BLiZzArD
New Member
I was driving 6 other passengers to the event when one of my passengers needed his insulin (diabetes) and we were forced to turn around. This gave us a bit of a time issue, and after hitting literally every red light we possibly could, we ultimately ended up being 2 minutes and 37 seconds late. My wife was the Head Judge and we kept in close contact with her throughout this entire time, so she knew that we were running a bit late. Granted, we did assume we were going to be there on time (before we hit all the red lights) and as such, told her we would be there.
We did show up late, this is our fault, regardless of our reasons. I understand that it was posted that the P.T.O. reserved the right to refuse us to enter the tournament. However, knowing that she had never actually gone that far, and given all of our track records for never showing up late, I do feel that this was absolutely uncalled for. Personal reasons or not, I don't believe a P.T.O. should ever enforce that rule without at least a previous warning for having been late before.
The fact of the matter is that we had three traveling players, one from southern Arizona (3.5 hours), one from So Cal (5.5 hours), and finally one from New Mexico (9 hours). These players, along with us locals all took a lot of time out of our daily life schedules to participate in this event, this is something that can never be given back to us. I can speak for all of us when I say that we were truly hurt when the ruling was given out, and we did what we could do to overturn it. Unfortunately, nothing could be done, and that's that.
The P.T.O. claims that she was never aware about the medical issue, and if that's so, then that is unfortunate. The diabetic passenger did tell the new head judge (my wife, the head judge before this debacle, quit after the ruling was passed) and we as a team tried to get through to the P.T.O. but she wouldn't hear our case out.
There were also 2 players there, an 11 year old girl and her older brother, who were 6 minutes late. I had the privilege to speak to them both, and they mentioned they started playing the game in August of last year. I’ve been in this game long enough to understand that what was done to us is completely unjustifiable, but even worse; it was also done to the players that we are trying to promote this game to. These are the players who will help our great game grow, the players who we all love to see come to events because it tells us that this game is not dying out; it’s still growing after 10+ years! As a group we all hung around outside of the event and spoke to the newer players and explained that this has never happened and that we hoped it’d never happen again, and we did what we could to encourage them to continue to come to these events. We played some games with them and after a while we all called it a day and went home.
This is another point I’m trying to make. The people she turned away aren’t “the scum of Pokémon” but rather, we do everything in our power to promote the game and make this a fun environment for everyone. It really made me proud to see how even in the midst of everything, my friends gathered together and had fun and chatted with the 2 other players who were denied entry to the event. This is why I play this game, because of the great friendships we create and the great people this game attracts.
Ultimately, I'm just sad that the traveling players weren't allowed to play in this event. Since they all stayed with me and I was driving, I feel personally responsible for the tragedy. However, I don't believe that this ruling was fair by any means, and I will never agree with what was done. We can't change it, what's done is done, but I would just feel very bad if this ever happened to anyone again. Because we didn't just miss out on the event, we lost all of the hours we spent preparing for the event, and some of us lost a lot of time driving to the event and a lot of money was spent traveling. None of this will ever be given back to us, and what's saddest is that this was all done because of 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
BLiZz
We did show up late, this is our fault, regardless of our reasons. I understand that it was posted that the P.T.O. reserved the right to refuse us to enter the tournament. However, knowing that she had never actually gone that far, and given all of our track records for never showing up late, I do feel that this was absolutely uncalled for. Personal reasons or not, I don't believe a P.T.O. should ever enforce that rule without at least a previous warning for having been late before.
The fact of the matter is that we had three traveling players, one from southern Arizona (3.5 hours), one from So Cal (5.5 hours), and finally one from New Mexico (9 hours). These players, along with us locals all took a lot of time out of our daily life schedules to participate in this event, this is something that can never be given back to us. I can speak for all of us when I say that we were truly hurt when the ruling was given out, and we did what we could do to overturn it. Unfortunately, nothing could be done, and that's that.
The P.T.O. claims that she was never aware about the medical issue, and if that's so, then that is unfortunate. The diabetic passenger did tell the new head judge (my wife, the head judge before this debacle, quit after the ruling was passed) and we as a team tried to get through to the P.T.O. but she wouldn't hear our case out.
There were also 2 players there, an 11 year old girl and her older brother, who were 6 minutes late. I had the privilege to speak to them both, and they mentioned they started playing the game in August of last year. I’ve been in this game long enough to understand that what was done to us is completely unjustifiable, but even worse; it was also done to the players that we are trying to promote this game to. These are the players who will help our great game grow, the players who we all love to see come to events because it tells us that this game is not dying out; it’s still growing after 10+ years! As a group we all hung around outside of the event and spoke to the newer players and explained that this has never happened and that we hoped it’d never happen again, and we did what we could to encourage them to continue to come to these events. We played some games with them and after a while we all called it a day and went home.
This is another point I’m trying to make. The people she turned away aren’t “the scum of Pokémon” but rather, we do everything in our power to promote the game and make this a fun environment for everyone. It really made me proud to see how even in the midst of everything, my friends gathered together and had fun and chatted with the 2 other players who were denied entry to the event. This is why I play this game, because of the great friendships we create and the great people this game attracts.
Ultimately, I'm just sad that the traveling players weren't allowed to play in this event. Since they all stayed with me and I was driving, I feel personally responsible for the tragedy. However, I don't believe that this ruling was fair by any means, and I will never agree with what was done. We can't change it, what's done is done, but I would just feel very bad if this ever happened to anyone again. Because we didn't just miss out on the event, we lost all of the hours we spent preparing for the event, and some of us lost a lot of time driving to the event and a lot of money was spent traveling. None of this will ever be given back to us, and what's saddest is that this was all done because of 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
BLiZz
Last edited: