it's "No, sorry, we don't run that anymore, but there's some YGO players..."
>_<

I don't know. That's pretty much my response to all this now, I don't know. (that and half this topic seems to be blocked by the school server, heh)
I'm gonna see how many people turn up to my club after the half term (and how many of those aren't just there to borrow my cards and play Harry Potter ^^; ), see if it's worth me actually getting seriously involved in any of this.
Can't say it looks good though, not at all...

[Skywolf1]

Hello Team International: (I rather like the sound of that. :D)

I hear your concerns and I have forwarded them on to the person(s) that will be able to bring about change here soon.

So, I am working for all of you. Because, as far as I am concerned, the International Pokemon community is JUST AS important as the North American Community.

If I receive any new information, I will be sure to pass it on.

Take Care,

Skywolf1

[Marcello-Milord]

Hi everyone :)
I missed the last 2 months of discussions 'cause I hadn't my Internet ç_ç
Now that I'm back, my 2 cents

As I talked with Prof Donphan, the italian situation for OP is approximately the same for every European country: distributors know NOTHING about OP, and (for us) the company distributor indicated to be the OP responsibles, don't answer.

Out idea was to manage directly the OP thing, but - as Michel said (Hi Michel ^^) - PUI surely can't (and don't want) accept a thing like that cause they have to work with companies: it's always a money affair :(

The new idea is really simple.
The distributor announced an italian release for EX: R/S and Sandstorm for January 2004. Now, for OP is really useful to have out a local language release of the product, or an english release is ok?

For players, I think (and I know I'm right) english product is enough. It would really nice if local OP starts with an anticipated english language release of the above sets - we do know that distributors already have them. Why PUI waits for local language release?

It's the same trouble of the Ruby/Sapphire videogame release. When local language relase was announced, misteriously ALL english copies from european stores have disappeared, and stores werent' able anymore to order import copies of the games.
NOA wanted to have money from local players, that want to play games in local language - appeal with young players is more simple, not anyone knows english, right?

I think the same thing happens with TCG. PUI wants young players to buy cards that they UNDERSTAND, cause most kids only collect cards, without playing (so the "translation booklet" is useless).

But, are we able to find a way to accord with PUI about an anticipated OP start?
I tink I'm the only MP in Italy who has ordered BZ kits, and I have many kits left (waiting for them cause I'm moving from Sardinia to Milan). But Professors are not everywhere, and many many stores are losing interest in Pokémon TCG OP.

If a regular OP activity starts now, it is more simple for stores to announce that to players, and there are many chances for players to re-gain interest in the game.

Personally, I'm still running a League in Milan (there are only 2 Leagues that I know, last year there were at least 5 of them).

So my proposal to PUI is: pre-release of the product in english (as they announced, but nothing happened), and start of OP in Europe. Then, in January 2004, they can release a local language of the sets. Obiouvsly, full support from professors and MPs.

[Kyfogre22]

Skywolf:

You mentioned that the commite of the trading game for North America was just important as the international one. Well Where is the evidence? I don't think nintendo is caring about either, as even Canada (supposedly covered by the North American Pokemon Commite) has little tournaments.

The international problems are everywhere too; nintendo is not focusing enough on other parts of the world besides USA. Instead of just TELLING us they care, I think Nintndo should actually take some action into making sure we get OP internationally.

Thanks for your time.

[ranmasaotomes]

I agree. I have been emailing my own distributers about getting the league back in Australia. So far we still only have whats left of the Wizzards leagues. For all of you lucky places that actually GOT a battlezone... Congratulations, we are still waiting (and it has been confirmed that we are never getting them) The last 2 seasons for out own league. You Know the Water and Phykick Season.

Maybe we are being too harsh on both Wizards and Nintendo, they are only starting out in this field and I can see that there is teething problems for them. As long as it comes out soon. (Before the end of the year) Then I believe everyone will be happy.

I am not here to do company bashing. I am here because I love the game and hope that the support that has been in the past will continue in to the future.

[ukpokemonpro]

Okay so the list of leagues I have active outside the US running with NO PUI support so far is:

Rainham, Kent at the Gamers Guild (www.gamers-guild.co.uk)

Slough, Berks 10am - 1pm Every Sunday, Top Floor, Burger King, High Street SLOUGH

Oxford Pokémon League

Blidworth Pokémon League

Oasis Gym Pokémon League

Crawley Pokémon League

Suffolk Sci-Fi and Fantasy Pokémon League

The Pit: Pokémon League

Marquee Models - Harlow Pokémon League

Battlenet Battlezone - Norfolk Pokémon League
Tuesday evenings, 2a Queens Road, Norwich

Millenium Café - London, Homsey Road (just off Seven Sisters Rd), Holloway London. Every Saturday from 1:30 pm till around 6pm.

Scottish Pokemon - Borders Books & Music Buchanan Street Glasgow every Saturday 10.00am- 1.00pm

Fishermans Wharf Market Cards. In the Fishermans Wharf Markets. Port Adelaide In Adelaide, South Australia

Does anyone have anymore? Rainbowgym can we have some details on the leagues you and henna are involved with?

We are seriously considering an alternate non-PUI OP organisation at the moment due to the total lack of support shown so far. Promises are one thing but let us not forget that all we have been promised has not been delivered! OP in October is a pipedream for us and the PUI disclaimer of not everything will be available to you in your country makes me very suspicious.... Certainly next few weeks is not a tight deadline and sounds like it is very likely to slip...

The UK is investigating alternate tourney scoring programmes and ranking systems.. if PUI will not do it we will do it ourselves...

In the meantime lets advertise our leagues here and ensure people know we exist...

[GuardianTIM]

Just skimming the Forums, and after reading these few pages, I've noticed that people have mentioned delays coz of Translation, etc.
However, there has been at least one person from Canada, a few more people from England, and at least 2 people from Australia (Ranma and Myself, unless I missed anyone else) who have had no luck with getting cards out to their respective countries (and let's not forget all the Europeans and people from other parts of the world as well).

Now if it Translation truly is part of the delay, I'd hope that the 3 other Major English-Speaking countries (Canada, England and Australia) would surely have no problem with card distribution - we _can_ read American quite easily, you know... Even if they say Color instead of Colour, we can cope with that.


It's sad that where I live, the card place at the Fishermans Wharf Markets (as mentioned above) is pretty much one of the few (if not only) places that still gets new sets. Kollectable Kaos stopped after Neo because people were tired of not being able to get recent releases, and the store at the Brickworks markets has kept on a bit after that, and I don't know about the RuSa set as I've not been there for a couple of weeks.

Good news, however - 'Pokemon 4 Ever' (4th movie) will be released on DVD in about 2 weeks. Of course, it never came into Cinemas out here, and my group of friends have seen both the 4th and 5th movies already, but at least it's a start, albeit an incredibly late one.


As I'm sure we'll all agree, I hope that something is done about these problems with distribution in ALL our respective countries - the sooner, the better.

[ranmasaotomes]

Ok guys.

I don't know if it will do anythin but I have e-mailed the international pokemon section of the site with a link to this thread. Hopefully they will look at this and notice what we are trying to accomplish with this. Perhaps if you know of the distributers you could also forward a link of this thread to them.

I like all of you wish for the league to be reborn. Pokemon has become more of a cult than a fad. Pokemon is here to stay. Just like Magic or even Warhammer, Pokemon has become something that will last the test of time.

Again, hopefully Nintendo or Pokemon USA will read this and perhalps they will help us along with getting OUR leagues started.

[pokeprofRaymond]

Ok guys.

I don't know if it will do anythin but I have e-mailed the international pokemon section of the site with a link to this thread. Hopefully they will look at this and notice what we are trying to accomplish with this. Perhaps if you know of the distributers you could also forward a link of this thread to them.

I like all of you wish for the league to be reborn. Pokemon has become more of a cult than a fad. Pokemon is here to stay. Just like Magic or even Warhammer, Pokemon has become something that will last the test of time.

Again, hopefully Nintendo or Pokemon USA will read this and perhalps they will help us along with getting OUR leagues started.

Well the cult thing is not what I think of the TCG's. But I agree about you of Magic and Warhammer, will have the same fate as Pokemon (action speaks louder than words as I say). Magic had gone through the rough roads before it could reach this far. :cool:

About the distribution of the cards. Am I the only Asian in the world who is eyeing on the game??? Hopefully not. In my case here at home the cards are distributed smoothly here and the new store scheduled orgainize play next year it is because they are waiting for the previous distributor to finish Battlezone. We had coordination with that store during the First Philippine Games and Collectable Convention (Gamecon). I would admit even here like anywhere else we are in limbo but we made continuity as our "weapon" not to drift away for good.

Oh my.... my eyes are rolling!!!! :rolleyes:

[Kyfogre22]

That link is baloney. All it is is pipe dreams and some guy telling us we are going to get a league. Translation delays are NOT the problem. Like guardianTM said, we can read english quite well even if you do spell certian words differently.

True, Nintendo is trying hard, but clearly, not hard enough. Besides USA and Japan, no country has gotten the necissary support they needed to establish Organised Play.

I think that Pokemon has the same potential as M:TG but nintendo really needs to try harder to bring the joy of Pokemon OP internationally.

[NoPoke]

PUI will only be supporting USA in the future...

[Marcello-Milord]

The more that I read this thread, the more I ask to myself... Why all this complaining before we know anything?!?

Until now, the ONLY thing Nintendo have been announced but haven't been realizes is the "international english product release" scheduled for the en of August. It's a shame, imported Pokémon-e cards are selling really good down there. And the product is from USA, not in italian :p

But, about OP organization... MTJimmer said that some announcements will be made in a few weeks... Then, why keeping this hate againts Nintendo/PUI?
Why not waiting for these announcements?

Pokémon USA, Inc. is committed to coordinate the OP for the whole world.

They have no interest in losing players. The only error they are doing is to leave without official support OP in the rest of the world.
But it's not a conspiracy against Europe, or Australia, or even Asia!

Nintendo is in charge of this game from July. As you see, it's really difficult to them to manage the OP thing for USA (look at the wrong jumbo cards for Season 2 League...).
And remember also these last months, when MTM decided to give prize support for international FATs... It was not so simple, and the big amount of delays (especially for our UK friends, unfortunately) was due to a lack of time, 'cause MTM was busy with 1000 other issues, and some troubles are always on the door.
Do you really think that for Jimmer & co. it's simple to manage directly the whole World OP organization?
They need the support of local companies, especially for distributing product.
If PUI starts to send directly to UK, Italy, France, Belgium, Australia, Holland, Sweden, China, etc. the League/Ladder packs, not only they will spend too much on sending (and these moneys will be subtracted for the quality of cards...), but they'll make a lot of errors, and then everyone will be there to complain again "PUI make a lot of errors, we are tired of that" etc.

Keep your local Leagues, play, support as you can OP in your city, and wait for OP starts in a few months... or in a few weeks? We'll see.

[NoPoke]

Its not hate...

PUI made a string of promises to the International Community...
They have not delivered on the majority of them.

there has been a great deal of retraction by PUI on their International Commitments.

So much so that PUI is NOW USA ONLY.

This is much as we predicted. But it seems that shooting the messenger when the news is unpalatable remains common practice.


PUI are handing all resonsibility over to a NEW team. It took PUI several months to get going. So how long will it take this new team to get going. How big is the International team? Will it be as well funded as its USA counterpart? Will the PUI website retain its USA bias?

The rumor mill has it that a few league kits are being delived to Europe this week. Anyone like to guess as to how many we might be getting? My top estimate is 20ish kits for the WHOLE OF EUROPE. One kit per distributor!

I remain concerned as to the level of comitment that we will receive from distributors. Some will be more committed to OP than others, as was the case in the past under WotC. But while I saw NO REASON WHATSOEVER WHY PUI COULDN"T SEND OUT A HANDFULL OF PROMOS to the currently active leagues, I never proposed this as a final model for delivery of OP. Successfull delivery of OP requires successfull distribution of the materials.

My position remains much as it has been for the past years..

Where's the Beef

[ranmasaotomes]

Ok fellows hows this...

On a recent phone call to Nintendo Australia at their service center I asked about the pokemon Card game. Their response was that they do not distribute the card game and go to out local supplier (Croftminster) in which I was given a phone number that was laying around the office.

I then asked about the Pokemon EX and Pokemon Battle-E cards (We never go them here in australia... At all, not even with the pokemon Ru/Sa game) and they asked "What is Pokemon EX and the Battle-E cards"

It appears to me that reguarding this issue. Nintendo's Left and doesn't know what its right hand is doing. I think for all of our sakes that something is done about this.

As stated earlier in the thread. I am not here to bash the companies. I am here because of loving the card game. I honestly hope that all parties get their act together and make this a world wide thing as soon as possible. This is getting too far beyond a joke.

I hope that OP happens in all of our countries, and I hope that this happens so that the game we all love doesn't end up dieing a slow painful death.

[Skywolf1]

Hello Everyone:

Yesterday, I phoned Nintendo, and I made some inquiries. The primary reason for my call to them yesterday was to ascertain the name of the NEWLY appointed International OP manager for the Pokemon TCG.

Because I am not aware whether this information is public yet, I will not post it here to the forum. However, I don't see any harm with providing the information to our International Contingent through "Private Messages".

So, for those of you that are interested, please PRIVATE MESSAGE me, and I will provide you the information.

Take Care,

Skywolf1

[Professor Dav]

Its not hate...

PUI made a string of promises to the International Community...
They have not delivered on the majority of them.

there has been a great deal of retraction by PUI on their International Commitments.

So much so that PUI is NOW USA ONLY.

This is much as we predicted. But it seems that shooting the messenger when the news is unpalatable remains common practice.


PUI are handing all resonsibility over to a NEW team. It took PUI several months to get going. So how long will it take this new team to get going. How big is the International team? Will it be as well funded as its USA counterpart? Will the PUI website retain its USA bias?

The rumor mill has it that a few league kits are being delived to Europe this week. Anyone like to guess as to how many we might be getting? My top estimate is 20ish kits for the WHOLE OF EUROPE. One kit per distributor!

I remain concerned as to the level of comitment that we will receive from distributors. Some will be more committed to OP than others, as was the case in the past under WotC. But while I saw NO REASON WHATSOEVER WHY PUI COULDN"T SEND OUT A HANDFULL OF PROMOS to the currently active leagues, I never proposed this as a final model for delivery of OP. Successfull delivery of OP requires successfull distribution of the materials.

My position remains much as it has been for the past years..

Where's the Beef

Actually, it's about 30 built kits that they took with thier luggage.

The rest of the materials from those kits are being handed over to the international team for delivery to the European and international markets so that they can produce localized versions of the league kits based from our materials. The same will be true of our season two materials, and hopefully, by season three or four, we'll be running the seasons concurrently with all international markets and the US.

If you'd like more information regarding the rollout of leagues and tournaments in Europe and the rest of the world, I highly encourage you to email international@pokemon-tcg.com.


Prof. Dav

[Tego]

Good news, Prof Dav. So we can expect localized versions of League kits soon?

[Marcello-Milord]

Hopefully yes...
If I understood correctly, localized kits are produced in the related country. So distribution and prduction are totally up to the local distributors/responsibles.

It will make things more difficult, and more different from country to country, but at least we know that OP is coming soon.

[Tego]

I think this just means that each country will have their own local language translation of the League material, just like League Year One. Norway had Norwegian badge books for Year One, nothing has ever been printed in Norwegian since.

[PokePop]

Dave: I added a Pokemon USA Icon to your profile to make it clear that you are speaking officially.

[Rainbowgym]

This message of Prof Dave is in contradiction with the info we got from out National Distributor, so who must i believe.
For a fact our distributor was not allowed to print any promotional material like windowclings to promote the R/S pokemoncards. There were some other things which i'm not allowed to publish which are in total opposit what the "official" source is saying.

O yes and mailing that emailadress will not give you any help, your email is forwarded to your national distributor, who knows nothing at this time and round is the circle, no answers more questions.

My eyes are focused is on the European OP convention tomorrow in Spain. Meaby some answers are given there. Beware because those answers/OP start have to be established by your National distributor. And from what if have heard from sources all around Europe that most distributor don't have a clue how much is involved by really running sanctioned OP events. (read: you can learn pokémon tcg in 1 hour and start a league in 2 hours and run/judge events in 3 hours)
And once and for all we don't need promocards in our national language, the English ones are fine for all dedicated players around the world. And because they are meant for those players there is no need for any delay to get them.
The only translation needed ( i think) is the guideline about how to run a league and some of the

[NoPoke]

Happy to be wrong about the number of league kits.. 30 kits for all Europe is much better than 20ish.

[PokePop]

This message of Prof Dave is in contradiction with the info we got from out National Distributor, so who must i believe.
For a fact our distributor was not allowed to print any promotional material like windowclings to promote the R/S pokemoncards. There were some other things which i'm not allowed to publish which are in total opposit what the "official" source is saying.



I said official, not accurate. :p

[Professor Dav]

Good news, Prof Dav. So we can expect localized versions of League kits soon?

I hope so. We're going to distribute the remaining materials over to the international team as soon as they return, and it'll be in the hands of the Int'l OP director, to make sure the stuff is sent out and that the distributors, or strategic partners, are on top of getting the localizations done.

Of course, we are also sending along NON localized marketing items, such as posters and window clings, that will be usable as is by our partners, that they may choose not to use since they're in English.

Guys, I know you're frustrated, but we ARE trying to address everyone's wants and needs regarding Pokemon OP and product.

Thanks,

Prof. Dav

[ukpokemonpro]

Dave I hope this means we at last confirm that the distributors present at Barcelona are the ones that will be delivering OP for Europe ... and that for the UK that means :

Hobby Games and Esdevium

Certainly we plan to offer both as much help as possible in making their involvement a success and growing the game. Here's hoping the kits find it to the leagues and not onto eBay ...

[Professor Dav]

This message of Prof Dave is in contradiction with the info we got from out National Distributor, so who must i believe.
For a fact our distributor was not allowed to print any promotional material like windowclings to promote the R/S pokemoncards. There were some other things which i'm not allowed to publish which are in total opposit what the "official" source is saying.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I never said that distributors were going to print anything, other than localized materials for kits. The licensing restrictions on the Pokemon brand are very tight, and it makes far more sense for us to provide the already approved materials to them, and allow them to modify them for localization.

Not a word have I said regarding product support, as I don't know a thing about that.


O yes and mailing that emailadress will not give you any help, your email is forwarded to your national distributor, who knows nothing at this time and round is the circle, no answers more questions.

If they are not answering your questions at international, we need to be made aware of this. Organizedplay@pokemon-tcg.com is checked everyday by the OP staff, and we will bug them if they are not answering your questions satisfactorily. However, we will always tell you to email them at the international email address. They are better staffed than they were even two weeks ago, so we should see them becoming more effective as we go forward.


And once and for all we don't need promocards in our national language, the English ones are fine for all dedicated players around the world. And because they are meant for those players there is no need for any delay to get them.
The only translation needed ( i think) is the guideline about how to run a league and some of the

I've said nothing about translated cards. You guys are getting our US printed US language promo cards that we are using here. As I stated MUCH earlier in this thread, I ALWAYS push for consistency among all of our programs, though I don't have the final say.

Thanks,

Prof. Dav

[Michel]

Nice to have the confirmation that things are moving and that we seem to be close to OP in Europe.

I'm still afraid of one thing anyway. Will all the distributors be as positive as in Holland ? Will they be interested, will they involve themselves in POP, will they follow the instructions given by PUI ?

No answer to these questions up to now, and unfortunately I think it will be different from country to country.

[Tego]

It's like I said, things are moving forward and they are trying hard to get International OP going. It just takes time...

[ukpokemonpro]

Okay so US Cards sent to distributors and US posters and that took time why TEGO?

I know as a company man you have to toe the line but we have been screaming for some help for months and what we asked for was some US promo's sent direct to the MPs and now we get US promos sent to distributors to do with as they will...

Still cannot see why there was a delay and still is a delay... in getting support to active leagues, still cannot understand why active leagues are not registered and advertised on Pokemon-TCG site, still cannnot understand why a My Nintendo account is needed to use things like deck builder on the site .. why exclude the rest of the world for a little bit of thought?

And Dave how about answering the questions asked? Certainly we have experienced a lack of response from international OP and that is a reason we have moaned .. but then we also have had a lack of response from yourselves and yet other European Professors have had a response?

Your messages are not coming out to us all at the same time and in the same way :( Do you have a list of Non-US Professors and have you tried emailing them?

How about starting by introducing Jarrod Nack to us all? Certainly we are glad 30 kits are coming over and I for one have briefed the Distributors to grab as many as they can .. it will be interesting to see what comes out of that scramble...perhaps it's how we tell which distributors are commited to OP by how many kits they manage to nab ;)

[ranmasaotomes]

I think what everyone is asking is that we need some way of seeing that there is support coming. The Pokemon-TCG website does cater from some of these by providing an email link but thats all it provides. The only information is that we will know more in the fall and also a link to the distributers.

We would probably like links to the current gyms (leagues) or even recognition that there are leagues outside of the US. Please correct me if I'm wrong guys.

I come on here most days and read what everyone has said, putting my 2 cents in, hopefully with what myself and others have put in, we can get this thread closed and make it so that we all get what we want.

What do we want? Similar if not better organisational leagues and good if not better support from Pokemon - USA.

I'm not critisizing any companies here but we would like to get things as underway as soon as possible.

Like I said before I wouyld like to see a league that is good, if not better than the ones Wizards provided, and I think thats what we all want.

[ukpokemonpro]

What do we want? Similar if not better organisational leagues and good if not better support from Pokemon - USA.
I would go so far as to say whatever leagues are left in the rest of the world have to be better organised than the US otherwise they would not have survived this long with no support.

What I; and I believe the other UK professorsare looking for is, equal access and treatment in terms of leagues listed on the Pokemon-TCG website and access to material and programmes on there.

We want our professors and TO's and Premier Event TOs to be recognised and we want PUI to actual trust us... otherwise there is truely no point in being a professor at all if the company we are supposed to be working with will not list our leagues, support our OP or even include us in the decisions that form the future of the game.

Even stupid little things like the re-setting of the print run for Marill outside the US mean we have no access to free retreat Marill.. that is not an issue until they rule that it is legal in Organised Play. Now those people that grey imported are rewarded and those that did not are slapped in the face...

It's these silly little things that show if a company really are considering those outside the US or not... 30 kits is a start.. not enough of one to even cope with what is left here in the UK alone but it is a start.. please PUI make sure it is not as we fear too little too late :(

[Professor Dav]

Okay so US Cards sent to distributors and US posters and that took time why TEGO?

I know as a company man you have to toe the line but we have been screaming for some help for months and what we asked for was some US promo's sent direct to the MPs and now we get US promos sent to distributors to do with as they will...

Still cannot see why there was a delay and still is a delay... in getting support to active leagues, still cannot understand why active leagues are not registered and advertised on Pokemon-TCG site, still cannnot understand why a My Nintendo account is needed to use things like deck builder on the site .. why exclude the rest of the world for a little bit of thought?

And Dave how about answering the questions asked? Certainly we have experienced a lack of response from international OP and that is a reason we have moaned .. but then we also have had a lack of response from yourselves and yet other European Professors have had a response?

Your messages are not coming out to us all at the same time and in the same way :( Do you have a list of Non-US Professors and have you tried emailing them?

How about starting by introducing Jarrod Nack to us all? Certainly we are glad 30 kits are coming over and I for one have briefed the Distributors to grab as many as they can .. it will be interesting to see what comes out of that scramble...perhaps it's how we tell which distributors are commited to OP by how many kits they manage to nab ;)


All of my communications have been done via THIS board, and mostly in THIS thread. The only other communications that I have personally had with anyone was when they have emailed me or called me. I am not disseminating any information to one person that has not been disseminated on this board.

I felt as though I did in fact answer the questions asked, at least the ones that I was qualified to answer. As mentioned, I am NOT part of the international team. As mentioned, the international team has been greatly understaffed until recently, and have been extremely busy building strategic relationships throughout the rest of the world, which means that the particulars of implementing the tactical portions of OP have lagged behind.

Prof. Dav

[)v(ajin_ipg21]

Prof Dave, WELCOME TO VERY PASSIONATE POKEMON PLAYERS ;)

Guys. Take it easy. FROM HIS VERY BUSY schedule *i imagine* Prof Dave replies.

What still baffles me is the NEED for immediate and OVERNIGHT solutions...
HE PROMISES too much he may let you down.
HE DOES NOT PROMISE enough and he still let's you down.
Scylla and Charybdis.

IMO MTM at times may have said too much too early *and unfortunately HE AND all of us paid a price for that TRUST.*

The cogs are moving along... let's KEEP Prof Dave and not chase him away... they are listening...

[ukpokemonpro]

What still baffles me is the NEED for immediate and OVERNIGHT solutions
5 MONTHS NO SUPPORT ... enough said :nonono:

[NoPoke]

Greatly Understaffed! That I can believe LOL

Dave. We will never understand why PUI were unable to send us some promos ages ago. As of today, we still don't have any promos. If there was a will then a way would have been found.

I hope things improve in the future but PUI/Nintendo must realise that they have already sown the seeds of mistrust in the international community. Such a shame.

[)v(ajin_ipg21]

According to whose timeline?

PUI's or YOURS?

Sure they probably WOULD WANT TO HAVE ALL THIS OUT TO YOU.

Then again, IS ANYONE at PUI willing to say more than they can so that AN ONSLAUGHT of vitriol sent their way sends them into spincontrol mode?

Time will tell & the NET has shortened the distance between us all, for better or worse...

Again, speed of light solutions to CORPORATE maneuvering does not seem realistic.

[Rainbowgym]

Prof Dave

Sorry if you think a attack you personal, because that's not what i'm trying to do. Sometimes it's hard to explain what you mean in a different language.

But to make one point very clear. Our distributor is not having any windowcling or poster to announce the Ruby/Sapphire cards. They didn't got any and they asked for it again and again. Then when they had a meeting with the (pre) OP people they asked if they could print those things for Europe so that we have promotional material too. This was not possible.

Because i was at Gencon Indy i asked you overthere (i think it was you at the Nintendo boot) if i could take some posters (those "they are here" ones) and i got a mousemat which you were giving away. I also got a windowcling but i don't know were that one came from.
I gave that windowcling(sticker) and poster to another gymleader overhere because he is running league in his store, so he needed it harder than i did.
The day we had our meeting with the distributor (gathering in that store) the president of that compagny saw those items and was almost spitting fire.
How the H.... we got those items. He asked for those and couldn't get them, he was not allowed to print something like it and untill today he did not recieve anything to hand out to the stores he is selling his Pokemonstuff to.

My point is, these little things like not having ordinairy posters to announce a new cardset is bad for the sales overhere. And if anyone decides to send material what is left, you better change the text in "they were here".

Something else i can't understand, the day we European professors could register there was a big change for PUI to email those people listed and ask them of they had a running league. They could have send promokits to still running leagues withour interference of the distributor. We are talking about 70 registered profs at this moment. Meaby even not all having a running league, but for the ones who have that was a golden change to keep people playing because you had something to offer. Even there is no OP for Europe yet you could let your players see that they were not out of sight.

But enough if this i will keep on playing and if we get OP i will see if i can participate.

[Professor Dav]

Prof Dave
Because i was at Gencon Indy i asked you overthere (i think it was you at the Nintendo boot) if i could take some posters (those "they are here" ones) and i got a mousemat which you were giving away. I also got a windowcling but i don't know were that one came from.
I gave that windowcling(sticker) and poster to another gymleader overhere because he is running league in his store, so he needed it harder than i did.
The day we had our meeting with the distributor (gathering in that store) the president of that compagny saw those items and was almost spitting fire.

But enough if this i will keep on playing and if we get OP i will see if i can participate.

I'm sure we met at GenCon Indy, I'm sorry if I don't remember exactly who you are though, I met a lot of people.

You bring up too many points for me to address at once, but one BIG point you do bring up is the issue where the Pres. of the distributor was upset because you had materials he didn't have access to.

This is just one of the many reasons we didn't send OP kits to professors only. We do value our professors, both domestic and international, and our professors will have the same benefits regardless of where they live. However, as I wrote in a previous response, there are two separate and distinct groups that we have to keep happy if we are to stay in business. Retailers and Fans. Distributors for the most part, fall into the same category as the retailer. If we sent kits to our Professors that weren't available to retailers and distributors internationally, we'd be dealing with fire spitting from all angles. We'd have some fans who were being supported, while other fans, some very near by, wouldn't be.

If you stop buying cards, retailers don't order, and we don't make money. If retailers don't order, you can't buy cards, and we don't make money. Our strategy MUST account for such issues when we roll out any program.

All I can really say is, International OP WILL be supported. We are working very hard to get everything up and running and bring our english language releases concurrent across the globe, as well as our OP programs.

If I had all the details, and if everything was worked out, we wouldn't be having this discussion because you'd all know what you wanted to know. Unfortunately, that simply isn't the case right now, and I've told you all of the information that I can at this time.

As previously mentioned, our remaining league materials will be collected next week, and we should begin sending those materials to distributors for kit building within the next week or two. After that, international leagues should start rolling very shortly thereafter.

Prof. Dav

[Michel]

Dave,

I do perfectly understand that both fans/players and retailers/distributors have to be happy.

I just disagree on one point of your previous post ... it is not because local retailers don't order that we may not buy. We live in an open market where international trade is easier every day, and I know that, for Pokemon cards like for anything else, there are people and shops who buy abroad for different reasons (delay, price, ...). Even if it not good for the local business, it is logical and easy to understand that people prefer to have boxes two weeks earlier at 80 USD/box (shipping and taxes included) instead of two weeks later and at 140 USD/box. It is exactly the same for YGO European cards, even with the 'non European cards forbidden in European OP' Konami's system. I'm sure that fans and players money will arrive to you anyway.

Almost every Professor in Europe works with one or several local shops. Most of them have worked together for a long time and it would maybe have been a good opportunity to reward these shops by providing them the first material a little bit earlier. I think that Rainbowgym's message follows the same idea too.


If I understand what has been said about International OP, at least in Europe, distributors will be the link between PUI/POP and the community of players (leagues, ...).
Our experience in the past has shown that all the distributors were not like PS Games in Holland.
PS Games have already had a meeting with professors in Holland about OP while, in some other countries, distributors don't even know what OP could be.
Historically, I have to say that PS Games has always been very active for Pokemon with their support to STS qualifiers, Gyms, ... That has not been the case everywhere. 'Older' players will remember the difference in qualifiers between 2001 and 2002 when the intervention of the local distributors was required by WotC.
Some markets were bad ... but it's always the same circle, you don't invest time and money, people buy less, and as people buy less, you justify that you don't invest.

I'm afraid that, according to the interest and involvment of each local distributor, POP will be very different from one country to another.

I have the same feeling about Professors. If they are 'linked to' the local distributor, you add a personal relational aspect to what I've mentioned above.
If Professors are directly 'linked to' PUI/POP in the USA, they could be quite often in conflict with either their local distributor or PUI/POP .

My friends who will be involved in OP in Europe will see how it will work in the future, and I truly hope everything will be fine, but I must admit that I'm worried about these points.

[ukpokemonpro]

Then again, IS ANYONE at PUI willing to say more than they can so that AN ONSLAUGHT of vitriol sent their way sends them into spincontrol mode?

Unfortunately we feel that PUI started in Spin Control Mode and have stayed there.

Once again I see no conflict and no reason why distributors would have been unhappy with Master Professors and Professors recieving promotional cards to support leagues, I still see no conflict.

Indeed did distributors here moan when some Professors who made it to Indy came back with bucket loads of Groudon and Kyogre promo's that they then traded or sold ... NO THEY DID NOT... what was upsetting was when NoPoke asked for some specifically to support our leagues they were denied!

And these are not even league promo's, we outside the US will probably never have access to them accept via eBay so why was there a problem?

When WotC dropped all support the only people who stepped up to keep things going were the Master Professors (yet again)

We stated right at the beginning of this thread that we did not expect to see OP until Novemeber/December at the earliest and look at what comes to pass...

As previously mentioned, our remaining league materials will be collected next week, and we should begin sending those materials to distributors for kit building within the next week or two. After that, international leagues should start rolling very shortly thereafter.

So we get materials somewhere in November to the distributors and then we get to start our leagues on Season One in December while the US start season 4!!

LOL whatever happened to ..

Pokémon Organized Play will start after the product is released internationally later this summer.

Cough, Cough later this summer?

The problem is that we have heard platitudes and it's coming, trust us for so long now and so far all we have is 30 kits making it to Spain and the distributors ...

What was wrong with then sending every professor a kit at the same time so that we could see them too .. then the distributors and the professors would have them at the same time?

No arguments then surely?

What was wrong with listing our leagues before the distributors got anything? At least that shows us some support..

What was wrong with giving us equal access to Pokemon-TCG.com ?

What was wrong with giving NoPoke some promo's to keep his league going when he stood in front of you guys in Indy?

These questions continue to go unaswered, especially the website and league listings .. it is these little things that go a long way to showing there really is an interest in International Leagues and OP.

[Tego]

LOL whatever happened to ..

Quote:
Pokémon Organized Play will start after the product is released internationally later this summer.

Cough, Cough later this summer?


The product was released later that summer. Ruby/Sapphire did arrive here late summer, just like promised. And OP does start after this release, just like promised. We didn't get it before that. We could get OP in Year 2060 and the promise you're refering to would still be kept.

My point isn't that we have to wait ages to get OP, but it's that we can't base everything on these announcements, especially when they really don't promise too much.

[NoPoke]

Dave, I think you will find that the distributor's president was upset because the materials obviously were available but he had been told that HE culdn't have them.

I'd love to see you use that reasoning in the USA.: 'California can't have a league because someone in the mid west hasn't got one'.

interesting marketing policy: 'equitable denial of product'. I don't think I've ever come accross that before. Maybe its a new idea?

[GuardianTIM]

interesting marketing policy: 'equitable denial of product'. I don't think I've ever come accross that before. Maybe its a new idea?

(I assume by Equitable you mean '[Even/Fair] denial of product')
Well, actually - look at Blizzard Entertainment (PC game company) - they take FOREVER to release games - I've got a pic from Starcraft:Ghost (It'll be a console game, and then later released on PC, I've heard) as my background, and the Copyright date is 2002, yet the game hasn't even been released yet (ie- almost 2 years since it's announcment, and NOTHING).

However, when Blizzard releases a game, they make sure it has a WORLDWIDE release date, and that prevents such problems.


So, you're saying, "why can't PokemonTCG be more like this?". The thing is, Blizzard takes FOREVER to release games (as mentioned above), so really, it doesn't work so well for the TCG.

Actually, the idea has been around for quite some time.

I just wish that they could do the worldwide release for things (Cards, Gameboy Games, and TV shows), rather than having us be forced to wait and feel particularly ignored (that's called an understatement, btw :) ) by the people who make it, all because we live in a different part of the world.



Just as an aside note, my friend was designing a Sandstorm-based Eevee deck, weeks before the set had arrived in this country. Although it's cool and all, we shouldn't have to do this. We should be able to make the decks because the cards are available, not have to sit around merely designing them because they're not...

[NoPoke]

True enough if the product is just not available then there isn't much more to be said.

But we were denied promos and given the excuse that stores would be unhappy if we had something that they didn't. the fact that store based OP no longer exists in the UK didn't seem to figure in the ostrich like response.

But anyway.. enough of this.. what was predicted has come to pass. And this messenger still doesn't want to get shot!

So What is left outside the USA?

US thats what. Much like under Wotc if we were unhappy with the support that we recieved then we just did it ourselves. Its the ONLY reason why pokemon has any OP left in the UK.

[ukpokemonpro]

Yeah like it or not PUI have got US to contend with, you can ignore us, scorn us and not support us but we are still here :)

[Professor Dav]

Dave, I think you will find that the distributor's president was upset because the materials obviously were available but he had been told that HE culdn't have them.

I'd love to see you use that reasoning in the USA.: 'California can't have a league because someone in the mid west hasn't got one'.

interesting marketing policy: 'equitable denial of product'. I don't think I've ever come accross that before. Maybe its a new idea?

Yes, just as mentioned, we made a limited amount of materials available to a limited resource that were not available to the general pool of distributors, and he got upset. Just as I said. Those materials were not 'obviously available' in fact, they were limited in their aviailability, and were distributed to a single person, who then showed them to a potential strategic partner who was then upset that the same materials were not made available to him. Where are you not seeing that this example is exactly what I've been talking about?

The programs are equally AVAILABLE to all provinces in North America, including Canada and Mexico. I absolutely would NOT launch a league in North America that was not EQUALLY available to all markets inside of North America, just as the international team is trying to make our products and programs equally available in those markets.

We aren't forcing anyone to run a league that doesn't want to, so that reasoning really isn't even an appropriate comparison.

I'm done with this thread guys. I'm not going sit here and go around and around arguing with you over the same points again and again, especially when I'm not even the official voice of OP International. This forum is NOT an official means for transmitting information from PUI/POP to the public, nor is it an appropriate forum for myself to engage in finger pointing with fans from overseas.

You all have equal access to my email addresses at leagues@pokemon-tcg.com and professor@pokemon-tcg.com, if you'd like to hear my answers regarding these questions yet again, you may email me there.

Prof. Dav

[)v(ajin_ipg21]

*That's what I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL THEM.

We've been fortunate enough that in the past *way far past* and present we have become a bridge for communication.

BUT the issues are quite complex that this board cannot provide the solutions.

BEWARE: they shall keep you busy, we players are a dedicated, thoughtful, ACTIVE bunch.

ukp: what did I say about scaring PUI :P

[ukpokemonpro]

IPG,

hey as PUI Dave has said ..I'm not even the official voice of OP International .. that voice Jarrod Nack has yet to be heard here's hoping...

And maybe Dave is right to get as frustrated as we are .. he cannot see our point that the distributors wouldn't have minded a tick if PUI had sent the Professors some promos to use to promote the game that would then mean more sales for the distributors ...

but what they did mind was that point of sale material was not forthcoming forget that it came from the US anyway it was the fact it was not available that made him mad....

I am sure had he been in a store in the us and seen the promotional support he would have been equally as mad!

We have tried explaining that the distributors are not going to fight the professors for kits and promos but that the professors maywell have to fight for kits from the distributors!

30 kits to keep Europe going for about a month ... I know I will fight for my league and I will share what I can but some will go short because of it :(

Ask the question I posted elsewhere again.. if this is the US and there had been no promo's, no pre-releases, no league kits and no help after 5 months would you be grilling the PUI rep ... I think you would.

But as Ian has said we are still here we still love the game and we will work for it but please don't give us corporate spin, give us the tools and we'll do the work, show us you care and we'll be loyal... but slap a dog too much and eventually it bites...

So what about equality on this pokemon-tcg website then ... you still haven't given us a reason for that Dave! and why can we not register our leagues and when will the deck constructor be available to all ... or is it more of my sig?

[Rainbowgym]

Do you really think you will get a kit out of those 30.
Keep on dreaming. They are not meant for us but for the distibutor(something like a sample). I can't find a source saying that those kits have to be given to players.

[NoPoke]

I doubt that the distributors will want to hold onto the kits. Especially when they can pass/sell them on. Personally I doubt that the distributors will want to have anything to do with the league kits unless there is a commercial advantage in doing so. The message that we keep telling our distributors in the UK is 'not to worry we will provide OP for you. All you have to do is ensure that the product is available'. Should be music to the distributors ears.

I don't know how much we might get but I promise that I will share anything that I receive.

[Michel]

OK guys, and especielly my UK friends.

You, just like other gym leaders or TO's in Europe, don't have support for a very long time. Will a couple of weeks make a difference ?

PUI said that OP will be the same all over the World but it takes time to start the OP program in other countries than the USA.
OK, I do agree and I do understand them.

I do also agree with you on the fact that no support for months is not acceptable, especially when we know the efforts you've done to keep our game alive.
But Nintendo/PUI/POP is not the only responsible. They're not responsible, for example, if a lot of Pokemon material will be destroyed from Wizards UK warehouse ;)

I propose to give them time. Time to start OP in Europe, time to answer to rulings questions, ...

We all know that we'll have OP in our countries, and pushing them will not make things go quickly.

I really do prefer to have a good OP, an OP that is equal everywhere in Europe a little bit later than a bad OP a couple of weeks earlier.

We are a community of fans, players, professors, and instead of fighting for better delays, I think we have to think in terms of quality and equity.
Will OP be as good as we think or hope ? What can we propose or do to improve it ? Is OP the same everywhere in Europe ? What can we do to help PUI/POP about OP in our countries ? ...

Like I said earlier in this topic, and for the reasons I've mentioned, I'm in fact out of OP now. But I've been too involved in the game to stop thinking and reacting as a GL, judge or TO.
But if I look at the game from my new player point of view, I may assure you that I will not understand, and admit, that a player who lives and play 40 miles away from my home has more, or less, than me because he lives in an other region or another country.

Instead of focusing on delays, wouldn't we have to focus on the concept of 'worldwide OP', the same OP everywhere in the World ?

If I understand that it can take more time to launch a program in Europe than in the USA, I wouldn't understand that people from some countries would be penalized for any reason once the programs are launched. I'm sure you'll agree with me on the other side of the Channel ;)

If I do understand what people from Nintendo/PUI said, we will have the same as in the USA. I think we'll have to pay attention to that, and be prepared to react if things are not like that because of PUI or any other part of the chain.

So, what I would ask you, is to stop talking that much about delays (even if I know it's important), but to think about what we hope, expect, and will do in the future when OP will be effective in our different countries., as Professor or 'simple' player.

[NoPoke]

Michel.. Worldwide OP is what we have been focused on. Campaigned for and advocated.

If the delivery of a few promos is too much then what hope for anything that involves more that a single envelope?

That said I remain optomistic that the new team will want to grow OP and have a budget and remit to do so. I will not call PUI liars for failing to deliver on initial promisies. I might wish that they had trusted us more but that is a seperate issue. Priorities change and I do believe that the quote from PUI in my sig was delivered with the best of intentions and in good faith. We may be a skeptical bunch but we cannot be accused of breaking faith. Age and experience bring a certain insight into how companies operate. That isn't the fault of any individual, but just as we don't hold any individual responsible for changes to prorities don't hold us responsible for using thoses insights that we have gained through wisdom and experience in our predictions and expectations of delivery.


Just a detail Michel. But PUI have not said that OP will be the same worldwide. I only hope for similar. As far as competative play is concerned we are probably delivering more competative play in the UK with our challenge series than is currently available in the USA. Just don't forget WHO is doing all the work.

[)v(ajin_ipg21]

"As far as competative play is concerned we are probably delivering more competative play in the UK with our challenge series than is currently available in the USA. Just don't forget WHO is doing all the work."

I doth protest. ALL IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. If you want US to sympathize and assist in your plight and I AGREE that we should not be EGOCENTRIC in our pokemon benefits... then I ASK you not CLAIM likewise of better. =/ *touche*

Some areas in the US offer very competive environments. OTHERS for whatever reason do no or cannot. AND many here too BATTLE to keep their area pokemon alive.

I would have hoped you would have been able to agree with Michel if not with me or Prof Dave.

AND From what Prof Dave said... WHEN PUI is attemping to negotiate and create distributions in EU how would it look to RETAILERS and DISTRIBUTORS that they HAND OFF FREE OF CHARGE to Profs and Master Profsm TO's & HJ's free product.

YOU AND I know the kind of relationship we had with the WotC MT's. WE can't say the $ame from di$tributor$.

*I am done, OUT of here for the weekend...

[ranmasaotomes]

Ok people. I think we have been getting a little bit off topic here, the initial thread is "Outside the US, what is left?" And at present there are places everywhere that are running quite thin on previous stock but are still running.

I don't know about all of you guys in europe but our current situation in Australia is this.... We still have some promotional stuff from the energy season leagues (Fire, Grass etc... ) We in NEVER recieved any battlezone and even didn't receive any of the last 2 of our seasons.

My complaint is this.... We (as many of you were aware at the same time) found out that WotC was not having their contract renewed with Nintendo/Pokemon USA, this would mean one of 2 things. Nintendo was not interested in cards or that they were going to take on resposibility themselves. In the case of the latter it would have been nice for them to do distribution at a similar time to all of us. I find it really annoying finding the promotion cards on ebay then finding that we will get them 6 months to a year later. If we do indeed get them at all.

It appears that they didn't realize what type of responsibility they were taking on but I would have expected that they would translate the cards in to an English language and then distribute those cards to all english speaking countries. Like GuardianTIM said earlier in the thread we can speak American even if they drop a letter in the word colour.

As proffessor Dave will no longer be in this forum I expect that he may still read some of these posts and come to grace us with information when the need arises. When that day comes or when someone does contact us from Pokemon USA International, It will be good.

As a closing remark, (my Rambling has got a better of me) I would like to say that at the moment, while we have still only a limited stock, There is still a league in the Port Adelaide Markets, in Australia. We still get the cards in for players and we still get promotional cards even if we have to put money from our own pockets to get them. We are NOT interested in making money, but we ARE interested in collecting for our own sets and also keeping the intrest with our league members.... No, not league members, with our friends that support us and want to keep the game alive.

[ukpokemonpro]

I note the discussion still fixates on promos and that is only half our problems ... Access to the website and league listings is and was never going to upset the distributors yet still we are denied it!

As for Promo's I still see no reason at all why the distributors would have created a fuss and we even suggested they be distributed to us by them

The reality is there has been a lack of focus on international and an unwillingness to listen

And a I won't post here response from PUI seems really adult to me ...

Maybe this is not the forum then Dave can take the issues up with us all on Aim or Email ... he has the email addresses ... all he has to do is look... but then it now is not his job...

[Tego]

and league listings is and was never going to upset the distributors yet still we are denied it!

Here's the thing: there are no Nintendo Leagues in Europe yet. All Leagues currently running in Europe are completely unofficial. They are fan based, and aren't sanctioned or prize supported by PUI. So we won't get League listings before the official Nintendo Leagues start all over the continent.

Of course it's stupid, a list of fan based Leagues and tournaments would help a lot. But the reason why there isn't is kind of obvious.

[ukpokemonpro]

Here's the thing: there are no Nintendo Leagues in Europe yet. All Leagues currently running in Europe are completely unofficial. They are fan based, and aren't sanctioned or prize supported by PUI. So we won't get League listings before the official Nintendo Leagues start all over the continent.

Of course it's stupid, a list of fan based Leagues and tournaments would help a lot. But the reason why there isn't is kind of obvious.

Sorry Tego but the company man really is coming to the fore here ... we exist but we don't exist therefore we don't get listed...

Okay by that token why bother listing the distributors when they knew nothing about OP.. or us as professors when we can't do anything... Honestly we are about to be mired in a corporate swamp here and you are looking at it as a corporate man.

I still see no reason why we can't be listed ... why not make us official if that's a problem?...

I still see no reason why we were not sent none league promos for support?

The only reason in reality is an unwillingness to actually do anything caused by who knows what but someone, somewhere made a decision to let the rest of the world swing in the wind and so far there is no hard support still... but PUI and Nintendo USA will now claim we have International OP !!

[irwinmalek]

Also: when the kits do get to the distributors, how exactly will they know where the leagues are if they aren't listed? Who will they send them to then?

[NoPoke]

If you aren't buying product directly from a distributor then access to league materials will rely upon those of us that do. I've already stated that I will share anything that I get and I'm sure Ben will do the same.

[ukpokemonpro]

We certainly will do our upmost to share and divide any materials fairly (as possible amongst all leagues or we will use them at SE Challenges so that even those with no league can access promos and materials.

Of course we may just go it alone.. nothing new there if Nintendo and PUI mess it up further...

[ranmasaotomes]

I have had some information leaked to me through my boss that on the 14th of this month.... The Pokemon Proffessor Program will be open. I am not sure if this is reliable information but I thought I better tell you. The date is 14 Oct 2003

[Tego]

I want a League List just as badly as you do. I'm just saying I know why they aren't making one yet.

When the Nintendo League starts here later this fall, all distributors will have a list of Leagues and their adress in order to send them the newest kit each month. That would be the most accurate list they possibly can have, because they know where the Leagues are, and that they do receive a kit every month.

As soon as all Leagues start in Europe, they could gather all lists from distributors and make a list of Official Nintendo Leagues. But right now, what do they have to base their lists on? How can they obtain accurate information of where all active, unofficial Leagues are? The only list they could make is one with every fan based League on the continent, but that would be hard to do.

Yes, each distributor could try to contact their country's tournament organizers and League "Gym Leaders" and try to find out where all the Leagues are. But why should they do that know, when they are going to anyway in a few weeks time, to start up the Nintendo League?

And they could in theory contact all Professors. But do you realize how few of this continent's Leagues actually are run by Professors? Most Leagues are run by normal store employees with next to no knowledge of the Professor Program, and no contact to the Internet Community.

It would all be so easier if they just waited a bit more with their League list, and waited until the new, official League starts this fall. It's the exact same thing with your idea about sending kits to the Professors in Europe. It is a good idea, but in reality, too many Leagues would end up getting nothing. All the Leagues I mentioned above, the ones with no links to the Internet Pokémon Community.

[NoPoke]

Tego most distributors don't even know that there is a card game associated with pokemon. We asked one of the UKs distributors and their response was

'What OP for pokemon'?

closely folowed by

'We don't talk to the public'

Just because a Norwegian distributor knows about league and OP doesn't mean that all the rest do...

I hope that the Oct 10th visit to Barcelona at least made the distributors who went aware that OP used to exist for pokemon.

[Tego]

All my faith is in that Barcelona meeting. Let's just hope it went like hoped...

[Marcello-Milord]

I visited the UK distributor's site for Pokémon-e TCG... and I saw the notice that OP will be run through a third party... It's the same here in Italy.
The only difference is that we (Italy)are not sure about this third party, 'cause the company our distributor indicated as the possible OP responsible doesn't answer... though Hobbygames encorages to contact them to know about OP... hmmm I think the Barcelona meeting has moved something...

[ukpokemonpro]

From a source at the distributors meeting:


[quote] we are not as far on as I would have expected us to be ..{/quote]


Oh dear looks like next year then :( Still 30 kits ROFLMAO that will keep us all going 'til then.. won't it... ?

[PokePop]

Who is that quote attributed to? A distributor or a PUI rep?

[Tego]

If that quote really is true, I'm deeply disappointed. If things didn't move drastically forward with that meeting, we are in trouble. Sending all distributors all the way to Spain in a big IRL meeting SHOULD have helped a lot.

[ukpokemonpro]

Posted by PokePop - 10/13/2003 at 04:22 PM

Who is that quote attributed to? A distributor or a PUI rep?

And that matters why? Because we trust Pui and their reps to look after the rest of the world .. give us equal consideration and consultation?

Yeah I am really gonna drop the girl or guy who said this in it ... NOT!

I hope to find out more tomorrow when I can question both the UK distributors more about what was said and what they managed to nab... certainly initial impressions are not good ..

Why the urgency? well we are hanging on here and really fed up with it that's why!

[PokePop]

I hope you misunderstand me. I'm not asking the source. I'm asking who is supposed to be quoted. I'm asking exactly what I wrote: A PUI rep or a distributor. I'm not asking names.
You don't think it matters who is saying something?

[Michel]

Who has info on that 'third party' in the UK ? I've just seen it too on hobbygames.com. What does it mean ? Will all the distributors not be involved in OP ? Who's that 'third party' ?

Come on UK, provide info to the continent please ;)

Leagues ? What is a league, and what is a club ? In Belgium, as normally a league had to be linked to a shop (all except one ;) ), individuals who were not linked to shops have run 'Pokemon clubs', without WotC support.

Which will be the conditions to start a league ? Who will may do it ?

It seems that the situation is clear in the UK, but it's not the same in Belgium. Some have stopped, some others wait for new instructions (IOW new OP plans), some places still have meetings, ...

There are now 1 'living' league and 2 'sleeping' leagues in the French part of the country. A comparaison ? :) YGO has 1 active, 1 new active on Wednesday and 1 'in construction'. The active and the one in construction are former Pokemon leagues.
In the Dutch part of Belgium, YGO is very active too with 'old Pokemon transformed into YGO' and brand new places. 2 big tournaments this month too.

We want to play a Pokemon tournament ? First one is ... in Holland on Nov 1, run by our Dutch professor friends, ... one day before a main YGO event at the same game fair.

BTW, Eindhoven is not that far. Would be great to see you, Ben, Ian, Freddy, and all the other UK Pokemon players ;)

But don't forget the info about the 'third party' :)

Barcelona ? Who know how many distributors were invited and how many have attended the meeting ? That could be a first sign of the distributors involvment in OP.

[ranmasaotomes]

Hey guys. I would like to get some insite in to what you guys do for your leagues.

Myself... We usually hold Tornaments every 2 weeks and the top 3 winners get prizes, the other pleople get prom cards that are either left over from the Wizards days or that we hunt around for on e-bay. We usually have knockout rounds but everyone getting prizes, It usually cheers up some of the newer kids doing that.

We also run leagues as well, players continuing with the Leaf, Fire, Grass and electric seasons (we got all we could from wizards australia and they sort of unloaded a few of the older promos with us.

Why am I telling you all this.

Well I am looking for new ideas on what to do for the tournaments. I was thinking about doing booster draft but again, we have to deal with little ones (But there are eager players and we did do 1 of these when EX Ru/SA got finally released here) So I want to keep it freash for all players... Even Myself.

So for all of you other gym leaders out there... What do you do?

[ukpokemonpro]

This is my problem too .. how do I keep the long term players playing for the same promo's ... well we do team, draft, no-rares and common only tournys ... I mix and match promos, boosters and pokemon goodies as prizes. I have now started mixing promos on 9 pocket pages as NoPoke did for SE Challenge 4 to try to make them look more interesting.

At the end of the day we do need to see Nintendo support PDQ otherwise I cannot see how I can continue to sustain my league :(

[ranmasaotomes]

The other thing I am doing is that the winner of the tournament gets to challenge me. If they win against me then they get a bonus booster pack. My deck is posted on the forum and even though people say that it doesn't work. It is truely great.

But I will have to try the no rares tournaments same as common only and teams, These are great ideas. But come on guys we are to help each other out. More ideas. Let them roll. :-P

[Marcello-Milord]

Official new for Italy, finally!
Nexus games, the company committed for Italy in the Lord of The Rings CCG, announced that they will be responsibles of the adaptation, distribution, and OP for Pokémon-e.
They announced for January 2004 the first localized expansion Ex: Rubino & Zaffiro, but english european releases are still avaiable, as in the whole Europe.
But they said nothing about OP, so I emailed to them asking somehing specific. I hope they'll answer.

[afireinside]

hey.

i usually called myself SauroN around here.
i dont know if im back into the game but im kind of curious what's going on with the game.

well. just wanted to say hello.

- SN

[Michel]

Hi SauroN,

Nice to see you back here :clap:

[ranmasaotomes]

A question for all of those that DID or are getting the promotional packs from their distributer/Pokemon USA...

Whats in them. Is it the same as what the US got or is it going to be completely different like Yu-Gi-Oh?

[PokePop]

A question for all of those that DID or are getting the promotional packs from their distributer/Pokemon USA...

Whats in them. Is it the same as what the US got or is it going to be completely different like Yu-Gi-Oh?

I don't think you'll get Yu-Gi-Oh... :p

[ranmasaotomes]

From my distributer.... My company IS getting the Yu-Gi-OH league when Toys R us Australias League is finished which means we get the different promos.

Thats what I ment.

I was asking if we are getting different promos to the USA.

[TeSp]

Well yesterday, we had our league and it was 6 peaple attending.
My brother, eskils one of two sisters, and 3 of our friends and then a friend of my brother.

When i see the legaue members and ask them why they don´t come anymore.
They look funny at me, and reply´s it boring.

I do not know if this is the reel thing, or maybee it´s just becouse a new set and a new block is comming and the kids can not afford to get a good deck.
Since the kids usualy have the older cards. So LC was a great set for them.
When LC got in modifyed it came more kids.

What is happening??? Getting 6-8 kids every wednsday is not very good. Since it was 12-?? every time for 6 minths ago.

[ukpokemonpro]

Well TeSp,

I know my lot are getting really grumpy about the same promo's again and again and again... I try my best to offer something different but with 30+ players to keep happy that is hard.

They need something to play for and at the moment the SE Challenges that we organise are the only thing keeping the UK from dying...

Europe is in a Coma and needs more than words to say us... action is required right now and yes it is urgent.

[ranmasaotomes]

I think thats why this thread was started.

We all have leagues or attend leagues that are in desperate need of something to happen. We were hoping that the sets would encourage people. They do somewhat but everyone is a little concerned with the lack of promo cards.

I just hope they get everything in to gear soon.

[Kyfogre22]

there are places that don't have leagues period.

[ranmasaotomes]

I think all of us here acknowledge that there is either no support for the leagues if infact there are actually any leagues still around. I know that in our personal situation.... There is still a league although an unsupported one. In our league we trade cards and give out promotional cards that we can find on the net. Tournament entry fees pay for these cards and the kids seem to get a kick out of getting something sooner than it officially comes out.
I know at one stage we were transfering EON mails as a bonus for entering the tournaments (Usually hard because both the e-reader and the eon tickets hadn't been released here in Australia) but we managed to get them in for people so that they ... and we can have alot of fun.
I know we enjoy the battles that we get with some of the kids and it is good to see that pokemon league is growing. We just need something to show that the big guys are at least recognising us.

[ukpokemonpro]

ranmasaotomes,

sounds like you are doing all the same things we are doing importing e-readers and eon tickets trading and buying promo's and trying to keep the game alive but it is mainly the work of a few of us that keeps large tourneys going and we are getting tired

[Rainbowgym]

Getting tired, i am tired of this all.
I thought we were on speaking terms with our distributor.
Today i looked on their website and suprise there was a link with playingrules, a link to the League Locator.

For the playingrules i almost started crying when i saw them, they placed the rules which came with the BASE starterset.
We told them weeks ago if they want Pokemon back to the players they need a good translation of the rules.
Our help was not needed they had people who could translate the whole thing.
What did they do, NOTHING or even worse transmitting wrong information.
We are ingnored again as little children. And if they are not going to listen to us next week i will file a complain at the head of organized play of Pokemon Worldwide or Europe.

Then the link for Organized Play, it sends you to the American site and there is no way we can apply there as TO or whatever. And they suggest to find a prof. in your town to organize tournaments. fun fun fun.
With only 5 profs left in this country and 3 actual running Gyms/Leagues.

But what made me most mad (now smoke is coming out of my ears)
They want to do 15 Dragon prerelease events in our country.
15 locations - so thats our 3 gyms and 12 locations which never heard of Floorrules, actual playingrules and even had no league the last 2 years.
How on earth can you run a prerelease event without having experienced players or at least someone who know the rules.
We mailed them and told them to make that only 1 or 2 locations, because we don't have that many players left in this country and if stores want to have such an event they should start first with league.
I hope to get an answer on that next week, but only the idee of 12 locations who are announcing an event without any knowlegde of the pokemongame makes me sick. They will just sell the cards to the public take my word on that.
There must be rules for running a prereales event and i hope an american organizer will send them to me, unless the European rules are different (i don't know i don't get them from the distributor).

Meaby you all find this a stupid complain, but 3 profs overhere worked very hard to let pokemon life and we want a good base for league and OP and not something which goes out like a candle again after a few months because of the lack of conduct, providing wrong rules/information.

[ukpokemonpro]

Rainbowgym,

it is almost the same here but our distributors are in Essen to try and work out a deal on leagues but still we have no information :(

We are trying to plan 2 pre-releases but until we know there will really be OP that is hard.

PUI continue to ignore the fact that if a distributor runs OP badly or not at all then there will be little or no support for OP in that country :(

By placing the burden on the distributors they strip us of any involvement whilst pushing all the cost and effort onto the distributor when they (the distributor) may see little reward for that effort.

Add to that unrealistic expectations and poor communication with Professors and you can almost write off International OP now. However we have yet to give Jarrod a chance to settle in but certainly if things do not change soon we will all have to start making alternate arrangements if we wish to continue any involvement with the game.

Certainly I cannot see worlds in August next year being anything other than a USA/Canada event unless PUI sort out the mess it is making of International OP.... Certainly I cannot foresee any distributors paying for winners in 3 age groups to go to the US..

I hate to say it but it looks like NOA/PUI maywell be worse for International OP than WotC were !! All the signs so far are that PUI are looking after US OP and that is it ... The rest is down to our distributors .... OH DEAR.....

[Rainbowgym]

I don't know if i'm allowed to post this, but i don't know what to think anymore thats why i'm posting it here. Read. laugh and cry with me.

According to our national distributor, we can start league next week, materials should be in by then.
(Distr) We are going to have a prerelease Dragon-EX and up to 15 locations.We want max 300 players involved
(Me). I told you last week that 2 or 3 locations is enough to start with.
I asked him did you really ordered 2000 boosters it became very quit.
When he found his voice again he asked what do you mean, i don't need that many.
(Me) 300 players need 6 boosters each so that's 1800 and 1 full box for the winner in each location means about another 520 more.

than there was a long silence (and in the mean time i almost wetted my pants on laughing).

Q. Do you really mean each player needs 6 boosters, why?
Me. O you don''t know how sealed format works, you better should look at your website, oh i forgot no info there.
Q. I think i better can take less locations for such event and let the other do something different.
Me. Didn't PUI asked you to contact Prof and TO's to at least listen to their opinion about what to do? You can't call that a prerelease, didn't you got any details concerning prerelease tournaments and how to organize one. What prizes are involved and which playingrules to obey.
Also is there no need to be Premier TO to organize Prerelease events?
Q. No why,whats that, if they don't send information about that to me, i'm not going to look on their website to find info. Send me an email with all those questions than i will forward it to OP international (do you see my fall out of my chair laughing)
Me, I don't have questions you have and did you get info on how to run leagues or was there a CDrom in the leaguekit to use for tournaments.
Q. I don't know was very busy, didn't look at the materials.

This is only a fragment of what passed on that conversation, also spoke with one of his employees about playingrules. i was angry because they placed the base playingrules on their website. He told me that people could start the game with learning the rules from the rulebook out of the BASE starters and than learn some new rules. I tried to explain that the rules changed to much and you better learn correct (actual) rules.
He wanted an example, so i told him we have now more energytypes iso 7.
Also that you can have 4 copies of each card in your deck and not 3 or less as their info said ( we tried to let that change years ago but they didn't listen).
He asked were on internet can i find these rules ( and he meant in our language).
(laughing about him) I think you have to translate yourself the whole rulebook, because that's the job of the distributor head OP of a country.
Enough of this.


They have been 2 days in Barcelona and all they got was a piece of paper with headlines?
Don't know how to react anymore, it's sad that head OP in a country gives such answers. Nintendo didn't invented something new. Sealed has excist longer than the last months only now we need 6 boosters instead of 5. So the only one to blame is the party which carried OP before and will do now (dispete their lack of knowledge) and not PUI in this matter. They should know what sealed is.
I will wait till next weekand see if there are really leaguekits arriving, but me staying involved in OP, i have to think about that again.

[Marcello-Milord]

Rainbowgym: we've got that european distributors are totally insane. And PUI with them.
How they can run prereleases if POP is supposed to start December, 1st? How they think to run a Sealed Deck event if they don't even know how much boosters are required? Is not PUI that gives the boosters for the prerelease? Why they don't give at least some instructions on how to run these events?

It's an odd issue.
But it demonstrate how much PUI and local distributors cares about OP.
Personally, I miss Wizards' staff.

[Michel]

You don't ask a guy who sells cars to organize a Formula 1 season :p

Still no answer to my questions about the 'third party'. Any info about it ?

Ben, I propose a new topic called 'The best answers from the European distributors' ;)

Nobody from Denmark, Spain or Germany on this forum ? :confused:
You're also outside the USA, or maybe already outside the game ???

[Rainbowgym]

Guys, i only have fun about this, cant do anything else with it.
After hearing so many times in 1 hour : I don't know.

Pre-release tournaments are not sanctioned so they can be done.
I only know the distributor has to buy boosters and the special pre-release cards (expensive ones).
He assured me i could have that pre-release and after that i told him about the boosters. (want to have some fun sometimes)
It's hard to be a distributor these days, with all those profs having more info then you have.

As far as I understand league can start next week when the kits are in.
There should be software in there too. Now i only need acces to the TO part of the tcg.com site.
Which off course should be approved by the National OP (and again he didn't know were i was talking about).
OP can be started by running sanctioned tournaments and there is no need (beside the on-line acces) to wait with it.

Don't know were they talked about in Essen, meaby formula 1 cars?

[ranmasaotomes]

I think that until we actually DO get the leagues. we will all have to pool our resources.
It appears to me that none of us are getting anywhere with reguards to ant official tournamets. Like I have stated in other posts. Some of you were lucky enough to get the ones from wizards when you did.
My advice.... Until we have access to all the materials we should all help each other. people complain about getting the same promos. We have the same problem and until something happens. let us trade them amongst ourselves. This might help our delemma.

I know that I have a relese booster draft for the release of Dragon EX which our distributers arn't even giving us a time frame of when we are getting the booster. (Makes my life really easy)

But in saying this we all need to support eachother. Instead of complaining. we all need to pool together. Maybe then something will get done.

[ukpokemonpro]

ranmasaotomes,

we certainly do share resources in Europe and are willing to send you some too... we all have WotC promo's left and are surviving on those but how long can this go on?

It does seem that PUI may have briefed the Distributors not to deal with us? Certainly it seems madness for them to proceed without us...

Why would they run pre-releases without our help ... It can only be that PUI have lead them to believe they don't need it...

Certainly the UK were looking at 100 pre-releases but with our influence they are now looking at 2. But just think there are NO TO's outside the US, NO Premier TO's outside the US and NO leagues outside the US.

The first requirement for OP would be people who know what they are doing and the distributors certainly don't appear to know.

[Michel]

After hearing so many times in 1 hour : I don't know.
Could be worse ... I've already heard different times 'I know better than you', and a couple of days later, the company that leads OP confirmed that I was right ;)

I only know the distributor has to buy boosters and the special pre-release cards (expensive ones).
For your info, tournaments booster packs (special boosters with special cards) had to be given to the players of the last YGO tournaments in Belgium. These boosters were not distributed to the TO's before the events, and in addition to that, TO's have to pay 3 Euro/tournament pack !
Will TO's have to pay for pre-release cards too ?
IMO, it's something absolutely unacceptable.


But in saying this we all need to support eachother. Instead of complaining. we all need to pool together.
I've never been against the idea of helping other Profs/TO/LC/players, and I've often done it.
But we must be very careful. Instead of trying to compensate the deficiency of the system, I think we should be as united as possible, and use the ways we have, to push the people to make the system run without deficiency.

It does seem that PUI may have briefed the Distributors not to deal with us? Certainly it seems madness for them to proceed without us...
I'm sure it's not the case, but it is well possible that some distributors don't want to work with specific individuals. I'm sure too that some distributors still believe they can do it by themselves (especially if they've already put the letters 'OP' for another game on their website) and that these specialists in TCG don't need the help and advice of basic customers ;)
And finally, there are distributors who don't know what OP could be ... how do you want them to know what a Pokemon Professor could be and in which side of the zoological part he could find one ?

The first requirement for OP would be people who know what they are doing and the distributors certainly don't appear to know.
Please erase the words 'appear to', thanks :p

[Rainbowgym]

Got some new statements of the year.

I'm in this brand longer than you have!
Believe me i know the market!
And the best one: What's PUI?

[ukpokemonpro]

Got some new statements of the year.

I'm in this brand longer than you have!
Believe me i know the market!
And the best one: What's PUI?

I like 'em now are they gonna find their way down to the RTC too?

We have been told in the UK that we will get league kits soon .. next week was muted ??

We are also told that we will get 2 pre-releases ... 15/16 or 22/23 November ... all though still depends on delivery and then maybe we'll start to trust again.

[Michel]

I'm in this brand longer than you have!
Believe me i know the market!
And the best one: What's PUI?

I do agree with the two first sentences. The distributors are probably in the brand for a longer time than us and they probably know (I hope !!!) the market.

That confirms that distributor's job is SELLING.

And the third sentence confirms too that they DON'T KNOW ANYTHING about OP, which is not their job.

Unfortunately, if I don't think we're concerned in market questions, we're interested in OP.


You, happy people from Holland and UK who are talking about league kits and prereleases ;)
Absolutely nothing about POP is on the Belgian distributor's website and Professors have not been contacted.

Sorry Tego, we all let the game die in Belgium, we don't contact the distributor by ourselves and almost all the Pokemon Profs are now running YGO events. ;)

Sometimes I imagine the poor Professor who's not reading these posts, and believe me, all of the Profs are not as crazy as we are !
Which info can he find on the web, only place where he could find something as distributors don't contact him ?

NOTHING in most of the countries except the fact that POP outside the USA will start soon.

[Marcello-Milord]

I hope that UK prerelease will be on November, 15/16 ... I'll be in london and I want one of these cool prerelease cards ;)

Italian distributor, as always, don't answer to the email I asked about italian prerelease... So my only chance to see one is in London... ç_ç

[ukpokemonpro]

Marcello .. lets hope we can accomodate :)

Just got a call this am from a distributor telling me who to contact for Op in the UK... So things progress.

FINALLY something appears to be happening ....

[sjmp]

There Was A Time When I Played, But I Couldn't Find Other People In My Area That Liked To Play. So I Got Looking For A League. I Found Nothing. Even Pokemon Was At It's Strongest, I Never Manged To Get To Play With Anyone Other Than My Best Friend.

I Started To Just Collect The Cards, As I Still Liked The Cards. Around Neo I Stopped Compleatly, There Was No Piont Anymore. I Was Just Spending More Money, And Getting The Same Old Cards.

A Coupple Of Months Ago I Found My Old Collection Under My Bed, And Decided To Get Online And See What Was Happening In The World Of Pokemon. That's When I Found The 'Gym.

I've Gone Back To Collecting The Cards, And Even Thought About Getting A New Precon. Deck. But Then I Thought What's The Piont? I Had No New Cards, Don't Know The New Rules, Don't Have Enough Money To Start Again, And Most Importantly I Still Had No One To Play Against, Or Anywhere To Play.

I'd Love To Start Playing Again, But Untill There's A League Where It Will Take Less Than 2 Hours To Get There (It Would Take 2 - 4 Hours For Me To Get To The South East Challange, Depending Where It's Held) I'm Not Going To Bother.

Don't Get Angry About There Not Being Any OP, We're All In The Same Boat. Only I've Had About 2 Years Of Not Playing, Not A Few Months.

[ukpokemonpro]

Well sjmp where are you in the UK perhaps we can hook you up with a Gym or Local players ... even if you cannot make a local gym there are the SE challenges and now pre-releases that are worth travelling for.

Lets hope we see you soon at a League or Tourney and don't worry we can help you get up to speed with new sets, help with deck building and trade or sell cards to complete your collections.

The UK is not dead yet and we want to continue to grow through 2004.

[sjmp]

I'm In West Yorkshire.

Thanks, If There's Hope Of Actually Being Able To Play I Might Just Start To Get The New Cards.

[Prof Donphan]

Marcello .. lets hope we can accomodate :)

Just got a call this am from a distributor telling me who to contact for Op in the UK... So things progress.

FINALLY something appears to be happening ....

Wow! Something in UK is moving......
So, from Italy we send our ambassador Marcello!!! :-)))))

[Tego]

I'm In West Yorkshire.

Thanks, If There's Hope Of Actually Being Able To Play I Might Just Start To Get The New Cards.

That is very good to see. The UK Professors are actually doing such a good job with their completely fan-made tournaments that they attract players into the game again. Now if that isn't something to give props for, I don't know what could be.

But sjmp: why do I get the impression that your whole post is one very long title of a movie? ;)

[sjmp]

I Don't Know, You Tell Me.

*Memo To Self: Talk Less*

[PokePop]

I Don't Know, You Tell Me.

*Memo To Self: Talk Less*

I suspect he is referring to the capitalization of most words.

[sjmp]

Why Do People Always Piont That Out?

[irwinmalek]

Marcello.. while you're in London, come on over to our league and meet some of our London players... That would be cool.. You can find out where it is at www.team-london.cjb.net

[Marcello-Milord]

Irwinmalek: thanks for your invitation ;) I'll be there from 13 to 16 of November I think... tell me date and hours of the League and I'll try to reach you :)

BTW anyone wants to trade something for an Eon ticket? I need that ^^;;;
And if you need Dark Persian, some foil Elm, some italian Legendary Birds promo (Pokémon2000) I'll be happy to bring something with me :)

[Marcello-Milord]

Sorry for double posting, but I need to put that in a separate post.

I just received an email from International OP, I asked again about Italy, referring about prereleases and League kits still avaiable for Nederlands and UK.
They answered again to me that official start is December 1st, but if some distributors are ready, materials are provided and OP can start now.
Italy is not ready though. They are still working with Nexus for make it all up and running for December, I think.
And it seems that they want to have that situation cleared shortly.

/me cross fingers about UK prereleases ;)

[JazzJazz]

There's nothing in Australia, it's hard enough even finding places to purchase cards.

[Tego]

Nintendo of Norway will launch their all-new Pokémon websites within the next few days. They will have an own OP-division with the latest tournament news. I will update it as often as I can with news about Norwegian OP.

[ukpokemonpro]

Well I keep nagging the OP guys and gals and we are trying to set a date for a meeting with the active professors and distributors so watch this space ....

Looks like 2 months of lobbying may finally be getting us somewhere?

Still delivery is key and so far we are still waiting ... but at least there is a light... lets hope it's not the express train ;)

[irwinmalek]

Off topic, bt Marcello, I'll be running the weekly London league on 15th November (Saturday), providing that the pre-release isn't on that day.

The league runs at:
Millenium Café,
Hornsey Road,
Holloway,
London

From 2:30-6:30/7:00 pm

We usually do either a Modified tournament (Expedition- WITHOUT WotC Best promos), or a draft of some sort.

E-mail me at irwinmalek2@aol.com or post on the Team London boards for more nfo at www.tlboards.cjb.net

There we go...

[Skywolf1]

Hello Everyone, I just wanted to point out, that I have got an ongoing dialogue with PUI/International OP, whom I received another e-mail from today, and I will be posting that in the International OP: Q&A thread of this forum. If anyone has any questions, that they want asked, please post them to that thread, and I will forward them to International OP straight away.

Take Care,

Marsh Schneidau
(aka Skywolf1)

[Tego]

It's up and running now:

www.pokemon.no

I doubt anyone of you can read any of this, but still you can check it out. I've made an own part for Organized Play, which will be updated with all tournament rules. Then there's an own page for TCG articles, strategy and info. And there's also a massive message board with more than 400 members (which is a lot for Norway).

This website will be the channel for information and communication with all of Norway's TCG players. I don't know anything about any other distributor's plans, but it sure would be nice with websites for each country, and possibly one for entrie Europe.

[ukpokemonpro]

Tego,

I agree they have said that they will not let them fail but there is no detail on what they will do if they do fail.

For example what happens to a country where there is no distributor (Mexico is one) Where PUI themselves are supposed to be in control but there are no official leagues, no TOs, no Sanctioning, etc...

Delivery is what counts not promises .. otherwise we are spin city mode where what is said is true regardless of the evidence.

I am pleased with the progress that appears to be happening, Jarred is new to this post and appears to be having a positive impact BUT... DELIVERY, DELIVERY, DELIVERY... it matters not what is said but rather what is actually done.

[Michel]

Nice website Tego ;)

But if I'm right, it's a site of Nintendo of Norway, not a local distributor's one.

Distributor's websites, with forums, in each country is more a dream than anything else. I'd be already very happy if I could find one single word about POP.

[Tego]

That's true, Michel. It's Nintendo of Norway's Pokémon site, and also covers the electronic games. To expect more websites from distributors is too much.

And a European website might also never happen, but updates for the International part of Pokémon-tcg.com would be very nice.

[ranmasaotomes]

To everyone still reading this post.

Might be an idea for the current gym leaders do create a web site. There are so many free hosting places on the net and even though some of us may be ametures. It might pay to let people know what you are doing. Maybe have a link to this forum on your site and also links to each other. lets see what everyone does.

for example. I have created a site for the card store that I work at. its address is www.wharfcards.8k.com and even though I am not doing it professionally. It does show what we are doing.

Maybe we should all start a list of each other on each others web sites.

Just a suggestion people.

[ukpokemonpro]

ranmasaotomes,

you are preaching to the converted check out the following UK sites:

http://www.gamers-guild.co.uk

http://www.southeastchallenge.com

http://www.members.aol.com/hairyclefairy/teamuk.htm

[ranmasaotomes]

I am not preaching ukpokemonpro but what I am doing is trying to get everyone to know that the problem doesn't just lie in europe. this where we arn't getting support is also in other countries as well.

Also... You may be "Converted" but i believed that this thread is for people outside of the US who want to know where they can play.

I was aaying in an earlier reply that we should all help eachother with this and I still maintain that we should, thats why I suggested that we all show eachothers sites and maybe make like a mini web ring so that people still are interested and also if they are looking for infor ourtside of the USA they can come to at least one of us to find out.

Also in closing. I would like to stress that its not only the people that post to this thread that look at it. I know that many people look at the thread and will only reply if it suits them or if they feel really strongly about something... thats why, and only why I even joined up with Pokegym... I wanted to put in my two cents and see what... if anything, we could do.

[ukpokemonpro]

ranmasaotomes,

I am not preaching ukpokemonpro but what I am doing is trying to get everyone to know that the problem doesn't just lie in europe. this where we arn't getting support is also in other countries as well.

Also... You may be "Converted" but i believed that this thread is for people outside of the US who want to know where they can play.

Hey there I was not having a go just letting you know that we are already doing it and posting for those people that maybe unaware of what we have got out there such as yourself!

I should have said you're preaching to the converted :) But that's okay because we all need a refresher on what we can do to help the game... and the web is a powerful tool

I hope you get some support in Oz soon and we are not all buying the everything is wonderful line from PUI until they have included the world not just the US and Europe we are not going to stop campaigning.

The shop site is good BTW we use freenetname for the Gamers Guild site and I own and pay for the hosting of the SE Challenge site myself .

Perhaps (at the risk of stretching some rules we can collate the fan sites outside the US that offer details on Leagues, Tournaments and Clubs?

[Michel]

Perhaps (at the risk of stretching some rules we can collate the fan sites outside the US that offer details on Leagues, Tournaments and Clubs?

And a new topic that will be started by UkPokemonpro ;)

See my signature, there is a website to put on the list !

Maybe out of topic ... thanks to our Profs in Holland for the great tournament they've run at the Spellenspektakel in Eindhoven last Saturday. :clap:

[Marcello-Milord]

Hmm... Italian guys are every time more mysterious...
During the Lucca comic conventions, a morther of 1 of our players asked to them some infos about POP.
The first guy that was at the stand did'n know anything. He called out his boos, the (in)famous marketing manager who refused to answer to my phone calls.
This guy said:
- Nexus has not been advertised about the OP start date (false, I add. PUI published everywhere that the International OP start date is December 1st);
- There'll be some changes in the rules (we already know that, they didn't know until Barcelona, maybe);
- They'll call the Professors as soon as they are able to do that (what's the meaning of that? They do not have any prohibition from PUI for calling out some Prfessor and talk about their programs!)
- Most probably, OP in Italy will start in January 2004 ( worst thing ever. Why, if the schedule is December 1st we'll have OP only in January? It's odd, it's the same date for the release of the localized product... Money issues there? :\\\ )

Here's our latest update. A big bad update.

[ukpokemonpro]

They'll call the Professors as soon as they are able to do that (what's the meaning of that? They do not have any prohibition from PUI for calling out some Prfessor and talk about their programs!)

Actually they may have just such a prohibition placed on them ... there is some very strange politics behind all of this and most of it seems to be about cover your behind from attack and make it look like there is something when there isn't!

The daft thing is company guys are buying it (Sorry TEGO it's not just you PUI seem to believe their own spin too), and most of the US either think now the announcements are made the problems are over or they don't care ...

PUI need to think OP it's not just for US it's for Life outside the US too!

[Rainbowgym]

I compared our distributor with a snake and guess what they look alike.

Once and for all i learned this weekend that the only concern of distributors is money (earning money i mean and they prefer to do that over my back). No human feelings involved, only thinking in Euro's.

I'm going one of these days to a jobcenter to let me subscribe as Pokemon Tournament Organizer/ Judge/ Demo-player and then they can hire me. No free time is going to be spend by me doing things Distributors should do.
I think a wage of $50 per hour is my minimum.

[Skywolf1]

Hello Everyone, I want everyone's help here please. Please e-mail me EVERYTHING that you have that pertains to what the distributors in your respective regions have said/done and/or acted towards OP, and I am going to CALL Jarrod, and I am going to explain to him exactly what is going on here!!! Because right now, I am MAD AS HELL!!!!

A furious,

Skywolf1

[Michel]

Don't be mad Skywolf, what's happening now was expected by some of us.
No need to send you a mail about Belgium ... the only word to say is 'nothing'. No news, no info, no contact, ... nothing.

Rainbowgym, you seem to be surprised that distributors are interested in money only. Sorry, but that's not something very new. :)

There is one question I think nobody has asked up to now ... PUI want the distributor to do POP in Europe, BUT DO THE DISTRIBUTORS WANT TO DO IT OR DO THEY HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO DO IT ?

I think we've all said to PUI, at least the Profs who're registered on the Pokemon-TCG website, that we were ready to help, that we offered, like we did with Wizards, our time, knowledge and involvment to POP.
If distributors want to do everything by themselves, without us, that's ok.
PUI has given them, and us, other directions, but I'll not fight for helping people who don't want me or people who think they don't need me.

For different reasons that I understand, PUI has decided to give POP to distributors. We all know that Wizards has done the same, and has had to do it later by themselves because that system didn't work.
Why would it work now ? I think we already have the first part of the answer.
Someone at Wizards told me that the amount of DCI registered Magic players in an European country had doubled 6 month after that Wizards had taken OP back in their offices. Enough said about OP and distributors.

No free time given to distributors ? We've all given a lot of time during the Wizards period, and we knew these people did respect us, we knew they were trying to do the best for the game (even if things didn't go right in the UK).
When you see the reaction of some distributors in our countries, I would agree with Rainbowgym.
Seems that even Tego is paid now ;)

[Rainbowgym]

I should oragnize the first Dutch Prerelease event, but now i'm charged to pay
110 dollar a boosterbox to do this.

I can't do a side event with Dragonboosters as prices.
I can't order a few more boxes to try to sell some boosters that day, to get down expences.

If any of you knows how much there is charged in the USA for a boosterbox and if i'm wrong with doing a side event with Dragon boosters as price please mail me private.

I asked this question before, because i expected to be ripped of by the distributor and this way i'm not going to have a pre-release event.

[Kyfogre22]

Skywolf, previously you told us to e-mail the International Pokémon commision. I e-mailed them three weeks ago, and all i have gotten was an automated response. We are angry because we are getting no help from ANYONE. We aren't directing it at you, but there is no help to speak of for many countries.

[Professor Dav]

There is one question I think nobody has asked up to now ... PUI want the distributor to do POP in Europe, BUT DO THE DISTRIBUTORS WANT TO DO IT OR DO THEY HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO DO IT ?

International distributors/partners are contractually obligated to run OP in their markets as well as recieving incentives from PUI to do so.

Does that answer the question?

Prof. Dav

[Skywolf1]

Dave:

Please don't take this post or anything said herein, as a "personal attack" on your character or credibility.

Truthfully,

No it doesn't answer the question. It "sugarcoats" it, and poses 3 more.

Those being:

1. What if the Distributor is merely signing on just in HOPES in can milk more money out of the "Pokemon Brand"?

2. What if the distributor still refuses to co-operate with professors in their respective markets, and what then if the player goes through PUI channels, and STILL nothing? Then What?

3. What is being done to sustain interest in contries that STILL have a contingent of Players?


These are just some questions that I have. I have been told, that I shouldn't even worry about the "international contingent" because I live here in the States, which I do. However, I feel very strongly about this game, and I will NOT rest until I see it played around the world, and enjoyed by all players.

It seems to me, that the Distributors are playing with PUI's head, by telling them they'll support OP, when in essence, they don't have any inclination to do so.

Some thoughts from an old Wolf,

Skywolf1

[NoPoke]

$110 a booster box? That is $18.33 per player.

Is the distributor providing prize support and compensation to the TO/judges?

Is the distributor paying for the venue and all other costs?

If the answer to either of these is NO. Then I'd suggest that you run a small tournament for your league players rather than a much more expensive premiere event.

We were fully anticipating this kind of problem with new distributors in the UK. Fortunately the company delivering OP in the UK is experienced at Magic pre-releases.

tell your distributor that you can run a pre-release for X players where X is the number of players that you get at league.... and see what he says.

[Michel]

International distributors/partners are contractually obligated to run OP in their markets as well as recieving incentives from PUI to do so.

Does that answer the question?


Thanks fot your answer Dave, and that actually confirm what I was thinking about it.

Of course I do agree with Skywolf when he says that absolutely nothing, at least from what I've written here, is against you or anybody at PUI.

When I hear and see what happens (or does not happen) in some of our countries, I have the feeling that some distributors are not really interested in POP, and certainly not in having people like Professors giving ideas, suggestions and/or trying to correct some mistakes.

I've told the PUI International OP team by email that I find OP plans for the USA really great, that I'm sure these plans, or something similar, could have a huge success in Europe, but I've also told them that I had doubts about the distributors and their involvment in POP.
I hope I'm wrong, but I'm afraid that what we see now goes in that direction.

[Rainbowgym]

NoPoke
The answer on those 2 questions is NO at this moment.
No support or compensation from the distributor for the TO/Judges or whatever even my request to let me buy some more boosters to give to the Judges was not approved.
Nothing about the prices to earn at such an event (they don't know the split up, along as many things they don't know, i even think they mailed POP today with the question about price split up)

I provided them a complete list with X players, how many boosters i need etc.
I'm the only one running this prerelease, because we don't have so much players left around the country. And most younger players don't have the money to join a prerelease. We (the remaining 3 TO's) decided to run prereleases in shifts. This time it's my turn and all active players who want to join come to my place to play. Next time another TO will do the prerelease and then i'm coming with my players to his event.
This is how we survived the last 2 years and in case there will be coming more qualified TO's in the future we suggested the distributor that they find TO's in other parts of the country and let them do the same.
Then if there are enough players again, only then think about each TO running his/her own prerelease event. But that's future not present. (and again they don't listen we found out today)

[Professor Dav]

Please don't take this post or anything said herein, as a "personal attack" on your character or credibility.

Truthfully,
No it doesn't answer the question. It "sugarcoats" it, and poses 3 more.
Those being:

1. What if the Distributor is merely signing on just in HOPES in can milk more money out of the "Pokemon Brand"?

2. What if the distributor still refuses to co-operate with professors in their respective markets, and what then if the player goes through PUI channels, and STILL nothing? Then What?

3. What is being done to sustain interest in contries that STILL have a contingent of Players?


Well, Marsh, I don't really think a statement of fact such as the one I made is a 'sugarcoating' of any sort.

The question was, "BUT DO THE DISTRIBUTORS WANT TO DO IT OR DO THEY HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO DO IT ?"

I cannot speak to whether they 'want' to do it or not, but I can say, as I did with my statement, that they are in fact obligated to do so by the terms of thier contracts. How you deem this to be 'sugarcoating' I'm not sure.

The fact of the matter is, that these distributors are contractually obligated to meet the terms of their agreements with us, and the answer to the 'what if's' posed above are the exact same answers to any other question regarding a contractual obligation, be it with us, or any other organization. IF you choose not to fulfill your end of a contractual obligation, you are subject to termination of said contract, and/or, legal action to recoup any damages incurred by the failure on your part to meet the provisions of said contract.

How would you propose we solve the possiblity of the issues you pose in questions 1 & 2? How do we know in advance that a distributor will be a problem? We don't. That's why we have a contract. How do we know that a distributor may or may not 'play well with others' when it comes to professors, prior to giving them a chance to do so? We don't. Again, that's why we get signatures on the bottom line of a contract.

As I've said before, I've been as forthcoming as possible with all of my answers, and have always given an honest answer to the limits of what I am allowed to say. Yet, I'm sure that even this response will have some people on this board picking apart each sentence to find the 'spin' that I've obviously spent weeks working on prior to posting this message.

You can all say that your comments aren't intended to be personal, yet, many of you seem to take the issues we're currently dealing with internationally VERY personally, as though PUI doesn't want you as a customer, or fan of Pokemon, which of course, couldn't be farther from the truth.

I am currently managing three countries, plus Puerto Rico myself from the US office. That's Canada, the US and Mexico. That is NOT ethnocentricity on our part. It is simply what it is, the way our business is currently set up. It is what it is, and we're doing our best to get everyone set up with Pokemon and OP as best we can.

Prof. Dav

[Marcello-Milord]

Dave,
we all know that PUI wants the best from this game, it's obvious, it's a business and if you have taken the game on your own hands instead of leaving it to Wizards, there's an interest for the game.
And if there's an interest for this game, there's an interest also in running it well also in other countries, an issue that is resolves using the distributors.
Yes, there are contracts, and distributors are forced to run OP in their countries.
Yes, PUI International team helps them running correctly OP.
But remember that these distributors works for you.
We are not complaining with you beacuse you are the responsibles and it's your fault... It's not true. We are referring our situations to you, because you are the only people who can help us having a good time with Pokémon. It's in your interests, right?

We have no doubt that OP will be active in Europe from December 1st (though Italy seems to be starting with January...odd thing, but it's off topic now), and we have no doubt that everyone will ahve full support.
The truth is when, what, how.
It's not you the international manager, it's not up to you to answer.
But while USA have great and full OP support, Europe is in a transitional moment. Some distributors have materials, some not. What?
Some distributors started their OP, some not. When?
Some distributors announced League and pre-releases, some not. How?

[Kyfogre22]

Even if europe does get it in December first, what does that mean? small, dedicated leagues? It wouldn't make much of an impact because unofficial leagues are already running to that extent worldwide. If OP was established, it would probably mean less, but larger tournaments for the fans who happen to be in the right place at the right time. Simply establishing OP won't really help much, IMO i think something along the lines of a widespread launch of all countries not covered by Pokemon USA for a cheap and efficent OP strategy. It would ensure everyone gets the necissary options of play and increase the players included in said leagues.

Dave:
Canada isn't what you'd call "covered" by Pokemon USA. Our only nintendo-charged OP tournament not ran at the local convenience store (even those are rare as pokémon is losing its popularity) was the EX sandstorm prerelease.

[ranmasaotomes]

Now the question is.....

Will other countries be able to access the stuff via the Pokemon-tcg web site?