Official TPCI Pokemon Tournament 2009 | Congrats to all who participated!!

[Steven718]

i think that more people should begin to focus more on strategy and team building rather than wasting time on breeding perfect pokemon. If you think about it, anyone can use legal hacks, but only the best can apply them at a level to win at the national stage. It takes a long time to prepare and test a team, and without these convenient hacks, many players would simply run out of time to build the right team they're capable of conceiving. Some who needed to make big last minute altercations to their teams really don't have anywhere else to turn, and I can't blame them for not wasting their time.

they may just as well conduct the tournaments online using shoddy then? would be much easier to make altercations that way :naughty:

 

[slimceagirl]

Hello everyone,

I just got back from St. Louis... and I'm too tired to be sarcastically witty/random at this point. I probably won't warstory since practically everyone I faced will do so, and I don't remember much about the whole affair anyway.

My success just goes to show people that Life is Really Unfair. I owe the whole thing to Chris and my friend who came to MO with me. This weird fluke wouldn't have happened without them.

 

[Huy]

Well I just got back and I'd like to send a thank you to everyone who I had the pleasure of spending time with. This weekend was a blast and I enjoyed every minute of it.

My drive home was actually pretty depressing, knowing that I have to wait an entire year to get the chance to hang out with you guys again. Being around Jason, Paul, Huy, and Huy's brother 24/7 was a riot. Thanks for letting me stay with you guys. You can be sure that I'll return the favor next year if I'm able.

It was great meeting you man. Duy and I thoroughly enjoyed spending the weekend with you guys and it's pretty sad that we won't be able to do it again for a while.

 

[slimceagirl]

batpig: tell duy "thank you for taking pictures for me~" for me... and I'll save him a bottle of Fitz's for SD; I had some shipped to LA while I was there... you guys missed out!!

 

[Misdreavus]

To the people who received an invite to Nationals with travel accomodations:

Did you get any sort of "goodies" (for lack of a better term) when you registered, and were there any activities for you all besides the tournament? The JAA finalists got a special dinner/movie and several goodies when we had Nationals in 2006... I was wondering if they did the same thing. However, back then, Nationals was the end of the rope... there was no Worlds for people who did well there, so I won't be surprised if they save such special antics for Worlds this year.

 

[Huy]

To the people who received an invite to Nationals with travel accomodations:

Did you get any sort of "goodies" (for lack of a better term) when you registered, and were there any activities for you all besides the tournament? The JAA finalists got a special dinner/movie and several goodies when we had Nationals in 2006... I was wondering if they did the same thing. However, back then, Nationals was the end of the rope... there was no Worlds for people who did well there, so I won't be surprised if they save such special antics for Worlds this year.

The VGC was more of a TCG side event than a main event like JAA. Other than the tournament everything was TCG related.

 

[mattj]

The VGC was more of a TCG side event than a main event like JAA. Other than the tournament everything was TCG related.

They didn't even freakin have chairs for the VGC People. All the TCG People had chairs. And I know the TCG rounds took 45 mins and there were more people for the TCG ( I talked to a few) but the finals for VGC took 45 mins AND THERE WERE HUNDREDS OF FRIGGIN EMPTY CHAIRS LYING AROUND!!! 0_o Side event for sure...

having the best possible stats for a Pokemon of a certain nature doesn't necessarily mean the person who hacked a (as an example) Flawless Garchomp w/Yache or Haban can beat someone with, say, an unhacked Timid Latios with 31 Speed & SpA.

...You have NO idea how true this statement is... ;)

 

[NestW]

Props to Expert Evan for supplying 1/3 my team (=D) and Syrex for that very unfortunate hax game we had. At least it was worth a laugh huh?
See you all in san diego.

 

[Oni Spumoni]

:: kicks rocks ::

Damn you Alakapimp! I'll see you again next year. Hopefully I can Dark Void you for 5 turns again when I do. hahahaha!

 

[drug_duck]

Can anyone here support us with information on the eight Japanese players who qualified for SD?

 

[Deleted User 33526]

All we would need to do is google translate the page of the tournament and figure it out. I'll do it right now.

EDIT
Google Translate said this
Fathom what winning者TA (Yamaguchi Representative)
KIFERU runner-up (President of Shizuoka)
CHIAKI (Kagoshima Representative)
R DOM (Osaka Representative)
Cicada (Kanagawa one Representative)
For Mali (Saitama Representative)
Honest (CEO Challenge last Kantou)
Lank Grass (representing the last challenge, Kansai)

So, this doesn't really tell us much.

 

[Jumpman16]

i think that more people should begin to focus more on strategy and team building rather than wasting time on breeding perfect pokemon. If you think about it, anyone can use legal hacks, but only the best can apply them at a level to win at the national stage. It takes a long time to prepare and test a team, and without these convenient hacks, many players would simply run out of time to build the right team they're capable of conceiving. Some who needed to make big last minute altercations to their teams really don't have anywhere else to turn, and I can't blame them for not wasting their time.

I agree with all of this, "but" this should be the reason that Nintendo either allows legal hacks or actually enforces the No-Tolerance Policy they were so willing to bend in the case of Alakapimp. And "but" is in quotes there because it should really be "and", but this is obviously not the case. I don't know how you can have it both ways in a national tournaments that many, many families (mingot's daughter didn't drive herself to STL) have to devote an incredible amount of time (Omega had to drive 3100 miles roundtrip for Nashville) and money (airfare, fuel, and an unspeakable amount of "etcs" like $200 for a new tire in OD's case).

It is therefore an absolute crock of shit that a person can be disqualified for having 999 pokéballs in their bag (this happened at JAA) but that another person can talk their way out of an instance of hacking in 512 EVs that actually has competitive implications. If Alakapimp were a girl I would actually suspect some kind of sexual favors had to have been offered in exchange for leniency, and the only reason I'd hesitate to say something like that is I wouldn't want anyone to think that I am even remotely joking or saying it for shock value on the internet. Shoddy or Netbattle tournaments or ladder ratings may not be a big deal at the end of the day, and "it's just a game" can apply to any suspicions that a tourament may not have been run fairly. This does not apply to national tournaments where you have to spend hundreds of dollars and give up countless hours of your time to just advance to the next round. This isn't "just a game" when you're talking about that kind of money, that kind of time, and thousands of dollars in prizes and free trips as rewards. And that is why I am beyond disappointed in Nintendo's handling of the only Official tournaments they've held in the past three years, and why many of you should be too.

For the sake of this "rant", I'm willing to overlook Nintendo's insistence upon having their tournaments as doubles only with virtually no exception. I'm willing to ignore the fact that hundreds of families had to drive for hours for Regionals, only to be turned away at the door because of a random entry process they could do nothing about. Willing maybe to excuse the stringent Lv. 50 requirement set in place even though the cartridges have the ability to autolevel pokemon in local battles. I'm even willing to forget the fact that, after all, players weren't sent away before getting a "Shiny Nintendo Milotic" that most certainly does not almost completely defeat the entire purpose of having a shiny that is supposed to be "rare". Because this surely doesn't also ironically underscore my main point about hacking and legitimacy and how much that actually matters to competitive pokémon.

But if people really wanted some different colored UU pokemon they could have just hacked it themselves, exactly like Nintendo did. And it is beyond ridiculous to think that a shiny you hacked means enough to offset countless hours driven and countless miles traveled and countless dollars spent towards your competition, but that 999 pokéballs is enough for you to disqualify someone from your competition when it doesn't have any bearing on the actual competition. Especially because this says nothing of the countless hours of effort and thought we need to create a legitimate and great team in the first place that will pass your hack-check test so that we *might* get into your tourney.

Seriously, think about it:

Hey, would-be entrants in this Official tourney! You didn't get in because of our computer's RNG, and there's no way we could have orchestrated this part before you drove all the way up here, but here's some intangible pixels we hacked up to comfort you on your five-hour drive back!

Better luck next year—hope we don't hold this event two hours farther from you than we did this time! Oh, but if you're lucky enough to get in next year, if we find out that you have 300 Antidotes or 500 Shell Bells in your bag, you're disqualified! Only we're allowed to hack things that don't even remotely matter with regard to our competition.

The worst thing is that I even have to post about it because it takes away from the amazing efforts of people like OmegaDonut, ipl, and the rest of our fantastic competitors, Smogoners or not. But this needs to be said. The kind of hypocrisy that would allow Alakapimp and his 512 EV pokemon to continue on for the shot a hundreds and hundreds of dollars' worth of prizes and incalculable fame but disqualify someone for having too much of an item that can't even be mass-sold to allow you to buy other items that might help you competitively is mind-boggling, beyond unfair, and should annoy everyone who actually cares about these tournaments.

I implore any of you to tell me if I have missed something (yes, even you FiveKRunner). Correct me if I didn't state something factual or was unduly harsh. But please tell me why Smogon or anyone should continue to look up to Nintendo's tournaments as respectable or fair or at the very least even remotely worth the time they want us to put in by not making legal hacks that will pass hack tests. I am *this* close to actually encouraging legal hacks to be created and freely traded through Smogon Wifi, because I will be damned if our Smogoners should have to waste any time making their pokemon legitimately if they don't want to when it very literally does not matter even if you admit to it. I honestly cannot think of a bigger reason than Nintendo itself looking the other way on an actual illegal hack, when they evidently run the only tournaments that matter, to have us as a community finally stop thinking legitimacy and painstaking breeding and training even matter at all as far as competitive battling is concerned.

 

[Havak]

Well, I completely agree with you Jump. Your only error there was that they did have to 'enforce' the level 50 limit, as you actually cannot set auto-level in local wireless battles. That's only doable over Wi-Fi. Battle Revolution would've been an alternative, but then everyone would definitely see eachothers team before a battle and it'd eliminate the level 1 Smeargle (or whatever else) strategy. Not to mention it would've taken a lot longer to get through all the rounds (and hundreds of people trying to connect their DS's to Wii's at the same time would be a right laugh!).

However, maybe I'm just a bit weird, but I prefer actually breeding my own Pokémon and using pretty much completely legit things (quick egg hatching, cloning, Rare Candies). It does take longer, but I feel better for doing it that way for some reason. I don't mind playing against people who use 'legal hacks' since it makes little difference to the outcome.

 

[Jumpman16]

i obviously dont either but as ive stated (and as you agree with) nintendo shouldnt care either or at least be friggin consistent about it when you're talking about this kind of money and time

and unless i missed something there's moves you can't use on pokes because they dont learn them till after Lv50 so that's a wash with the Lv.1 Fear strat

 

[Mosquito]

I agree with all of this, "but" this should be the reason that Nintendo either allows legal hacks or actually enforces the No-Tolerance Policy they were so willing to bend in the case of Alakapimp. And "but" is in quotes there because it should really be "and", but this is obviously not the case. I don't know how you can have it both ways in a national tournaments that many, many families (mingot's daughter didn't drive herself to STL) have to devote an incredible amount of time (Omega had to drive 3100 miles roundtrip for Nashville) and money (airfare, fuel, and an unspeakable amount of "etcs" like $200 for a new tire in OD's case).

We're great fans, and we are willing to go to extremes just to play. So yes, I agree with you. People do crazy things to get to places like this.

It is therefore an absolute crock of shit that a person can be disqualified for having 999 pokéballs in their bag (this happened at JAA) but that another person can talk their way out of an instance of hacking in 512 EVs that actually has competitive implications. If Alakapimp were a girl I would actually suspect some kind of sexual favors had to have been offered in exchange for leniency, and the only reason I'd hesitate to say something like that is I wouldn't want anyone to think that I am even remotely joking or saying it for shock value on the internet. Shoddy or Netbattle tournaments or ladder ratings may not be a big deal at the end of the day, and "it's just a game" can apply to any suspicions that a tourament may not have been run fairly. This does not apply to national tournaments where you have to spend hundreds of dollars and give up countless hours of your time to just advance to the next round. This isn't "just a game" when you're talking about that kind of money, that kind of time, and thousands of dollars in prizes and free trips as rewards. And that is why I am beyond disappointed in Nintendo's handling of the only Official tournaments they've held in the past three years, and why many of you should be too.

I always hated the way Official Pokemon tournaments were actually held. I liked the competitors and the prizes, but I agree with you on Nintendo/TPCi's handling of "Official Tournaments". Everything should be strict or lenient, not some and some. If a person is DQ'ed for 999 pokeballs, someone with 512 EVs (that's divisible by 4, thus giving illegal stats) should also get DQ'ed. If they allowed Alakapimp to move one, they should let everyone who used legal hacks to move on.

For the sake of this "rant", I'm willing to overlook Nintendo's insistence upon having their tournaments as doubles only with virtually no exception. I'm willing to ignore the fact that hundreds of families had to drive for hours for Regionals, only to be turned away at the door because of a random entry process they could do nothing about. Willing maybe to excuse the stringent Lv. 50 requirement set in place even though the cartridges have the ability to autolevel pokemon in local battles. I'm even willing to forget the fact that, after all, players weren't sent away before getting a "Shiny Nintendo Milotic" that most certainly does not almost completely defeat the entire purpose of having a shiny that is supposed to be "rare". Because this surely doesn't also ironically underscore my main point about hacking and legitimacy and how much that actually matters to competitive pokémon.

This sounds like sarcasm, but you just pointed out all the bad points. I can't think of much to say here.

But if people really wanted some different colored UU pokemon they could have just hacked it themselves, exactly like Nintendo did. And it is beyond ridiculous to think that a shiny you hacked means enough to offset countless hours driven and countless miles traveled and countless dollars spent towards your competition, but that 999 pokéballs is enough for you to disqualify someone from your competition when it doesn't have any bearing on the actual competition. Especially because this says nothing of the countless hours of effort and thought we need to create a legitimate and great team in the first place that will pass your hack-check test so that we *might* get into your tourney.

Nintendo thinks Shinies are everyone's most desired type of pokemon, especially looking at how people hack just to get them. 999 pokeballs don't have any bearing on the competition, and they actually can be obtained. People spends long amounts of time to prepare for this tournament, so they deserve to see the fruits of their labor.

Seriously, think about it:

Hey, would-be entrants in this Official tourney! You didn't get in because of our computer's RNG, and there's no way we could have orchestrated this part before you drove all the way up here, but here's some intangible pixels we hacked up to comfort you on your five-hour drive back!

Better luck next year—hope we don't hold this event two hours farther from you than we did this time! Oh, but if you're lucky enough to get in next year, if we find out that you have 300 Antidotes or 500 Shell Bells in your bag, you're disqualified! Only we're allowed to hack things that don't even remotely matter with regard to our competition.

This is possibly one of the closest portrayals of Nintendo in pokemon.

The worst thing is that I even have to post about it because it takes away from the amazing efforts of people like OmegaDonut, ipl, and the rest of our fantastic competitors, Smogoners or not. But this needs to be said. The kind of hypocrisy that would allow Alakapimp and his 512 EV pokemon to continue on for the shot a hundreds and hundreds of dollars' worth of prizes and incalculable fame but disqualify someone for having too much of an item that can't even be mass-sold to allow you to buy other items that might help you competitively is mind-boggling, beyond unfair, and should annoy everyone who actually cares about these tournaments.

It annoys me that hypocrisy occurs even in a sturctured environment like this. I really do care for these tournaments, mainly because of the the prizes, the fame, and most importantly, the ability to be with pokemon fans and battlers in real life. I've been wanting to enter an Official tournament ever since JAA, when I didn't preregister for it.

I implore any of you to tell me if I have missed something (yes, even you FiveKRunner). Correct me if I didn't state something factual or was unduly harsh. But please tell me why Smogon or anyone should continue to look up to Nintendo's tournaments as respectable or fair or at the very least even remotely worth the time they want us to put in by not making legal hacks that will pass hack tests. I am *this* close to actually encouraging legal hacks to be created and freely traded through Smogon Wifi, because I will be damned if our Smogoners should have to waste any time making their pokemon legitimately if they don't want to when it very literally does not matter even if you admit to it. I honestly cannot think of a bigger reason than Nintendo itself looking the other way on an actual illegal hack, when they evidently run the only tournaments that matter, to have us as a community finally stop thinking legitimacy and painstaking breeding and training even matter at all as far as competitive battling is concerned.

I think it's worth the time for not using legal hacks if you feel good about yourself by doing something that few others can do without hacks, If you're in for the tournament, however, legal hacks should be allowed. Of course, people will abuse the ability to use legal hacks.

In basic, this is one of the best rants I've seen on Pokemon, and all I say to conclude myselvf is, amen.

 

[BoozeVGC]

Jump, you totally turned my perspective on hacks around. IMO, if Nintendo should allow hacks, why not Smogon? I don't hack, but now I think it's so discouraging for people to put so much time into: RNG abuse, or Legit Breeding, for this tornument, "worried" in a sense, that if the tiniest hack shows up, they will be DQed after their +2 hour drive to an event. And now, they figure out that they could've just hacked all these pokemon instead of (I shouldn't say wasting), but taking extra time and putting forth extra effor to do things the right way. I am just like those people and I'm very angered by this. I mean, I will still try to get ONLY legit pokemon, and I'm not going to risk hacking, but sometimes I question myself, is it really worth it? I for one, will still continue doing things the right way, however.

 

[flash_mc]

Jump, you totally turned my perspective on hacks around. IMO, if Nintendo should allow hacks, why not Smogon? I don't hack, but now I think it's so discouraging for people to put so much time into: RNG abuse, or Legit Breeding, for this tornument, "worried" in a sense, that if the tiniest hack shows up, they will be DQed after their +2 hour drive to an event. And now, they figure out that they could've just hacked all these pokemon instead of (I shouldn't say wasting), but taking extra time and putting forth extra effor to do things the right way. I am just like those people and I'm very angered by this. I mean, I will still try to get ONLY legit pokemon, and I'm not going to risk hacking, but sometimes I question myself, is it really worth it? I for one, will still continue doing things the right way, however.

amen

 

[Dalevl]

I'll play the devils advocate, even though I agree that Nintendo should be strict or not at all , that it wasn't "Nintendo's" fault here but the individual judges, for they are the ones let hacked pokemon like the one Alakapimp used slide by that did need to be DQ'd, while others DQ for little things that are within the ranges of the game itself, such as having 999 of x Pokeballs. Each judge will have their own model of what is proper and questionable, this much is obvious, but it could be argued that the "slip" in part of the Judge that allowed Alakapimp to move on was due on part of this site and the attitude of the Competitive Pokemon Community as well, since the general opinion on AR is to use it if you can, often dismissing Over-eving as a minor mistake, even though it may have big implications. The judge must have gotten his views from somewhere, and thing is they got it from here one way or another and applied it in the real world.

 

[Syberia]

Willing maybe to excuse the stringent Lv. 50 requirement set in place even though the cartridges have the ability to autolevel pokemon in local battles.

As far as I know, you can't auto-level in local battles. If Platinum added a way to do this, I don't know about it. Though I would have preferred it if they allowed pokes up to level 100; level 1 Smeargle would be just as useful there as it is at level 50. If they didn't bitch so much about hacking, we could even make ourselves enough rare candies to do this easily!

And before anyone starts talking about the competitive implications of Alakapimp's Metagross, it was a spread of 252 HP / 255 Atk / 6 Speed that got him in trouble. The reason Marriland let him through, at least as Alakapimp explained it, was because there were no competitive implications from it. The stats were the same as if it was 252 HP / 252 Atk / 6 Speed.

I also guarantee you that many more people than just Alakapimp used legal hacks without mentioning anything, and got through just fine. A pokemon is just 136 bytes of data, and if they're all correct, there's no difference between a legal hack and a legit bred poke. The advent of RNG abuse blurs this line even more, and OmedaDonut and IPL got bitched at for having legit (caught 100% within the game through RNG abuse) flawless legends on their teams. Really, its not about having hacked or legit mons, it's about how well you can hack them, and anyone who has an AR and doesn't want to put in time breeding knows this.

 

[dtrain]

that was totally uncalled for

Whats uncalled for is the situation you put yourself in...

Anyways just arrived back home. I'd do a warstory but I didn't even get chosen.....

As for the weekend it was a blast!! Thanks Batpig for all your help :) It is greatly appreciated. It was great experience and I got the chance to finally meet 5K as well as Fish. Zerowing we had some cool battles. Thank you as well :)

Congrats to OmegaDonut. You did a fine job. You deserve the title of U.S. National Champion. Also congrats to IPL for coming in 2nd.

Supposedly they are supposed to be expanding the VGC to make it similar to the way the TCG is organized so maybe I'll finally get a chance to play xD

 

[POKEMONBATTLEBRAIN]

Well I just got back and I'd like to send a thank you to everyone who I had the pleasure of spending time with. This weekend was a blast and I enjoyed every minute of it.

My drive home was actually pretty depressing, knowing that I have to wait an entire year to get the chance to hang out with you guys again.

Well, you never know, someone might take you as their guest to San Diego. So the party could go on in August. :P



@mysteryman = Do you happen to know if the planned exapnsion was given any details this past weekend? I'm pretty curious as to how they are going to run it next year without the crappy random drawing and more like the TCG.

 

[dtrain]

Nope, just that they will be working to improve the tournament structure.

 

[Expert Evan]

It was certainly heartbreaking when myself, BlueCookies & last year's winner from the NY regional had to watch from the sidelines in Philadelphia as inexperienced teams took to the field, so hopefully TPCi understands that impact.

 

[Jumpman16]

I'll play the devils advocate...Each judge will have their own model of what is proper and questionable, this much is obvious

I understand that you're just trying to be the devil's advocate here so I'm of course arguing with you per sé. But I will say this: I don't give a flying fuck about one person's views being different from another's. The people running the tournament directly represent The Pokémon Company International (the sponsor) and Nintendo of America, Inc., and I guarantee they are legally bound to uphold the rules of this tournament. I would love to be able to rape any girl I want to knowing that I would be able to woo my judge in the middle of my Trial and end up "getting off" scot free.

The comparison is ridiculous, of course (and I couldn't resist the pun), but tournaments like these "pretend" to adhere to laws by having lawyers work up official rules and regulations so my example kind of stands. Why shouldn't the sponsors be held accountable?

but it could be argued that the "slip" in part of the Judge that allowed Alakapimp to move on was due on part of this site and the attitude of the Competitive Pokemon Community as well, since the general opinion on AR is to use it if you can, often dismissing Over-eving as a minor mistake, even though it may have big implications. The judge must have gotten his views from somewhere, and thing is they got it from here one way or another and applied it in the real world.

It could also be argued that this site should encourage its members to not waste time breeding and training pokemon legitimately in favor of actually practicing with the pokemon to make the best teams. We are a competitive site, after all.

Here's something cute I read in the legal jargon they try to pass off as rules (emphasis is mine):

If for any reason, the Tournament is not capable of running as planned, by reason of infection by computer virus, worms, bugs, tampering, hacking, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes which, in the sole opinion of the Sponsor, corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this Tournament, Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Tournament.

Awfully convenient, huh. So, since something happened that affected the fairness of the tourney, and since the plan was to send Alakapimp to the next round by reason but the sponsor had to consider DQing him in order to properly conduct the tournament, the sponsor had the right to modify the tournament at their discretion. Tell me why Smogonites shouldn't go out of our way to exploit the hell out of dumb loopholes like this in every future tournament Nintendo holds.

 

[gec]

It is therefore an absolute crock of shit that a person can be disqualified for having 999 pokéballs in their bag (this happened at JAA)

Better luck next year—hope we don't hold this event two hours farther from you than we did this time! Oh, but if you're lucky enough to get in next year, if we find out that you have 300 Antidotes or 500 Shell Bells in your bag, you're disqualified! Only we're allowed to hack things that don't even remotely matter with regard to our competition.

Quoting these segments from Jumpman's post for added emphasis. Don't forget this didn't only happen at JAA, this happened to me in the London qualifiers when they looked through my game (also I'm guessing as OmegaDonut said, his RNG abused Shinies on my game probably had something to do with my disqualification). I didn't make a strenuous journey (40 minute Train Ride wasn't bad) like ipl/OmegaDonut made to their qualifiers but I feel pretty pissed that I got disqualified for having too many exclusive TMs (and maybe RNG abused shinies), especially when I spent a lot of time planning & perfecting my team to the point where I was sure I could make it to the top 16, and heck maybe even come in the Top 2 and go to San Diego.

On the topic of them checking my cart spontaneously, I'm gonna say it was absolutely pathetic of them to go through my bags/boxes (it was a spontaneous check just before I started my R1 Match incase you were wondering). What's even worse was the reason I got disqualified (mentioned in the above paragraph). Taking that and comparing it to some other circumstances of hacking (their policy on Legal Hacks) has me astounded. I mean as Jumpman said these items are things which have NO EFFECT on the competition that they have placed for that day.

Nintendo's dealing with this whole hacking controversy has me baffled just like it has Jumpman baffled, which is why I agree with him 100% on everything he said.

Edit -

It was certainly heartbreaking when myself, BlueCookies & last year's winner from the NY regional had to watch from the sidelines in Philadelphia as inexperienced teams took to the field, so hopefully TPCi understands that impact.

So true. Watching some of the idiots play in London had me devastated. Especially when these idiots get through from a random lottery where more deserving people could get through.