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Thoughts on 2 day Regional.. As seen by Jimmy Ballard...

For a long time, I have thought that Regionals should be a two day event. As a judge / player / parent I can empathize with most of the sentiments expressed above. However one issue has been overlooked which I think is greatly improved by a two day event is the quality of judging, particularly for the overlap between the final rounds of Master's Swiss and start of the Junior / Senior Top Cut.

As numerous posters in favour of the 1-day event have brought up, in order to not have the Juniors Top 2 start well past bedtime, we normally find ourselves starting the Juniors and often Seniors at the start of R7 Master's Swiss. The problem here is that with only one or two rounds to Top Cut in the Masters, the number of judge calls skyrockets during this round in the Master's which draws away judging staff from the Top Cut in Seniors and Juniors. Sure in an ideal world this shouldn't happen, but this isn't Nationals where we have a largest pool of Judges to draw from. Without a high active judge to player ratio at the start of particularly the Juniors Top Cut, we inevitably get a game or two with irreversible game states, which could have been easily avoided with proper judging. Also as a judge, having already worked 8 - 10 hours, I'm not at my best to be dealing with this crush of judge requests ... maybe that's just me, but there is a reason that various professions regulate the number of hours that can be worked at a stretch ... particularly where judgement is a key component of performing the job safely and effectively.

Even in our market with R7 Swiss + Top 16 Masters, I would most strongly prefer a two day event, particularly with the Sunday start for Seniors and Juniors (having to deal with registration for half the participants on one day and the other on the second alone makes this a great idea). For R8 + 32, I can't see myself signing up to judge that in a single day.
 
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Overall I lean towards support of making Regionals 2 days.

I like some of the points that Ugly Psyducky brings up above ... but I have a lingering thought. My two Juniors play. I play. My wife typically works as a runner at larger events like Regionals. So if Masters Swiss is Saturday and Juniors/Seniors have Sunday ... then what will my kids do on Saturaday while my wife works and I play? Yeah they could just hang out I guess but it seems like it would be even better if there were some sort of side events for them or something like that nationals table that had kids activities. Even just an area where they could play or read would be helpful in my case ... but then that's an impact on budget, staffing, and and such.
 
Notice how New England, the experimental two day regional region had a very low attendance compared to the other regions
 
My foresite says that attendence will ultimately suffer if events are planned for two days.

Yes, us here on the Pokegym, you are going to get different opinions, because we are all gong-ho for pokemon. High segment of the families here top cut and the like. We can't get enough of pokemon.

But I think this won't work if the event is only a REGIONAL that is two days, and 2nd day is just "top cut", IF YOU MAKE IT. Ultimately, when majority of the folks are out of the top cut by 6PM, they are wondering why they are sticking around for another day, when they could have easily driven home. The experience, and the feeling of holding your entire weekend hostage won't be too exciting for the adults who are responsible for the transport, personal family trip planning, and expense of the pokemon.

IF the event becomes a mini Nationals, with side events and other events on 2nd day so that the majority of the people ARE NOT DISAPPOINTED, maybe, but then who is going to staff this, how will that staff be compensated, who pays these and facilities costs? Again, only if the 2nd day is a complete waste of time, and quality and properly STAFFED non top cut event could a 2nd regionals day work for the entire audience.

One solution to nightmare long days are to have stated limits to rounds and cuts regardless of the attendence. Does anyone really cares if there are three 7-0's in top cut? I am a math and statistics guys, some numbers matter, and some don't. This binomial rule for rounds in a match, is something that needs to have some up to a maximum event limit applied to it. 8 swiss / Top 32 7 swiss top 16, or whatever...., using attendence for minimum is fine, but logic and logistics needs to apply the maximum rounds.

The strick enforcement of the "binomial" rule of rounds and top cut is silly. Honestly, has anyone thought about that.
 
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Just start registration earlier. Why is this so difficult for people to comprehend. If we're playing by 9:45am, play through lunch (there's plenty of time to eat between matches), that takes 3-4 hrs off the tournament time, easily.
 
Don't most people who have to travel more than 5 hours for a regional get there a day early and leave the day after? You can't really use hotel as your argument for this. When I have to drive which is every other year due to a rotation between CO and UT I get there 1-2 days early play all day Sat and then go back sun. Its and 11 hour drive from where I live. I wouldn't mind playing top cut on Sun then Driving home.
 
ugly psyducky said:
For a long time, I have thought that Regionals should be a two day event. As a judge / player / parent I can empathize with most of the sentiments expressed above. However one issue has been overlooked which I think is greatly improved by a two day event is the quality of judging, particularly for the overlap between the final rounds of Master's Swiss and start of the Junior / Senior Top Cut.

As numerous posters in favour of the 1-day event have brought up, in order to not have the Juniors Top 2 start well past bedtime, we normally find ourselves starting the Juniors and often Seniors at the start of R7 Master's Swiss. The problem here is that with only one or two rounds to Top Cut in the Masters, the number of judge calls skyrockets during this round in the Master's which draws away judging staff from the Top Cut in Seniors and Juniors. Sure in an ideal world this shouldn't happen, but this isn't Nationals where we have a largest pool of Judges to draw from. Without a high active judge to player ratio at the start of particularly the Juniors Top Cut, we inevitably get a game or two with irreversible game states, which could have been easily avoided with proper judging. Also as a judge, having already worked 8 - 10 hours, I'm not at my best to be dealing with this crush of judge requests ... maybe that's just me, but there is a reason that various professions regulate the number of hours that can be worked at a stretch ... particularly where judgement is a key component of performing the job safely and effectively.

Even in our market with R7 Swiss + Top 16 Masters, I would most strongly prefer a two day event, particularly with the Sunday start for Seniors and Juniors (having to deal with registration for half the participants on one day and the other on the second alone makes this a great idea). For R8 + 32, I can't see myself signing up to judge that in a single day.
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Not sure where you play, but the Reg's I know of and have worked, we had staff set up for each age group. No need to call judges away from one age group to another. When the rare call/strange set of actions come up...sure, the HJ of the event may venture over to the younger age group to help out, but rarely the other way around.

Keith
 
I've never been to regionals so I'm probably not the best person to voice an opinion, BUT, I don't see any harm in at least trying a 2-day regionals out at least once. If it doesn't turn out very well then go back to a 1-day. ^^ If you really think about it most people who are willing to drive 4-5 hours are willing to stay for the entire thing. Plus you can bet you're not playing your best at 2am after a day-long marathon of playing.
 
pokemaster1970 said:
Just start registration earlier. Why is this so difficult for people to comprehend. If we're playing by 9:45am, play through lunch (there's plenty of time to eat between matches), that takes 3-4 hrs off the tournament time, easily.
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Since you're from Texas, I strongly encourage you to opine on the "thoughts on two day regional" thread Mike has posted elsewhere.

On topic: great post, SLOW DECK. Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
Regionals has been a 1 day event for xx amount of years and has worked out fine in my opinion. I think having it on Saturday and spending the night there into Sunday is good because I usually take in the local attractions on Sunday since I don't have to worry about playing. A few regionals I just went home saturday night about an hour and a half drive and saved some decent money by not getting a hotel room.
 
I will begin by stating that I don't think I ever managed to attend a Regional, because I have never lived near one that was close enough for convenience. This will sadly disqualify from commenting in some people's eyes. Ironically, it also brings up my first point:

Attending Regionals is not mandatory. If it is too difficult, do not attend. Is it a fun experience? Not, not always: we've all heard horror stories from people we trust. Adults should comprehend this, and while younger children probably won't, dealing with that is part of the downside of parenting. I apologize if that sounds harsh, but it is true.

So, if making it a two-day event means you can't participate, you can't participate. If keeping it a one day event means it runs too long and you can't participate, you can't participate. Both sides have presented some compelling arguments, but even though it's polite conversation it isn't a good debate: each side seems to just repeat its own points without actually debating them.

Despite the request that the topic be addressed as what is best for everyone in general, most of the arguments for a two-day event seem to favor individuals. I'd like to point out that attending Regionals is a privilege and the other solution no one probably wants is also the simplest and easiest: limit the maximum number of participants and/or require registering at least a week before the event!
 
Otaku said:
the other solution no one probably wants is also the simplest and easiest: limit the maximum number of participants and/or require registering at least a week before the event!
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Doing that would create a horrible experience for the walk-in, inexperienced players, and getting those players to have a great interaction with Pokemon Organized Play is a prime directive of P!P.

It would be like the Enterprise only visiting planets we already had colonies on. Not the point of the whole thing.
 
I said it was the simplest.

I never said it was a good solution. ;)

Plus, with the Prime Directive, sometimes I wonder if the Enterprise should have stuck to Federation Colonies.
 
Why can't you start registration at 8am and begin play at 9:30 am with a 45 minute lunch break at 1:30pm after 4 rounds of swiss? If you're going to have a two day event, have the overnite be on Friday, and start early on Saturday. I actually agree with Otaku on some of his points. This is Regionals, the biggest premiere event other than Nationals, so it's not a tournament for the meek and humble. Those that attend a regional championship have skins on the wall, and if somebody decides that regionals is a good tournament to begin Pokemon Play, then they're in for a very rude awakening.

My daughter's first ever tournament was the 2010 Texas State Championship, but that's only because we live 30 minutes from Dallas and had nothing to lose. We would never travel far for a huge tournament as a new player, that's called setting yourself up for failure. I also think pre-registration is a great idea. It would make deck checks go by twice as fast. You could have a table for those that have pre-registered on Friday night before the tourney, and that would take care of half your participants.
 
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