In a message dated 8/16/99 10:44:48 PM Central Daylight Time, Klvyonne writes: << I would like an opportunity to respond to an article written by Eric Williamson, dealing with reasons why Pokemon tournaments have generally been geared towards the younger crowd. I would like to put a different spin on this thought. As a Pokemon tournament judge (Soon to be DCI sanctioned,) I have had the opportunity to actually be right at the very center of some rather large Pokemon gatherings (between 40 and 50 people -- not bad for midwest Iowa...) There, I have been in charge of not less than 3 divisions of players: Juniors ( age 10 and under), Seniors (age 10-15), and Adults (age 15 and up.) Usually on a tournament day I have to arrive somewhere between 1 and 1.5 hours in advance to make sure that everything is set up, that I have all the materials, and that I am there when the first PokePlayers arrive. In the course of the sign in I will usually have between 30 and 40 kids, and about 10 people over the age of 15. Right there I see that the 15+ age category is not a particularly overwhelming segment of the Pokemon Population. In judging the tournaments some unique situations have arisen, and these are reasons that I have considered not continuing to judge the 15+ age categories: 1. There are 50 of you, and only 1 of me. --You cannot imagine how difficult it is for one judge to answer the questions of 10 different people, all while trying to keep the brackets or swiss parings straight, record scores, and guard the prizes. I'm sure that there are plenty of places that have more than one person running the tournaments, but I am the only one doing it, ATM, where I am from... and having to deal with that many people at once is extremely challenging. Removing the 15+ category, reduces the total number of people, and also makes the median age group a lot closer. It is just common knowledge that a person will respond differently to an adult than they do to a child. Its easier to handle a bunch of people who are of about the same age, because you don't have to deal with one person any differently than another. 2. Time constraints -- Usually more experienced players want more time than 30 minutes to complete thier match(es), and complain if they are not given it; but, parents don't want to have to sit about all day waiting for thier kid to be done playing. It was REDICULOUS the numbers of parents who walked into the tournament after 1 hour and said, "But I thought it would be over by now," -- In the area I am from, the owner of the store we play at is unable or unwilling to schedule more than one Pokemon event a month. Having separate tourney dates for smurfs and adults is just not possible. 3. Adults think that the tournament is "Burger King Style" -- Most of the time, the people that I get the most trouble from are not the 40 or so smurfs that are running about, but the big galoofs who are playing in the Adult devision. Most of them, bless their sweaty selves, are experienced MTG players, and want to have the tournaments be run "THEIR" way. They think that because they forked out the $5.00 entry fee to play that they should get everything "THIER" way, get what "THEY" want, and that "THEY" are more important than the kids. Some of my most common complaints are: " I don't want this to be best one-of-one! What if I get a bad draw! It should be best two-of-three!" " I don't want this tournament to be single/double elimination! I paid $5.00 to get into the tournament! I want the tournament to be Swiss Style!" " You didn't run the Swiss brackets like they do in MAGIC tournaments!" (this one is my favorite) " I read all the card rulings from the Wizards website, the PoJo, and the PokeGym, and the ruling you just made on my question isn't one of the answers they gave there! You're ruling it wrong!" Personally, I would much prefer to just run tournamnets for the younger group! They give me much less trouble, accept my rulings without arguing about them, and actually say "Thank you! We had a great time!" after the tourney is over, and they appreciate the 8-10 hours of work that I as a judge and coordinator have to put in in order to get the thing going. Adults and older teens just don't seem to appreciate it--and nobody wants to do things that they get no thanks for. Sincerely The Pokemon Lady MdmPokemon@aol.com >> Return-path: Klvyonne@aol.com From: Klvyonne@aol.com Full-name: Klvyonne Message-ID: Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 23:44:48 EDT Subject: Article: RE:Tournament Blues~Eric Williamson -- From:The Pokemon Lady To: ThePoJo@thepojo.com CC: MdmPokemon@aol.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 21 I would like an opportunity to respond to an article written by Eric Williamson, dealing with reasons why Pokemon tournaments have generally been geared towards the younger crowd. I would like to put a different spin on this thought. As a Pokemon tournament judge (Soon to be DCI sanctioned,) I have had the opportunity to actually be right at the very center of some rather large Pokemon gatherings (between 40 and 50 people -- not bad for midwest Iowa...) There, I have been in charge of not less than 3 divisions of players: Juniors ( age 10 and under), Seniors (age 10-15), and Adults (age 15 and up.) Usually on a tournament day I have to arrive somewhere between 1 and 1.5 hours in advance to make sure that everything is set up, that I have all the materials, and that I am there when the first PokePlayers arrive. In the course of the sign in I will usually have between 30 and 40 kids, and about 10 people over the age of 15. Right there I see that the 15+ age category is not a particularly overwhelming segment of the Pokemon Population. In judging the tournaments some unique situations have arisen, and these are reasons that I have considered not continuing to judge the 15+ age categories: 1. There are 50 of you, and only 1 of me. --You cannot imagine how difficult it is for one judge to answer the questions of 10 different people, all while trying to keep the brackets or swiss parings straight, record scores, and guard the prizes. I'm sure that there are plenty of places that have more than one person running the tournaments, but I am the only one doing it, ATM, where I am from... and having to deal with that many people at once is extremely challenging. Removing the 15+ category, reduces the total number of people, and also makes the median age group a lot closer. It is just common knowledge that a person will respond differently to an adult than they do to a child. Its easier to handle a bunch of people who are of about the same age, because you don't have to deal with one person any differently than another. 2. Time constraints -- Usually more experienced players want more time than 30 minutes to complete thier match(es), and complain if they are not given it; but, parents don't want to have to sit about all day waiting for thier kid to be done playing. It was REDICULOUS the numbers of parents who walked into the tournament after 1 hour and said, "But I thought it would be over by now," -- In the area I am from, the owner of the store we play at is unable or unwilling to schedule more than one Pokemon event a month. Having separate tourney dates for smurfs and adults is just not possible. 3. Adults think that the tournament is "Burger King Style" -- Most of the time, the people that I get the most trouble from are not the 40 or so smurfs that are running about, but the big galoofs who are playing in the Adult devision. Most of them, bless their sweaty selves, are experienced MTG players, and want to have the tournaments be run "THEIR" way. They think that because they forked out the $5.00 entry fee to play that they should get everything "THIER" way, get what "THEY" want, and that "THEY" are more important than the kids. Some of my most common complaints are: " I don't want this to be best one-of-one! What if I get a bad draw! It should be best two-of-three!" " I don't want this tournament to be single/double elimination! I paid $5.00 to get into the tournament! I want the tournament to be Swiss Style!" " You didn't run the Swiss brackets like they do in MAGIC tournaments!" (this one is my favorite) " I read all the card rulings from the Wizards website, the PoJo, and the PokeGym, and the ruling you just made on my question isn't one of the answers they gave there! You're ruling it wrong!" Personally, I would much prefer to just run tournamnets for the younger group! They give me much less trouble, accept my rulings without arguing about them, and actually say "Thank you! We had a great time!" after the tourney is over, and they appreciate the 8-10 hours of work that I as a judge and coordinator have to put in in order to get the thing going. Adults and older teens just don't seem to appreciate it--and nobody wants to do things that they get no thanks for. Sincerely The Pokemon Lady MdmPokemon@aol.com