17 results for: cheating
Pikachu & Zekrom-GX/Electric.dec, Lost March (SUM–TEU, Pre-Oceania IC), and Some Commentary on the Recent DQs and Suspensions “First of all, I want the record to show that I don’t think TAG TEAM GX cards are particularly good for the game. I expect that most of these cards will either be too powerful—bordering on oppressive—or they won’t be good enough to see competitive play. Either result is not great and I don’t believe the card type is going to lead to fun, engaging gameplay. I would love to be wrong about this, but I haven’t had too much fun playing with the cards yet and I don’t think there’s enough design space to make these cards interesting. They…
Defending Yourself Against Shady Tactics and Tricks (Cheating) in the Pokémon TCG “I first want to talk about the reasons why people cheat, as I think this is extremely misunderstood by the majority of Pokemon players. Whenever a rumor circulates about a player—particularly if this player is well known and generally liked—the immediate response for some is to ask why this person would cheat, and shout about how being shady in this situation doesn’t make sense. Whether it’s because they were playing against a great match up, they were on camera, the match didn’t mean anything to them, or they have too much to lose by getting caught cheating, I’m sure you’ve…
Kenny’s Thoughts on a Mix of Current Community Conundrums “Starting from the oldest news and working our way forward, I obviously have to start with the news every competitive player has been waiting months for: The 2019 World Championship CP threshold. As anyone reading this certainly knows by now, the bar is set at 550 Championship Points. While this isn’t the number I would’ve guessed going into the season, I think it’s a sensible one. It presents more of a challenge while managing to stay in the range of what I feel is “reasonable.” Most players who dedicate themselves to playing well, staying disciplined and traveling to events will…
On Gardevoir and Drampa/Garbodor for Utah and Improving Your Pace of Play “Although passport and visa issues have prevented me from casting most of this season’s major events, most of you know that I first and foremost consider myself a caster. I don’t really have aspirations to be one of the best players in the world, and if given the choice, I would always choose to provide coverage of International and Worlds-level events. It’s where I think I’m better suited and, most importantly, what I enjoy the most. With that being said, I love playing in Pokemon tournaments, and I try to make it out to the west coast Regionals that are…
A Guide to Putting Yourself in the Best Position to Succeed in the Pokémon TCG “This is simple, folks. Okay, but actually: I do want to highlight my League Cup this weekend as an illustrative example. Gardevoir did very well at the last Cup in Michigan, sweeping something like half of Top 8, so I expected people to counter it. It did not help my situation that Michigan, and especially this venue, has always been somewhat inclined toward Metagross—plus, I’d just written about Metagross, too. So, when I saw a sea of Metagross, Silvally, and other Metal-stuff comprising about half of the field in Round 1, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Nevertheless, I went 4-2…
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It has an electrical organ on its chest. While generating electricity, it fills its surroundings with what sounds like the strumming of a bass guitar. (Toxtricity)
Crafting a New Version of Decidueye, Brit’s 2017 NAIC Run, and “Good Not Good” “I think it is very difficult for some players to stomach the notion that other are better than them. This is no doubt (at least in some part) a general psychological response and it is simply hard to stomach propositions such as “simply not good enough” or “my opponent just outplayed me” but I think that acknowledging such an idea is important or even necessary to becoming better players ourselves. For instance, if we use running as an analogy, I do not think anyone would really be upset at the assertion that someone who has been running marathon for years…
Thoughts on Parenting Juniors and A Gauntlet of Tournaments “Carlos Pero has been advocating a new model of top cut where there are no bubbles. I am 110% on that train, even though it is too late for my oldest son. In his final year in Juniors, we have attended seven large events, which is an extraordinary amount for us. He has made top cut at four of them. But consider this: he has only lost one round, at most, of Swiss in every tournament he has attended. A single loss in every tournament, cutting at approximately half. I am sure many Masters would agree, but it seems that…
Anaheim Recap, the Standard Outlook, on Randomly Randomizing, Expanded Horizons, and a BLW–SM Launchpad “First off, though, I want to highlight Anaheim Regionals as an event itself in light of my article on tournament structure in December. The Good: Anaheim was easily one of the better events of the season. In a season that has been plagued with malperformance and simply mind-boggling occurrences, it was refreshing to see a new idea (the elimination of the check-in process) somewhat succeed. There are real, potentially serious issues with a move like this one, but this weekend didn’t see any of them exposed. Moreover, round time averaged 76 minutes, which, while not being as snappy as one…
Canada Recap, Tuning Up for Week 2, the Anonymous Report, and Countering Capers “Heading into Canada, I desperately wanted one of the decks I covered in my last article to work. I realized this weekend that M Gardevoir has Wonder Energy at its disposal to make the Trevenant matchup even more interesting, which made me want to consider the deck even more. I have absolutely no idea how I’d go about fitting it, or if it’d be worthwhile, but it’s testament to the fact that Expanded has an overwhelming depth of options to consider. However, at some point it became necessary to cut bait on the ideas there for the various caveats each…
An Inside Report on Cheating in the Pokémon TCG “So what is cheating exactly, and why do people do it? Cheating is to “act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game …” —Oxford Dictionary Let’s be clear. Cheating is an ACT. You have to have dishonest intentions in order to cheat. You cannot cheat accidentally. If you drop a second Supporter without realizing that you already played Steven’s Advice this turn, you’ve done nothing wrong. We call this a gameplay error; AKA an accident. Errors like these are what the lenient rules documents aim to protect. Let’s switch that now. If you drop a second…
The swirl pattern in this Pokémon’s body is its weakness. If it gets stirred, the swirl loses its shape, and ________ gets dizzy. (Sinistea)
On Works Past and Updating Old Theories for New Formats “Before I crack into some of the concepts this game used to encompass, we had a request to share our own technique with regards to shuffling. I do a six-pile shuffle multiple times before and after each game while I get to know my opponent. During the game I’ll do simple riffle shuffles a few times. I do want to mention one technique that proved useful. It might not be relevant now, but when Lysandre’s Trump Card was legal I made sure to do a thorough shuffle of my deck when my discard pile got shuffled back in. Since the discarding…
Betting on Ourselves as People and Players “Confucius (551–479 BCE) derived from Kongzi (Master Kong, Confucius being the latinization of his name by Jesuit missionaries) was born in the state of Lu during the Summer and Autumn Period shortly after the beginning of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. The violence of this time period was unprecedented in the proto-Chinese world and many different groups, both militarily and intellectually, were striving for power and attempted to conquer using any means necessary. Confucius himself was not after power, but was merely attempting to foster education and virtue. Many of his teachings share sentiments like “do unto others” of the often-quoted…
Top 8 St. Louis Regionals Report, Net Decking Revisited, and Dialogue on Cheating “If I can bother you to think all the way back to my last article (December!), I wrote a lengthy bit on my distaste with net decking. Dylan’s quasi-invention of the Donphan archetype led to many copying him at Fall Regionals and it would end up becoming one of the most popular decks throughout all of City Championships. However, after this past weekend, the deck just absolutely died by Winter Regionals. This, I believe, can be attributed to the fact that a lot of the deck’s popularity was largely a result of its status as a “flavor of the month.”…
Tips to Prevent Cheating in the Pokémon TCG “Cheating happens. We’ve all seen it, and it has been a regular topic at the forefront of Twitter and Facebook, especially with the rise of streaming over the past few seasons. Players are now regularly being scrutinized on camera, and even if they’re not playing a feature match, the rise of social media has certainly given way for more discussion and openness about the topic. With that being said, I would like to make it clear that I don’t think a lot of people cheat. I would argue that maybe 2 or 3% of players enter a Pokémon tournament with…
Ethical Dilemmas in the Pokémon TCG “Asking for a concession is when one player asks their opponent to let them have the win. This happens more and more commonly as players get closer earning their World Championships invites. This is a pretty hot-button issue right now and for the first time TPCi has actually made it illegal to ask your opponent for a concession. According to this year’s tournament guidelines (section 10.1), repeatedly doing so can be penalized as coercion. I think it was a smart call by TPCi to stop players from being able to ask for concessions. Being asked made a lot of players feel uncomfortable,…
Infinite amounts of energy pour from this Pokémon’s enlarged core, warping the surrounding space-time. (Eternamax Eternatus)
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