Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Has Pokemon Organized play jumped the Sharpedo?

Status
Not open for further replies.
To me, I think buying a booster box is always a bad investment no matter what. If you buy 2 booster boxes per set, then you shouldn't be complaining about the $20.

But still...

[$20] is a lot of money. You save [$20] here, and you go somewhere else and save another [$20]. Now you have [$40]. You go to the [Electronics] store and buy [Pokemon X]
Click to expand...

Good old Russel Peters. Just change "$20" to "fifty cents", "$40" to "one dollar", and "Electronics" to "dollar", and "Pokemon X" to "Something else", and you will figure it out.

Starting with absolutely nothning Pokemon TCG related, I have a trick that allows me to play Pokemon TCG for less than $40 for the rest of my life. I just choose not to spend less than $40, that's all.

All it takes is less turnout in organized play to show TPCi that they made a boneheaded decision, although I don't really want Pokemon TCG organized play to die out. If you feel that $20 entry fee is a bad move, don't attend. If you are in the minority, there is really nothing you could do about it, other than to save $20 elsewhere.

I heard freeloading is a great way to save a lot of cash haha. You just can't put Pokemon TCG as #1 priority and not freeload. It isn't possible.
 
Last edited:
There will be fewer Premiere events this year there last year that is for sure. And there will be fewer people playing this year then last year by a very large measure that is for certain. But as this seems to be the plan then the game is headed in the direction that the leaders want. I am sure this direction has been dictated by Nintendo on down so I am not sure how much the local US leadership is to blame. They are working with the budget that is assigned to them the best that they can. But Pokémon is deliberately being taken in a direction that will lead to negative growth in Pokémon Organized play participation. But at least we do still have Organized play and Nintendo has not pulled the plug on it completely. I do sincerley hope that it will still be around when my newborn son is old enough to play, but I would not be shocked either if it is not still functioning 5 years from now.
 
waynegg said:
I'm glad you have it as good as you do. 82% of the people in America don't and have household incomes of less than $51k. And, that's 2.5 kids with mom and dad both masters, with 1.5 kids also in masters. Which is also a national average.

Point is, I have reevaluated my decision and many other families will have to as well. These decisions Pokemon has made will take the game, and the profit in it, back to 2003 levels. What I'm saying is that Nintendo is now effectually doing the same thing to Pokemon that WotC did that made Nintendo take over in the first place. I'm not whining about costs. I'm illustrating how the decisions being made by the brass in Seattle (or whomever is making these calls) is counter intuitive and will kill the demand they've strived to reinstitute into Pokemon since 2003 because the vast majority of those who would otherwise enjoy the game just can't afford to any more. Nothing more, nothing less.
Click to expand...

There's the issue & solution. If mom and dad are complaining that much, just to save the $40 extra and, then just have your kids play only. PLENTY of parents DON'T play at all. Problem solved ladies and gents.
 
$20 is not a bad price. Magic players pay no less than $25 and even up to $40 for tournaments and it is much more difficult to get to big tournaments especially since you actually have to win tournaments rather than just place well in order to have a shot at going pro. Also on average building competitive decks in magic is much more expensive and time consuming since the sets are generally bigger in magic. There are many more filler cards in magic than there ever are in pokemon that i've notice and i've been playing magic for 6 years. I got into pokemon simply because its the cheapest game to play as far as card games go. With chase rares that rarely go above $30 for more 2-3 weeks after they're released and the fact that counters to those cards are printed as easy to come by cards, it makes competitive pokemon come to a financially accessible, skill based game more than just who has the most expensive cards. I am a part time waiter and a full time student with a wife who is a nurse and also plays and we manage just fine to play this game even with having health ins. Car ins (two cars). School loans, rent and utility bills, four pets, groceries, etc. If you are really struggling to play as is without a fee, then you probably need a cheaper hobby or just take $20 from somewhere else and save it towards tournaments. If you are paying multiple entries for your family to play then that means that you have multiple masters players who are probably old enough to get a job and pay their own way. I came from a family of 5 on a single 30K income until I was 16 and I got a job in order to pay for my car, phone, gas, entertainment, etc. I know it's hard to maintain a good entertainment budget with a low income but it's not impossible. In all reality nothing is free and to have had free to play tournaments up to now was more of a privilege than anything. Participation will only drop if people just don't go to tournaments simply based on the principle that they won't pay to play the game. The fee also is an incentive for more casual players to try harder and get better to get the better prizes and go on to bigger events.

As for rule changes I really dislike making catcher flippy. Catcher was in no way over powered, everyone plays it yes, but it made the game more skill based because it makes you have to think about whether or not you want to bench that other EX if it is only a liability at that point. Flip cards are a horrible concept and the only thing about this game I hate. The only flip card I played previously was Laser and thats only because poison is guaranteed. Cards that make competitive play come down to chance rather than skill is bull crap plain and simple. Good players losing to bad players by luck of the coin flip is bogus. In reality I will still play catcher unless something better is printed but it still is a terrible, terrible errata.

I dont mind the not attacking on T1 if you go first because if anything is over powered junk hunting on T1 to get back like computer search or HTL, dark patch, hammers, etc is overpowered. Also no one likes to lose on T1, there's no skill there only luck and making the game go to atleast T2 is fine.

Professor Sycamore is a joke of a card. Wasted opportunity for new flavor in the game. Juniper is all like "That's my line dude...". Something new and different would have been cool like for example, Professor Sycamore Trainer Supporter choose up to five cards from your discard pile and shuffle them back into your deck. Works well with juniper instead of against her.

Not sure if I missed any other rules changes, I don't think I did.
 
Congrats Jeff on a new baby boy!
What's his name?

With my rather meager finances I definately won't be able to buy a whole bunch of cards.
Then add on travel expenses & entry fee=empty wallet.

So I might try the League Challenge stuff, & prereleases, but that's about it.

Hopefully they make cool Team Flare cards...
 
rileysill32 said:
There's the issue & solution. If mom and dad are complaining that much, just to save the $40 extra and, then just have your kids play only. PLENTY of parents DON'T play at all. Problem solved ladies and gents.
Click to expand...

You missed the part where most parents won't sit there for 6-12 hours while their kids play cards (i.e. The parents currently playing) and the staff being too thin to act as baby sitters for kids dropped off.
 
JandPDS said:
There will be fewer Premiere events this year there last year that is for sure.
Click to expand...

You're nuts out of your mind if you think that. There will be many, many times MORE Premier-level events this year than there ever have been in the past. Why? There will be AT LEAST one Premier level event run every SIX WEEKS due to League Championships replacing Battle Roads. AND there are more locations that could potentially run League Championships than there ever were running Battle Roads. There were about 300-350 Battle Roads run per cycle last season. This season? I have absolutely no idea how many Leagues there are in the world. Let's assume 6,000, for the sake of simplicity. The last League I set up was back in 2011, and it was number 5787. Let's assume further that a quarter of those Leagues are still Active and want to run an LC. That's 2,000 Premier level tournaments. Every six weeks. That's more Premier level events in six weeks than this game has EVER had over the course of a single year. Even if you assume 10%, that's still 600 Premier level tournaments every six weeks. Which is more Premier-level events over the course of 18 weeks than we've ever had over the course of a single year. It's insane and ludicrous to believe that there will be fewer Premier-level events run this year than last year.

JandPDS said:
And there will be fewer people playing this year then last year by a very large measure that is for certain.
Click to expand...

I'm not as sure about this. I agree that we're probably not going to see an attendance increase over 2013 this year. But I also don't think attendance will drop more than about 20% compared to last year. Yes, we will lose the Parent-Only portion of the player base, and possibly some of the kids with those parents. But fewer than you might expect. And the competitive player crowd in the Masters will still show up. Last year, the largest Regional had 500 players. I don't think we'll hit that this year. But I also don't think the largest Regional will have fewer than 400 players either.

JandPDS said:
But as this seems to be the plan then the game is headed in the direction that the leaders want. I am sure this direction has been dictated by Nintendo on down so I am not sure how much the local US leadership is to blame. They are working with the budget that is assigned to them the best that they can. But Pokémon is deliberately being taken in a direction that will lead to negative growth in Pokémon Organized play participation. But at least we do still have Organized play and Nintendo has not pulled the plug on it completely. I do sincerley hope that it will still be around when my newborn son is old enough to play, but I would not be shocked either if it is not still functioning 5 years from now.
Click to expand...

Pokemon is a game that always sells, regardless of whether or not OP exists. True, it sells more when OP does exist. But it still sells. There's a store in the area that I recently sold close to a box of rotated Pokemon booster packs and theme decks about 4 months ago. Of that, they've sold at least 4 boxes, if not more, and made quite a handsome profit. Oh yeah. This is a store that hasn't held a Pokemon event in over 4 years, but they're trying to start things up again. There's a reason Pokemon is always top 3 in the Mass Channel rankings on ICv2. Mass Channel is basically your Big Box stores. And those sales generally have nothing to do with Organized Play. I expect that, with the release of XY VG, Pokemon will move up those sales charts, probably to #2 ahead of YGO, if not to #1 in Q1 2014.

Pokemon sales are not driven by Organized Play.
 
keniselvis said:
Do tell! Don't keep that a secret!
Click to expand...


Buy two theme decks. Although there are cheaper ways than that, such as buying the trainer kit, if you don't mind playing with half decks.

It would be more cheaper for you if your buddy pays for the other theme deck instead.
 
keniselvis said:
A. That's not a secret.

B. I was assuming you meant playing Pokemon competitively.

Thanks for responding tho!

ken
Click to expand...

Hey hey hey, I never said anything about competitive, but some complainers here don't know this "secret".

The point I was making is, anyone with a tight budget can play Pokemon TCG. It is just that some choose to spend more to play the game, rather than saving up. Just because these people complaining about the cost of entering into Organized Play is high does not mean that the high costs stops them from playing Pokemon TCG.

What is so different about playing in Organized play, and playing casually? If you want to play agaisnt the best, you better start paying. If you don't want to pay, you just don't play against the best.

I also find it odd that Magic and Yugioh have paid entry tournaments, and they have more in attendance, but Pokemon has less in attendance. It is probably that those who are too poor to attend Magic and Yugioh tournaments, attend Pokemon tournaments instead, and with the free entry taken away, they have nowhere else to go. Just a hunch.

For those saying that they might be bored when their kids attend the tournaments, because you know, only masters have to pay, well, nobody is forcing anybody to sit on their butts doing nothing, while they wait for the Juniors and Seniors tournaments to be over.
 
Last edited:
The difference is, you can play casually for free at league or even just amongst friends. If you're driving all over the place to hit tournaments throughout the year you're no longer playing casually. To me, and I doubt I'm the only one, PUI throwing in the $20 a head fee tells me they no longer want my or most anyone else's business because it simply put it ou of the reach of a vast majority of people's budgets.

Roles ~ I like your post. I like it a lot. However, $10 a week allowance may be able to buy the cards to cobble together a deck, but even if you already have the deck you need you still have to pay for entry. That's 1 tournament every 2 weeks, which is having to skip the other 3 or more taking place over that time period. With the points you need just to qualify for Nats, much less Worlds, you can't compete. Even though you buy their product, your money and support isn't good enough to compete in their OP.
 
Adding to that, to stay competitive you need to hit many tournaments and travel to many large tournaments and you'll need to win each of them. Other then that, if you are just placing or getting kickers, you're spending a lot of money just to try and make worlds. This is a lot of people playing the game. 20 bucks may not be a lot to some of you, but those 20s add up quickly, on time of other things going up in price in your life. Most competitive families will be spending 80 to 100 per tournament. Thats over 1000 in a tournament season.
 
All that we currently know about the price of tournaments is that Regional Championships are going to cost $20. We also know that LCs are up to the individual tournament organizers.

We do not know what Cities, States, and Nationals will cost. So it is useless to project based on the information that we know.
 
I just assume it will be 20 based on other games. With masters being to only pay to play group, the number seems reasonable. Like you said, we just don't know but 20 seems like the right number.
 
bullados said:
All that we currently know about the price of tournaments is that Regional Championships are going to cost $20. We also know that LCs are up to the individual tournament organizers.

We do not know what Cities, States, and Nationals will cost. So it is useless to project based on the information that we know.
Click to expand...

Actually all events (aside from Nats and Worlds I assume as PTOs don't necessarily run them) are determined by the PTO running them including Regionals. That being said, PTOs aren't stupid and know how to communicate, and I bet they're going to try and keep a standard price for as many tournaments as possible.
 
Just because there is the potential for there to be more LC this year, that does not mean that reality will bear that out. Has any one played in a LC yet? Last year at this time there were probably over 100 BR that had been held in North America. Today everyone is still sitting at 1600 ranking points and the same # of Championship points that they had the day after worlds ended. Right now we are headed to 3 weeks of Fall regionals, but very few players will participate in more then one. Then we have a few weeks of BR's. So I don't see many LC's being held until that time span has passed. Then it will be heading into November and Cities will be starting around Thanksgiving running until early January. I don't see a lot of time for LC then. after Cities we will have a few more weeks of Prereleases and then 3 more weeks of Winter Regionals. Again most players will only be participating in one event then. So not a lot of time for LC's until February. There may be a few but then everyone will be gearing up for 3 weeks of States in March. Then in April we will have 2 more weeks of Prereleases and shortly after that 3 more weeks of Spring regionals. Then we will have some time for LC before Nats and Worlds, but will anyone care about them by then?

I really do not expect there to actually be more LC events held this year then Fall and Spring BR's that were held last year in North America. But I do hope I am wrong, as I enjoy playing, but I just do not see when they will be taking place in the Pokémon season.
 
FirestormXVI said:
By that same logic I guess nobody will be having any League Tournaments either because there just isn't any time.
Click to expand...

Actually in regards to that, since really not that large a portion of local players travel (a lot do, but far more remain at home), around regionals and States when the larger tournaments are going on I think would be a decent opportunity to run an LC, which I think is part of the rationale behind not requiring a PTO.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top