Do the big tourneys check for counterfeits?

[PokePop]

PokePop, your analogy is completely wrong. Regardless of how the cards were obtained, all players have access to the same card pool in the rules of Pokemon TCG. Whether he's playing Luxchomp with real or counterfeit cards. Now obviously this does not get into fakes that were never printed - that's a whole other kettle of fish, and something every player and judge should call in ANY remotely serious event.

Maybe my analogy was flawed, but just as much as yours is.
The owners of the fake cards don't have access to the same card pool.
They have access to a FAKE card pool.
The either weren't willing to spend the money to obtain the real, more expensive cards, or fell for the "too good to be true" discount of fake cards and threw their money away on them instead of getting the real tools.

It's a "Trading" Card Game.
That means that you either have to trade for or collect the cards you need to make your deck properly.
My analogy was trying to get that feel of someone taking a "shortcut" to arrive at the point they need to be at to compete.
Whether its an athlete who skipped training as much but "made up for it" by using steroids, or a TCG player who wouldn't put the money/effort into getting the legitimate cards they need

 

[Chairman Kaga]

I hope you're not defending music piracy.

I wasn't defending anything. I was trying to point out the terrible attempt to analogize the market effects of the two.

Apparently it doesn't matter what I write in this thread, since people are reading something completely different and attributing it to me. My next post will be about how tasty donuts are, which will probably get me flamed for insulting a major religion.

 

[AyameHikaru]

What my TO and I do is make several decks before a big tourney. Semi-competitive at least, but not stuff like LuxChomp. Kingdra, Yanmega, stuff that is good but gets overlooked a lot by competitive players. THEN, if we find a person with a large amount of fakes, or even just old cards that are tournament illegal, we offer to lend them a deck. Often we'll take something important like a cell phone or a driver's license or a DS to make sure the deck finds its way back to us. If there's a single card that's fake or old, we either replace it, or suggest an alternative they can find real quick before the tourney starts.

In leagues, though, it's a little different. Whenever we get a new person, I do ask to see their cards. Partly because I might find something I want to trade for, but partly to check for fakes. If I do find fakes, I (cringing inside) tell the kid they're fake as gently as possible. If they're something simple, like a Golduck or something, often I'll have extras and I'll replace the card. It's worth the slight monetary loss to make the kid feel better. Of course, if it's a Luxray X or something, I can't just replace it. But I can tell them that it's only good for casual play.

 

[chase4787]

how tasty donuts are

HOW DARE YOU SIR! HAVE YOU LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE TRAGEDIES OF THE HOLOCAUST?'

Anywho, fakes are just something experienced players notice when they look at the cards. They typically stick out very obviously. One or two may get by but I'd say most if not all are noticed and stopped because of their low quality.

 

[rokman]

This, in itself is 100 percent untrue. The same argument has been used for software piracy, music piracy, knock-off handbags, etc.

I would like to re-iterate this point because Chairman Kaga and others seem to think you're going in a different direction...

I get free movie tickets because I worked at a theater and am friends with every employee and manager. Thus, I watch every film that comes out, even bad ones, films I wouldn't have purchased the tickets to in a normal situation.

I've calculated that over the past four years, if I had been purchasing every ticket I got for free, I'd have spent $2,000. That doesn't mean I'd have purchased that many tickets if it wasn't free. Because it's free, I splurge.

So, the same can be said about people who purchase fake cards. Because it's cheaper, they buy more than they would in a normal situation.

I also can see how music piracy applies to this scenario perfectly fine. People download tens of thousands of songs illegally because it's free. Otherwise, they wouldn't have purchased that many.

A player calling out another player for breaking rules is not just looking for easy penalties, they are following the rules.

Well, the rules don't state a player is responsible to declare others for breaking the rules... (at least I don't think so?) And it is very difficult to prove whether a player is rulesharking or not in those situations. Players could be calling every other card a fake on a whim, and nobody wants that...