Pokemon League Day

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Thanks for this, Jeff. Love the parental perspective on embracing his enthusiasm for a passion with exercising some social skills. Keep us appraised of his (and your!) journey into competitive play!

I enjoyed this, thanks. It's noteworthy how friendly everyone seemed to be.

Our "local" Pokemon league was always a great time for my boys, and we frequently brought friends who ended up being regular players afterwards.

Of note -- Pokemon pre-2012 was a very different game from Pokemon post-2012. Your observation regarding thin energy and EXs is spot on, and the transition more or less pushed all three of my boys into Magic instead. It's not that the new game isn't as good, it's just that it's very different in spite of being almost the exact same rules. My oldest son had a purple deck that was positively bone-crushing prior to 2012. He won a couple of tournaments with it. It wouldn't even make a good showing now. So rather than start over with Pokemon they went after Magic instead.

Take care on tournament day to get a list of forbidden cards. Our final tournament had a rough start because all three of my boys had dis-allowed cards in their decks. We managed to get some swaps in but it wasn't ideal. Most are older cards (in fact I think they were locked-out by series, not individual card) but if you've purchased at yard sales or gotten donations from friends you may have them in your mix.

All that said the community can be quite eclectic, and I never once had to deal with a rude player. My boys enjoyed the heck out of it and came home talking Pokemon for the next three days. There are rewards for winning but everyone is pretty much coming just to enjoy the play. Some of the girls at our club would come with their Pokemon hats and shirts, really making a showing of it. We were there long enough for them to age up past the point where that would be cool, but they kept it up, knowing they were in a place where it was accepted and appreciated. A nice sanctuary from the typical teen pressure. And we had champion players (adults) that you could challenge and if you beat them you got special rewards. A very broad slice of the community. I still bump into them occasionally in spite of the store being 25 miles from home.

When's the Heroscape tournament? That's where I've found the other great gaming crowds.

I've considered having my son bring his best friend in the future. The friend is interested but doesn't play. Mom's a single parent and I'd hate for her to feel the added pressure of having to buy her son cards so he can keep up. I dunno. Maybe my son and I will get him going.

Anyway, yeah, everyone was really nice and helpful. Even the older kids/young adults/adults. I never got a creepy vibe off anyone.

Heroscape, I'm not aware of any in my area, but have considered running monthly HS events out of The Pit starting this fall. I figure I could set up a few small boards, have my son and his friends come pick about 300-400pts each then do a little tournament of sorts switching boards and opponents. Maybe hand out some snacks as prizes. Seems like it could be a hit.

Thanks for sharing, El Jeffe. Sounds like your son is a fine gamer and won't have any issues with breaking out of his shy shell. It's great to hear his enthusiasm wasn't diminished by defeat and his sense of sporstmanship is outstanding. You guys keep it up and let us know how his Pokemon tourneys in the future shape up.

Yeah, the sportsmanship thing is huge. I feel like it could be a miserable experience for a kid to lose a bunch of times in a row, I'm glad they thought through the format to account for that a bit.

Also, good to see the gender balance is healthier in Pokemon (at least going by your pictures and post).

Great to hear Jeff. I got into Pokemon the summer after my freshman year of college and thought it was really refreshing after years of magic, Star Wars ccg and shadow run ccg. Maybe bringing your deck and playing against strangers will help encouarge your soon, maybe even make A little challenge to see who can play more new people.

Gary Sax wrote: Yeah, the sportsmanship thing is huge. I feel like it could be a miserable experience for a kid to lose a bunch of times in a row, I'm glad they thought through the format to account for that a bit.

Also, good to see the gender balance is healthier in Pokemon (at least going by your pictures and post).

I agree. The format was fantastic. Win or lose you'll get an opportunity for prizes. Winners will obviously get more, and have earlier prize picks, as they fill out their passport faster, so there is incentive do to well. It's not really all participants getting the same thing. Still, losers have something to play for. It's great.

I was also impressed with the mix. I'd say it was close to 50/50 split on gender. I didn't see any women or girls on the Magic or other CCG tables.

We'll probably be heading back next weekend to fill out his passport. Oh, we've tuned his deck to about 20 pokemon, 20 energy, and 20 trainer/items. Still may not be ideal, but it's _a_lot_ stronger than it was. He's pounding me early now. Those trainers and items are letting him grab many cards per turn, pull them back out of the discard, and he doesn't seem to be having to pray every turn in the hopes that his one turn card draw is decent.

My deck still blows....

Our group broke into a set of kids that wanted to play competitively, and a set of kids that wanted to win but were more than happy to lose a few. The don't-play-the-same-person-twice rule puts a solid mix into the session, and the more competitive players understand when they're playing a younger kid or someone not so driven. The organized events do produce prizes for the top three spots, but they're not so big that anyone cares all that much.

Compare that to the local Magic tournament, where everyone in the final rounds were first time customers and never returned again. They showed up for the tournament, stomped on the locals, bought nothing and left. That's the nature of Magic. I don't have a problem with it personally (the owner of the shop did!) but it's a far more intimidating environment. Someone quiet or young isn't going to enjoy the trip.

S.

My son's only 7, so I'm waiting a few more years to get him into the organized play scene. I loved reading about your son's experience because it's what I'm hoping for for him.

Power creep hit this game hard. I have stacks of cards from the 90s and early 2000s and even the stage 2 evolutions get their butts handed to them by the new basics.