Wow, I can't believe I won't be able to attend Nationals this year. I look forward to it every year and I really enjoyed it more than Worlds last season.
I feel blessed that I was able to attend Nationals for 3 years. In those 3 years, I had a tremendous amountof fun, got to meet some amazing people from around the nation, and got to see my friends again. I look back to Nationals at Origins and feel it was one of the biggest experiences of my life, and I will never forget about it.
I won't be attending for multiple reasons. For the first 2 years, the only reason I was able to attend the event was because I had someone who wanted to go for the Origins part of the event. They didn't like Pokemon, well they did, but they didn't play anymore. But they really enjoyed Monopoly, Risk, and would play those games with their son while I did the Pokemon stuff. Now, what is there to do?
I see the event has gotten smaller-time wise too. It's practically the same time period of Worlds. A little on Friday, it really starts on Saturday, and ends on Sunday. One of the things I like so much about Nationals at Origins was that it started on Thursday, and kept going for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was literally 2 days longer than Worlds, and to me, those 2 days were so priceless. Those were 2 more days I could play in the league and earn cool prizes. Those were 2 more days I could chat with my Poke-friends and those were 2 more days when I could be surrounded by one the things I love the most, the Pokemon Trading Card Game.
I am saddened to see this change, because I still felt it was possible to maybe talk my friend into going to Origins again next year, but it won't matter now.
I hope the tournament brings in the numbers PUI is expecting, because I honestly feel we will see 1/3 the attendance because of the move. I feel Origins really brought in a lot of random new players to play in nationals each year, and I feel Origins was a great hub for all the players of this game to get together and reconnect over games and have fun doing other stuff too. Nationals in MO is worst of both worlds. It's an only-Pokemon event, and there will be no random new players to introduce to the game. The only people that will be there are those that play the card game already or live very close to it and heard about it on the news or newspaper.
Good luck Nationals in your new location. Maybe I can see you again in 2 years...if I am still playing Pokemon then.
edit: Before some of my statements sound weird, I just found out that it is St. Louis, MO, not St. Louis, MI. Why isn't Missouri MI? ARG!