I had a blast at our Orlando Ruby and Sapphire Challenge. We expected a large turn out and we got one! Let's take a look at the stats:

Main Event Attendance: 47 Players

-Seven in 10 & Under.

-Twenty Two in 11-14.

-Nine in 15 & Up.

Modified Tournament Attendance: 9 Players

Top Eight Main Event (10-Under):

1. Matthew Moon
2. Orion Craig
3. Jimmy King
4. Kristine Carter
5. Brain Taylor-T
6. Billy Carter
7. Robert Tidball-T
8. (None)

Top Eight Main Event(11-14):

1. Nicholas Harper
2. Patrick Kewley
3. Kevin Miller
4. Brent Wright
5. Ben Sehi
6. Stephen Silvestro
7. Gorden Parzyah
8. DJ Moon
   

Top Eight Main Event(15+):

1. Chris Bianchi
2. Eric Craig
3. Steven VanDeventer
4. Florencio Esturain
5. Dan King
6. Adam Miller
7. Melinda Schroder
8. Raymond Brown

Top Four Modified (Expedition-On):

1. Bob Paxton
2. Adam Lalani
3. John Silvestro
4. Vijay Seixas

47+ in attendance at the Orlando, Florida Ruby and Sapphire Challenge.

I know there was seven in the 10-Under Main Event and twenty two in the 11-14 age group. I'd have to say nine players for the 15+ age division. We also decided to run an unsanctioned Modified (Ex-On) Side Event for those wishing not to play in the Main Biathlon tournament, nine players decided to play that format instead. If you count the side event, forty seven people showed up in all.
 
From a judge's standpoint, the GBA Tournament was a breeze. One had to simply ask the players if they were in the certain pokemon center, had talked to the lady and said single player battle, and then if they were sitting in the battlezone seat itself ready to start playing. All a judge needs to do is start the timer and warn players that hit the eight minute mark. That had to be the quietest moment in Pokemon Organized Play history, the lack of verbal communication between players was very creepy compared to the tcg rounds before it.

And yes, for the sake or security, we ran the two TCG Rounds together. I don't know exactly why Pokemon USA split up the sealed rounds, but that is a stupid move and really confuses younger players. It also opens up an opportunity to start metagaming in between rounds and or accidentally misplacing/trading cards. As well, players who were only interested in the TCG portion could drop following those two rounds and sign up for a Booster Draft or casual play. Many did the latter.

I think we held at least two EX: Ruby and Sapphire booster drafts, but near the end Knights of Columbus kicked us out due to some conflicting errors on our contract and the employee who was watching the event. He did not know that Heidi was purchasing extra time on the venue as she told the head guy on the phone. But that didn't phase us much, since the main event was over and our last modified tournaments was almost over.

Players and parents were very behaved. A few confusion over the new rules, like some confusing 2 VS 2 rules with the normal rules... which really should have been worded differently in the rulebook as a SEPARATE format. As a result, many had the misconception that they could only have four benched Pokemon. Another badly worded text in the rulebook was the Burned special condition, which did not indicate if it was removed if sent to the bench, as all other special conditions do. No big procedural errors, had a few walk off before they had their match slipped signed early on and one report of swearing.

Heidi was everywhere, mostly during registration and after each tournament ended. When she wasn't sorting prizes or registering players, she was aiding the head judges with their events in addition to organizing the side events. Ron head judged the 15+ age group in the main event and helped with the first Modified tournament of the day. Doug head judged the 10 and Under players as well as checking Gameboy Teams and judging the last modified tournament with Ron. Ronae sold a bunch of product, snacks, and pizza up at the registration desk. Randy illegally used older tournament software to run the events. Myself, I head judged the largest group, the 11-14. Other than that, I gave out a bunch of reverse holographic energies, booster packs, and jumbos in various contests and stunts during registration. This really helps to keep people busy and not bugging the staff with the dreaded question "When are we starting?!?1". Also, I MC'd the event, having the very sexy deep voice.

Regardless of the Sandstorm Prerelease event price, we will probably be seating more players due to the efforts of the staff and our awesome community that spreads the word to their Pokemon Leagues. The only reason we had such a low attendance for this event was really a lack of interest in the format as well as local leagues. With local leagues, we can usually contact them and bring a few in. In this instance we still mailed Florida BattleZone locations with event information. But many those are not in operation due to the lack of product support.

If anything could be said, its that we brought a bunch of new players in. In fact, Heidi told me that her distributor has upped all the prices on their Pokemon boxes due to the strong demand. Strong Demand = More Players!

Hope to see all of our participants back in September. More details on PokemonFlorida.com.
-GymLeaderPhil