To start, I am NOT a naysayer, I do love this game and I play it every chance I get, and it's what I talk about a large majority of the time. There are just some things I would like explained. As a light, at the end I will post some ideas to get Vs. back on track. I've been thinking about this for a while, so I just wanted to post it to get some opinions, then I will post directly about this topic (sorry if someone has brought this up before):

From the way I see it, UDE has stated they were spending twice as much as they were making yearly and that the OP announcement was a complete "out of the blue" scenario. My question is, how can this possibly be? Any company that has a project going for 3 years knows if they're making money or losing money, it's simple economics. UDE supposedly was losing then, $500,000 for 3 years on Vs. System. How does a company not notice when $1.5 Million goes missing? They knew. It's impossible for them not to know. There was an accountant somewhere, unless a ghost is running UDE's banking system, ghosts are signing our PC checks. They knew they were going to release Marvel Team-Up and just milk us all for some money. I don't sympathize with UDE for waiting to give the OP announcement. What angers me is, why are they masking it? They straight lied to all of us saying they didn't know. If they would have simply told the truth and admitted what they were doing, I would have been cool with it, instead they masked it. That is what angers me and overall, UDE is at fault. And, if they knew they were losing so much money, why did they keep up the PC's? I know if on year 2, they would've taken them away, we would have been more sympathetic. Now, we're used to them, that's why we play. Now the prizes are a skeleton of what they once were. Truly sad. Can it be fixed? Of course, but the million dollar question(literally) is how?

On another point:

Look at what UDE is cutting:

PCQ's and their money: Let's say the average PCQ costs UDE $500. The mat, 3-4 boxes, and the $250. This is being a bit generous, anyway...Let's also say they have about 100 PCQ's a year. 500X100=$50,000. Now, UDE is saving all that money. Net Savings: $50,000.

10k's: In the past, UDE has had around 18-20 10k's a year in recent years. Let's say these cost $15,000 each to run. Now, we're down from 20 to 4. So, now UDE has to pay $60,000 for 10k's instead of $300,000. Net Savings: $240,000.

PC's: Each PC, let's say, cost UDE $300,000 to run. They ran 3 in the past, so, we'll stick with that number. Now, They're down to $500,000 for PC's, next year, more likely than not, $300,000. We'll go with this year's figure: Net Savings: $400,000.

What they're giving back:

City Championships:

Let's just save some time and replace the PCQ with this. Add back: $50,000.

What UDE is saving total for all OP Changes (roughly): $640,000. Where is all this money going to? It's a good question.

Ways to Save Vs. System:

* Let's look at Yu-Gi-Oh! for a second, shall we? Why is it so successful? It had an amazingly strong Hobby League program and continues to do so. Yugi had a strong Hobby and Casual presence from the start. Heck, Yugi didn't have a regional for about a year and a half, and what happened? Hundreds of people flocked to those regionals for a shot at high competition. So, what is a possible solution? Create one. Give Hobby EXTREMELY strong support. I mean amazing prize packs, participation prizes if it's over a certain number of people. For UDE to eliminate fraud, make sure the store owner is using the prize packs for players by checking the UDE #'s of the tournament.

* Another is to re-work the 10k's at Indy/Columbus. Make the Sealed 10k BEFORE Indy. We wanna play with Marvel Team-Up in a Sealed/Draft environment. The set is simply amazing. Having it after Indy will just have us using either World's Finest (which we just played with), or the newest set, which is surely to make for a sub-par 10k. Have this before Indy, so we have something to look forward too. Having nothing until the PC at Indy leads to boredom and not focusing on Vs. System. Also, have the Single-Set 10k AFTER Indy. Why? Because then, we'll have another set, idk if it'll matter, but it's another factor. Also, give us something to focus on besides the PC.

Going back to PC weekend. Just stick with the LCQ's/Win-A-Boxes on Thursday. On Friday, maybe a Win-A-Box or a "new" PCQ or several. On Saturday is when a 10k could take place. Not officially necessary. If I had a choice of a 10k at the PC or one some other time to spread things out, spread 'em out.

* Create new PCQ's. Exactly the same, but without money. Simple as that. Not much to do with Vs. when there aren't any tournaments. We have 1 City Championship, and then, I honestly don't care about Silver. It's meaningless to me because of the no PCQ factor.


Alright, I believe that's enough ranting. Comments are welcome, reps are appreciated (yay!), just wanted to post this. Thanks for reading this extremely long post, I appreciate it,


Coolexplosion

A note on the finances: UDE was siphoning some profits from Yu-Gi-Oh initially to fund the earlier events. My guess is that the reason for the sudden major cutback is that Upper Deck proper sent the directive that each game could only use its own profits for tournament support. So the $640K 'saved' is actually primarily being redirected back into other areas rather than remaining in the docket for the UDE guys to use.

You might have wanted to wait for tommorrow's OP announcement, but I applaud your enthusiasm.

I plan on playing in the PC and having the 10k being the bring your own set format is saddening because it looked to be so much fun. Two years in row a cool 10k happened on day 2 of Indy.

The nice thing is you can test the single set format right now as WF will bring decks that you can immediately throw into the established gauntlet, and you don't have to worry about possible interactions.

That's all you do....

And whip me. Grrrs.

Thanks for your effort. I don't agree with all of the options, but that wasn't the point I'm sure. Thanks again.

tomorrow is here and we got an op announcement in the form of city championship faqs. though I understand your point. (and no I'm not trying to give stu a hard time....he gets enough of that nonsense)

Coolexplosion while I dont agree with the silver age is meaningless everything else does make sense. It seems crazy for UDE to have the 10K the same weekend as a PC. Spreading things out especially so that there is a chance to do some higher form(not HL or kitchen table) of draft/sealed for MTU would be a good idea. Though we have to remeber that all Hobby League kits are going to have a theme from now on and so maybe one of the kits before WF would be a required sealed or draft for one tournament. But since you dont seem to have a HL near you then that doesnt help. Oh and last but not least.....bring on the no money PCQs!

I always admit when I am wrong, and I was wrong again this time. There was nothing in the announcement that changed anything he said.

Working for a big company, like I do, I know that there is not always clear communication between the people that control the money to the people that create products. I've been in several situations where we as employees thought everything was going great, but things behind the scenes make the product fail. So we were telling clients one thing, but the board of directors was working on disolving the company. Awesome. Nothing makes a point like slander. I think the majority of players would disagree with you. From the beginning VS has been touted as a Pro game. They offered the Pro-Circuit before the first set was even released and used it in the one sheets for the origins set. To say that it would have been "easier" to remove the PCs EVER is to be more then a little naieve about how we got to where we are. If anything I think that these announcements coming on the cusp of the ever publically aknowledge decline of VS is easier then in Year 2 where we were in the hay day of the VS community.

I thought about correcting these numbers, but essentially they are almost all understated. UDE was probably spending more on all those events then you have guesstimated. Also for the PCQs the PTO did have to cover some of those costs. The bigger issue is that you misunderstand the issue. Its not like the money that they are not now spending on VS OP is going to some other part of the company. Chances are they just cut that money out of their budget. Its gone, not coming back, there is no way to get it back. And really to think that the folks at UDE are "taking away" the OP is a real misnomer. UpperDeck took it away from UDE.

Yugi is a terrible game. The only reason it has ever been successful is because it has a hit TV show. The OP is not successful for any reasons about game play or the support UDE gives it. I kind of hate to say this though cause Yugi is what got me into CCGs. Of course I feel my birth as a true gamer came when I realized that Yugi had inherent problems that couldn't be fixed and my life was saved by VS.
I don't get what your trying to say here.

That'd be nice but it doesn't seem like they are having any big events out side of the PC venues.

Awesome idea sign me up.

what? This seems like crazy talk.

Just to let you know... YGO hobby support in the beginning wasn't very good. They actually had no hobby league for quite a while and just restarted it in the last year or so.

I have my own ideas about what UDE needs to do but I'm afraid whenever I post about it... someone calls me Chicken Little.

How 'bout I just call you Chicken then? ;)

The plan keeps coming up again
The plan means nothing stays the same
But the plan won't accomplish anything
If it's not implemented
Like it's always been
And it makes me think of everyone
And the cause of this is evident
But the remedy cannot be found
Cause it's so well hidden
This history lesson doesn't make any sense
In any less than ten thousand year increments
Of common sense

Yay! Replies! Nothing better to make my day then replies to a thread, even if they're bad, keep 'em coming. Responses:

Canamrock: Yeah, after posting this someone told me that (along with you). That makes perfect sense to me. I mean, Yugi couldn't feed into Vs. forever.

Stu Post #1: Yeah...that would've been a much better idea. They always come out on Fridays?

Athrex: I also plan on going to PC: Indy. I have the same concern as you do. Last year, that was such an amazing idea for a 10k, team sealed. Come on, does it get much better? Yeah, single set! But, I probably won't be able to play in it because of Indy if I do Day 2 (I'm praying...and testing) than it's another amazing 10k gone. Personally, even if I scrub day 1, I would rather have a 10k of higher attendance without me being there just to help the game at some other time, specifically later in the year. I would rather a larger group, including those in Day 2 of PC Indy, benefit from this amazing 10k instead of a much smaller number. And, I can't see how people would come from outside of the PC venue, because if they do, they'd have to pay for a badge, which means $115 dollars (or like $55 if they just go Saturday) to enter a 10k. Anyone up for that?

Taekmkm: Hey, I stick with what works.

Daemyann: I think it would be really cool to see your's. If you've posted them in a thread or something and don't wanna re-type them, you could always just post a link or even copy/paste. Seeing other people's solutions to problems makes me :).

doomedskrull: Yeah, Stu's idea was good, I just don't keep track of when the OP Announcement is, lol. As far as your comments: I meant that after the City Championship, Silver Age is meaningless for me and people in my area (Chicago) personally. We have no Silver PCQ's left and our Hobby Leagues are iffy. Besides, it's not like I'm going to test for a month just to go to Hobby League. Thanks for the support. I would really like to do a 10k MTU Sealed, even if I don't get to do it, I'd still love to see the Metagame coverage. That would be cool to have at a Hobby League, DWF Sealed/Draft required. I would find a way to get there just for that. Nice.

Stu Post #2: I think you admitting you were wrong and apologizing for it was longer than the actual first statement lol. It's cool, now at least I'm informed on the OP Announcements, yay!

Evilbaby: I'll answer this one in parts:

* Yeah, I agree and see where you're coming from. Especially in a big company such as UDE it is easier than it might seem to lose large sums of money without the guys in a different department knowing. I think there should be some better communication then for UDE if that is the case. What I'm saying is, if that's the case, than it's not the players' fault and I think that is what the OP Announcement was hinting at.

* He he, this looks pretty bad after taking all those law classes, *grrs*. Well, I know for a fact UDE reads this so, I am in a way, telling "them." Also, if it's true, I'm not breaking the law, yay loopholes!

* You make a good point here. Since I wasn't really in the Vs. Community at all during the hayday of Vs. I can't really make a great judgment. I would think though that if they would have kept us all more informed, it would all be more like we're on the same team, all working to keep Vs. alive and the great game that it is. With coming out of nowhere like they did, idk. I could be wrong though.

* I did want to underestimate the numbers a bit just to be safe. If I overestimated I would've said something like "they're saving $2 million. Ram the UDE Gates and let through the floodgates of money!!!" Where did that come from? Honestly, idk. Anyway, back to your post. The thing about the TO's Hobby Store heads was, they did have to spend some money but, the major burden was on UDE to deliver the products on time and still give out the prize packs.

* The Vs. System team is now starting to treat Vs. like Yugi. Yugi is successful because it has a lot of players, Vs. System is not because it isn't a big money maker. Yugi had a strong League System (Toys R' US/Books-A-Million) and they started to build a lot of Hobby League support. That's what Vs. probably should've started in the first place. While I agree that the game of Yu-Gi-Oh! isn't anything to get all excited about, the player support they have cannot be overlooked.

* All of us have nothing big Vs. System wise to look at. In the past, we've had a couple 10k's a month, now all we have is PC Indy and Hobby League.

* Yeah, but a lot of their 10k's happen at hotels so, it's a possibility.

* Cool. I want PCQ's!

* Silver Age is pretty meaningless to me, what's the reason to play it? I'm not a huge fan of the format, I like Golden personally, even Modern strikes my fancy more than Silver, heck, I'll test Single Set, Silver...no.

Erick: I know, I played Yugi since 2002. Although, I think I just lowered my credibility by about 99% just by saying that. The game was actually fun to play in the beginning, the competition, and the support was actually pretty decent. If I wanted to play a fun deck, I could, if I wanted to play competitive, Yugi had the people to support it. Now, at least here, it's chaos. And CED/BLS are banned, you do the math. As far as your ideas, I'd like to hear them. As far as everyone else, well, I don't speak for them ^.^.

Lurking Evil: Did you just insult me? I'm not sure, :).


Thanks for reading,


Coolexplosion

I just saw the title and figured I should post the song. Turns out it's alomost relevant

There's a song named The Plan? How can anyone not love life right now, there's a song named The Plan? *cough* Anyway, WHAAHA! A song!?!?


Coolexplosion