I have to take this on a different level. Some people like to have fun with friendly competitions and things. That's great. For these people, maybe GameStop can make a Pokemon meet-'n'-greet.
However, some people have fun playing in a competitive atmosphere. They like to play as best as possible, and as part of the fun, talk smack, as well as things like that. Now, I'm not saying if these GameSpot tourneys were the time or place for this, maybe they were, maybe they weren't, maybe it depended on each individual one, but the older, more mature gamers deserve to have a good time, too.
The problem is balancing these people. A child or a casual gamer can't have much with a hardcore, use-every-advantage player. It just doesn't work well, as evidenced by this. Now, I do think a lot of players had the wrong attitude about this competition. The girl in the email, for instance, was mistaken in some essence, as this was a competition, and it should be obvious to any gamer that plain-jane Eevee's are not competitive, let alone a full team of them. However, the bigger competitors should have realized that the tourney wasn't a hardcore competition and used the opportunity to help teach people who were interested in playing on a more competitive level, rather than to laugh at others. These players, unfortunately, will probably not find strong competition unless they help to make it, and should realize that players are just around for casual fun.
In essence, I'm saying that neither groups presented had the proper attitude. The odds are, as a twelve-year old, the girl probably villainized the best players there. In her perspective, she lost to them, and that made them bad guys. Laughing at a team full of Eevees was wrong, yes, but put yourself in her competitor's position. You go to what you expect to be a serious competition, and someone else has one of the weakest teams possible. In your eyes, it looks like this person wasn't even trying to compete. You might even think the kid was there playing a joke or something. So you might laugh, unintentionally.
Gamespot should have told people who planned to attend their intentions on how serious the tourney was. Pokemon is a game that has been around for over a decade, and each generation, strategy becomes deeper and deeper, which allows older gamers an opportunity to have fun in a strategical environment. It isn't the better player's fault that he showed up looking for competition. His attitude is his fault, but winning, and winning heartily, isn't some villainous act at an arranged competition. Had GameSpot set rules, or posted that they had planned the tournament for novices, or perhaps if they had set up age-restricted brackets, or something like that, people on both sides would have known what to expect to happen on that day, yet it seems that no one did.
In essence, what I'm saying is that GameStop should have been prepared to cater with everyone, and all the players probably had a good time meeting each other. They still could trade, talk, and casually battle. No one was forced to hang out with the big kids who 'ruined' things for the littler ones, and if losing a tournament ruined a little kid's time, then even had the big kids not shown up, only one little kid would have been happy, anyways.
Think about if you went to a Smash tournament, and only twelve and thirteen-year olds were there. The ones who liked to play only Pokemon, or perhaps don't play games very much at all. These players don't know how to use a Smash Attack, and some barely even know the controls, possibly only getting through the game on Very Easy mode.
You and one or two friends show up, and try to see if any other players are experienced, despite their age. You try talking combos, debate over use of the c-stick, discuss tiers, and talk about what items you think are cheap. The tournament starts, you and your friends are bracketed on far ends, and essentially, you all clean up and are the only players to make it to the finals. Does being a good player make you a villain? To the kids it does. Is this fair to you? After all, you probably came to meet people your age who were interested in playing something other than Halo, and you left without meeting anyone new or facing any new competition. In the end, both sides feel jacked, and that's about it.
Topic: Penny Arcade @ a Pokemon Tournament: Fun, Good-natured, Throw away your spreadsheets (Read 7503 times)
