>Greetings,
>
>     I am  James H  One of the 4 Senior Gym Leaders The Pokemon Store in
> which
>you've recently recieved an article that Bad Mouthed Us.
>
>      Today in the Mail we recieved a Letter from a Local Hobby store that
> had
>recently participated in a Gym Leaders PreRelease Tournament.  This Store has
>a relatively small retail space and is under fire code restraints on the
>number of people that can be in the building at anytime so it is
>understandable that his league members get first dibs at the slots; however,
>in a previous conversation with this gym leader about entering myself into
>the tournament he gave me the impression that he had already reserved those
>slots for his regular members, and moved the Tournament Night to the night of
>his League.  This Gym then had Six Slots left open and continued with Its age
>limitations (Fully Understandable) However, In contradiction to Wizards of
>the  Coast Rules which say that ALL cards from Base set through Team Rocket &
>Promo Cards. This particular league has resticted, well more appropriately
>BANNED several Deck Archetoypes.  Mainly the Haymaker, which if you review
>the WotC Website with the Deck lists of the Super Trainer Showdown you'll see
>that in the three age groups, They were the Top Finishers, He has also banned
>the Stall decks and several other types from use in his league.  Which
>tremendously Impares the participants of his league in being able to develope
>quality decks that could survive in a Real Tournament.
>
>He then continued in his letter to yall that there was a member of the
>Pokemon League from My Store (I am an employee of the Store and run the
>Pokemon League) who says he is a gym leader well in one sense this was True.
>But what he failed to look into was what we at my store call Gym Leaders.  We
>Have 4 Senior Gym Leaders at our Store, Two of the Senior Gym Leaders are
>mothers of kids who regularly come and help out with the
>1pm-3pm session, Not to mention Spend a Tremendous amount of personal time
>working up the Attendance sheets and other paperwork to help out and Have
>earned the Respect of ALL who come and the affectionate nicknames "Mom" and
>"Mommy".  The other 2 Senoir Gym Leaders are Myself and Ryan.  Both have been
>with the League since the Test League Program so we know what were doing.  We
>have on avg somewhere between 30-50 kids at eack of our 2 sessions on
>saturdays.  Because of the Massive  amount of kids and the Fact that a great
>many of the parents drop off the kids, and the kids bring friends to league
>it is had for 4 people to watch, much less the 2 of us that are there from
>10am til 12pm untill "Mom" and "Mommy" arrive for the 1-3.  To solve this
>dilema, we take some of the Regulars who have passed the Certified Coach Test
>and have proven that they are Well versed in the knoweledge of the Rules of
>the Game and the Game play to help in keeping the kids quiet and settle any
>disagreements about rules or in trades.  We senior Gym Leaders still
>participate actively in the league and strive for our players to increase in
>knoweledge and skill of the card game.   Which means Allowing All the cards
>to be used (according to Wizards of the Coasts ruling on the cards that are
>TOURNAMENT LEGAL)
>
>One of our what you might call "assistant Gym Leaders" who knows the rules of
>the game had constructed a deck that is commonly refered to as a "Turbo
>Wiggly."  As anyone who looks up the deck lists from the Super Trainer
>Showdown can see it is a common deck type along with "Haymaker."  At the
>outset of the PreRelease Tourenament the Gym Leader of this leauge listed off
>a string of Deck Types, that he had Banned, Which are TOURNAMENT LEGAL as
>ruled by Wizards of the Coast and neglected to name the Turbo Wiggly Deck as
>a banned deck (Which is ironic that in a Wizards Sanctioned Tournament like
>the PreRelease Tournaments that such "Bannings" could be made because the Gym
>Leader didn't think that his leagues members could comprehend how to build a
>Deck similar to that and how to defeat a deck similiar to that.  When one of
>the Regular members to this hobby stores league noticed, probably got smoked
>first round, that the deck was one that isn't allowed at the league he
>reported it.
>
>1)  The Gym Leader for this Hobby Store's league the approached the person
>from my league and tried to tell him that he couldn't play that deck, saying
>it was banned, My league member, which I am Proud Of, refered to the
>announcements at the begining in which this deck type was not listed.
>
>2) The hobby store Gym Leader then Stood up for the Rules of Pokemon TCG as
>stated by Wizards, even at his parents reccomendation that he change his deck
>,which in tournaments your not allowed to do anyway after the 1st round has
>begun.  He Refered to the Wizards Rules and refused to change his deck.
>
>3) When asked why he was there he is quoted in the Article submitted earlier
>as saying "I'm here." that is the Quote. I've heard my league members side of
>the story on this today at leauge and and he said he was there to Win the
>Boosters, DUH so was everyone else, so why should that make a difference. He
>is then accused of saying that he wasn't there to have fun or to allow others
>to beat him, well if your in a tournament do you really want to let others
>beat you, NO....and as for having fun, he has fun whenever he's
>playing...winning or losing.
>
>4) the Hobby store Gym Leader then continues to say that the reason the
>member of my league wanted the boosters was to make some "killer Trades" Well
>Who wouldn't get 12 rares from a new set before it's released??? YEAH i'd be
>making trades too, anybody would.  A special Note is that whenever one of the
>"Asst. Gym Leaders" trades at our league the trade has to be approved by One
>of the Senior Gym Leaders which normmally falls onto my shoulders since I
>normally endup memorizing Scrye Magazines Price Guides in the process of
>pricing my own card collection.
>
>     With the tournament 2 boosters of the New Gym Leaders cards were given
>and allowed to be used in the decks if the players chose to, my league member
>knew he had a good deck and decided that nothing in the boosters would be
>able to help his deck so he decided not to include them, The Gym Leader from
>the Hobby Store then again tried to Force him to Modify His deck (mind you
>after the First Round) and then makes that statement that the Turbowiggly
>"would have enabled the player to wade through the other participants like a
>shark through a school of herring."  Well when you tell your league members
>that they can't use LEGAL cards in their decks there not gonna be able to
>play against other decks that have what it takes to win a tournament.
>
>Then the Gym Leader continues with the wonderful statement and I quote
>STRAIGHT from the Letter "Imagine if we did not actively inforce Wizards'
>League rules and guidelines, as well as our own particular Leagues' Rules and
>guidelines."  Well It has always been my understanding that Wizards' has the
>Final Say on the Rules, and if they say a card is LEGAL or that a deck
>archeotype is Legal, which the Super Trainer Showdown Clearly Shows, then
>that would Over rule the local leagues rules of the "Allowed Cards"
>
>This just strikes me, My Manager, and everyone of the other senior Gym
>Leaders as Childish Complaint by a Gym Leader who is So Power Hungry that he
>can't allow the kids to have the full experience and fun of playing the Game
>By it's rules...and to think that this a sanctioned league making up ut's own
>rules.
>
>
>And finally for the last few Paragraphs, yea thie league has donated
>materials to us, mainly points books and DCI Registry Cards, when you get
>enough to sign up a good amount of people and you only allow oh say 30people
>your gonna have supplies to give to a store that has 100+ a day for the
>combined League sessions.  As for this "Rumor he heard" that  we, the Gym
>Leaders, Made an announcement that they had ended their pokemon League, the
>GYM LEADERS never made that announcement, we had parents coming into our
>league asking if This hobby store was still doing a pokemon tournament and
>one of the League's Members  said that he heard from a friend that the Hobby
>Store had ended the league, the parent then asked us, Ryan and Myself (Two of
>the Senior Gym Leaders), and we told her we did not know and were not award
>of it that they would have to ask this hobby store.
>
>I know that is someways this may also seem somwhat childish as a response to
>the Hobby Stores letter... I am unaware if the Hobby Store included its name
>or address in the letter or the name of my place of bussness, which is not
>the point this gym leader was upset that someone who could play an had the
>intelligence to know the Actual Rules of the Game messed up his happy little
>league where the players didn't know better.
>
>JamesH
>ed4026@aol.com
>I  don't mind if you Post My E-Mail, I'd actually welcome it incase anyone
>from wizards would like to contact me about this "rivalry between leagues"