Spring Regionals Feedback What did you think?

[dtrain]

With Spring Regionals now over, I thought we could give some feedback about our thoughts of what went on this past weekend. TPCI is known to browse the forums and I know they appreciate our thoughts about what we liked about the event as well as what could be improved.

Some issue that came to mind are (Format stole from Dozz ;))

• Location: Did you like the area where the tournament was located? Was it easy to get to? How was the venue like?
• Timing: Just like previous seasons, Juniors + Seniors would start first and Masters would start after. Did you like this? If not what would you have preferred instead?
• Other comments: Pretty much anything else that isn't listed that you want to mention. The disappearance of screens? No announcer? No music? Basically if you have anything that you want to mention this would be the place to say it. TPCI has been working hard to improve their events since they started the VGC in 09 so if you have any anything to say, this would be the place to say it!

Although I won't be able to moderate this thread, you can bet that it will be moderated by the VGC mods. Please be constructive when you make your replies since TPCI will be reading this. No flaming, personal attacks and irrelevant complaints. We all want to see these tournaments thrive and be the best that they can be so we can all have a blast when we attend the next time!

 

[dtrain]

I had a blast attending the Philadelphia Regional this past weekend however I have a bit more negatives then positives :(

I really didn’t like the location for Philadelphia Regionals. Not to hate on Philadelphia but I would have much preferred having it in either NYC or NJ (obvious NYC is asking to much so NJ is equally fine). The convention center was great as a whole but as soon as you step out the convention center the atmosphere completely changed and it was pretty shady where ever you walked around. I would have much preferred the location where the 2010 and 2011 NJ Regionals were held instead.

The room where the VGC was held was also a disaster. Due to the number of Juniors and Seniors that attended, there was not enough room for Masters to play. So when it finally reached 12pm, Masters were told that there would be a delay of another 2 hours (which later turned into 3 hours). I’m still surprised why the smallest room was chosen for the event when past years showed that there was an increase in all three divisions for the VGC. I would also like to see all three divisions start at the same time but I can live without it. The North East attendance will continue to grow so I really hope this can be rectified at future events :D

I really missed the screens. We really don’t need that many. Two or three would be fine, just for all the people that lost can at least watch the final matches take place.

No music playing in the background was also missed. The VGC is pretty much turning into the TCG where its just dead silence with players shuffling back and forth between matches and waiting. I don’t know about the others, but I do miss random music playing in the background (I even miss eye of the tiger and the final countdown just a bit haha)

We all miss Nick but of course with the new regionals schedule that just can’t happen. I was also kind of annoyed by the announcer who was rushing us to get to our seats for us to play since our division got delayed. Not the least bit apologetic or anything :/

Hack check!. Unlike TCG where you can actually see if your opponent is using fake cards, you can’t do anything about that in VGC. Having faced someone who got dq (Were still bros so its all good), I really don’t see why hack checks can’t be implemented during the registration process. When I got hack checked at previous VGCs, it was a 123 process. I know it would take a little more time but I’m sure others would agree that it’s needed when stipends are on the line.

Also no top cut is very disappointing for players that had a stroke of bad luck in matches to miss out on placing in top 4. I did hear something about top cuts being implemented for next year though so if that’s the case I definitely look forward to that.

That’s all from me. Wow I wrote a lot. I’m very grateful to have these events where I can
socialize with other players and look forward to any changes that will be made for next season!

EDIT: Also wanted to say after hearing about California doing preregistration, I think it would be great to implement that at all regionals. With Philly having 300+ players alone for Masters it would definitly ease the registration process.

 

[Synre]

Went to Madison. Mostly of this sounds negative, but it was a very good experience, it's just harder to identify things that were done well than things I'd like to see changed. I want to start out by saying thanks for putting on such a great event, had a fantastic time and I could tell the other people there did, too.

Madison specific stuff:

• On the location: Madison is pretty much the worst location from a geographic perspective I can think of in the Midwest since it's position of "basically in Canada" and the giant lakes make it horrible for everyone who isn't living in Wisconsin or Minnesota, but the venue itself was really awesome. Kind of an annoying drive for me for a regional (8+ hours from Mid-Michigan) but I guess it was better than 14 for Atlanta would have been so whatever. After San Diego Madison is probably my favorite city I've had to travel to for Pokemon, though: I guess I don't mind going a little further for a town as nice as that one. I would certainly appreciate a Midwest regional in Chicago next year, which is both the best city in the region and reasonably central, though.
  
• I continue to have a problem with events that make the Masters go before the Juniors/Seniors and this one did. This is the only real administrative negative I had. I literally haven't been awake as early as I had to be to get there on time since... well... the last time I had to get up to play Pokemon. There's a reason I don't schedule classes before noon and I would wager the other college kids were similarly annoyed(and the high school ones are at an age where their bodies aren't usually capable of being fully awake that early, anyway).
  
• The hackchecking people really need to step up their game. It's pretty ridiculous to me that evan ends up finishing 12th but gets hackchecked five times and I finish 15th and get hackchecked zero times. Especially given the Battle Box thing you'd have to be pretty amazingly crafty to change stuff after you've been hackchecked once, so I'm not really sure why they were "randomly" checking people that many times. It was borderline harassment and unprofessional before you even look at incompetent.
  
• I heard staff members were incorrectly telling video game players they needed 10 Play! points to get into video game nationals, though I didn't see this myself.
  
• Everything else can be considered a positive. Staff was friendly, event ran smoothly, everything was clean and easy to find, almost everything felt a little more organized and professional than the Fall regionals.

Stuff the higher administrative folk would have to deal with:

• There isn't a single competitive player who doesn't want some sort of top cut. I know time is a restricting issue, but please, reconsider the format here. We only get a maximum of four meaningful video game events a year in North America, it's very important for those of us who put a lot of effort into these for us to feel like the results are valid and accurate and pure Swiss doesn't do that very well in a game as RNG-oriented as Pokemon. Cutting Top 16/32 or even top 8 or whatever(preferably Bo3) would greatly improve the events in the eyes of communities like this one. We care enough to stick around for a few more games to make sure no one is getting eliminated from contention by a single bad string of luck in a game with many luck elements. This is something I overheard from a lot of people I didn't know toward the end of the event, as well. This is the biggest deal of all the things I listed here.
• I still don't like the regionals happening on the same day because it cuts into how many people I get to see(and whoever thought it was a good idea to have US and Canadian Nats on the same day should... I probably shouldn't finish this sentence)
  
• The atmosphere is noticeably worse without Eye of the Tiger being played over and over at earsplitting levels and we all miss Nick.
  
• The lack of the screens to view games on is a bummer, especially for the handful of people there who aren't actually playing. Even just using them occasionally, like delaying the 6-0 vs 6-0 game so everyone could watch, would have really improved the experience for everyone and could have been done with one screen. Using something relatively cheap like an overhead projector rather than the more expensive looking box contraption would be fine for this if cost is the issue. Would rather it seem a little unprofessional but at least be there, as a player.
  
• I felt bad for people getting yelled at for having their cell phones on the table screen off and people who got yelled at for taking notes. I would probably do the same thing if I were running the events, I guess, but as a player it seems pretty trivial to let people do that sort of thing.
• This was pretty much the worst weekend regionals could possibly have been for many of us in college(potentially only next weekend being worse). The next 24 hours will decide in my case if spending all that time travelling for Pokemon ends up influencing my grades or not. I won't be in school this time next year, but I imagine early May would work better for most people around my age.

 

[ShreyasPokemon]

Location: Personally, the area was not too bad. I got there without much trouble, and it was just about an hour away from where I live, so it's all good.

Timing: For Pleasanton all divisions played at the same time. I find this fair, but the only problem is that EVERYONE needed to wait a couple hours to get the tournament going since they everyone needed to be registered.

Other comments: They lacked proper set up this year. It would have been awesome if they added in the monitors again. It gives some reason for spectators to stay. Last year, the room was pretty clean and the music was pretty good. Once again... could have added that in. An announcer would have been pretty cool too. The spectators would find watching people sitting down a bit boring considering they weren't even allowed to come in to watch the battle.

The 3DS picture with a Pokemon was pretty cool, they really should bring that back. Also, it would be nice if they brought back the Pokemon distribution for regional events that happened 2 years ago (not those random battle ready VGCs Pokemon with 1 perfect IV, but that is nice). Game mascots would have been nice to have to get some pictures taken.

I also like the merchandise booth. They had pretty cool stuff there. I would have gotten some of the plushies if I had money with me.

Overall, it really was fun despite the lack of all the cool attractions they had in the past.

 

[Kid Kadabra]

This is a great idea!

The location of Pleasanton regionals wasn't terrible, public transportation in the area just sucks. It took place in the fairgrounds exhibition center, and THAT was a bad thing. It was small relative to previous events, dingy, and all in all seemed like a dirty, unkempt place. There were no inflatable pokemon to brighten the atmosphere, and the low hanging ceiling just brought an aura of gloom over the place. The outside area, however, was really nice, with a large grass lawn and picnic tables.

At first I thought that the timing was terrible, and I was shocked at them making all of us compete at the same time. However, I soon realized that it wasn't that bad at all. There was plenty of time in between the rounds to catch up with everyone and relive your battles. There were no super exciting matches in the seniors or juniors division, so I feel that having everyone play at once was a solid step towards making the whole event run a lot more quickly (especially after all those scrubs didn't pre-register).

On the note of pre-registration, I saw for myself how slow registration for those who do not even have their player ID. This may be controversial, but I think mandatory pre-registration would be a good idea, as it would speed up the registration process significantly.

I DID miss the screens, but then again, I think everyone missed them. Nothin' beats cheering on a live pokemon battle. On the other hand, because the rounds were swiss and not single elimination, there weren't a lot of people who would have been able to watch battles on the screens, unless they had finished their battles early, or had dropped from the tournament because of a bad record.

What I really missed what the enthusiastic and energetic atmosphere brought on by Nick McCord. Our announcer did his best to enthuse the crowd, but somehow most of his speeches ended up going back to the TCG...

Those were the only real issues I had with NoCal regionals; overall it was a great experience and I was happy to attend!

 

[Sprocket]

The Colorado Springs VGC was fun as hell, and it was nice to meet everyone that I saw. I have a ton of positive memories, and overall it was well worth the trip for me, even if I didn't win. I will definitely attend more regionals and nationals when finances permit.

That said, there are a few criticisms.

The lack of video monitors was a major disappointment for me, as I was expecting them. Guess they are only for the Nationals. I would have at least liked to see the top seeds always battle on monitors, to add to the excitement.

At CO there was a lack of 'Nintendo' presence, if you catch my drift. Sure you had the "VGC Regionals" banners and the tournament staff, but I didn't see a single staff member dressed as a Pokemon. It felt like a local affair, and not really a big deal.

No top cut in CO which was another disappointment. However not being eliminated was a definite plus. I think there should always be a top cut regardless of the size of the tournament.

I want to see a LOT more "local" VGC tournaments, even if it's just at the city or state level. I guarantee if they were held monthly or quarterly, everywhere would see a big turnout, even if no prizes or Nats spot was guaranteed.

The guy who ran the Colorado Springs Regional was very new to the whole thing of swiss. He is a TCG guy first, VGC guy second, and this new format was very difficult and taxing for him. There was so much chaos going on between rounds. That's how I ended up with a draw on my win-loss record; I got reassigned battle pairings, but I was already mid-battle with someone (whom I thought was my proper opponent) before hearing about it. Me (and the guy I was supposed to battle) agreed to taking a draw, and moving on with the tournament. He ended up getting top 8, so good for him! Me, not so lucky.

The hack check was also not without fault. In addition to someone (in another war story) getting defeated by an obviously hacked Dragonite that passed the hack check, a guy at CO was disqualified because an otherwise-legit Pokemon failed the hack check somehow: A gen 3 Zapdos imported to gen 4, taught Tailwind and imported to gen 5, failed the hack check because a gen 3 Zapdos isn't supposed to know Tailwind. Not saying the Zapdos wasn't hacked at all, or other Pokemon weren't hacked, but still, it's suspicious.

Speaking of hack check, at CO it was a double hack check: first at registration, and a second time between rounds. This contributed to the chaos, especially at the initial stages of the tournament.

 

[Superpokemon67]

I'm a senior, so I'm only going to be talking about the seniors division for now. Here's my probably really badly worded opinion of Philly.


I'll address the most common issue right away in that they NEED a top cut next year. Philly had so many 6-1s going into the last round, and there were at least 20-30 people that had a chance to win the whole thing. That's all well and good with a top 16-32 cut, but when you have over 170 people, swiss just isn't reliable enough, especially when you see so many people get haxed or just have bad matchups. I think they'd add one next year anyway, just to make it more like the TCG, but that was my only major complaint.
As far as venue goes, Philly is a great location for me, but I guess that's just me living an hour away. I think the room was a little packed, and the mob to see pairings was huge. A little more crowd control, or TV screens above the crowd to show pairings on would be nice. The staff was nice, and imo they handled the masters situation well, kept everyone from playing to midnight, but I'll leave that to masters to discuss. Having hack checks before the tourny may help as well, as they only checked games after the tourny was done, which really defeats the purpose.
I'm also not sure that this is possible, but if there is a way to request not to fight another player unless absolutely necessarily, that would be nice. It's probably impractical, but just a little personal request from me. I'll also cite the complaints of no music or screens. Those helped with the atmosphere last year, so I don't see why we couldn't get some again. I would also like to request a little more for the top 8 or 16, because even getting that high in the rankings is an accomplishment. Me and my sister both went 6-2 but she placed 9th and I 21st, so there's a large number of people who are doing well, but not getting anything because of the system. Top cut would help with this too, but ehh.

 

[FearZeCrawdaunt]

I didn't end up competing in VGC this year since I made TCG top cut and leant my DS and cartridge to a junior friend. So I can't say my perspective comes from someone who experienced VGC as a player, but I was there the whole time.

Location: BC regionals location was awesome. Surrey is a bit sketchier of an area of town than most places but the actual location itself was great. We had enough room, the atmosphere in the tournament was good, there was food available for people between rounds, the room was nicely lit and vibrant, and of course it was close enough to the hosting games shop that they also got a small bit of flow afterward which was nice to see.

Timing: I'm pretty sure in VGC all divisions played at the same time. Our regionals was smaller than most (it's the first time Canada's had it's own regionals!). Nonetheless, the attendance was encouraging and hopefully we continue to grow. Next year if they implement more events (states/cities/BR?) that would be very beneficial for encouraging the Canadian community.

Other Comments: We also got a lot of people from Seattle considering they lost their VGC location last year. Given that you can't win the first place travel award outside of your own country, but can win the stipends, I felt this was overall ok. In masters, there wasn't a contreversy about this anyways since a Canadian took 1st. But in Juniors, the 1st placer was an American resident whose mother had Canadian citizenship, and 2nd place was an American, so the 1st place prize ended up being passed down to 3rd place (which happened to be my junior friend who I leant my team to). I don't think the system needs to be improved here, since it doesn't make sense for Canadians to win flights and hotel to US nationals (they're Canadian...) and vice versa. I also think that with Canada only having 2 regionals, it would be a tad unfair to allow Americans to come up and nab flights to their own nationals in Canada. If we want our community to grow and flourish, we can't afford to have people take our prizes.

As such, I'd say better advertising of the specifics of the travel awards next year would ease the tension on this issue. Instead of putting it in fine print (and I'd add the wording was ambiguous when it was first released), it would be better to make this a more up-front issue.

The screens I can see being nice for Top Cut, but I don't agree with them being on during the regular tournament. We forget that last year it was single elim, so if you lost there was no advantage to be gained from watching others' battles. If they do bring back screens, I think it would be great! But only for top cut, and ensure that finalists can't watch other battles.

I'd also agree with the sentiments that some background music would be nice for both TCG and VGC. At my pokemon league, we often have pokemon route music or battle music playing as background ambiance. It just helps the room not feel dead when everyone is in the zone and focused on their matches. Of course, Eye of the Tiger and Final Countdown are necessary for Top Cut :P And if I could recommend a 3rd song to add as a staple. "The Touch" by Stan Bush. Aw yeah.... (seriously, it's just inspirational).

As for the format itself, Top Cut is necessary. But I would add that even just having Swiss is so very appreciated over last year's format. Considering you always had to go X-0 to win the tournament, Swiss just makes it so you can lose in rounds 1-6,7,8 etc... and still come back for a top 4 finish. Major improvement here and highly appreciated by the community.

As a final note, the regionals should really be spaced out over at least 2 weeks. It would help immensely in supporting attendance at individual events (probably raising attendance at each event by potentially 1.2-1.4x considering the potential overlap of attendees).

Finally, and this deserves big bold letters:

CHANGE THE DATE! REGIONALS SHOULD BE AT THE END OF APRIL AT THE EARLIEST.​

I know that many of my friends couldn't make it because of final exams in university. Considering the core of the masters attendance comes from the university-age group, it's ridiculous to hold regionals amidst final exams. I was lucky that my I had a long enough break between exams that I was able to attend.

 

[LudiImpact]

I attended the Philadelphia Regional in Seniors.
1. To be honest, the area was very shady. My dad opted to park in a different parking garage because on our way walking in, there were some shady people standing on the street.

2. The room was WAY TOO SMALL to fit everyone. I couldn't even walk without having to say excuse me or bumping into someone. The tables for the tourney took up the whole room itself. My dad and many parents had to stand around. It would of been better to hold it in NJ where the convention center is WAY bigger than Philly's.

3. The timing with Masters. Masters was supposed to start at 12 when it started at 3 PM. Also, in Seniors we started at 10:30 and ended at 2:30 ish or 3. 8 rounds! and Masters had 10 WITH Top Cut. It took so many hours.

4. They should have Top Cut. Many players make a mistake and costs them the tournament. (I happened to) Top Cut would let them make up for themselves.

5. They shouldn't have all Regionals on the same day. If I knew I was gonna mess up on Sunday, I would of attended another regional to try and get the travel allowance. It also restricts people from meeting other people.

6. Hack check should be done at the beginning of the tournament. This is argued so much, I don't even have to say anything.

7. There should be at least 2 or 3 screens. Many Masters and other Seniors watched my game closely when they were done. The screens would also be nice for parents or when someone is done with their match.

8. No music= No energy. Also, We Miss Nick McCord. I don't care if there is horrible music, it's just we don't have any energy like we used to.

9. Lastly, the prizes have really degraded. You used to get a DS or 3DS for winning or 2nd place with a medal and travel allowance. Now, all you get is a trophy and travel allowance. Also, 5- the rest get NOTHING. We should get at least something small like a plushie.

TPCi is only gonna improve so thanks for the Regional at least. That's all we really had a problem with at Philly.

 

[ncsbert]

From the Athens, GA regional:

(positives)
+ The venue (Classic Center) was very nice, and the room the event was in was big enough. Also, there was no food/drink restrictions like at the Gwinett location from the past two years, hence no price gouging on bad concession food. You did have to pay for parking though, but it was reasonable. ($5)
+ Power stations were plentiful enough for charging, and if you needed to charge as a round was about to start, the staff directed players to just play at one of the charging stations, and then report back to their seat number when finished.
+ Juniors & Seniors went first.
+ Everyone got hack checked... eventually.
+ Swiss format swiss format swiss format. EVERYONE thought this was the biggest improvement by far. Even people with losing records said they were having a great time. Anything is better than one and done. It also seemed to relax a lot of people about actually talking to your opponent before a match, since there wasn't that "I'm here to send you home" vibe before the battle. Masters got to play all 8 rounds, and everyone loved that part of it.
+ The staff was nice and did pretty good with most everything. (Things started out looking a bit rocky, but they seemed to get it together eventually) You could tell they were new to most of the VGC stuff, but they did their best to make sure everyone had a great time.

(neutral stuff)
~ Registration times for J/S was split from M, but the line was not? Not a real issue but it caused some minor confusion.
~ Lunch break for Masters was a little short (45 min)

(negatives)
- Hack checking needs to be a part of the registration process. Period. I was checked right after my R4 battle, and it seemed a bit random & abrupt. (dude picked up my DS from the table I was at, ejects the cart and then asks my name) I can understand that they were in a hurry to get it done, but it needs to be a more formal part of the whole process, not just a "whenever the staff gets around to it" type of thing.
- Not watching other player's matches after you had finished your own. I thought that this would have at least been mentioned, as scouting in the past was explicitly forbidden.
- No MC, no music. I could live without music tbh, but not having Nick there is a bummer. McCord really made the past events come alive.
- All the regionals on the same day. I can understand why they do this, but it still is a bit of a bummer.
- The specific date. Push the April date back a few weeks. I heard stories of lots of people who couldn't make it due to school related priorities.

Overall, it was a great event and the pros definitely outweighed the cons. Really hope they can add a top cut (16) playoff next time around. (With TVs please!)

 

[Killah]

Some quick stuff on the Athens VGC:



Location: Athens is a good college town, and lacks the traffic that Atlanta had last year. However, because of this, there were not a bunch of close places to park, and there were FAR fewer people than last year that showed up (I'm thinking it was something like 400 last year, about 200 this year).

Atlanta probably would have attracted a larger crowd, and for a vast majority of the attendees it would have been a closer location. Given its size, it would have been a far better choice overall to host the event, but apparently they couldn't obtain a venue or something.

The venue was alright, but it was literally just one giant room they crammed everyone into, which led to some problems early on because of...


Timing: Simply put, it was bad. Rather than spreading them out, Juniors -> Seniors -> Masters kind of piggy-backed over one another such that all three were happening at the same time at one point. The fact that they only posted pairings up at certain areas caused gigantic traffic clusterfucks, and before the Seniors finished there were too many people walking around a rather small area. After the lunch break (which was also a bad idea), traffic inside was far reduced which was a lot better. I believe Juniors/Seniors started around 10, while Masters started around 11; it would have made FAR more sense for them to wait another hour or two for Masters and to have skipped the ~45 minute lunch break (which in itself was a terrible idea, as we had to find someplace to eat and get back in such a short amount of time). Registration early, break until the Juniors/Seniors finish, THEN play... seems like it makes the most sense to me!


Random addendums:

Due to the size of this particular event, I believe a top cut would have been a terrible idea. We had 8 rounds to determine a winner; by the time that was over, I am almost certain that Crow350 (Harrison) had already played and beaten most every 7-1 competitor. Likewise, most of the 7-1s had beaten several 6-2s that finished in the top 16, and several of the 6-2s had played each other... etc and so on. A top cut of the top 8 or 16 would have caused a lot of rematches, which is probably not the best idea for these kinds of tournaments. If there were three hundred, four hundred people there I'd be all for it; as it stood, I'm glad there wasn't a top cut.

At Nationals, though, there had better be a top cut >:


Hack-Checking: I'm not sure how it was done for the other regionals, but in Athens it was pretty efficient. At first, hack checks were random or upon request. After the 4th or 5th round, they took a small break to enforce mandatory hack checks on all the competitors who had not already been checked. To ensure that no one was checked twice, the staff kept track of everyone who had been checked. It was very efficient, but would probably not work at larger events. Of course, this is still bad for people who lost to the people who were found guilty of hacked mons, so the process probably should have been implemented during registration.


Organization: Ranging between mediocre and bad. They posted match-ups at random points along the wall, which caused a lot of headache in between rounds and could have run much more smoothly. The timing was annoying, but I've already gone into detail about that. Again, the lunch break was a bad idea, given the short amount of time that we had.


etc: There were no viewing screens for watching battles, but thankfully since no one was eliminated (besides the 20-30 hackers they found) this wasn't truly an issue.

They really didn't moderate the battles at all; I was taking notes after battles, people had cameras and cell phones out, but no one really looked like they were cheating. They even let me heckle Dimsun a bit while he was crushing some kid, which was nice :) On the other hand, had there been someone giving advice, I doubt the staff would have done much unless the opponent said something. Battle areas weren't closed in or anything, either.

Just because there was no music and no screens, that didn't mean there was no atmosphere. Everyone I talked to was really nice, except for a couple of opponents that were 100% srs business even when I tried to get them to relax :(



tl;dr: this post wasn't supposed to be this long... I just don't know what went wrong! Mostly positives, a couple negatives with the staff/location but it was still a blast!

 

[The Knights of Wario Land]

I attended the Philadelphia Regional in Seniors.
1. To be honest, the area was very shady. My dad opted to park in a different parking garage because on our way walking in, there were some shady people standing on the street.

2. The room was WAY TOO SMALL to fit everyone. I couldn't even walk without having to say excuse me or bumping into someone. The tables for the tourney took up the whole room itself. My dad and many parents had to stand around. It would of been better to hold it in NJ where the convention center is WAY bigger than Philly's.

3. The timing with Masters. Masters was supposed to start at 12 when it started at 3 PM. Also, in Seniors we started at 10:30 and ended at 2:30 ish or 3. 8 rounds! and Masters had 10 WITH Top Cut. It took so many hours.

4. They should have Top Cut. Many players make a mistake and costs them the tournament. (I happened to) Top Cut would let them make up for themselves.

5. They shouldn't have all Regionals on the same day. If I knew I was gonna mess up on Sunday, I would of attended another regional to try and get the travel allowance. It also restricts people from meeting other people.

6. Hack check should be done at the beginning of the tournament. This is argued so much, I don't even have to say anything.

7. There should be at least 2 or 3 screens. Many Masters and other Seniors watched my game closely when they were done. The screens would also be nice for parents or when someone is done with their match.

8. No music= No energy. Also, We Miss Nick McCord. I don't care if there is horrible music, it's just we don't have any energy like we used to.

9. Lastly, the prizes have really degraded. You used to get a DS or 3DS for winning or 2nd place with a medal and travel allowance. Now, all you get is a trophy and travel allowance. Also, 5- the rest get NOTHING. We should get at least something small like a plushie.

TPCi is only gonna improve so thanks for the Regional at least. That's all we really had a problem with at Philly.

I agree with most all of these points, especially 3,4,6,7 and 9; I had a few to add also:

-The General Attitude of the Presenters. Seriously it felt like they hated us, the woman with the mic said "If you're not in the Top 4, see you next year and goodbye", basically saying "GTFO we need to get packing". The guy AT hack check had no idea what he was doing either, but that point was already brought up in my warstory.

-The Swiss Method needs some improvement. It worked better than last year's single-elimination, but still, people accidentally got paired with people who had LOWER or HIGHER records than them, basically getting free points. Masters should've played more than 7 rounds, there were just too many of us for that few.

 

[Gryphon]

Athens critique; this is only my second VGC so I can only compare it to the one last year in Duluth.

I definitely prefer the Swiss format over SE. I wasn't too disappointed last year when I got knocked out in the first round, because they had some other activities going on in the room outside the tournament area, but even with that I still got bored, and we left before the event ended because I really had no reason to stay any longer. Playing under Swiss format, for one thing, forced me to interact with more players, so I got to meet and talk to other people and like I've said before, they were all super friendly, and it looked like everyone was having a great time! I noticed how bring paired with people with similar/identical records made it so that I would end up playing against people who were a lot like me in terms of strategy and whatnot, and it actually got more challenging as it went on because of that, but not less fun. :D I'll have to prepare better for when my blood sugar drops after lunch, though, because I started making some stupid mistakes toward the end of the tourney...

The lunch break *was* a bit short, my dad drove out and brought back lunch (no food restrictions, yay! and we were careful not to make a mess on the nice white tablecloths) but I don't think I finished before the next round started.

I loved the venue, nice acoustics, nice carpeting, just great overall. Also within walking distance of restaurants and other things (didn't really get to see). Athens is a great place. I wouldn't have minded if they played some music over the sound system; it did feel like it was missing that.

Yay for hack checking! One of the judges approached me after a match and asked if I had my ROM checked, since I had never heard of it before I told him no, and he took me to where they were doing the check. I was really happy about that, I was glad to see that they were cracking down on cheaters here.

I guess the only real problem I had was the timing. My nephew in southern GA couldn't come along to play in Juniors because he had his CRCT the next day, and wouldn't be able to get back home in time to get enough sleep. We ourselves had to get up at 5 in the morning to be able to arrive on time; we might have gotten a hotel room or found a campground (if it exists?) if we didn't have other Spring events out of town that we had prior commitment to.

 

[Crow350]

Also from the Athens, GA regional:

First, @ ncsbert: Parking was free, you just had to know where to park. There was a parking garage right across the street that had free parking on the weekends.

(lots of reiteration from ncsbert here, but with a few key differences)

(positive)
+The venue didn't have food/drink restrictions like Gwinett, and was nice. I was sad when I heard the venue wasn't Gwinett because it was a good venue, but the Classic Center was just as good.
+Everyone got hack checked!
+Swiss format is good stuff, I think everyone enjoys not having their day end after one battle where the RNG was against them.
+Registration moved quickly
+Having juniors and seniors first worked well as usual

(negatives)
-Athens is a little less convenient a city than Atlanta, simply because Atlanta is such a huge airplane hub
-Everyone wasn't hack checked early. One guy went 6-0 but then was DQ'd because of hacks. That's six players with losses they don't deserve.
-Lunch break was kinda a pain. Yeah, I get why it's there, but it just felt really inconvenient.
-The atmosphere was lacking. I kinda credit this to the TCG staff not yet fully accustomed to what a lot of VGC players expect. We miss music, we miss broadcasting battles over TVs, and we miss having an MC that is as into everything as we are.
-No top cut. Top cut is something that needs to happen. I think it also ties into the atmosphere, half the fun was watching the top battles and seeing their strategy. Having a crowd cheer or exclaim in shock really adds to atmosphere.
-All regionals on the same day is kinda lame for the people who want to see their friends who live in a different region, but it's also understandable.
-The date wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. For college students it's dangerously close to finals or what some schools call "hell week" where profs cram as many tests in as they can before finals.
-An extension of the date would be the day of the week. Sunday isn't exactly a good day for students who have class on Monday that have to travel more than a few hours to the venue.

I know it looks like the negatives outweigh the positives, but I had a really good experience and will gladly participate again!

 

[dragonexpert]

Since I was staff at the Midwest Regional, I can get feedback to the person that ran the event. I'll do my best to address any concerns you may have about that one or in general.

In the past, there was never anything close for VGC Regionals for anyone in the upper midwest region. The closest was Texas. I do think that is an improvement. I'll take a five hour drive over having to pay for a airplane ticket every time.

I continue to have a problem with events that make the Masters go before the Juniors/Seniors and this one did. This is the only real administrative negative I had. I literally haven't been awake as early as I had to be to get there on time since... well... the last time I had to get up to play Pokemon. There's a reason I don't schedule classes before noon and I would wager the other college kids were similarly annoyed(and the high school ones are at an age where their bodies aren't usually capable of being fully awake that early, anyway).

We were expecting a larger turnout for Masters than the other two divisions. In order to get everyone out without it being too late we chose to start with Masters. Also on topic of the time it started, unless you weren't staying somewhere that weekend, you probably didn't have to get up at 5AM like me.

The hackchecking people really need to step up their game. It's pretty ridiculous to me that evan ends up finishing 12th but gets hackchecked five times and I finish 15th and get hackchecked zero times. Especially given the Battle Box thing you'd have to be pretty amazingly crafty to change stuff after you've been hackchecked once, so I'm not really sure why they were "randomly" checking people that many times. It was borderline harassment and unprofessional before you even look at incompetent.

I wasn't doing the checks this time. I'm pretty sure the top 16 had to get a check done since prizes were for top 16, though for some it was just Championship Points. I think what might have worked better is possibly using a marker and put a mark on the person's hand once you have checked them. I believe this is what was done at US VGC Nationals last year. The top 4 having to hand their catridge in at the end of the event was mainly to get the team data; not for checking if everything is legal.

I heard staff members were incorrectly telling video game players they needed 10 Play! points to get into video game nationals, though I didn't see this myself.

I didn't see any information regarding VGC restrictions to enter Nationals so I didn't answer those questions as far as I'm aware.

There isn't a single competitive player who doesn't want some sort of top cut. I know time is a restricting issue, but please, reconsider the format here. We only get a maximum of four meaningful video game events a year in North America, it's very important for those of us who put a lot of effort into these for us to feel like the results are valid and accurate and pure Swiss doesn't do that very well in a game as RNG-oriented as Pokemon. Cutting Top 16/32 or even top 8 or whatever(preferably Bo3) would greatly improve the events in the eyes of communities like this one. We care enough to stick around for a few more games to make sure no one is getting eliminated from contention by a single bad string of luck in a game with many luck elements. This is something I overheard from a lot of people I didn't know toward the end of the event, as well. This is the biggest deal of all the things I listed here.

I would have liked a top cut as well. I'm sure enough staff could've stayed. I didn't have anything going on so I could've stayed. Hopefully that gets changed next year.

The lack of the screens to view games on is a bummer, especially for the handful of people there who aren't actually playing. Even just using them occasionally, like delaying the 6-0 vs 6-0 game so everyone could watch, would have really improved the experience for everyone and could have been done with one screen. Using something relatively cheap like an overhead projector rather than the more expensive looking box contraption would be fine for this if cost is the issue. Would rather it seem a little unprofessional but at least be there, as a player.

I agree that it would've been cool to at least have 2-3 games be broadcast basically. I was hoping there would've been some.

The atmosphere is noticeably worse without Eye of the Tiger being played over and over at earsplitting levels and we all miss Nick.

I had thought about bringing in my laptop and putting music on since I have quite a bit, including several Pokemon songs.

I felt bad for people getting yelled at for having their cell phones on the table screen off and people who got yelled at for taking notes. I would probably do the same thing if I were running the events, I guess, but as a player it seems pretty trivial to let people do that sort of thing.

In the TCG Tournament Rules, no electronic devices are allowed. I believe this is the reason they didn't want cell phones on the table. Keep it out of sight and off and you should be fine.:)

This was pretty much the worst weekend regionals could possibly have been for many of us in college(potentially only next weekend being worse). The next 24 hours will decide in my case if spending all that time travelling for Pokemon ends up influencing my grades or not. I won't be in school this time next year, but I imagine early May would work better for most people around my age.

The previous weekend was Easter so I think that might have something to do with why this weekend was chosen.

 

[theamericandream38]

As usual, Scott "litigator" Glaza (that's Synre if TPCi is reading this and doesn't know real names yet) said everything I wanted to say and more, and did so more eloquently than I could hope to. Although I did love the location of Madison because it was a 20 minute walk from my apartment =p I would also like to echo the sentiments of others about pre-registration, as it makes things run much more smoothly and eliminates a lot of stress and hassle for both the staff and the players.

 

[evan]

Attended the Madison, WI regional.

Madison stuff

• I loved the town; I loved the venue. I agree with Synre that it's about the least convenient Midwestern location, but I enjoyed my time there wandering around the city and sampling its coffee shops. Fortunately I have a friend from Madison who I could stay with and split gas which saved me a lot of money, otherwise I might think a little bit differently about the location. Still, once I got there Madison did nothing to make me want to stay away and everything to make me want to return. 100x better than Ft Wayne even if it was closer to me than Madison.
  
• Contrary to Synre, I didn't particularly mind playing early because I needed to get back home at a reasonable hour. Waking up sucked a lot, but ultimately I appreciated that I was able to get back to Bloomington around 11:30 instead of 4 AM. Considering college kids need to be back for classes on Monday (well, most of them) I think that having Masters go first worked out okay. Of course, parents need to get back for work and Juniors/Seniors need to be back for school too but since i am none of those I appreciated being able to get back earlier rather than later.
  
• Hack-checking. I'm pretty sure I kept getting hack checked because I was undefeated until after lunch and finished either really early or really late so that no one else was being hack checked. In that sense I think it was a bit of an anomaly. Still, the fact that I got hack checked so frequently was annoying and also a waste of resources (see: Synre not getting hack checked once). There was one round (I think round 3 but maybe 4) when I was hack checked before the battle began, and then again after the battle ended. I am not sure how I was supposed to change my team in that amount of time but I guess it's possible! Hack checks done at registration would slow down registration but make the rest of the tournament go much smoother and I would love to see that implemented. (and, to be fair, r7 i called the hack check on myself JUST IN CASE)
  
• Atmosphere was "okay." I appreciate having the banners, but not having even just an itunes playlist on shuffle seems absurd to me. A little music would have gone a long way. I did appreciate that our PTO was trying to be personable on the mic, but he's no McCord. Still, I give him credit for trying his hardest. I really think just having some music would have fixed this problem almost single handedly.

General stuff

• This is a broken record at this point but: TOP CUT. We had 126 entrants which, as I understand, meant we were 2 more entrants away from hitting 8 rounds which would have fixed the major problem i had with the Madison regional. We had seven people with 6-1 records. This meant that four people who performed at the same level as three others didn't receive prizes for no good reason. I went 5-2, but even had I gone 6-1 my resistance (a respectable 64%) was still too weak to place top 4 (i think I would have ended up 6th or 5th place). Basically, because of the number of entrants and the weakness of a couple of my opponents that day, I was playing a single elimination tournament anyway. It's incredibly frustrating to feel that outside factors are more important that what you have control over. I can control how I play and generally how much risk (hax) I expose myself to, but I can't control who I get matched up against and whether or not they will perform well enough for me to have a strong enough resistance to make top 4 if I lose a match. From a competitive standpoint, that can delegitimize a tournament.
  
• Uniform judging standards. In Ft Wayne I could take notes (or at least no one told me I couldn't). Second or third round I was approached by a judge telling me I couldn't take notes during my battle. Upon further inquiry it turns out that the decision to allow notes or not is left up to whoever is running the event, in the case Marriland who vetoed note-taking. I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay is having different rules at different regionals. To keep the tournament legitimate, TPCi needs to standardise rules about things like note-taking.
  
• Stuff for spectators. Like the "atmosphere" alluded to earlier, there really needs to be something for spectators to do. I warned my friend that I brought to Madison that there wouldn't be much of anything he could do (judges frequently made him stop watching over my shoulder which I totally understand but still). Screens are not the answer for Swiss, but if there were a top cut, those matches could conceivably be televised like they are at nats. At the very least the "finals" could be broadcast. There just needs to be a little something extra to make the events stand out, in my opinion.
  
• God was I happy it was this weekend instead of next weekend. Still, this late in April is pretty terrible for college kids. Even a week earlier would have been about 10x better than this weekend given that final projects are starting to be due, papers need to be started, and finals are lurking around the corner the next couple of weeks. (Also it should be noted that this is around the time honors theses need to be defended something far more important than Pokemon)

Still, overall I was happy with the event though disappointed in my placement. I enjoyed myself, met some cool new people, and generally had a good time. Would do it again next year.


(Also thanks for responding to these dragonexpert. I wish we had noticed you were on forums earlier. Would have loved to chat your ear off at the event. next year!)

 

[Nickscor]

Okay, here we go.

• Location: Pleasanton was an hour-ish drive, so it wasn't too bad. The room was big enough I suppose, having two sections for TGC and VGC.
• Timing: Having both battles at the same time was ok I suppose. It took three hours to finish registering un-registered trainers—had at least half of the unregistered people taken ten minutes out of their time to get their Player ID, this would have ran a lot smoother and faster. Saturday would've been preferred over a Sunday.
• Other comments: No Eye of the Tiger or Final Countdown made the last battle feel almost the same as the others, announcer was missed :< Hack checks need to be done before battles start, poor Crazy Otaku Girl ran into a shiny Speed Boost Blaziken and she was ignored by the staff while raising her hand. (I seriously hope that kid did get DQ'd later on but still...) I think I got hack checked like 3~5 times, the final when the Top 4 were announced. Monitors were good, as during the final battle people were told to move away while Mike and I were battling. At least with monitors, people could watch/tape battles and with the Vs. Recorder you could only save 1 vid. Fortunately Kaph was there mutter, mutter...

 

[dragonexpert]

Uniform judging standards. In Ft Wayne I could take notes (or at least no one told me I couldn't). Second or third round I was approached by a judge telling me I couldn't take notes during my battle. Upon further inquiry it turns out that the decision to allow notes or not is left up to whoever is running the event, in the case Marriland who vetoed note-taking. I'm okay with that. What I'm not okay is having different rules at different regionals. To keep the tournament legitimate, TPCi needs to standardise rules about things like note-taking.

We had one TPCi rep there. Before the event started we had asked the rep that. He contacted the higher ups, most likely Liesik, and the response was that it was up to the person running the event.

If we allowed it, then we'd have to decide what you could and couldn't take notes on. For the TCG notes are limited to the Game State. It could get ugly trying to separate out what counts for game state and what doesn't. By banning notes entirely, it was an easier solution.

 

[bearsfan092]

I did not attend a regional, but I would really love to second what Synre and basically everyone else said about the timing of the event. Mid April is bad because I have finals next week (although I would have gone if I had a ride). Moving them back to May seems better for more people.

 

[Synre]

Thanks for the reply. To add to what I said a bit...

We were expecting a larger turnout for Masters than the other two divisions. In order to get everyone out without it being too late we chose to start with Masters. Also on topic of the time it started, unless you weren't staying somewhere that weekend, you probably didn't have to get up at 5AM like me.

I didn't, but given that I didn't get to my hotel until 2 AM because my travelling buddy had to work until 3PM Saturday and it wound up being about a 9 hour drive due to the rain, it was pretty subideal. Time-wise nothing is going to be ideal for everyone, though, it probably wasn't something I should have commented on.

I wasn't doing the checks this time. I'm pretty sure the top 16 had to get a check done since prizes were for top 16, though for some it was just Championship Points. I think what might have worked better is possibly using a marker and put a mark on the person's hand once you have checked them. I believe this is what was done at US VGC Nationals last year. The top 4 having to hand their catridge in at the end of the event was mainly to get the team data; not for checking if everything is legal.

I think the thing with the hackchecking was just that it was disorganized; I'm sure I wasn't the only person who got some irrelevant VGC championship points without getting hackchecked at all and I don't follow why I(or whoever else hadn't been) wasn't getting checked rather than getting the same person repeatedly with how difficult the battleboxes are to game(though I was told it can be done with external devices, so it isn't impossible). I was kind of amused since this was the first event I've ever not been hackchecked in, and meanwhile poor evan got hit like every round(though I greatly enjoyed mocking him for this). It's kinda silly that he finished 12 and I finished 15, which is in the same prize bracket, and there was such a big discrepancy in checks, though.

As far as what I remember about how past events I was in did it, 2011 Regionals hackchecked everyone after 4 rounds of play (which wound up being about top 32), though the format of the current events would make something like that unreasonable. Worlds LCQ was "random" the same way things seemed to be in Madison(though I noticed the staff had a predisposition to check out those of us in the suspicious looking Psyduck shirts in Worlds LCQ), though they had a chance to hackcheck everyone after four rounds there also. US Nationals '11 I believe everyone or close got hackchecked prior to the event starting(which took absolutely forever even with limited entrants), with Nationals LCQ working the same as Worlds LCQ(except they didn't have to play the extra round there after the hackcheck... jerk Nationals staff).

Marking hands or something would work, though I think if it were up to me I'd encorporate it into whatever program is used that makes the printouts for the pairings and standings. I imagine there has to be a roster list somewhere in there on the page that makes the final standings, would be pretty easy to code something in to change the color of the row after a hackcheck has been done so it'd be obvious which players near the top need to be hackchecked and which already have been. I imagine it'd even be easy to find what table they were at through that(though it's obvious since it has to be a low numbered table). Though I guess if I've learned anything from managing Smogon it's a better idea to find solutions that don't require coders to do work so maybe the hand marking thing is best.

I actually had a friend who had an interesting situation where either the opponent was hacking(because he would have had an impossible amount of max HP) or the in-game tiebreaker system isn't working how we were told it would work the last time the rules for it were posted, too, but I didn't try and get a hackcheck for it since it was in an irrelevant round 7 game between 4-2s and they'd signed the slips already so it was too late, anyway. If everyone had been hackchecked that would have removed a variable, at least. I don't know of any serious cases of hacked crap so I don't think it actually wound up being a real issue(unlike a few cases last year where we, for instance, caught a hacked Pokemon as it was eliminating someone because we saw an illegal PokeBall as the game was on a TV and being streamed online, or that guy with like 3000 EVs andrea played in Worlds LCQ), but I imagine it'd be safer for future events if it was sorted out a little.

 

[Lucien Lachance]

1. Top cut

This is because it gives 12 people another chance to get t4 and win. If you got hax to get t4 you deserve to have to defend that title.

2. More staff to be more productive

Registration started at 8 and tourney started at 10 for Seniors. Masters registration started at noon and tourney stated at 3. X.X The computer broke down half way through registration and they had to do a lot of stuff by hand.

If they had more staff the hack checks wouldn't take half an hour each round. Ah well.

3. A clear head person in charge.

I asked several refs on the possibility of top cut and NONE of them gave me an answer. I got maybe, possibly, and probably not throughout the entire tournament and it was rather frustrating.

 

[Huy]

Keep in mind that it's not TPCi that directly handles these events anymore but rather your local PTO's. It was their first year organizing something like this for us and I'm sure they will pick it up with experience.

 

[Layell]

I attended Toronto and as the first VGC there some things need to be addressed.

Location: The Convention Centre is a great location, and the con at the same time wasn’t a huge deal for many of us.

Timing: What an awful time to place a tournament, I was lucky my exams were over, but others could have been in the midst of studying. Trying to stuff together all of the vgc’s in one day was obnoxious really. I really wish the planning was a bit better because registration for the VGC’s started at 9:00, the subway doesn’t leave from Downsview Station (the most north station) until 9:00. Rushing to get there isn’t fun.

Prizes: I love the hats and it was a nice little thing to go on, but I think the Shelmet card was a bit insulting because that thing is worthless, not a mascot pokemon, it sucks, it needs a Karrakablast and it’s evo just to be useful. I don’t get handing out such a worthless card.

Hack Checks: This is a joke, I’ll just say that a player noticed an illegal mon and it was still allowed to play. We know the legal limits better than these systems. Just kick out people who hack right at the beginning, it’s so much easier. I won’t say much more because of the ban on evading hack checks but things that need to be checked are not and it ruins the attitude of many players who could sniff out a hack.

Spectating: One person who came along was barely allowed to watch, was it because they were worried she’d help? Guess what players are literally sitting next to each other and we would often just comment on us or if we overheard other things from the players next to us we would also chip in some humour.

French players: There was an issue because one player had a French game cart, I’m not sure if Quebec has English or French games, but surely an exception could be made for anyone in Quebec to play in their own language, even if it did happen to be an import. This seems like an inconsiderate thing that an American company would overlook on Canadian players.

Canada in General: There are tons of players in Canada who would love to participate in these tournaments, and limiting the locations to just two isn’t enough. A few more would do wonders for the general community.

This all may seem harsh, but I’m being honest here. I’ve been waiting a long time to play in the vgc’s and considering the treatment of Canadian players in the past we’d like a bit more recognition. I still plan on playing in Nationals and I hope it runs much more smoothly.

 

[evan]

We had one TPCi rep there. Before the event started we had asked the rep that. He contacted the higher ups, most likely Liesik, and the response was that it was up to the person running the event.

If we allowed it, then we'd have to decide what you could and couldn't take notes on. For the TCG notes are limited to the Game State. It could get ugly trying to separate out what counts for game state and what doesn't. By banning notes entirely, it was an easier solution.

Yeah i 100% understand why you guys decided to ban note taking at the regional -- it makes sense to me. That's why I put it under the general stuff that higher ups probably should deal with. I'm just saying I would like that to be hard coded so that the regionals are uniform. Note taking can be an advantage (tracking TR/Tailwind turns, remembering the opponents' team) so I think if we know from the start what's acceptable and what isn't it would make things run a lot smoother so you don't get a case of some people taking notes and getting away with it while others are told not to. If I knew before playing that notes wouldn't be allowed, I wouldn't have been taking notes potentially giving me an advantage over others.

Again, these are all small details and I think you guys did a pretty great job running the show and I can't begin to tell you how appreciated it is that you're responding to feedback. Keep up the good work.