The Trashalanche Pokemon Podcast
Emergency Pod: ICs, Prizing & more!
All right, so, so Caden, here's the thing that you have to ask your dad for me. Um,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
Track 1:does it make, so assuming here's what I'm, here's my working assumption. He and your brother are gonna fly into Chicago and they're gonna pick you up, and then they're gonna drive to Peoria. Right
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yes.
Track 1:now I have one of two choices I could get on a plane with Liam and Walker, who also successfully registered for Peoria. And fly up there and rent my own car and drive to Peoria. Or I could just send those two guys to Peoria to drive with you guys.'cause I feel like five in a car is a thing, but six in a car is too mosh.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I can absolutely, I can absolutely reach
Track 1:So, so speak with your father about,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:like go
Track 1:Yes, yes. I recognize if I reach out. You mean turn around and yell, so, yeah. Yeah, I haven't had the chance to talk to your dad. I figured I'd talk to him in two weeks about it. But that the, like, I recognize that's the universe of possibilities.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, I'll do that. He's in SSF right now, but I'll do that when he gets
Track 1:I know, I know. He would be sad if I was not there. But also, uh, um, uh, I, I recognize that probably when I say all that, what would really happen is the three of us would fly in. Liam and Walker would get in the car with you guys. Nabil would drive all of you to Peoria while I followed in another car. Yeah. Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:That, well, that's not the, that's not the move.
Track 1:That like it's a thing you could do
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:It's, it is Certainly. a, it's certainly a move.
Track 1:Alright, so our goal today is emergency Pod. We're gonna talk about Uh, um, the crazy, uh, breaking news of all of the various announcements that Pokegear made have regarding the competitive scene. Uh, then I think we're gonna talk about, I think it sounds like we're gonna try to talk about worlds for two seconds. We're gonna save the talk about the competitive meta for the next pod, which will still be out before Pittsburgh, and make sure people get their, their, like Pittsburgh meta breaking news. Sound like a plane, guys? Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yep.
Track 1:Welcome to the Trash Alan Podcast. The only podcast about the Pokegear trading card game. Liam Halliburton's here. Mike Fouchet is here. Caden Hyatt's here. I'm here. Brent Halliburton. And we're gonna make the magic happen. Brit is not here because emergency pod waits for no man. And, and hence we're doing it. Uh, big, big breaking news today. Oh, now what? What's the other stuff I gotta say? I guess attendance is 133%. We're on Twitter. If you leave a five star review, we will read it on the podcast. Um, we've gotten a new five star review. I'm gonna hold that until Brit with us next week, and we're a little more organized about things. Um, although I'm traveling for work next week. So next week's gonna be a little bit of a, uh, uh, a, uh, something, uh, chaos pod. Yeah. Um, yeah, that's, uh, yeah, those are all the announcements I made guys. Alright, let's talk about the big announcements. Um, I. Who wants to, who wants to talk? Who wants to kick off the, uh, the, the talk about what happened?
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I, mean, I I
Track 1:Alright.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:there were sort of There was sort of two, um, let me know if I missed them. There were sort of two major announcements, um, today, which were increasing of pricing for regionals, ics, and worlds, as well as, um, the announcement of the IC dates for this year. Um,
Track 1:I think that's right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:and, and that, those are the two, Those, are the two main, those are the two things, right? I'm just making
Track 1:Yep. I think that's right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Um,
Track 1:Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:So
Track 1:correct me if
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:me if I'm wrong, Um, looks like regionals. pricing has increased, like roughly three x and then other pricing increasing roughly two x. Um, I, I think for me, the biggest thing is, um,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Wasn't it regionals, five to 10.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, I think
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:uh, but for, For the first spot, but as you get down the increase gets higher. like I don't, don't shake your head at that, Liam. Um, I think it matter. I think. I think one of the larger, and I think what the more impactful change that a lot of people feel is frankly the increase in pricing for top 32 and top 16 at regionals, um, I think is frankly more impactful than the changing irising for like first and second. Um,'cause, you know, last season and seasons passed, To break even on go traveling to regionals. For a lot of people, you had to get like top 16 and top 16 was break even top eight. Maybe you were making a little, Now it's top 32, you're already most likely, in the positive, which is I think a, a monumental change for, for. the game and for what it means to compete in the Pokegear T C G competitively. Um, and of course ICS similar now, um, sim ics as always have frankly, bonkers pricing N C P, so that's, that's always a good thing. Yeah.
Track 1:Yeah, I mean, you, you got 1500 for top four previously and now you get 5,000. Right?
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
Track 1:I mean, that's, that's, uh, pretty rock solid.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:50,000 if you win worlds. Now, that's a lot.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:pretty sweet. Um,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Is That is a lot.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:for IC as it's wor, I think the biggest change, similarly, as Caden was saying, for IC as top 64 gets$2,000, which is like a pretty reasonable, I. I mean, it's still only 64 out of whatever, 2000 people at NAIC, but like that's a pretty, that's, that's pretty nice.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:yeah, absolutely. Like of course, of course The spotlight. is on the, Like large increases to, you know, first place of worlds or first place at a regionals being 10 K. But Yeah, I I firmly believe. that the, almost the more positive change. Is the increases in The sort of top 32, top 64 payouts, um, that just frankly makes it more feasible for people to try to compete in Pokegear competitively.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:And, and a lot of people have said that they wish that regional pricing went down to top 64 as well, because
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:it will definitely feel bad to get like 33rd, 34th, 35th, right around there. Um,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I think I've already felt bad to go like, you know, 9 6 1 or something like that. Like,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:dude, 9 6 1 is like,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:you do mid, you don't get money for it. That's just how the game's supposed to be if you
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Do you think 9 6 1 is getting like 40th place? 9 6 1 is getting like a hundred 80th place? What are you talking about?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Oh, maybe,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:what is it? Ten five,
Track 1:yeah. 9 6 1 is they go 6, 2, 1, and then they go two, four, day two.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Don't get money. That's how it
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:get, to get top, to get like 40th place is, you know, Let's say you go 6 2, 1, day one, and then you're probably, if you go like four, two, in, four, two in day two. So you have a 66% win rate in day two. you're getting, like, you, you bubble out of top 32 and that feels really bad.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:and I think that's certainly true. I, I, I agree. I honestly agree. I think It would've. been nice, um, if Top 64 got pricing, cash pricing, um, in regionals. But honestly, like all the other changes feel so positive. It's hard, it's hard for me to re to like Bev annoyed at Pokegear for not giving top 64 after everything else they, they, just Announced. Um, but I Do think I do think the argument has in some ways been settled. I think it is almost certainly not worth it. to ID at six two
Track 1:That that was, I think that was the first meaningful question I had for you guys is like when people are six two, will they still be like, let me ID in day two? Or will they say, oh my God, we can't ID anymore. We have to get
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I think, at least for me, there might be rare situations where I choose to, ID, you know, late in the season when it's really just for championship points.
Track 1:Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:But I think,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Top 64, like little kids at six two going, oh my God, bro, I gotta ID so that I can lock up my$200 from top.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. IDing, IDing at six two has always been about, um, has always been about championship points, not about pricing. If you're going for pricing, it's always better to
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Jake Gerhardt Tweet, bro, your entire season is not meant to be a world's qualification run. It's meant to be a season where you compete to try to win. It's.
Track 1:Well, it's not, yeah, so, so let me make the counter argument'cause we haven't really had the chance to talk about how the change of the championship point payout structure as well. Like now you're gonna get 20 points for top five 12. So like is getting top 1 28 and getting 40 points like moving the needle. I don't know. Yeah, maybe.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, I think again, again, I think like in most cases, not, which is why I don't think it's till like potentially late season. If, if I need that like little bump in points to try to seal up like a 40 points versus, you know, 20 points, um, I don't think I'm gonna be IDing at six two. Like I would rather play it out. Uh, I think. Except for those very few rare situations at the end of the season, um, where I really just need like top, top 1 28, top 64.
Track 1:so, so Mike, you're, you're the guy who has, has been through many, many different ways to qualify for worlds for, for decades. Uh, uh, any reaction? How do, how do you feel about IDing now?
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:I mean, I wasn't, I Dedenne before. so I definitely wouldn't, ID now, I think like a lot of people have talked about this on Twitter. Jake Gerhardt specifically is like the most recent person that I've been thinking about that like, rather than thinking of the season as just trying to qualify for worlds like as that, that's the only goal. Um, Try to think about each individual tournament as you know, its own thing. And I do think the increased pricing will allow players to adopt that mindset a little bit better. Because before world was like a really only big cash tournament. The IC is where Good. They weren't like super amazing, but they were pretty good. But now regionals actually have like pretty legit pricing. Um, and ICS have very, like ics have basically what worlds had before. Right? And regionals have pretty legit pricing in, in and of themselves. So I do think that you can more realistically play just for like the one tournament rather than Looking at it holistically for a season, like from the get go, like everybody wants to qualify for worlds, but I think now it's, uh, it's much more reasonable to have that as kind of like a secondary objective, if that makes sense.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, I agree and, And that is something that has definitely shifted for me in my mind, where previously I really was thinking about. You know, the season as what it is, a whole season with Worlds as the capstone at the end, rather than like individual events. Um, and sort of the prize structure was,
Track 1:was,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Was reinforcing that and. And, with that shifted, um, now it very much feels more like separate events each with like high payouts and it's. Getting, getting first at a regionals now, like it really, really matters. Whereas before it was like, it was nice, but honestly trying to get points to secure World's invite was in some ways more valuable. Um,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:What,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:What are you talking about?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:what?
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Liam? No, no. Liam, why are you reacting like this?
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Dude, he just, he just said he, he'd rather he first at a tournament means can.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:That's, that is, but I'm, I'm saying if I'm six two, which means I'm already in a pretty, I, I'm not, I've already not had like a stellar day. Um, like I'm not in the best position to make it to top eight. it would take a lot. But if it's, if I'm choosing between that,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:This, this is what I hate to see, man. Like, people who just like go into the tournament, they're like, oh, I, I can't even get top A, it's just too hard. I'm not gonna try this tournament. Let me see if I can settle for top 1 28. Like, you're still in the running, dude. Just, just try like,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I think it depends. it depends on
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:your goal going into every tournament, right? You wanna make top eight, you wanna try to win? Try.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:And then if you hit six two, then potentially your goals readjust. I.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Most people do not get to six two. Like six two is really good, man.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:However, six two is also a.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:you. Once you get to six two, there's maybe 20 tables better than you. As soon as you take the id, it's like 50 or 60 tables better than you. Like you you are like really, really close to the top end of the tournament. If you're at six two, you win like two more games. You're at like table four'cause you're like eight and two, nine and two. But like just ID and throw your whole tournament away like. I don't, I don't care if Worlds is the only$25,000 tournament. Why do you do that to every single tournament you go to? That makes no sense. It makes no sense.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I think it made sense in past seasons when really worlds was the thing that your season was building up to. Like worlds was the event
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:This alright. Like this is
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:and I don't think That's true anymore.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:If like
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:If we wanna talk about improvement, wouldn't playing in day two, improve your game. the most?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Day two bottom tables. Like what?
Track 1:I
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I don't know if that's true. Didn't you just say that day two, that six two is a very hard record to get and even if you, and so if you're six two playing at six two, playing in day two, doesn't that mean you're already
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:what I was saying. How close you are to the top, and then once you decide to Id, you're no longer at the top, the bottom of day two is not at the top like the guys should be a top 2 56. That's not at the top, bro. When you are like two wins away from table five, that's when you are like potentially very close to like play against like one of the best players in the world. You're play, you're gonna play against somebody really, really good at table five when you decide to shoot your whole tournament in the foot and then you end up playing at Table 60. Round one a day two, you are not close to doing well at the tournament or going to play against the good player very soon like.
Track 1:I don't know.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:do not think that is wholly true.
Track 1:I mean, the, the difference, the difference between six two and, and 5 2 1 and like a 5 2, 1 player going on like a four game win streaks and kind of the same space, right?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, no, that player's no good. But like, I mean, may maybe like, like there's definitely some players who are good, but like, you know, like beating the guy at 2, 2, 1, and then 3, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1. That's like way harder than, you know, like the guy who goes to like six one and then loses to a Zulu at six, one is six two now or something like E even though you both get to like six two, you know, A little bit of a different path.
Track 1:Uh, you know, I, I don't think you should, I don't think you discredit either path. I mean, and, and your assumption that the way they got to six two was they got to six one and then lost. Like if your point is guys that start out 6.0 and then lose two are, are like, should be treated differently than people who start out O two and go to six game run, man. Like all the six game runs are hard.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:it's
Track 1:Liam's got a lot of influencer energy these days. Right? like it's crazy.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I'm like, I'm just saying, bro, I, I can't believe Caden would say stuff like this. Like
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:All I'm saying, all I'm saying is in the past pricing, especially for regionals,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:bro.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:right? And I IDed to secure my invite because I was not sure if losing, if I lost that game, I wouldn't get my invite. And it was not guaranteed and I wasn't, and I wasn't confident. And so I decided to take the ID
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:bro. Okay, bro, I'll, I'll slide you a pass for
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:me the, in fact, great. That's the
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:for six months of the year, you're gonna play out at six two and like
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yes, and I, I, well, no
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:you will now, But what you've said is before this rule change, like this price change wasn't announced that you weren't bro, and that's just
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Um, the, No, I think that, um, in the past regionals have been. frankly, I would never, ID six two at an ic, um, given ics actually have like crazy high C championship point payouts, and they ha they in the past also had decent cash payouts. Um, I. Would never and have an IDD at six two for an ic, but regionals have always been in a different spot. Um, where
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I don't even know where this is going and I don't want to hear it, dude, like, oh, like the cash payout. This, the championship point payout. All of that stuff is irrelevant, man. Go to a
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:no, it's not
Track 1:Lele, Liam, for all this, for, for all this cheesing. I, here's, here's the question I guess I would ask you, and now I'm gonna, I'm only gonna give you like 20 seconds to answer because I feel like we're going down a rabbit hole, but like, so last year was your first year as a master and you had the auto invite, and if it were not for the auto invite, you definitely would not have gotten the invite. You had two situations where you were six two and chose to play it out, and you lost both of those, and obviously that probably impacted the amount of points that you would've earned. Let's assume,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Sure.
Track 1:uh, if you, if you did not have the auto invite, are there things you would've done differently last season?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:No, like I
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:he's never gonna
Track 1:You did? Uh, yeah. Well, I mean, so let's just be clear. So, so the answer is you would not have had your world's invite last year
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah.
Track 1:and you would've just stayed home and, and all the other two guys on this call would've gone to Japan.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:yeah, I, dude, my, to each tournament and I try to win it. Like, if you wanna win tournaments, that's like, that's the mindset you have to have. If you're gonna go to a tournament, you wanna play to win if you like. If you come in thinking like, oh, maybe I could take my ID at like
Track 1:No, no, no. I, I, I think the question I'm asking you, uh, you're, you're, you're giving a, a, like, I believe, think kind of intentionally, uh, uh, a deflective response. Is there anything you would do differently knowing now, like how it all went down?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Um, I think I, I'd take the, I would've taken the ID at Charlotte after I lost game one. Um, I should have done that. I was, yeah, I, I should have, I mean, like, it's kind of close'cause like I'm not too disadvantaged going second'cause it was a Mew mirror. So like, I. It's kind of hard to say, but I think, I think I should have taken the ID then. Um, else though, no. I
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Would your deck choice have changed?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:no,
Track 1:All the decks you played were the right decks.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Um, I,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:that's, that's a different, that's different, that's a different question.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I, I don't think so, but like, I, you know, I still, I still went to the tournament and I think, I think I played the, like, the best deck I could have. Like, I, I don't think I arrived at like Um, any of my deck choices, like thinking like, oh, if I play this tomorrow, I'm gonna do really bad. I think, um, each deck I brought, like I brought it because I was trying to get an advantage. I didn't feel like anything else was better. Like I. I, I have the same reasoning for worlds, and I'm, I'm pretty happy with my world's pick. And like, especially now that I'm like going through the deck after, I'm like, oh man, yeah, I played that deck. It was so sick. Like, I just really liked the deck and like, you know, may, I think Fusion me was probably, probably a better call, but I think, I think at the time, eh, actually no man, none of the world's decks like felt good. I, yeah, like all the, all the decks I played, I'm, I'm happy with. Um, yeah, no, I played some sick decks this season. I love those decks. I. I'd play him again.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
Track 1:like that was a, a very frank Peric answer. that was a sick deck. Of course I'd play it again. It's a sick deck.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I like,
Track 1:I love it.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:pretty good there because I played that, that intel box with, with the BDR and stuff. That thing was really fun to play. Anything with Intel and like single prize is really fun to play. I've played like that weird like control list that Fort Wayne with. Yeah, like torment lock. Um, that was a really sad, like I played it again. Um, what was I play? Oh, I played vika at Salt Lake. Play that again. It was really sick. All my, it was so cool.'cause I had the one, one fluffy and I was playing gradients art. I could accelerate into the, and hit term one with ssl. Like my decks were sick, man. My decks were sick.
Track 1:All right. Alright, let so, uh, The, the one, the one thing that I think jumps out obviously is there's still the, like, uh, the, the no prizes for like the bottom of day two. And, and I, I am certain we will see someone who gets 33rd like post a Twitter video of them burning their 18 packs, right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, I mean, I I think it's unfortunate. Um, I think
Track 1:How, how important is having a prize.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:enough. It's.
Track 1:Uh, how important is having a prize for making day two? Does that, does that help at all or does that just encourage people to
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I think the best thing that they could do to fix those situations is to make it so everybody with equivalent, with equivalent records got the same price payout. Like if you're 33 and you had the same price or record of 32nd, you should get the same price payout. If you had a worse record, like can't feel that bad about it, you did worse, right?
Track 1:Right, right.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Um,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, I I definitely can agree with that. I mean, it's tough to, you know, where you. you know, top eight payouts, down to, to ninth place, 10th place. If they have the Same record.
Track 1:Talk. Talk about things that trigger people to id, right. They're like, okay, wait, wait here. Here's what we're gonna do. Right. Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah. I think it is. I, I, think it's a hard, while it would be really nice, I think it's hard to imagine Pokegear ever Being able to, you know, justify it enough to make that change.
Track 1:Right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:that. It's kind of, it's a scary change to propose and make.
Track 1:I, I think, I think what they would have to do
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:also an uncertain amount.
Track 1:they wanted to do that, what they would've to do is they would've to define like tiered price pools and then just say you split the tiered price pool.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
Track 1:If there, if there's, if there's 85 guys who all have like top 32 records, 85 guys split the whatever, 16 to 32 price pool.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:That's fair.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, they can do it that way.
Track 1:And then, and then, and then there's a clean cut of top 64 and those guys make more money. What
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah,
Track 1:but, but I think the problem is, that's just too complicated to explain. So they were like, well, we don't want to like, yeah, it's complicated. Yeah,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I mean it's really simple what they have right now. Right.
Track 1:yeah. Very clear.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I.
Track 1:And somebody's gonna be salty and say like, I got 18 packs and I had the same record as this guy who got a thousand bucks. I mean,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, I still stand by that we should have asymmetrical cut at all major events. But, um, that's, that's just me. I also think, I also think something they could do, uh, is just literally like a day two promo card. Um, like just give out, like they already give out the promo cards for ICS and regionals. Just have like a, in addition to, you know, the top eight ones that they have for ics. And I don't know why they got rid of those for re regional. Did they used to have'em for regionals?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, I, I think the only solution is 7 2 7
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I think you just have a, I think you just have a, like day two, um, a day two promo card like a stamp, like a, or the same promo card, but just stamped with like day two or something. Um,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Another
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:honestly think, well that's not like fixing, like fully fixing the issue that people are voicing. I think it, it is nice to have at least something. To feel like good that, oh, you got day two. Um,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:I'm like, what does that cost? Pokegear? Like
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, exactly.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I, I, I feel like they should up those prizes like so much.'cause it costs'em zero. Like if they just start handing out boxes for like 64, 1 28, 2 56, like cost'em zero, right?
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, basically. Um, one other thing related to like resistance of like getting 33rd, 34th with the same record is I really don't like the fact that day two resistance is only your day two opponents.'cause I feel like it's very variable when you only have, you know, six, six opponents. Um, it would kind of be nice if resistance carried over from the
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:no clue that's how that worked.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Day one doesn't count for resistance at all. Um, and I think that would be another incentive to play it out right at, uh, at six two. Um, because like if your last round opponent is 6 2 1 as well, going into the last round, like maybe don't, maybe they don't do good on day two and, uh, I don't know. You're like, you're locking in your opponent's resistance as a six three rather than potentially getting worse.
Track 1:I mean, I think the problem with that is like you somehow wanna account for the fact that like a guy, that, a guy that you beat that went five four, day one is Totally different than the guy that you beat who went 9, 6 1.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah. Yeah.
Track 1:Right. Like they have basically the same resistance, but like those are different guys. Right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:That's the reason they,
Track 1:the reason they don't count it
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I imagine that's the reason they cut it, is because if you have, you know, someone, day one who went, say six three, um, they had a 66% win rate versus Someone who, went in and then bombed day two now has a wor, gives a worse win rate to your resistance than the six three person
Track 1:Yeah.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:But, but I mean, if you play against the guy that goes one five on day two, that's worse than playing. Like
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I, I agree with you. I agree with You
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:You know what I mean? Like 7, 7, 7 is better for your resistance than one five.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. Um, I just think I, I anticipate that's the reason Why it doesn't exist right now is just because of
Track 1:Right? Right. But, but yeah, but that's, everybody's playing guys that played those 16 rounds. Right? Like the worst anybody could do who makes day two is, is go like 500. But there's lots of guys who don't make day two who do better than 500. And then you're like, well, like what do we do with that? Right.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:but I mean, I think that's fine too, right? Like, um, rewarding people that had a harder path to making day two is fine. Um, W uh, they could also do, I don't know, maybe the math gets too complicated, but they could also wait.
Track 1:yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I was thinking is like you bonus it or something. I don't know.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah. Like, you know, your day two resistance is worth two thirds and your day one resistance is worth one third. I mean, that's not that complicated, but I just don't know if the, uh, tournament software could handle it
Track 1:Yeah. Yeah.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:'cause we know
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:It should be able to.
Track 1:Yeah,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:well, yeah, yeah.
Track 1:love Tom. People love Tom. Um,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Um, one other thing that I was thinking about related to all of this pricing increase, so we have what, like two or three less regionals in North America than we did last year? Is that right?
Track 1:Oh,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Oh, we Do I didn't know that.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:yeah, I think it's 12 compared to 15. Not a hundred percent sure on those numbers, but I
Track 1:Ah,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:correct. So do you guys think then maybe that's part of it as well. They took all of the, I mean they, they took all the money from these S that we lost and put it into these new regionals, they still had to come up with more money.
Track 1:Yeah.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Um, but yeah, but, but that offsets, that offsets the increase quite a bit.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, that's why they cut O C I C. No,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Uh,
Track 1:Oh.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:could, we haven't talked about the
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:why, but yeah, we haven't
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:the sole reason I'm sure, but um,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I mean, it definitely helps from cut costs, right? That's all it does. Mm-hmm.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, I anticipate. budgeting, like, like part of I. You know, part of the, part of the deal with increasing pricing was like, Hey, uh, you gotta cut an IC if, if you want, if you want to increase pricing by this much. Like, you gotta, because it's not just pricing for O C I C, it's also, you know, venue logistics. It's, uh, It's, a lot.
Track 1:travel stipends. You just clawing all that back. That's like, that's like, uh,$200,000 or something, right? I mean, top 16, blah, blah, blah. Like juniors, seniors,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:it's a lot.
Track 1:blah, blah, blah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:It's a, it's a big difference.
Track 1:Speaking.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:speaking of O C I C, I don't know if you guys saw, but we'll post did tweet out and it's on one of the pages, but kind of hitting I hidden. I think that, um, the reason that O C I C was canceled was because, um, I. How they restructured the Asia-Pacific Oceania region a couple years ago. Um, and now they feel like O C I C is not, uh, worth it, more or less is kind of the message. But we'll post, uh, copied the text and people should go read it just to get the perspective.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I read it and I kind of, I, the way I kind of read That was almost more as a like, you know, O C I C was something that we were already kind of iffy on, whether or not it was worth having just because of attendance and its location and. then, With, with thinking about raising pricing across the board and trying to figure out ways to cut costs and, and Make that budgeting easier. Um,
Track 1:I,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I, I, you know, OC O C I C got the cut, and I think that's like, while it sucks for Australian Blair, for Sure. Um, I. think it makes, I think it makes sense and, which is a shame'cause I frankly, you know, also I'm on the West Coast, but I loved O C S C. O C S C was a fantastic tournament. It's a great location. I love Melbourne. Um, and I was planning On. going this year, but like, I, I understand, I understand. it getting cut, but I am curious what they do with travel awards now for the quarters.
Track 1:yeah. I mean, I assume, uh, yeah, you know, uh, let's, yeah, let's, let's hold off talking about, so the, the last thing I wanna talk about before we transition, talk about the ics, is um, uh, obviously Stefan Ivanov wrote a tweetstorm that is probably already, uh, the, like Definitive commentary on what's going on with all this stuff. I thought it was really, really good. Uh, um, you know, I think the, the good point that he made with respect to the increased pricing is, I mean, we still need bigger venues, better judge comp. I mean, in my personal opinion, we need juniors to be free. Uh, Pokegear centers could probably fix all this from an economics perspective. I wondered if, like, if Uh, any of this is like the startups. Yeah, it's, it's probably uncorrelated with Pokegear taking over regionals, but like, I mean, the crazy thing is they, they triple prizes right after they sell out, uh, Pittsburgh in 20 minutes at$75 a head.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, I anticipate, I anticipate entry ticket pricing is frankly just gonna keep going up, um, for the foreseeable
Track 1:Why, why wouldn't it? Why not charge a hundred dollars? You know, like they sold that in 23 minutes. I
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I certainly agree. Yeah, I, I agree though that Pokegear should enforce some sort of, if not free, at least, like substantially reduced entry costs for, for juniors and seniors.
Track 1:And the, the problem is, the problem is it's like tos have to make toss are running a profit centered business. Like they're, they're like, they essentially do this on their own nickel. Every seat they give a junior is a seat that they can't give to a master, and they can charge masters as much as they want because the masters will buy all the seats. So like either Pokegear has to tell them you have to, you have to provide at least like 200 free seats for people with fewer than 10 play points in juniors and, and we'll subsidize it or not subsidize it or whatever. And you have to like Make sure you have room for 2000 people in your convention center or something. Like, I don't even know if two thousand's enough these days. It's crazy. And yeah, now they're triple pricing. Like, they're like, we wanna bring people in.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah,
Track 1:the people
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, I, I.
Track 1:want and can't even get it. I mean,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I, mean, I can give it like a personal anecdote over the past few weeks I've been talking to, um, a lot of legends of Interra players um, who have been considering switching to Pokegear and giving Pokegear a try. And this was before the prize announcements and like, you know, there were, I was talking, I've been talking to like three or four and of the sort of mindset of, you know, I'm gonna give it a try. Maybe I'll go to NAIC, one or two regionals that are somewhat nearby and kind of give, give Pokegear a try.'cause they're tired, of, you know, the whole list of problems with competitive, l o r and now with the pricing changes, it's just a lot of those people are like, okay, uh, yeah, I'm all in. this is, I'm, I'm, I'm down. I'm booking another two, three regionals and, and I'm gonna really push,
Track 1:I mean, good luck booking two or three regionals, I mean, do they, do they know that they have to be awake at the very moment the regional opens? Like,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:yeah, I mean, I, again, this is why I think it is very helpful if you're trying to get into the game to know someone who is a competitive player. so like, I've been sending them, you know, registration times when to. Reminders, that sort
Track 1:Uh, and, and they have this new weird lottery thing. Like when I say 23 minutes, would it have been like three minutes if it was not for the new weird lottery thing? Like, who knows? Right?
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:yeah.
Track 1:Man. And, and I know like so many European players are salty about the uh, um, Barcelona special event, which is kept at a thousand players across all the divisions and sold out in, you know, minutes.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
Track 1:Mike, would you, would you reserve a spot for top 16 players? How do you, how do all you guys feel about this? Like, I appreciate that if a zoo can't get into a tournament, it's a bad look for Pokegear.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:uh, I think, I think top
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Reserve
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:honestly think like top 64 of the leaderboard, um, should have reserved spots like the, the championship point leaderboard.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:No
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, that's the only fair way to do it. How are you doing it? Are you just having, having you pick
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Like who's actually good and who actually should be at the tournament than the leaderboard, bro.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Liam? I hope you know, I have no doubt that That is actually true. it is also wildly unfair and, and not an actually an actable policy.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I won't drop names, but no, nevermind. Actually, let's just say I should do it, bro.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, I think that's like the issue with it is there's no really, I. Equitable, fair way to determine which people would be it. Like you could say top 50, but like then 51 is like really upset. Um, and would still be, you know, obviously a very good player. So like I, I, I know in Japan they have like just four people that are Yeah. The top, I think they call'em the Elite four. And they're, they're allowed to, uh, register. For any of the events and like, I think it has to be something like that if you do it something like really, really exclusive where it's only like a single digit number of people, um, or not do it at all. That's my opinion.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:the NAIC winner. They get free invites everywhere.
Track 1:That's, that's pretty, that's pretty good. That's pretty good actually.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:no, like
Track 1:You get a, you get a, yeah. Free people who have
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:I should write up the list, bro. They should like Pokegear, just bring me on in every tournament. They just like, Who should we let in? I'm just like, I'll get you a list in like a few days. Boom.
Track 1:guys, anybody wants to pull together some bouncer memes for Liam? He's ready to, he's ready to take the Pokegear bouncer job. It's, it's happening right now. Uh,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:like, I'm not even kidding, like I am impartial, bro. I'm impartial. That's just
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Mm, definitely definitely fully impartial.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Like I think that would honest to God just be the best solution like,
Track 1:So last, last question before we move on to ics. How much, Mike, I don't know if you have a sense of how much are like, um, judges a bottleneck on regional size and if they improved comp, would they, like, would, would Mike suddenly say, you know what, I don't need to play, I'm gonna judge. And like all of a sudden they have more judges and better judges and they're like, okay, instead of having a thousand players, we can have a 2000 Masters divisions, players.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:That's, uh, I'm glad you asked that question. I have no idea what the answer is, but it is on, it's actually something that I've been thinking about trying to figure out. Um, very recently, so I will try to investigate over the next, uh, month or so because it is something that I have been quite interested
Track 1:Yeah. Like, I assume LERs, like I, you know, I know the a hundred judges that I call. And the problem is, if you told me I didn't get 200 judges, I could maybe get to a buck and a quarter, but like I can't get to 200.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, I mean, I, I imagine that is the biggest bottleneck for regional size right now.
Track 1:Like you think that's
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:that, that was the
Track 1:That was the
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:That was the reason the Yokohama Open couldn't run,
Track 1:Is that true or that was a, that was a rumor.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, obviously not confirmed, like maybe it was space, but it was Definitely logistics. of some kind. And I can imagine of Logistics. those are, it's Either uh, like staff and judging or it's just room space. But I don't know, we will probably never know the real reason it got canceled.
Track 1:Yeah. Yeah.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah. I mean looking, being in that room, it seemed like it was a At least partially a space issue like that. It was like a big hall, but they didn't like the side event area was not that big, and that's where it would've had to been
Track 1:Yeah. The, the side events and the side events filled up fast.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:and it was extremely poorly organized.
Track 1:All my, like, I, I recognize we gotta hold off on talking about worlds Yeah. Side events. There's absolute chaos. Um, uh, despite the fact that spectator badges were incredibly short supply, somehow that was still chaos. Alright, let's, let's talk about international championships. Um, I think the, the two big, the, the three big things that jump out to everybody is first, there's no, there's no more O C I C, which means you go from November to April without, uh, an ic, and then you have one beginning of April, E U I C. And that NAIC is beginning of June now. So then you have 60 days from IC to ic, uh, uh, after a like seven month, uh, uh, six month break in, uh, ics. And then the, the third thing that jumps out to people, I think is in a i c in New Orleans. Yeah,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Um, I, gotta say, part of me, uh, now mind you, a very small part of me is gonna miss Columbus. just because of How long we've been going there? And, And, Honestly, it's weird to say this because it's like the Columbus Convention, Center and the area. around it, but like, There are a lot of memories tied to, tied to those spaces, and It's honestly always kind of awesome to go back there each year. Um, that being said,
Track 1:I'm
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I'm really excited to. go to New Orleans and I have personally never been to New Orleans before and I'm excited to check out somewhere new. Um, and it's certainly a more interesting place than Columbus. Um, Uh, now I have not looked at flights yet. Um, I don't know what that price comparison is, but, um,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:It'll probably
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:bad, I'm very, I'm very pro New Orleans.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:It'll probably be a bit better than Columbus. New Orleans is a bigger city with more tourism, so my, I I, I imagine flights will be significantly better. I, I think I saw Natalie Miller from Australia Post that it already looks much better for her, which is great. Uh, I've been to New Orleans twice. Uh, it's a pretty cool city. I think people will have fun there.
Track 1:Yeah. Everything Mike said I think is true. Uh uh, it's gonna be cheaper flights here. Uh, um. Guys, I actually have, I have an incredibly in, incredibly valuable breaking news, hot take for you podcast listeners. Tune in for a second. I'm about to drop an incredible knowledge bomb. Two things, two things that are important to know. First, the thing that's gonna suck,'cause it's gonna be incredibly hot. It averages 90 degrees in New Orleans in June. It's gonna be, uh, an absolute oven and miserable. It's gonna be very similar to Japan in that way. And so just prepare yourself for the misery. But the, the hot take I wanted is NAIC is gonna be a big event like Pokegear is really gonna focus in. And I'll tell you why. One of the big, big learnings that Caden and Liam and I uh, uh, learned at the World Championship is apparently the c e O of Pokegear is secretly a huge jazz fan. And that's why the World Championship was in Nashville. Uh, and, and when they say New Orleans, he must have been involved in picking that location and he is going to definitely be in NAIC. I'm calling it right now. It's gonna be a blowout Pokegear event.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:That would be, that would be sweet. I mean, that'd be
Track 1:So super hot take, it's, the NAIC is gonna have its own theme. It's gonna be Jazzy and Uh, and, and Pokegear leadership is gonna be there because Pokegear Worldwide leadership is on the jazz train.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, I would love that That would be that would be incredible.
Track 1:But it's gonna be
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I don't know.
Track 1:It's gonna be so hot.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:It's.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:There's no way
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:good news is you're gonna be spending basically your whole day in either a hotel or a convention center, and probably only realistically going out at night.
Track 1:Yeah. Wow.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:So,
Track 1:but it, it, I mean, Louisiana's a swamp when you go out at night, it's gonna be swampy.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:yeah.
Track 1:Uh, how much? So, so there's only one IC before April, so I assume by April people are gonna be feeling pretty desperate to get their invites if they don't have their invites already. Um, uh, uh, I guess my question for you guys is Are people, are people gonna feel more pressure than usual to try to fly down to Brazil to cheese points? And is London gonna be like 5,000 people? I.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Uh, I mean the London's definitely not gonna be 5,000 people. However, Um, I do think L A I C is gonna see quite a substantial. bump compared to last year. Um, I think the L A I C especially, you know, with increases to PI prize payouts, no O C I C, um, it being frankly so soon, and with the increases to, um, the championship point requirements for an invite. I think, um, L A I C is looking like a you know, beneficial tournament to go to for a lot of people, you know, even me, who's someone who has never really considered going to L A I C. And it was not really something that was ever on my radar bar is frankly now, um,
Track 1:Considering
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:whether or not I should be going to L A I C and, and looking into
Track 1:how, how much of that is because, and, and I think this is something that, that maybe Liam thinks about too. Like you had been planning on going to O C I C and you're like, well, I guess I'm not doing that.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:um, a good amount actually.
Track 1:Yeah. Right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:that, I think that O C I C was O C I C has always been, you know, a very easy tournament to get points at compared to the other ics. Um, and I think with no O C I C and the only having three ics, I think it's much, it's very enticing to travel to another, to find another IC to go to.
Track 1:Yeah,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
Track 1:yeah, yeah. I think E U I C is, is not an easy way to get points. Uh, NAIC is obviously the hardest way to get points. Um,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:gives you like five 12 points, like any is like pretty easy to get points, I think.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I think, I think
Track 1:Uh, a among the
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:is gonna hit five 12 points
Track 1:Yeah,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah. But like I see like NAIC also has like the most like Americans who are like just not very good. It's like, like the Americans are the worst, bro.
Track 1:Dude. Really? I don't know. I mean, I heard, uh, I, so my understanding is O C I C is the Ultimate point cheese.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Well, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's'cause there's no, there's no Australians there. It's a tiny tournament, bro. And they still give like top 1 28 points. There's no local players there. Uh, that's why it's like a mini world, bro, because it's just the top 16 from every region. Those are the only people there,
Track 1:Yeah,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:but then they get points to everybody, so you just go and you get free points.
Track 1:yeah. My working assumption is that's why they decided to cancel it. It's like
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:guys.
Track 1:to shame.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Breaking news update though, Gerhardt says, I don't get the complaint of day two. Uh, of day two at Regionals. International is not getting pricing. Making day two means I'm on track to get a good finish, but I haven't done anything yet. Is this facts or what?
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, I think that's certainly one way to look at it, but I think for a lot of, um,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:And then guess what Aula says, bro.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:casual to semi-casual players, I think that getting day two is a very, is a very large achievement. And it's not, and it's not an easy thing
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:sure, bro. And I'm sure there's also some players who are going five four and getting a winning record is a huge achievement. Doesn't mean we should drop cash
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:And, and, but I, oh, I'm not, I was never advocating for cash prizes for all of day two. Um,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:No, no, Yeah, like.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:a shame that Cash Rising doesn't go down 64, and I think there honestly absolutely should be a promo card for
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:know what Azul says, the bar has been raised, but instead of rising to the occasion, people just want to complain about something. So facts Brody. So
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:It's not, it's not complaining though. It's just, you know, giving a,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:and
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:a, a different suggestion.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:their T 60 fours, bro, for their mini finishes, bro.
Track 1:So, so Caden, I hear you talking about how you're more open-minded suddenly about going down to Brazil. Um, how much, how much does the, like, crazy bad judge calls and like chaos of last L A I C give you pause.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean, that has been, um, one of the major reasons I've never thought about going to L A I C before, um, and always hesitated about going to L A I C. Um, it's, it's more in spite of that, that I'm now considering going.
Track 1:Yeah. I mean the power of big prizes and all that is like, uh uh, despite the fact that you feel like you'll be cheated out of uh uh, something, you're like, maybe I should go anyway and try to high roll. Right.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see what the cap is because. Uh, they're gonna hit the cap. Whatever they make it, they'll, they'll probably
Track 1:Really?
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
Track 1:Yeah. I mean all, all this like, hidden cap is absolutely, uh, rough man. It feels like, uh, yeah. I mean they, they increase prices right after they sell out events at record prices. It's crazy.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah.
Track 1:Uh, um, I, I wonder, I wonder what, where, what it's supposed to happen different than, than what it is, you know?
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I will say it always feels like, I understand why it's structured this way, but it does always feel a little weird having independent tos who are paying for the logistics and setting the entry fee separate from the people who are providing the pricing. I don't know, like I understand why, and it definitely has its upsides and its downsides, but it just feels like a little whack sometimes.
Track 1:Right.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Um, but also, I mean, pricing would be much, much lower if TOS had to, had to do it. But I'm, I'm more of
Track 1:have, you'd have different prizes at different regionals. That'd be chaos. Be chaos.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I'm more an advocate for Pokegear taking over running
Track 1:Yeah. Like really, I mean, all the, what's really happening here is like Pokegear dictates certain things, right? This is how much we have to pay ED prizes to people for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? This is how you have to run the tournament. There you have a two day thing, 6 2, 1 has to cut, like there's some set of rules, essentially the tos get for how to run the tournament and how the tournament's gonna work. And you know. Then the next question is just like, what you know, should Pokegear say and, and when Pokegear took over casting, essentially, they essentially gave tos new rules, right? They were like, now you also have to pay for internet, and you have to then like Just a guy who did casting before it, lemme tell you, there were times where they were like, there's no internet Good luck with your livestream guys. And like you just had to work it out, right? Like how much space you would get was totally random. How the broadcasts work were totally random and Pokegear just said, okay, new rules, we standardized all that stuff, right? You, you will pay for Chip Ritchie to fly out to your tournament. You will pay for Chip Ritchie's hotel. You will have Chip Ritchie start at, you know, round five apparently. Um, but, but yeah. So like, should they have new rules where they say, also, you're gonna have to get a thousand square feet, 2000 square feet, 10,000 square feet for a Pokegear center, and we will fill the Pokegear center with craziness. Like, I mean, they could do all that. All that stuff's pretty easy, but yeah. Uh, obviously the jump at a certain point from them dictating all the rules to them, just doing it seems pretty small. They could just do it. Guys, we've been going for, for 50 minutes. I think we, we wanted to talk about worlds, but I think Worlds is the next pod.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, I think so too.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:All right.
Track 1:Uh, anything else you guys wanna talk to, talk about, about the breaking news? Uh, did,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I think I've sort of said everything I wanted to say, but.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Just, yeah, I mean, just to be clear, it's great. Like, I mean, it's, yeah,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah, absolutely.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:all agree that, that it's really great and, and huge. Um, could there things that be better? Yeah, I, I think that's always gonna be the case with Pokegear, but I mean, this is, this is amazing stuff.
Track 1:abs and, and I appreciate like, uh, I mean the Pokegear marketing machine being able to market bigger price pools is fantastic for the business. Uh, it's really good. Uh, you know, I hope they can, uh, put themselves in a position to support the demand that that will probably ensue based on that. Um, everybody, uh, get into Pittsburgh.
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah,
Track 1:Yeah. Uh, Mike, did you sign up for Peoria?
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:no. No shot. Am I going to Peoria? You couldn't pay me$70 to go to Peoria
Track 1:Dude, I'm gonna be driving a car all by myself now. Then it's a layup.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:is gonna be amazing. 10 doesn't want that, bro.
Track 1:All right guys, uh, uh, because we haven't done it in a long time, and I have a really good one. Let's, uh, let me give you a quick, would you rather for us to wrap up the pot in,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:All
Track 1:would you rather be able to shrink whenever you want or grow whenever you want?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:What?
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:mean, that's a really, that's a really easy one for me as a already very
Track 1:Oh my,
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:I would obviously choose to grow.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Wait, wait, wait, wait. Could you never go back? Like, this
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:No, no, no. It's just, it's just like you can, I, I, I read as like at any point you can grow larger and then like back down to your normal size or smaller, and then back up
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:back to your
Track 1:CA Caden, Caden hears this as, would you rather be Ant Man or Giant man? Which I think
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:large could you grow? How large could you grow? Like, could you grow really, really tall? Where like you could take two steps and then you're in Japan, you get like free travel everywhere. Like
squadcaster-f9ca_1_08-25-2023_163729:You would crush the whole country
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:definitely with no impacts to the earth whatsoever.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Oh, but like, yeah, like how, how tall are you growing? Like what's the limit?
Track 1:I, I don't know. I don't know. You sound like a young Godzilla.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I don't know. Growing just feels like it is way more use cases than shrinking, so I'm gonna have to go with growing.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah, I think shrinking might be kind of tough. You could probably like rob a bank pretty easily. like,
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Good to, good to know, uh, what Liam would do if he was given the ability to shrink
Track 1:yes. Give superpower X. How? How easily could I rob a bank? Right.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah. I, I'd probably grow though, like I. You know, it lets you lead like a really normal life except you get the, the, like the, the hype buff, right? Ice
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:Yeah.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:like, yeah,
Track 1:Uh, uh, I think 10% of all people in, uh, like America who are over seven feet tall play, uh, play or have played in the N B A.
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:that's so fast. You could just go nine feet and you just win.
Track 1:Yeah, so, so like, yeah. I mean, if your, if your point was rob a bank, like that's basically robbing a bank, right?
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:Yeah. Yeah.
Track 1:Yeah.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:I mean also if, if you could, if you could grow individual parts, think like you can reach up any ledge,
squadcaster-5jgf_1_08-25-2023_163729:that's crazy. Ro
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:what.
Track 1:My, my, my, my son does not want to take this down. Any weird sexual discussion, past cadence. So just can all that we, Liam and I can't have that conversation in the same podcast. We gotta wrap it up. Alright. Sounds like, sounds like everybody's in for growing, which I, I think that's probably where I didn't too, although like Liam, um, shrinking seems like a good way to rob a bank.
kaden_1_08-25-2023_133729:That's very true.
Track 1:All right guys. The John Pauls are our outro. Uh, we will be back next week with the world's recap that people have been dying, waiting for, uh, while, while Mike was running around touring Japan, hearing about Mike in first class and how that, how that was okay and did not cause problems in his marriage. And Pittsburgh, uh, uh, planning, assuming that I could figure out how to make a podcast happen while I'm in Colorado.