Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Points Required to Qualify for the World Championships: 500 CP for Masters? WHAT!

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30 in NA. At least, based on the pages that I can find. You might be talking about US only. Don't forget that CA and MX exist.
 
Wow, leave the easiest division with the least competition at 400 CP but increase Masters by 100. Okay.
 
I'm very disappointed to hear this news. The goal of reaching the World Championships looks unattainable to those of us who live in areas with fewer events. It was hard enough for our players to get an invite at 400 CP and at 500 I can see people just not bothering at all. I understand that this year's World Championships may have been larger than ideal for TPCi, but I don't think North America was the issue.

You had 74 North American players in the Masters Division at Worlds last year. With this change, there would have been 30.
You had 94 European and African players in the Masters Division qualify for Worlds last year. With this change there would have been 60.

I think this new point total affects one region far more than the other and I'm not sure why they currently have the same bar considering their geograhical differences.

Also keep in mind that the Last Chance For Championship Points event only happens at US Nationals. If I were to compete in TCG this season, I feel like a Canadian player would have to play at both Canadian Nationals and US Nationals for a chance at an invite if I don't Top 4. For someone in British Columbia, that is $1000 in airfare. What incentive is there to do that instead of just skipping the season and playing in the Last Chance Qualifier?

It would also be nice to know if we get any sort of travel award this year considering the Top 100 seems to be reserved for Americans yet we will still be playing in events on both sides of the border with entry fees if we are to be expected to get anywhere close to an invite.
 
I don't see any good reason for this move.

Having more worlds qualifiers doesn't appear to cost Pokemon much money, since the CP invites are not paid.

Worlds 2013 had a good competitive balance: 200 players but all 6-2s got in and almost zero 5-3s. This was a GREAT division as 6-2 should always get in and 5-3 probably doesn't deserve it.

The 2012-2013 chase for 400 points was already hard enough. It got the right number of players (see above). Its difficulty was PROVEN in that the 2013 and 3 time world champion Jason Klaczynski failed to get 400 points.


What does greatly increasing the difficulty of qualifying do? (I'm saying greatly as at least in NA it sounds like there would be ~1/3 of the players qualified when you factor in worlds-based 500 points)

-Combined with the splitting up of regionals dates, competitive players will feel compelled to travel to extra regionals. These extra regionals will be flights and much more expensive than the '3 closest' regionals of last year. Players will thus be paying a lot more, but Pokemon doesn't really profit from this as directly. (When you compare airfare costs to an extra registration fee, which just goes into the prizes theoretically anyways)

-BR/LCs become more important because players will need everything.

-You wind up with the players still going for the invite much shorter in the wallet. You'll also wind up with other players sensing this and outright quitting, or at least becoming less competitive, which will make them spend less on cards and tournaments. Now at these LCs you will really have the few uber-competitive players in the chase and a growing number of players becoming uninterested in the points. Is this what you want to bring to league?


I don't see where Pokemon gains in any of this. What is the motivation for a smaller worlds given all of the above? A more competitive tournament, maybe. But as stated above, the numbers worked out very well. If Jason K couldn't get 400 points, many quality players will miss in this system. This system may very well just reward those who pay to travel. (Obviously true before, but why continue in this direction? Pokemon doesn't make money off the airlines.)

I'm excited for worlds now with 2/3 (with hopefully more than 50 minutes), but this invite system looks like it could dangerously change into a money-based lottery. I could see a small increase in CP to keep worlds at 150-200 players but this is far too much. I would love to hear why this move was implemented.


Worlds can be improved honestly. I would love to see Pokemon continue with a long day 1 for masters (not past midnight, but maybe to 10) but then actually play all day day 2 instead of just top 4. Make time for 2/3, make time for enough swiss rounds etc. It would be a truly amazing worlds. I had hopes for this after they went ahead with a long day 1 this past summer. It sounds like instead of doing that, Pokemon is just going to make worlds smaller and lead to all of the problems above, which players will deal with all year, not just at worlds.
 
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I just wanted to touch quickly on the weighting of US Nationals on all this. I really like what was done for Nationals in the video game this year where the CP now more appropriately represents the difficulty and size of the event. It was a big sticking point last year and the response to the change was overwhelmingly positive from the playerbase.

Right now, the TCG CP count below Top 8 is horribly out of line with the difficulty and size of the US National Championships. I strongly believe that Top 16 at Nationals with ~1000 players should not be worth less than Top 8 at a Regional. The community would definitely appreciate getting rewarded with a more appropriate amount of Championship Points at Nationals.

I was very happy with every change announced at the beginning of the season and I was looking forward to playing, but the news today has definitely dampened my spirits.
 
This is EXTREMELY disappointing. I am a newer player who was looking to try to obtain his invite this year. Now, with the CP threshold set so high, I have absolutely no chance of getting it. I'd have to travel to every Regional, State, City, etc. and do well at all of them to even have a SHOT of getting 500. Unfortunately, I'm not made of money, so this is impossible. TPCi just lost a huge portion of its' Master's player base who cannot afford to travel/pay the fee to play in the ridiculous amount of tournaments needed to earn an invite now.

Harrison Leven, last year's Master's 2nd Place Finisher, had an outstanding season, getting 2nd at a Regional, Top 4 at another, Top 128 at Nationals, and Top 4 at a States, along with other achievements. He didn't even reach 500 CP, he only had 492! That just shows how hard getting an invite will be.

TPCi, I hope you change your invite structure soon. I love Pokemon and I love the community, but this might just force me to quit the game I love.
 
When regional dates were announced, it seemed that there would be a regional on 3 different weekends, for 3 regional sessions. This lead to the joke of, "I wonder who's rich enough to go to all 9 regionals." Now, though, it feels like people /have/ to travel to more than 3, which is just financially devastating.

As an example, if someone got perfect BFL for LCs and CCs (not an easy task), won a states, and came second at a regional (a ridiculous season overall) they wouldn't have an invite.

It's odd because, even though I hate to have to resort to the perpetual argument, the masters CP increased while the juniors did not, and seniors point requirements increased less. This is not to say that seniors can't be good, as we've seen they can be. However, when you have the same number of tournaments, with the same CP rewards, and MORE players, that's the same number of points being distributed over a larger number of people, meaning that people will have less points. This natural handicap due to size already makes masters very difficult to qualify, even ignoring competition, compared to a senior or junior division where there are less people at tournaments. While this is attempted to be balanced out by kickers, it honestly isn't significant due to the fact that with these numbers people need to MAX their BFLs in top positions, and doing decent (such as top 4) at many events won't cut it.
 
Some interesting facts:

3 out of 4 (James Good, Simon Narode, Dustin Zimmerman) of the Top 4 in Masters this year at Worlds had less than 500 points. (And the 4th got in through the LCQ!)

Only 30 Masters in North America would have gotten an invite with this new CP bar for Worlds.

Roughly half of the players with over 500 CP had gotten some of those CP from Worlds in 2012. (This may be my biggest complaint here)

Basically, this is stupid.

Oh, and to top it off, we still only get 80 CP for Top 16 at Nationals. Are you kidding me?
 
This news is absolutely devastating. I have been playing this TCG since 09 and had to take a small hiatus d ue to funds and starting college. Now that I am finally on my own two feet I spend the money to buy cards once again, spend time testing new decks, only to discover that now on top of entry fees, I am also having to go to a ton of tournaments to qualify. I was already preparing for the difficulty of getting the invite, now it's just ridiculously out of hand.

It's easily over $1000 just to TRAVEL to all of these regionals. Now you expect college students to pay entry fees on top of this? Absurd. Whoever came up with the idea to raise the point requirement is a moron. It's very disappointing. I am very unsure of whether I will be able to pay all of this money. Luckily, I fly for free. But for other players, I really feel for them. It's very disappointing. TPCI, you messed up big time. I hope you correct this mistake before you lose all your masters players...but clearly that's what you guys want to do.
 
If you thought cheating was bad this year just wait until everyone is looking to maximize points and multiple boxes are on the line.
 
LOL, it's like TPCi kicks Mexico in the nuts with every update!

- 9 dates for Regionals? Mexico gets none.
- 400 CP requirement makes it so you need an unrealistic season to qualify? Well not it's 500.
- CC Marathons? Mexico gets none.

Too bad nobody cares. 10 season since Nintendo took over, Mexico still gets less and our requirements stay the same.

At least if the game wasn't dumbed down to the level it is now, the deserving players would make it. If last season was any indication, it'll be a crap shoot all over again.
 
This has already been touched on some, but if the requirement is 500 Championship Points then the points for each event should have been increased. The one thing that still sticks out after a few years is U.S. Nationals vs. other events. 9th at U.S. Nationals is 80 points while 9th at a Regional is 50 points. This defies all logic. There are now at least 15 (20?) Regionals? You're telling me that is the best point total you can come up with, TPCI? Come on now. I can't even see a legitimate argument for this.

This doesn't just affect the U.S., either. Europeans are forced to get 500 CP, too. It's just bad for virtually everyone that is a Master. It's almost as if we are headed towards 10- and 11-14 age divisions with the 15+ being held in a closed room and the janitor witnessing Chuck win "Worlds" again. This is a sad, sad day for Pokemon.
 
Everyone is missing the genius plan here: TPCI wants mo' money, mo' money, mo' money. Step 1, start charging $20 a head for regionals. Step 2, offer 3 times as many regionals, where you can pay $20 each time. Step 3, make it so you have to go to multiple regionals each of the three seasons if you have any hope of going to Worlds. Cha-ching! Naaaaah?
 
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I could put a strong logical argument for why this is bad, but I will just put my own emotional response to this, as I feel that is all that needs to be said. I was excited to go out this season and try to get my 400 points. It's not easy, but it is doable. 500 points is ridiculous. If you say get 1st at 2 LC's, and top 4 at 4 more, you end up with 70 point from those. 1st, 2nd, and two top 4's at cities, you get 150, and are sitting at 220 points and still need 280 points for the invite. Winning a regionals and a state championship would net me 220 points, so I would still need to do well at another large event or two of them to get those last 60 points still. All of the above is a great season in its own right, but it still isn't good enough. As a result, I view obtaining 500 points to be highly unrealistic, and as a result, I will not pursue it, and will not travel very far for tournaments.

This will mean I will spend less time and money on playing Pokemon this year then in the past. It's evident most players feel the same way. If less players are spending money on the game, that will have a negative impact on the stores that sell Pokemon cards and support the game, making them less likely to support it in the future, all having a large negative spiral effect on the game.

If you want to keep the game healthy, the threshold needs to be dropped at least 80 points, otherwise people will just start playing less and spend less money on the game and stores will stop supporting it.
 
I agree with what Ross has already written out on the subject of NA Masters needing 500 CP to qualify for worlds, but I would also like to inquire as to why this move was made.

Most would agree that the prize support for Pokemon events is pretty poor... which was always excusable because the events were free. So everything we earned was seen as a bonus anyways. Many players, myself included, justify their time, money and effort spent on the game by attempting to qualify for the World championships, arguably one of the biggest milestones in a competitive players career.

Now, major premiere events cost money to enter. This is fine, however, I was not thrilled to hear that the prize support would consist of increased booster packs. Obviously, players earning the booster packs through the prizes have anything they would need to compete at the top level of play, and don't really care for the extra cards.

With the cost to play at premiere events, however, I was excited to hear that Pokemon would be giving out travel stipends to the top 100 CP going into Nationals.
(Though the details of this still remain unclear).

Now that Worlds is a much more difficult goal for players to look forward to, as it is a far less attainable goal than before, my wonder is if Pokemon is trying to push for Nationals and the stipend to be players' "Carrot on a stick" throughout the season, with Worlds being something that only a select and lucky few, (with arguably the biggest budgets) get to make a run for.

Having invested much of my life, time, and money into this game, (which is absolutely required to do well), I wish there was just better communication about why certain decisions were being made.
 
My wife and I sat down months ago and decided we would put energy, money, and time into the competitive side of this game -- partly for the friendships, but also for the glory. I love the competitive drive that exists within the Pokemon TCG; it's the main part of the game that is "fun" for me. When I look back at my accomplishments in the game, I'm very proud to know that I rose to the top even amidst such talented players. With this in mind, many players (myself included) dream of competing at the World Championships. With a 500 CP requirement, that dream zooms way out of focus, and it's seriously forcing me to rethink my approach to the game this year.

Emotions aside, this decision seems to be popular for those wanting a "smaller, more exclusive World Championship." As many have stated, Worlds last season went very well. I hope TPCi received some compliments for that job well done, because it seemed to be the perfect number of competitors, and I greatly enjoyed watching the stream from home. But why make a 2-day event more manageable at the cost of an entire season for players, especially when things at Worlds last season (with the 400 CP requirement) went smoothly?

I just want to be given a strong reason to invest in the single social hobby I deeply, deeply enjoy. All the news for this upcoming season has been great (it's been a catalyst for me getting back into the swing of competitive play) until this one. Unfortunately, this is a decision that eclipses the entire season. That number is just too high, and it's discouraging from a competitive player's point of view. :(

PS -- Ross said a whole lot of what I wanted to say.
 
I agree and find myself in a situation where I am about to leave this game. Just when TPCi "starts" to head in the right direction, they do this. I think there may be a record low in terms of attendance. I have and will always say, this game is headed into an unsanctioned situation. Kind of like the "KO". I really wish for just 1 year, instead of hating and talking on TPCi we actually DO something. Imagine for a whole season the competitive players and regular league and casual players stood up and said, "enough is enough" and didn't play at league, states, cities, regionals, nationals, or worlds. It is crazy to think it would be possible for such a thing to happen. But in the same breath it shows dedication for this game, that even under the MOST horrible decisions TPCi hammers down, we STILL play the game. Yet in TPCi's eyes, they don't care. At the end if the day for TPCi it's "Nana Nana boo boo".

I'm so frustrated at the game I love by how it is being ran.
 
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