My last $250 from random.pcq paid for Kim's birthday dinner at Delmonicos in Las Vegas.

The after-dinner $55 shot of 25 yr old scotch was paid for by selling the avengers box.

Is it right or fair that I should have to pay for those things out of my own pocket? There has been too much talk about the n00b on this thread, how about someone stick up for the pros who have to eat too.

Crap.

/set mode -Jonesy

Feels much better now.

I bet you love telling kimmy that her birthday dinner was paid for by a pcq :)

I've taken over $1000 in just pcq money. I'm not a pro. Who is trying to take away what is virtually my only source of tournaments?

We can't all travel to PCs all the time (I've had 3 now), that alone costs almost $1000 at times.

pro's gotta eat too


john witherspoon would be proud alex.

I had a friend get 10 points and play at PC INDY. Granted it took him a while, but he made it. If he can make it, anyone can make it.

Hell, if I can get up to 22 then ANYONE can get 10.

It depends on your area... if YOU can get 22, then it must not be very competitive in Kentucky.

Okay... I'm kidding.

But this goes back to the point that once the best players in an area have 20+ PC points and continue to win the PCQs, the points go nowhere. True qualifiers would not allow qualified players to play but you can't do this so the next best thing would be to pass down the points.

i think this is a very valid argument

on the pro`s side,its not their fault that they are hard to beat,if u cant beat them now,what will happen at the PC?theres no difference,getting qualified for a pc shouldnt be easy,and its not

on the noobs side,its not fair to get bombed by michael jacob,ryan jones and adam prosak when u dont have the expierience or history,u cant get qualified while these guys wail on you.

i believe there is a solution for this,i dont know what it is,but there is one.and for the record,i have 1 pc point,so im not biased on the pro`s,but in my opinion it should stay the way they are

I think that two things need to happen in competitive vs.

Fist off keep the PCQs. This allows Pros to continue to go to PCs. In my opinion its more important for someone to keep going to PCs than to have new people going to PCs and then not keep going. And you can still have a crack at the pros and hopefully learn from them.

Then you need a venue for people to be rewaded for trying to get better and for building decks that are competitve. This would not necisarilly disallow the best players, but the best players could not win it all. If a pro won out then he/she gets like 10-20 packs, but would not be able to be in the top 4-8.
Someone who is not a pro(say under 10 points and never been to a PC. -would get 1 point for a normal match win. They could get 1.5 points for a win over a pro. Would only lose .5 points for a loss to a pro and a normal loss would be -1.

So maybe it looks something like this:
An amateur plays 8 Rounds

+1 win (normal win)
-.5 (loss to a pro)
+1 (normal win
+1.5 (win to a pro)
-1 (normal loss
+1 (normal win)
+1 (normal win
-.5 (loss to a pro)
3.5 points total

At the end of this day it breaks down to anyone with 3 or more points will make the top 8. Even if a pro wins out they will not be able to play in the top 8. This would seperate the good players from the bad playes give people a chance to interact with pros and make a competive top 8 for those who would normally get killed in the top8.

Nothing needs to change. But we desperatley need another venue if the game is to grow. Other CCGs do not have sponsered venues other than qualifiers and the Pro Circuit, but VS needs to do something to keep new players interested in competitive play

u cant do that,it doesnt end up fair for pros who want $$,u need a fair decision for both sides or VS will fall apart

That system would work better for the normal rating point system. That way, if you're losing to the best players in the game, it won't sting as bad for your ratings as if you lose to a random scrub. This will tend to normalize scores somewhat, since there's a bit of diminishing returns as a pro player's rating rises; each new win will not count for as much unless he's beating strong opponents.

The edge here is that while it might be tough to make top 8 against a bunch of high-class players in a PCQ, your ratings should increase faster by beating less-skilled players regularly and only taking a minor hit by losing to a much better player. This also lets a newer player accelerate his ratings, making it more possible to 'catch up' with someone who's been able to play at a lot of smaller sanctioned tournaments on a regular basis.

I think that if UDE was able to get the PTO's to take a more active interest in running leagues, or just something a bit more substantial than a standard Hobby League run out of a store, there would be enough playtime for people that it'd be feasible to make Qualifiers only for non-qualified people, or at least non-maxed. I've always thought it would be in a PTO's best interest to attempt to assemble some 'extra-carricular' tournaments for drawing in and maintaining their player base. Even a PCQ every 6 weeks is often not enough to keep up the major interest that a game like VS needs to take a firm hold in an area.

oh my god i can't believe most of the posts on here.... pcqs are open to everyone! anyone can play in them or 10ks. if you want to play in a less competitive setting you play in hobby league. the best player at the tournament should get the money and the points period. also the game doesn't pull enough people to start banning the most dedicated players in the game from pcqs.

but then everyone can qualify,that doesnt make it a pro circuit that makes the level of play lower

Heh, she knows mate, she was the one who dragged me to it.

Despite the tongue in cheek nature of my post, the truth is that I really don't see the excitement in pros playing PCQs. I just don't get it. You play all day and maybe you win $250 and a few packs of cards? Maybe if you are in high school that's a big deal, but I can personally think of better ways to spend a saturday.

When we go to them I only play the sealed ones for the top 8 draft, and consider it a bit of a waste if my deck doesn't take me that far. I wish the sealed PCQs were draft all the way through, that way you get some real solid practice and skill rises to the top (rather than just opening a broken rare and a full curve in your packs and playing 6 games with your eyes shut). I realise there are logistical issues with a full draft pcq but it's a nice thought.

I'm not saying I don't recommend playing VS on a weekend or anything btw (VS is fun after all), I just don't see the attraction of PCQs for pros. I mean you could spend that day with your mates or your team practicing for the next PC. Kim has still yet to provide me w/ a rational explanation for attending them. Neither of us will ever be getting a point from a PCQ again (if I went a full 4 PCs without recapping myself that would probably be my indication to stop playing ;)) and if I want $250 that bad by boring myself rigid, party poker is sitting there 24/7 (and would take up far less of one's weekend).

Anyway, to clarify, I certainly don't think so-called pros (if we apply this title to anyone who has more than 20 PC points, which is funny, but anyway) should be banned from PCQs. The last thing VS needs is to drop the # of players it has at this early stage of the game. I remain, however, puzzled as to why any actual pros (if you played yugioh, trust me, this doesn't include you ;)) would consider this an enjoyable use of their saturday. I had more fun playing Overpower with Brandon at the last one we showed up to than I did in the actual tournament (and if TJ had showed up we could've had some more fun involving alcohol, but he decided to sleep in as usual, prolly in a jager-induced coma. Am I right TJ?)

Which raises a good point. If anyone finds themselves in a similar situation to me (not likely) and fancies not playing in a pcq in the delaware valley area, let me know and I will bring some SWCCG/overpower/lotr decks and we can play some of that instead. Then we can do an avengers/jla draft or something when everyone else is done flaggelating themselves. Numpties.

just suck it up and play curve sentinels

Man, the people at your PCQs must suck as people. When I go to a tournament it's actually fun. Interesting stuff happens, like the guy who normally HJs our PCQs playing his first sanctioned tournament ever, then beating Dair Grant, Sam Gilly and me in consecutive rounds to go into the elim rounds as the first seed in Sealed. Or like our Constructed PCQ, in which every single player played the Robots. I can't think of too many more enjoyable ways to spend a Saturday than hanging out with my friends and throwing some cards around.