I play all over the Midwest as well as East coast, so this is not about Michigan.
I come from organized chess, in which you pay a lot more in entry fees as there is no corporate parent. Tournaments have rounds on a schedule that is published in advance(1). Play areas are nicer in general, with most scholastic events having tablecloths and sets(2). There is a lunch break that is announced in advance(3). At many events there are bagels and coffee in the morning rounds. Overall, it just seems like a higher quality experience.
If I were in charge of OP, I would not allow a tournament to go longer than 4 hours in a lower division without a lunch break(4). I consider this irresponsible and unacceptable and I have seen it happen too many times at both City and State level events. I was at a Cities this season where the venue did not even have a working water fountain (5)or vending and the TO decided to play through top cut in Juniors and Seniors without a lunch break(6). Its this sort of thing that just gives the impression of poor organization and a lower quality experience.
1. We've tried this. The problem in Pokémon is there's a lot of variation in play time. You can have entire decks organized around different paces of play. 'Aggro' decks that swing hard and fast, or 'stall' decks that milk the clock. So a round may finish 15 minutes early, or go till time and then some. In the past organizers have tried giving out guideline schedules, but players tend to get mad if their guidelines are even slightly off, never mind the fact that there's nothing organizers can do short of cutting games off that will guarantee the rounds complete at time. Hopefully with the introduction of draws we won't see an entire tournament delayed for one game at +5 because no one can take a prize.
2. Not sure about where you've been playing, but organizers try hard to make sure their event space is at least neat and orderly, if not pretty. I've seen tablecloths used before, but one thing to keep in mind is that most organizers are going to be focused on speed. There's a lot of stuff involved in setting up a tournament - flyers, deck lists, the computer, the printer, table numbers, etc. Our goal is to set up fast, run the event smoothly, and then pack up fast. A lot of players bring their own mats, and even if they don't as long as the tables are clean there's no need to have anything underneath. All that's necessary is the deck, which the player is in charge of.
3. This refers back again to #1, but schedules are very fluid in Pokemon. Most often what you'll get is an announcement that lunch will be "after round X". But as we have no way of knowing exactly when that will be, we have no way of announcing it in advance.
4. Time schedules can get very tight. What's a better option, having no lunch break so the players have to go when they finish a game early, or having a lunch break and then getting kicked out of the venue because you went too long? Particularly with all-day events, tournaments often run from as soon as we can get in the shop until they're about to close. Problem is that once a venue closes, the TO may have to scramble for an alternate venue. I was at a tournament once where we had to reroute to a fast food place for Top Cuts. Not fun. Rest assured that any decision made regarding breaks has likely been thought out by the TO, and that they're under just as much crunch as the players if not moreso.
5. Hey, I had this happen! It actually happened at our
Regionals this year. Yes, it was ugly. Players were thirsty and we had to tell them to go across the street. Yes, we contacted the venue. What did they do? Nothing. What could we do? Nothing. Things break, and it's generally bad timing when they do. Again, it's out of our control. We try our hardest to make sure that everything is working and available for players, but sometimes things happen.
6. Concerning schedules with Juniors and Seniors, there's a lot to think about. Depending on the attendance gaps between divisions, Juniors and Seniors generally run (in my area) about 2/3 the time of the Masters. This can get awkward. First off, we want everyone to be on the same schedule, so we want Juniors and Seniors to take any lunches they have at the same time as the Masters. Second, there are a lot of families that have ONLY Juniors and Seniors (again, I'm speaking of my area). At the time we'd LIKE to give everyone a lunch break, sometimes the Juniors/Seniors only have one more round left to go. I'm supposed to tell a family of tired, cranky, possibly crying children that they have to wait 45 minutes for one more round that may take 10 minutes? It's better just to push through.
In conclusion, there's a lot that goes on on the organizer end that most players don't have to deal with. It's our job to make sure they don't have to deal with it. If it means that a few people get unhappy or think that our events are "a lower quality experience" and our people are "irresponsible and unacceptable", well, that's the price we pay for trying. But we will always, always work to make sure we can run the best events we can.
