Worlds 2020 in London, Worlds 2019 Winners!

Congrats to everyone is Europe. About time you finally get something. You and Oceania minus Japan have it so bad. Might have to visit London next year.
 
I always thought it odd it was called Worlds but it was always in the States, plus Canada once. Like who are you kidding, just call it MERICA
 
Oh, I will definitely be popping down to buy some stuff and spectate! Fantastic news. The lady and I had just been talking about it when we were watching the streams over the weekend.
 
I have to say I was disappointed by London. My son nearly has an invite to world's in juniors and my daughter would also have been able to go as well based on current points. For a family of 4 the cost for us to go there from the US would be about $8000, which we can't afford. Kids were pretty sad to see it outside the US. Guess that's why the number of Juniors and Seniors is dramatically lower than the number of Masters; families just can't afford all these trips.
 
I have to say I was disappointed by London. My son nearly has an invite to world's in juniors and my daughter would also have been able to go as well based on current points. For a family of 4 the cost for us to go there from the US would be about $8000, which we can't afford. Kids were pretty sad to see it outside the US. Guess that's why the number of Juniors and Seniors is dramatically lower than the number of Masters; families just can't afford all these trips.
Here's a bright way of looking at it.

People from Japan, Australia, Germany and all over the world had to go to Washington DC. Now, it's Merica's turn to pay up lol
 
I have to say I was disappointed by London. My son nearly has an invite to world's in juniors and my daughter would also have been able to go as well based on current points. For a family of 4 the cost for us to go there from the US would be about $8000, which we can't afford. Kids were pretty sad to see it outside the US. Guess that's why the number of Juniors and Seniors is dramatically lower than the number of Masters; families just can't afford all these trips.

It doesn't have to cost nearly that much. Tickets can be more like $700 round trip if you time it right, and hotel a few hundred a night - $4k-$5k is about what I'd expect, if I tried to be reasonably economical. Still not cheap certainly, but not insane.

And it's not like we're not asking European and Japanese players to pay the same when they go to worlds over here...
 
It doesn't have to cost nearly that much. Tickets can be more like $700 round trip if you time it right, and hotel a few hundred a night - $4k-$5k is about what I'd expect, if I tried to be reasonably economical. Still not cheap certainly, but not insane.

And it's not like we're not asking European and Japanese players to pay the same when they go to worlds over here...

True it's cheaper than Japan, but still not ideal. I did try to price it out, but couldn't get less than 1230 a person for that time of year, which is part of the issue. Times four for a family, add food, hotel, taxes, transportation, and any other fees and it stacks up quickly. Just bad timing for my son as he almost has his invite already and the cost prevents us from going.


Reasonably I still think that's why there are fewer Juniors and Seniors. It's one thing when you only have to pay for yourself, but when you have to pay for parent and child, or multiple parents and multiple children, the cost is just to high to travel all over the world multiple times a year. Sure some people can afford it, but most won't be able to.
 
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I suppose it depends on where you're flying from; I'm in the Chicago area, but here it's usually always possible to hit around $700-$800, sometimes even $500-$600. NYC is even cheaper (commonly $500-$600). This assumes you book at the right time - about 6 weeks out or a bit less - when the fares become demand-sensitive (most airlines offer a fairly high price until about 6 weeks out for international flights, to capture revenue from less price sensitive consumers who just want to book a safe ticket).

I think there're fewer juniors and seniors because they're not paying for themselves, and so only parents who both have resources and want to spend them on kids travelling to play a game will do so, while masters are spending their own money for the most part.

There's also a lot wider age range for masters - Juniors really aren't going to be highly competitive until maybe 9, so 2-3 years, and Seniors also have only 3 years available, so if there are 100 Juniors 100 Seniors 600 Masters, that's 30ish people per birth year - masters being between 16 and 36 for the most part I suppose. (Speaking as someone well over 36...)

There's no doubt putting this in London will depress American turnout, but I don't think it will significantly reduce the serious players; it will reduce the fringe players. Players who just barely earned an invite, but aren't really going to win. You'll get more of those from Europe and less from the US. I don't know enough about Europe to say if that's going to change the numbers too much, but I suspect it won't be that big of a deal. And having it once in a five year span, say, outside of the US isn't a very high price to pay for us; just skip that year, or save up your travel rewards or whatever for it (I may, though I doubt I'd earn an invite, but my son might be in the same range as yours - could earn an invite if he really tried, I suspect.)
 
Can someone objectively explain what happened with Shintaro Ito and his penalties? Obviously "slow play" means something different at Worlds than it does at league. Did the judges follow the rules? Were previous warnings in play?

I'm not asking if it was fair, harsh, or even-handed. I'm just asking if the judges followed the rules.
 
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Can someone objectively explain what happened with Shintaro Ito and his penalties? Obviously "slow play" means something different at Worlds than it does at league. Did the judges follow the rules? Were previous warnings in play?

I'm not asking if it was fair, harsh, or even-handed. I'm just asking if the judges followed the rules.

Shintaro had received a warning for slow play in a previous match. Because those carry over in the same tournament the next occurrence would result in a 2 prize penalty. The judges did follow the rules in that sense, but the greater question is should a penalty have been issued at all. I posted a breakdown of Shintaro's penalty for slow play in comparison to Tord's similar slow play that did not even receive a warning. IMO it was not fairly applied. If you want to see that forum the link is here: https://www.pokebeach.com/forums/threads/worlds-2019-finals-judging.150331/
 
I reside in Ireland, so flying to London will be less than 100 dollars round-trip. Plus I have fam there, so transportation and room will be ABSOLUTELY FREE.

For USA people, DAMN!!!!!

Round-trip flight
Food
Room
Transportation

That is going to be soooooo costly for y'all lol
It's even less than Europeans have to pay every year lol I don't think americans can complain.
 
It's funny how people are complaining about cost to get to Worlds when the road to Worlds is already extremely expensive. While some people may not have the extra $1000 USD or so it's going to cost, imo the reality is that most people fortunate enough to have the wealth (and free time) to sustain the costs of decks through the year + travel to events to get CP will probably be willing to pay for a trip to London from the USA for the opportunity to compete. [Note: this commentary mainly applies to TCG players -- my fave part about the VGC has always been that all you needed was the game cartridge to compete.]

Meanwhile, this will open the door to less wealthy European families to maybe muster up the courage, or get the opportunity, to take a stab at Worlds. In particular VGC players who would never be able to afford leaving their country to cross the Atlantic multiple times a year.

Overall, cost barrier in Pokemon is really something that I think about a lot.

Side note: I wonder how Brexit will affect this x)
 
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