66 results for: opinion
SixPrizes Goes on Pause; 2020; the State of the Game, the Community, and Content Creation; Thanks; and Where to Find Me “I’ve talked about this with my girlfriend recently: I’m irked by people blaming anything that’s unfortunate on the current year. By doing this we’re being myopic and willfully ignorant. “2020 strikes again!” The year’s become a neobiblical hot take or an amorphous scapegoat (i.e., coping mechanism) that society has adopted in mass. Yes, many Bad Things have have happened since the most recent new year, maybe more than usual. But by broadly labeling issues as “2020,” we’re losing sight of the actual problems and possible solutions. We’re being lazy. Here’s what’s happened the past year-plus to bring us to this…
Thoughts on the Format as a Whole (Spoiler: It’s Fast) and Centiskorch VMAX/Scoop Up Net “Oh where to start? ADP? Sure, why not. Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial rock in regards to the Pokémon community these last few weeks, you’ve surely heard the calls for a ban of ADP. And you’ve also heard the people defending the card. I’ve mostly been on the side of the former, as I believe that ADP is bad for the game as a whole. There’s a lot that can be said about ADP right now. I personally believe ADP is more of a symptom of the actual problem rather than the whole problem. The game has sped…
Should ADP Be Banned? and Water Mewtwo & Mew-GX w/ Frosmoth (aka Wet Mew3) “I started playing competitive Pokémon TCG in 2012, and since then I have been able to play in some formats where we had extremely strong attacks that ended up impacting the game a lot. These decks weren’t always the best, but they somehow made the game quite different than it would have been otherwise. The examples that stick out most in my mind are (1) the Item lock decks made possible by Seismitoad EX’s Quaking Punch in 2014–2016 and (2) the Night March deck in 2016–2017. At the time of Seismitoad EX, the format was very limited because there were…
On the Auspicious Arrival of Our New, Virtual Face of the Pokémon Trading Card Game “To understand the monumental mentality shift that happened for me through quarantine, we first need to look back on my mentality before quarantine and COVID-19. Simply, this season wasn’t incredible for me. Sure, I started off with a Top 32 finish in Atlantic City, but I lacked a follow-up Day Two finish, with my hopes being blown out by back-to-back autolosses and poor deck choices. Everyone has off tournaments, slumps, and seasons, even the best of the best, but that didn’t help me feel any better. I’m sure some complications from my senior year in high school, like applying to…
Coming to Terms w/ the Pandemic, PikaRom Two Ways (PikaHammers + PikaClay), and an Aside on the SPE/Region-Locking Debate “As my favorite Beatles song goes, “When I find myself in times of trouble, Pikachu & Zekrom comes to me.” Looking back over every single article I’ve written for this website, I’ve somehow only covered my trademark deck briefly following San Diego, which I attribute to the regrettable number of Expanded Regionals I’ve played in this season. Throughout this season, though, I’ve played Pikachu & Zekrom-GX at almost every local event and at four out of the five major Standard events I’ve attended. Looking forward, I’ve joined everyone else in trying to find answers to the extremely dominant ADP-GX/Zacian V…
It secretly marks potential targets with a scent. By following the scent, it stalks its targets and steals from them when they least expect it. (Thievul)
Attendance at Tournaments, Commentating (Drama in Storytelling), the Grind, Marketing, and a Funny Story “There was some chatter on Facebook about how attendance was down at tournaments, possibly due to the Expanded format or rising prices. I wondered if there was a way to get a little bit of science applied to the problem. I asked Christopher Schemanske if he had a data set I could use for a quick linear regression and of course he did. So here is what I did: I looked at every Regional in the last three years and scored it on several attributes… Format Year Quarter (to attempt to control for “people stop playing at a certain point”)…
On Day 2 + T64–128 Prizing, the Counter Decks of Collinsville (Vileplume, Zoroark/Garbodor), and the States of Both Formats “I managed to make it all the way to the Semi-Finals in Collinsville, which made me very happy. (The last time I made Top 8 at a big North American Regionals was Memphis in Dec 2017, so over a year had passed since I saw my name in bold letters in the standings after Swiss was done.) I made Top 8 as 8th seed this time, which made the achievement all the more exciting as I was “the underdog” going into top cut. I was taken down by Daniel Altavilla, ranked number 1 in the World, and I also lost…
Considering the Realm of Worlds, On the “Right” Ease of Invitation, and Open Season On the Open “When considering the structure at Worlds, I want to first remind people of what we’ve had in the past. First off, it’s necessary to consider how players qualify for the big event. For most of the game’s modern era, and through 2012, a certain number of players were invited from each rating zone based on pre-announced cutoffs. For example, in 2012, the first year with Championship Points, the Top 40 from each division were invited from North America. A key change that came with 2012 was a shift from a modified Elo Rating system to the Championship Point system we know…
Kenny’s Thoughts on Qualifying for Worlds 2019 and a Retrospective on the 2018 Season Structure “I know from the feedback I’ve received over the years that a number of you are basically checked out on this season. Maybe you’re a less experienced player who is just getting a taste for the scene, or maybe you came up a little short on your invite. Either way, your sights are set on next year. It’s my hope that this section will provide some helpful advice on how best to achieve your goal of qualifying for the World Championship. Two disclaimers: Who knows what decisions TPCi is going to make regarding the invite structure for next year. All…
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This Pokémon will look into your eyes and read the contents of your heart. If it finds evil there, it promptly hides away. (Galarian Ponyta)
A Discussion of the (Good!) State of Expanded and Discussion of Malamar for FLI Standard “I do think there is great power in this banlist and you never want to appear as if you are caving in to the demands of the community, but if updated more frequently, I think it could easily be done if only as a charade that would make people more interested in Expanded. As stated above, the main problem with Expanded is that you simply do not have to care about it, and can plan your whole season around avoiding it if you really want to. It is simple to see how Expanded has always been something that you could…
Brit’s Analysis of Secrecy, Deck Ideas, the Formats, and the Evolutions Thereof “In the old days, knowing the right people was the most important thing to finding the right decklist. I am certainly indebted to many of my older friends who showed me the ropes, but this was absolutely not a fair system. There was no public flow of information, which only further rewarded being withholding. There were secret decks from time to time, but what I think it ultimately amounts to (at least in terms of the game today) is that the players at the top were profiting from withholding very basic information. A lot of the secret decks then were…
Kenny on the State of Expanded, Luck, and Upcoming Events “A few months ago I wrote an article talking about what I would add or remove from the Expanded ban list. Shortly thereafter the ban list was updated with no changes (as expected). I didn’t hear too many disagreements about what I wrote, but with two Regionals having happened since, I wanted to touch on a few of the thoughts I’ve seen expressed on social media lately. Q: “Is Expanded broken?” A: I don’t think Expanded is broken, but I do wonder how fun it is. Above anything else, the point of a format (and a game as a whole)…
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Surveying the Prize Structure in the Cash Era of Regional Tournaments “I set out with a pretty simple goal: tabulate the total cash, scholarships, AMEX travel, and Visa gift cards awarded to top finishers at North American Regionals last season. I kept this to North America for a few simple reasons: I can easily get attendance data for those tournaments. labs.pokegym.net has a wealth of past attendance data, and this situation is no exception. Some international events have VGC, some do not—it would be more of a headache than worthwhile, for this illustrative exercise, to figure out which is which. Furthermore, some international events have been previously authorized to run with…
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Brent on Parenting a Junior + a Senior, The State of the Circuit, and a Midpoint Reflection on the Season “Pokemon tournaments have never been bigger! For that matter, this is a very reasonable year to go get your invite. I have always said “mo’ is betta'” for Juniors going to the World Championship and the stars certainly seem appropriately aligned to get plenty of Juniors out there. I feel like Pokemon is reading what I am writing, because they lowered the kickers to 48 kids, essentially giving out Top 16 points at most Regionals, which is good given the “box-out” that I wrote so much about last year. Having said that, it is worth taking a moment to mention…
It sneaks into people’s homes, stealing things and feasting on the negative energy of the frustrated occupants. (Impidimp)
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