Pokémon Organized Play
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| Pokémon Organized Play | |
|---|---|
| Type | Gaming |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Headquarters | Redmond, Washington |
Pokémon Organized Play (or POP in short) is a division of The Pokémon Company. This division is for the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the Pokèmon Trading Figure Game and was formed by Pokémon USA in 2003 after Wizards of the Coast lost its license to the Trading Card Game, they created new league, tournament, and prize systems, as well as an improved professor program.
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[edit] Pokémon TCG Leagues
Unlike the Wizards leagues, POP utilizes a hybrid system, in which one can earn points for playing the Trading Card Game and/or the Trading Figure Game. After the "Hoenn" league era, they stopped doing this and brought back League books. During the Sevii Islands League era, they also introduced POP packs for players to earn. Currently, the leagues are up to the Sinnoh Leagues.
There are over 300 leagues, worldwide, about 2/3 of which are in the United States.
[edit] Registration
To enter tournaments and leagues, a player must have a POP-ID. It is used to access a My Pokémon account, where a player can view his or her rankings, tournaments or Leagues .
[edit] Local Tournaments
Local Tournaments are meant for both fun and practice. They are usually held every week by a local Tournament Organizer. Prizes vary depending on the competitors. They are often free to enter, but the price can sometimes range to $5.
POP-sanctioned tournaments are either single elimination, Swiss, or Swiss followed by single elimination rounds. Some POP events use "Age Modified Swiss", (a variation of Swiss invented by POP) in which a player's age takes priority over the player's record when the organizer pairs players.
After sanctioned tournaments are completed, the Tournament Organizer uploads the results of each match to POP. The results of each match are used to calculate a player's rating. POP Ratings are based on the Elo rating system.( There will be many kids there.)
[edit] Prerelease Tournaments
Prerelease Tournaments are events in which players get to play with cards that will be released in stores in weeks prior to the event. The fee is $20-25 and each player gets six Packs, a special promo, and a set of sleeves themed after the new set. Each player builds a 40-card deck using the cards opened out of the six packs (not including basic Energy cards, which are provided at the event). At the end of each prerelease, players receive two extra packs.
[edit] Premier Tournaments
Premier Tournaments are meant for competition. There are six different types of Premier Tournaments (note that the following prizes apply to the United States only; other regions may have different prizes):
City Championships: When players from a specific city come together to determine who is the City champion. Prizes for first place are: 18 packs of the latest set, a tote bag with various prizes and a medal.
State Championships: Players from all over a state come together to play and become the State Champ. Prizes for first place are: 36 packs of the latest set, a tote bag with various prizes, and a trophy. They also get $300 travel allowance from Origins during the National Championships.
Regional Championships: Players from a specific Region come together to battle it out so he or she can become the Regional champion. Prizes for first place are : 36 packs of the latest set, a tote bag with various prizes, a trophy, $2000 scholarship and a Travel Award with Hotel Stay for the National Championships (not available in the 2006-2007 tournament season)
Battle Road Tournaments: Battle Road Tournaments give players another opportunity to work on their premier ratings, potentially earning an invite and trip to Worlds.
National Championships; This is a big event where players from all over the country come together to determine who are the top players of their respective countries.
World Championships: An invite-only event where players around the world come together and play.
-Current list of World Champions under POP:
2004: Hayato Sato (10-); Takuya Yoneda (11-14); Tsuguyoshi Yamato (15+)
2005: Curran Hill (10-); Stuart Benson (11-14); Jeremy Maron (15+)
2006: Hiroki Yano (10-); Miska Saari (11-14); Jason Klaczynski (15+)
2007: Jun Hasebe (Junior); Jeremy Scharff-Kim (Senior); Tom Roos (Masters)
[edit] Standard Premier Event Schedules
(Based on the 2007-2008 Tournament Season):
Autumn Battle Road Tournaments: September 2007 - October 2007
City Championships: November 2007 - January 2008
State Championships: March 2008
Regional Championships: April 2008
Battle Road Tournaments: April 2008
National Championships: Spring through July 2008
World Championships: August 2008
[edit] Professor Program
A special program in which people become Pokémon Professors to help promote the game in many ways, such as Judging, Volunteering, Advertising and more importantly, Spirit of the Game. To become a Pokémon Professor, a player must take the Professor Test in the Professor section of the Organized Play website. A player must be at least 18 years or older to become a Professor (previously 15 from 2003 until late 2005).
[edit] Tournament Organizers/Premier Tournament Organizers
A Tournament Organizer (TO) is someone who runs tournaments for their local community. Usually, he or she runs them within a weekly or monthly basis at a local store. However, a Premier Tournament Organizer (PTO) has the ability to run major tournaments and Prereleases as well in any major place at a particular time. Like Pokémon Professors, TOs and PTOs have to be 18 or older.
[edit] Controversy
While the Pokémon Organized Play program has made astounding success in the three years it has controlled the Pokémon Trading Card Game, there are still several issues facing the organization, as well as its community of gamers. Below are some of the bigger controversies during the POP era.
Growing audience: with the ever-increasing player attendance worldwide, there is concern that the company and its respective Premier Tournament Organizers may not be able to keep up with the numbers, specifically on the national level. However, it is more likely that the events not run directly by the staff of Organized Play will suffer from overcrowding, and not OP-directed events (usually the larger events, where odds of a large attendance are greater).
Player/member bannings: while some individuals have become infamous for their bans, numerous others still go unexplained. Organized Play, while having its right to disallow business with any individual for legitimate reasons (i. e. lying about tournament attendance, harassing players verbally/physically, defacing or stealing property, etc), is still under question whenever banned individuals claim to lack full knowledge as to why they earned the ban. Sometimes, when the community catches wind of a ban, there is heated debate as to whether or not the penalty was fitting for the crime, but very rarely does POP reverse a ban. Only one person to this day is known to get a full reverse suspension.
[edit] External links
- PokeGym Massively popular forum for Pokémon Organized Play tournaments and players (includes staff from POP as members)
- Pokémon TCG Rulings Compendium Comprehensive official rulings compilation for Organized Play.
