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Pokemon VGC 2010 DATES / rules announced for the US!

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"Just an FYI, in case this wasn't already patently obvious: database marketing is what I do for a profession."

yeah, I kind of figured that out by the lengthy responses I've gotten so far and the detailed knowledge of the industry. :) I totally understand that they are trying to market towards who plays more, since that's just the way it works in business. My big point earlier was about the registration, but we already went through that.

I'm still not sold though that they determine the stops solely based on which areas of the country buy the most games. King of Prussia might be a nice area with a good amount of income and spending(I've driven through it when I visited Philly and DC/Baltimore, and it's a nice area with a good amount of retail), but I really doubt that it gets more pokemon purchases than New York. Even if it somehow did get more, I again doubt it's that much more to warrant a stop over NYC. Same thing goes with Fremont and Los Angeles, I don't see why Fremont, a city with around 200,000 people(about 1.5 million if you include all of Alameda County), gets a tournament stop over Los Angeles, a city with approximately 4 million people(almost 10 million for the entire county), and a large amount of video game industry locales, etc. A city that has 20 times the amount of people in the actual city compared to the other doesn't get a stop? That doesn't sound right at all, unless they intentionally avoid places with high amounts of population(for whatever reason that might be, who knows).

Of course this is just my guess, since I don't have access to those kind of pokemon game sales numbers, but I think there is something else at work besides game sales.
 
Bah! Wall of Dense Text! It Blinds me! >.< Must resist the urge to read or think!

Here's my 2 cents (without a huge wall of text though)...

I am absolutely sure that Marketing is the main "reason" that Nintendo does the VGCs and that they do put some thought into the most "marketable" places to hold events. They're not doing this to make us happy. It's a job and a way for them to make money.

Still, talking to Mike at the VGCs it seemed like he was more interested in having a fun time with good battles, he even mentioned that he hates it when "noobs come in here with pokes that aren't leveled up and aren't even EV trained." So you can't deny that there is also a voice for the hard-core players within the company.

I also think that getting the best price factors into where they hold events. Renting out those huge auditoriums is not cheap. I really think that some of the places they held them were just because they got the best deal there.

So to conclude, I don't think there's just one factor deciding where they hold these events, and I'm not even convinced that "Marketing Alone" comprises more than 50% of those decisions.
 
i dont care about how many sales there are in each area, just give us a damn VGC in lots of places so every can play... like in LA!
 
Same thing goes with Fremont and Los Angeles, I don't see why Fremont, a city with around 200,000 people(about 1.5 million if you include all of Alameda County), gets a tournament stop over Los Angeles, a city with approximately 4 million people(almost 10 million for the entire county), and a large amount of video game industry locales, etc. A city that has 20 times the amount of people in the actual city compared to the other doesn't get a stop? That doesn't sound right at all, unless they intentionally avoid places with high amounts of population(for whatever reason that might be, who knows).

Well the thing about Fremont is that it's smack dab in the middle of 3 major cities. San Francisco, Oakland, And San Jose. You can't deny that hitting 3 major cities is better than hitting one. Also clearly it was because they heard that I'm from Fremont and needed me to play.

Also I think they may have been testing markets to see if they could get people to show up in other areas as well.
 
That's true about hitting three cities at once, that might have been something in that decision; though with the population of those three cities combined, the city of LA still has more people total.

Sanfran city and county = 808,976
San Jose city = 948,279
Oakland city = 420,183

totaled = 2,117,438

LA City = 3,833,995; then the county population just adds more people to both totals, but more to LA's county than to the others.



Though I bet the entire reason was that they really did just want you to play. :P If they were testing markets, then they certainly found out that they probably need more stops or a different entrance system so that they can get rid of the lottery and let everybody play. Hopefully when the rules are posted around Jan. 1, it will say what the method is.
 
I also think that the price of the location had to do with the decision, like mattj had said earlier. The tennis team of my high school was able to afford to rent out the exact area of City Beach where the regional was hosted, and this is from a school that does not fund the tennis team at all. That must mean the deal they got on renting out the place must have been far cheaper than many other places available in the area.

And yea batpig, they just made sure that you didn't have to drive hundreds of miles just to win.
 
Thanks a lot Raist.

Also, has anyone heard about the results of the tournament this past weekend? I heard one of them has already occurred, and was wondering about the teams that were used, like many other people.
 
Looking to improve on my TR team. Using Dialga and Palkia as my TR'ers, but I'm trying to fit Fire Blast on Palkia.

Current Palkia set:

Palkia @ Haban Berry
Quiet Nature
EV's: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 SpDef
Trick Room
Spacial Rend
Thunder
Surf

Thinking about getting rid of TR on Palkia to have another Pokemon as a backup in case it ends. I did a little testing and including the two Ubers gave me enough offensive power to win before TR ended, so I'm not sure.
 
Looking to improve on my TR team. Using Dialga and Palkia as my TR'ers, but I'm trying to fit Fire Blast on Palkia.

Current Palkia set:

Palkia @ Haban Berry
Quiet Nature
EV's: 252 HP/252 SpA/4 SpDef
Trick Room
Spacial Rend
Thunder
Surf

Thinking about getting rid of TR on Palkia to have another Pokemon as a backup in case it ends. I did a little testing and including the two Ubers gave me enough offensive power to win before TR ended, so I'm not sure.

I don't know..As far as this set goes, well, my guess would be to go on ahead and replace TR with Fire Blast and have a backup Pokemon have TR just in case if it ends and you haven't yet finished the battle. At least that's my opinion.
 
Fire Blast sounds a bit strange... you're running Thunder to take advantage of opposing Kyogres right? or just for the added power...
or is Fire Blast supposed to take advantage of Groudons? lol...
hmm TR on the Ubers... sounds interesting cause they're bulkier... and doubt people would really see it coming as much..
 
Well I would hold off on declaring this the official rules for United States play, but go ahead and come up with team ideas, etc, but don't be disappointed when the US rules roll around and they are completely different.

You are just scared I will defeat you!

No seriously I am in this year its on.
 
Yo anybody know how the VGC structure is going to be this year???

I'm guessing:

USx8
JPx8
ESx2
DEx2
FRx2
UKx2
ITx2
AUx2
BEx2
CAx2

Total:32 slots.

Discuss
 
Uh we'll have to wait for releases of those. As of now it's still up in the air. I really hope there are more places in Europe though. And maybe less in the US. As of now they have half the guys at the worlds, which isn't exactly fair. I imagine Japan has more sales per capita than the US anyway.
 
No, there will not be less stops this next year than last year in the USA; there were too many crowded stops (looking at you, Philly, while most of the others were way over 128 players). I do think there is a balance between stops and entrance method though(or at least, it should be considered). Less stops might equal letting more people play, and more stops might create a stop cap of 128 people or whatever

Even though the USA had "half the guys at the worlds", if you notice, the Japanese did 'par' when compared to us, for the most part, even with 'only' 8 people. The top 8 was split even between USA and Japan. If every country got the same amount of spots, that wouldn't be a bad thing, but the number of stops in a country doesn't mean those are related to those who go to worlds. You just have a smaller number of players to qualify at Nationals; # of stops doesn't affect who goes to Worlds.

I really doubt Europe will get more stops than they got last year, maybe 2 more, but not much more than that IMO. You guys over there don't have as many people total, and most likely less people = not as many pokemon game sales = less players = less stops.


edit = I messed up, Europe has more people total, but still probably less pokemon game sales.
 
Oh I worded that badly actually.

I meant I'd prefer it if there were more Europeans at the worlds. After all, half the worlds players being from the US is a little excessive. Not less stops in the US, just less US people at the worlds would be better. Either that or more people getting to play, but that's expensive for TCPI. Not less stops- that's just rubbish lol.
 
Ok, yeah, that makes more sense with your reworded post. :P

Yeah, I wouldn't mind a more equal amount from each region at Worlds, to make it 'balanced'. It'd be easy to just change it from top 16 to top 8 at the USA nationals or something, it's not hard in theory, but the extra costs to take europeans to Hawaii might be hard on TPC(I really have no idea).

Yeah, whatever they do, they need to change the entry method; for me, that's a number 1, letter A, a top priority. Then stops, then everything else.


The time frame around January 1st can't come soon enough. :P
 
You guys are forgeting that worlds is in hawaii, TPCI can't pay for 128 paid-trips there plus trophies, supplies, and scholarships.

Plus notice how Japan has PWNed us both times even though last year we had twice as many
 
You guys are forgeting that worlds is in hawaii, TPCI can't pay for 128 paid-trips there plus trophies, supplies, and scholarships.

Plus notice how Japan has PWNed us both times even though last year we had twice as many

are you kidding? they pay for more than 128 TCG players who make the cut. TPCI has serious budget $$$ when it comes to these events. They really pull out all the stops for the players.
 
You guys are forgeting that worlds is in hawaii, TPCI can't pay for 128 paid-trips there plus trophies, supplies, and scholarships.

Plus notice how Japan has PWNed us both times even though last year we had twice as many

I think you will see the US get close if not win in the next couple years,
the US juniors have won the last 2 years, The 2008 worlds had only 1 US junior in the top 8, the rest were from Japan. 2009 the US had 2 juniors in the top 4.

In 2008 the US seniors did not even come close to the top 4, in 2009 the US seniors had 2 in the top 4.

The gap is getting smaller
 
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