Pooka
Master Trainer
Hey everybody, you may or may not know me, but I'm Kyle Sucevich, otherwise known as Pooka. I've been playing this game since Base Set, and I'll be playing it as long as it exists. When it comes down to it, I love Pokemon, and I want to see it grow and thrive. Right now there is great potential for the Pokemon TCG to become much larger than it currently is, and it's time to do something about it.
For a game to grow, eventually it needs coverage and accessibility by a public audience. Unfortunately, Pokemon just doesn't have much of that. Wouldn't you like to know what's happening at the big tournaments if you aren't there? Don't you want to know what decks are doing well, who's winning, and how the event is going is general? As of right now, the only way to find these things out is to wait for somebody to post on a thread in PokeGym, and sometimes that doesn't happen for hours!
Well, it's time to change that. At US Nationals 2011, I will be working with a few others to provide coverage and updates as the event is happening. The four of us who are starting this initiative to grow the game are Michael Pramawat, Drew Holton, Josue "Criminal" Rojano, and myself. To give a background for each of us, Pram was the 2nd place finisher at Worlds 2010, Drew took 2nd at US Nationals 2008, Crim is an old school player who took 3rd at the 2001 STS, and I won US Nationals in 2009. So, we are all experienced players who know Pokemon quite well and want to make the game we love better for everyone. To keep it simple, we decided to name ourselves "The Top Cut."
What does The Top Cut plan on doing? At Nationals, we plan on doing real-time updates online followed by uploading videos later in the day. Some of this content includes interviews with popular players, information on what decks are performing well, and much more. Before the event, the four of us will discuss our predictions about the event, including which players and decks we expect to do well. As the tournament goes on, we will give our predictions on who will win based on the tournament bracket that develops in the later stages of the tournament. Ultimately, we want to make it so people who can't experience the event live know exactly what is happening as the event is going on and provide commentary from some of the game's best players.
In addition to Nationals coverage, we are working on delivering more high-level material in the form of streaming and videos; everything is free and simple to watch. Currently we have a few videos that give a glimpse of what we're aspiring towards, but we're a little rough around the edges right now. For example, we streamed and recorded a playtesting session between Drew and Andrew Mondak so people could watch two good players duke it out. In addition, we have a video of a game being played with commentators explaining the game state and what's happening, very similar to watching sports on TV. Finally, we are running a show online every week where the four of us and a guest just sit down and talk about current events in the Pokemon world. Last week we invited Josef "Bolt" Bolton to discuss the strength of Stage 1 decks as opposed to Stage 2 decks in the HS-on format. Every week we'll have a new topic to discuss and a new guest as well. So, even when there aren't tournaments going on, we'll be producing content in other forms.
I'm posting this here on PokeGym to get feedback. Is this something you're interested in? Do you have suggestions for what you'd like to see? How can we improve what we're doing? If you have any questions or comments, you can post here, PM me, or e-mail us at [email protected]. We take all feedback very seriously and want to make this great, but we need help because we're new at this. If you love this game as much as we do and want to see it grow into something even better, please support us and spread the word. Thank you!
For a game to grow, eventually it needs coverage and accessibility by a public audience. Unfortunately, Pokemon just doesn't have much of that. Wouldn't you like to know what's happening at the big tournaments if you aren't there? Don't you want to know what decks are doing well, who's winning, and how the event is going is general? As of right now, the only way to find these things out is to wait for somebody to post on a thread in PokeGym, and sometimes that doesn't happen for hours!
Well, it's time to change that. At US Nationals 2011, I will be working with a few others to provide coverage and updates as the event is happening. The four of us who are starting this initiative to grow the game are Michael Pramawat, Drew Holton, Josue "Criminal" Rojano, and myself. To give a background for each of us, Pram was the 2nd place finisher at Worlds 2010, Drew took 2nd at US Nationals 2008, Crim is an old school player who took 3rd at the 2001 STS, and I won US Nationals in 2009. So, we are all experienced players who know Pokemon quite well and want to make the game we love better for everyone. To keep it simple, we decided to name ourselves "The Top Cut."
What does The Top Cut plan on doing? At Nationals, we plan on doing real-time updates online followed by uploading videos later in the day. Some of this content includes interviews with popular players, information on what decks are performing well, and much more. Before the event, the four of us will discuss our predictions about the event, including which players and decks we expect to do well. As the tournament goes on, we will give our predictions on who will win based on the tournament bracket that develops in the later stages of the tournament. Ultimately, we want to make it so people who can't experience the event live know exactly what is happening as the event is going on and provide commentary from some of the game's best players.
In addition to Nationals coverage, we are working on delivering more high-level material in the form of streaming and videos; everything is free and simple to watch. Currently we have a few videos that give a glimpse of what we're aspiring towards, but we're a little rough around the edges right now. For example, we streamed and recorded a playtesting session between Drew and Andrew Mondak so people could watch two good players duke it out. In addition, we have a video of a game being played with commentators explaining the game state and what's happening, very similar to watching sports on TV. Finally, we are running a show online every week where the four of us and a guest just sit down and talk about current events in the Pokemon world. Last week we invited Josef "Bolt" Bolton to discuss the strength of Stage 1 decks as opposed to Stage 2 decks in the HS-on format. Every week we'll have a new topic to discuss and a new guest as well. So, even when there aren't tournaments going on, we'll be producing content in other forms.
I'm posting this here on PokeGym to get feedback. Is this something you're interested in? Do you have suggestions for what you'd like to see? How can we improve what we're doing? If you have any questions or comments, you can post here, PM me, or e-mail us at [email protected]. We take all feedback very seriously and want to make this great, but we need help because we're new at this. If you love this game as much as we do and want to see it grow into something even better, please support us and spread the word. Thank you!
Constant updates/videos/ect. I think the biggest mistake you could make is not having enough content, or having long periods of odd "silence" during big events. 
