Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

The case for pre-releases

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rokman

rokman

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Pre-releases across the country have raised their prices for the recent set. People are complaining, left and right, and PTOs are trying very hard to keep a positive attitude about the whole situation...

Does anyone remember when Pre-releases were $20 and you could WIN AN ENTIRE BOX for winning the tournament? Yes, pre-releases used to be serious business.

Now they are $30, and nothing but a waste of time so you can get your packs. Nobody cares about playing and most of the competitive players either skip pre-releases all together, or just make a 1 pokemon 39 energy deck and after 2 rounds, drop and get their extra packs.

How about this, lets give a prize back to the winner, it doesn't have to be a whole box, but how about half a box? $30 for each player, and the winner of the tournament gets 16 packs.

This would do so much for the players of the game, making the pre-release competitive again, as well as giving people an incentive to want to even GO to the pre-release.

Just an idea...
 
wasnt it alot cheaper back then? they have to oragnize and pay for the boxes (the PTOS) $30 is barley covering the boxes ... the PR i went to today had like 14 people when last time there was well into 50 or 60. yes it would be awesome to get a decent amount of prize packs for winning...not just saying that because I got first today and got utter crap in all 8 of my packs and all 5 of my draft packs also...
 
The problems with this idea have been stated a bunch. If you add actual prizes(18 packs to the winner) its gonna bring cheaters, there will NEED to be deck registrations, redistribution after registrations, and the explanation to little kids as to why they are not allowed to keep the shiny new cards they pulled. The fact that pokemon isnt(and never will be) built to make sealed competitive is also a reason to keep it fun and just give 8 packs fir your 30 bucks. Prereleases are more about the fun then the competitive aspect. The only addition i could see is +1 pack to anyone unbeaten after 3 rounds.
 
There's this little thing called inflation...

Yes, prereleases used to be $20. However, packs didn't used to retail for $4 apiece. Times move on, prices go up. It's a fact of life.

As for having prizes, there used to be huge problems with cheating. Either a player would find the set early and bring in good cards to use in their deck, or they would trade on the sly at the prerelease to have a more coherent deck. The results were the rule abiders going in with 1-3-1 evolutionary lines while the cheaters had 4-4-4 lines. It was not good, to say the least.

Now, I would support a SMALL prize for first or top two, but I think even half a box would be too much. Remember, you've got three divisions, so that would be a box and a half given out for free, when PTOs just barely had to increase the price to cover their cost. You'd like to see prizes, but would you pay $35 instead of $30 for it?

Another thing to consider are the ratios in this set. Time will tell if the ratios will stay steady, but so far it's looking like 6ish Ultra Rares per box. Remember Black & White, where there were only 2? You're still getting a better deal. With 6 URs per box, that means on average every player gets one. Factor that in to the price, and suddenly $30 is a lot more appealing.
 
I actually saw someone playing full on 30-card Garchomp/Altaria at the DRX prerelease I went to.

It actually happened.
 
rokman said:
How can you cheat at a pre-release?
Click to expand...

Go to a prerelease
Go to another prerelease and bring the cards from the other prerelease with you.

Build a deck using the cards you have.



Prereleases are an entry level tournament.



If you want prizes, do a draft.
 
The real question is:

Who's ripping off our TO's? I can go out and pick up a box for $95 easy, maybe even $90. That means each pack costs 2.64 (in the case of the $95 box). Each player used to pay $25 for 8 total packs with a net value in this case of $21.12. I can't imagine that Pokemon makes the TO pay too much for the stack of promos and deckboxes, but if they do, that's understandable I guess.

Also, that $95 I mentioned for the box is the price that the reseller charges. They have to make a profit off of that price, so the boxes that the TO get from Pokemon should be even cheaper than that, right?

And before I offend anyone, I want to apologize if I have any of my facts wrong. Most of us don't know that goes on behind the scenes (which is a flaw in this game in some ways but alas) so I very well could be misrepresenting the truth here.
 
Bigbowlr1037 said:
The problems with this idea have been stated a bunch. If you add actual prizes(18 packs to the winner) its gonna bring cheaters, there will NEED to be deck registrations, redistribution after registrations, and the explanation to little kids as to why they are not allowed to keep the shiny new cards they pulled. The fact that pokemon isnt(and never will be) built to make sealed competitive is also a reason to keep it fun and just give 8 packs fir your 30 bucks. Prereleases are more about the fun then the competitive aspect. The only addition i could see is +1 pack to anyone unbeaten after 3 rounds.
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what are you talking about? lmao....
why wouldnt they get to keep their cards?

bottom of the line, if PRs are a joke people.
waste of time and money.
do what all the smart people do.
go in and buy a case by yourself, or throw down with 2-3 other people on a case.
hand out even playsets of each of the commons and uncommons. RESELL the massive amounts of
crap cards you no longer need and make a small percentage back. getting nearly all the cards you want
minus the major playsets of all the ex's, that you can trade for later.
that is the easiest and most consistent route.
 
Seems kind of redundant Weldon.

We faced a perfect storm of crappy situations with this set.

Prerelease held early (singapore)
Price increase
Removal of key cards
Halloween parties

I feel confident that the next set will show that it isnt as bad as many of you are making it out to be. It may simply be that prereleases are no longer an event that is tailored to you or your situation. This doesnt neccesarily mean somethings wrong with them. Accepting that may be what has to be done for you to get over it.

Jimmy
 
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Prizes would be nice, but prereleases are fun for me. For those just into crunching the numbers and all that, then do the economical thing and buy a box... Or spend your money on something other than trading cards.
 
rileysill32 said:
what are you talking about? lmao....
why wouldnt they get to keep their cards?
Click to expand...

He's talking about redistribution after opening. Some PTO's had one person open the packs, write down every card, and then shuffled those lists up and redistributed them, in order to discourage cheating - You have no reason to write extra cards on the list since it's going to someone else, and you have a list in someone else's handwriting limiting the cards available to you, so no opportunity to cheat.
 
ShuckleLVX said:
He's talking about redistribution after opening. Some PTO's had one person open the packs, write down every card, and then shuffled those lists up and redistributed them, in order to discourage cheating - You have no reason to write extra cards on the list since it's going to someone else, and you have a list in someone else's handwriting limiting the cards available to you, so no opportunity to cheat.
Click to expand...

Wow, that would completely ruin it for me. If I pulled something awesome and had to give it away, you might see a big black guy cry.
 
I just wish we got sleeves back. Deck boxes are cool but I really liked the sleeves.

A step in the right direction has been the more playable promos. Last set we got Altaria, this set's Flygon isn't too bad. It's way better than the random pre-evolution promos we used to get.
 
Gee, I mean is it really so hard for judges to police not bringing extra cards into the event? No jackets, binders, and backpacks in the tournament area, no extra decks or cards on the table, build your decks and put away your extras, and no trading. Two judges for 20-25 tables, how hard can it really be? I'd like to see small prizes, a few packs, but I realize that these tournaments are barely running at breakeven as it is.
 
You cannot offer any kind of prizes. Cheating will be rampant. PTOs will have to make players do deck lists and card swaps after cataloging what cards were opened. Victory Cup promos at BRs and "trophy items" at CCs and the championship points associated with both cannot compare to "winner" pins and "winner" stamped promos. The re-introduction of such items will warp what is supposed to be a fun event into uncontrollable competition. Prereleases are about fun. If you want pins, go to league :thumb:.

There, I think I covered all the bases :rolleyes:.

The only leg prereleases have to stand on right now is that they offer a Play! Point. That one Play! Point could get you into Nats (once we know what the qualification is).
 
i like going to pre-releases because there is a fun atmosphere and no one takes it too serious.
Though i would like to see some minor prizes given out.
maybe 1 or 2 extra booster packs for top 1-3.
or top 1-3 could get the same promo card as everyone else but it's stamped "winner of pre-release" or something.
 
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