Cam: 0:04

I'm just outside the store.

Brent: 0:07

Alright, welcome to the Trashalanch, it's an emergency pod, we're gonna drop a quick quick quick quick one, so people have something that they can listen to while they're reading all the tweets about the reactions to Pokemon's announcement, I thought people would be all big on that. Attendance 100%, Cam's here, Liam's here, I'm here, Yvonne's still asleep Elo Fouchet is apparently still awake cause I tried to hassle Mike to get on the pod, but he is not here, so I recognize, apparently, the internet is begging for Mike to get on the pod, but it's not gonna happen today. Guys, let's talk about the changes. Let's, let's kind of scroll through the update a little bit as a way of, like, getting our feelings out about the changes and making sure we cover all the bases. Let's start with The new invitation system. Reactions, guys?

Liam: 0:56

All right, yeah, so it's a it's a Top X system. It looks like it's going to be 125 Masters from US and Canada. We're going to qualify. This is based on, like, championship points throughout the season. I, I think it's a, I think it's pretty good. I had some, some worries about the Top X. System, and I was like, ah, like, it's somewhat like what Aban was saying earlier this week, like, oh, there's not a lot of, like, security in that, it makes it harder to plan out your season, but I think about it now, and I'm like, ooh, I really want to be 126th, come NAIC, like, that's really sick, bro, you know, like, that would, that would be a pretty fire feeling, I'm like, you know, I, I walk up to the guy who's 125th at NAIC, and I'm like, I'm coming, you know, like, that's pretty lit, right So, I actually think, you know the competition created naturally from this, as opposed to having worlds be, like, the, the personal journey, where, like, you know, you just try to hit milestones, like, individually it's kind of cool, kind of cool.

Brent: 1:57

Yeah, I like that you're excited about the fighting. I feel like this is a natural reaction to TPCI raised the bar, and even more people qualified for Worlds, and Like, it's interesting that the numbers are so low to me, because, like, I recognize, I felt like TPCI was always trying to set the bar where they were like, well, okay, our convention center is a certain size, we need to limit the amount of people who show up to a certain amount. And, like, so they set the bar where they think they can, like, control the amount of people who will qualify. So, so here, they're like, okay, we're throwing in the towel, because apparently, like, what are we going to do, raise the bar to 1000? And that's it. So instead they said, okay, we're just going to tell you guys how many people can fit in the convention center. It's this many. And I'm like, that's fine. I

Cam: 2:47

I think you have it twisted, Liam. I think you're gonna go into NAIC going, Oh, I'm 126th, and 129th is gonna be looking at you going, Nah, nah, nah, homie, I'm taking this from you. So, I think it's the other way around.

Liam: 3:03

I live for that shit, bro. I love it. I love it.

Cam: 3:07

Which is not a bad thing, I'm just saying that's what it'll probably be, right, instead.

Liam: 3:11

I love it, brother.

Cam: 3:12

I think this was, like, kind of What I was getting at last week, or like earlier this week now, I guess, is that I don't think Pokemon wants worlds to be a thousand players. They want inclusivity. I don't even think they wanted worlds to be as big as it was at Japan. And then they raise the bar, and even more people show up to Hawaii, which is an even smaller island. We all already know all the social issues with whatever's going on in Hawaii, and they just said, you know what, the only way for us to control the attendance is to actually just give a flat number of players that can attend. 256 for the three major regions would probably just end up with another 1, 000 person worlds, so.

Liam: 3:55

I,

Brent: 3:58

is you said 125 for US and Canada, 125 for Europe, and it's 100 for Latin America. Is Latin America that big? Like, I felt like that it seems like Latin America turned out to be the big winners here when it's like 20 from Australia, 10 from Middle East and South Africa. I was like, man, Latin America, you get a lot of people in relative to their impact on the

Liam: 4:17

majors. I think we got, like, the winter majors announced on this, this announcement, and they had, like, three, and Europe had three, and then NA had two. So yeah, I think Latin America's doing pretty good. And then, of course, they had, I think they had three besides LAIC,

Cam: 4:38

I mean,

Liam: 4:38

a lot of

Cam: 4:39

I I think LA has a relatively big scene. I mean, it's definitely, what, third? It's definitely third outside of NA and Europe, but it's, it's way bigger than Australia, right? Like they, I don't think TPCI would ever consider shutting down LAIC because of attendance issues.

Liam: 4:57

100 percent not.

Brent: 5:00

Yeah, that's fair, that's fair. Maybe Latin America is, is so big that they deserve, I mean, I don't know, I guess what's funny is they got 50 seniors relative to 100 North American seniors, 100 European seniors, but 125 North American and European Masters and then 100 Latin America Masters, it's like I don't know, it's interesting to me.

Liam: 5:20

Yeah, I, I think they're definitely receiving a lot more support than I have in the in the past.

Brent: 5:24

Yeah, yeah. Alright, guys, how do you feel about the, the BFLs?

Cam: 5:30

Are we in,

Brent: 5:31

with Challenge Cup. Oh, is there something

Cam: 5:33

Just a quick question. Are we all in agreeance that when they say six, there's no question on whether or not it's a six combined or like six regional no

Brent: 5:42

No, no, it's six, it's six combined. It's six combined. I don't know if you can see the way the table's laid out, but yeah, they laid out the table

Cam: 5:48

I just had some people ask in

Liam: 5:51

I, I know there's, you could definitely interpret it like a couple different ways, but I think this is what everybody seems to be agreeing on and we should be assuming until, unless it's like clarified otherwise, you know?

Brent: 6:02

No, it's, it's six combined. They want you to go to the three ICs. I

Liam: 6:06

the changes made, it's four BFL for challenges and cups separate, so you can get four cups, four challenges for points, and then six for regionals, SPEs, and internationals combined, so like, if you attend three ICs and you do well at all of them, then you can only get points from three regionals but if you only go to one IC, you can get points from five regionals. Think, I think this change is positive people are like, somewhat dismayed that ICs are such a, such a cheat code now. And I don't think they're wrong, but they're maybe less of a cheat code than they were in the past. It just might, like, feel a little bit worse because you're actually competing for spots now.

Cam: 6:43

I don't know. I feel like it's a bigger cheat code than in the past, isn't it?

Liam: 6:49

how come?

Cam: 6:50

The

Brent: 6:50

top 32 in IC, it's the same as winning a regional. Go, do, go to, if you're not going to ICs,

Liam: 6:55

yeah, but ICs, were super loaded before,

Cam: 6:59

more loaded.

Liam: 6:59

comparison for,

Cam: 7:01

And now they share a BFL with regionals. So, Well, once again, this is a

Liam: 7:07

sharing a BFL is a nerd.

Cam: 7:08

No, it is absolutely not. No, I think you're thinking once again about this from the wrong So, let's say you and I are competing for a spot. Now, Liam, I don't think you would have Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think you would have qualified. I mean, you probably would have kept trying harder, but you wouldn't have qualified this season if you had a first, right? If you didn't have that first. So, then, next year,

Liam: 7:28

Yeah, probably

Cam: 7:29

doing? You're going into university, right? Ahem. You know, Caden decided to drop off from university. That's his decision. I don't think you will. But, are you going to be able to go to all three ICs? No, you'll probably sprinkle in mostly regionals, and then one, maybe two ICs. Now, compare that with me, who can go to all three ICs, and the, and all the regionals. Like, it, I have just more of a chance to spike. If I place at all three regionals, I'm so significantly ahead of everyone else. You can't make it up. You can't make it up with regional, especially since it's a race.

Liam: 8:06

I'm comparing this to the current system, where all of that is true, except once you get three IC finishes, you can also get six regional finishes. In my system, once you get three IC finishes, you only get three

Cam: 8:18

Yeah, you trade

Liam: 8:19

I get

Cam: 8:19

you, trade that for directly competing with someone who has, like, you're directly competing for a spot now, which could feel worse, right? Because now you're like, well, what happens if, like, you know, I think everyone,

Liam: 8:33

It's not like somebody's just buying their way into an invite, they're, like, buying their way out of your invite, kind of, right? Which

Brent: 8:39

mean, Chris Schumanski wrote about it a little bit yesterday. I didn't even read it because I already know what he says, but like, what he says is correct. I mean, the BFL stuff is all, there's an element of a red herring, because it isn't like somebody's going to win six regionals and be like, alright, I'm good. Because you'll always feel like, if I went to another regional, I could improve my points. And like, I mean, maybe the top, maybe people who are in like the top 30 or something, don't, aren't worried about getting squished out of their invite in the last two tournaments, you know, at NAIC or something, but like, those people were planning on going to NAIC anyway, right? I

Liam: 9:16

Yeah?

Brent: 9:16

people, people, like, it isn't, like, you're always gonna feel like you could get squished out, and people will always be, like, saying, if I go to more tournaments, I can improve my outcomes. So, so I, I mean, I feel like the BFL, the, the, the best thing about the BFL is, like, at some level, if, if you only go to eight or nine events, and you do very well, you'll do quote unquote better than people who go to every, you know, who travel all over South America and Europe and North America and do Midski. Like, it's fine. It's fine.

Liam: 9:53

that's, that's the point of the VFL, to reward quality over quantity,

Brent: 9:56

but but like, those people will always be tr like, I don't think those people will change their strategy, because even if they're doing Midski, they keep thinking, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get a breakthrough performance, and like, that's when I get my invite. So like, it doesn't change people's behavior at all, I think

Liam: 10:13

yeah, no, that's for sure. It's just changing the the rewards at the end,

Cam: 10:18

I think it actually, so from this season, last season to this season, it feels like there's just more people chasing. And like, just going to a lot of stuff, and I wonder just now, how many of the top, what is it, 125, are going to be people who are just like, going to almost everything. Just because you're at an advantage just because like, you know, I was 45th, and I went to everything, and I had a very mediocre season. Like, you just, if you just go to a lot of events, you have a lot more shots, right, which just matters. Over the course of the season, so I'm curious to see like how many of the 125 are just people who play like all the time I think Liam and Albon and I talked about this like we are just three people who just like put Pokemon as like a very Very important part of a life. We're always thinking about it. We're always talking about it Like is that gonna be all 125? It might be at this point. Maybe that's what we and that's what Liam wants, right?

Liam: 11:20

mean, not, not even, I guess you know, I, I, I'm happy if people wanna compete less than me.

Cam: 11:25

Just not at the World Championship

Brent: 11:27

Alright. Let's talk about the, the next exciting thing on here, which is There's BFLs for League Challengers League of Cups going down. I assume that that's all good because Liam wasn't planning on going to any Cups and stuff anyway, right?

Cam: 11:39

Did they release the points for that or not yet?

Brent: 11:41

Yeah.

Cam: 11:42

It's the same.

Brent: 11:44

Yeah, it's it's

Liam: 11:46

Yeah. It's the same. Yeah.

Cam: 11:47

Oh,

Brent: 11:47

Now get 13 points for a top 60, er, you can get 13 points at a Cup for a top 64 finish if the Cup has more than 129 people.

Liam: 11:58

Yeah.

Brent: 11:59

Has it been like that? Okay, good

Cam: 12:01

Yeah, just, they're, it's kind of what I wanted for stipend race. It's like, they're really minimizing locals, which I think, like, they should have done more for stipend than for the average invite, but it's definitely minimized. I mean, it'll still matter, I guess, if you're kind of in the bottom 25, like, I don't know, depending on how big of a gap there is, but it'll matter there. But if you're at the top, the locals don't really matter unless you're really pushing for the top 16.

Brent: 12:34

They ran the points all the way down to, like, top 1024 for more than 2049 people at a regional. But, like, I assume the whole point is, like, if you're the kind of person who was gonna be top 125 North America, top 125 Europe, like, it's probably fine. Like, it's good that you get some points for going, I guess. Just keep showing up, showing up, showing up. But like that, obviously, if you were the kind of person who was playing for a top 125, getting a top 50 percent at a tournament, you're like, what are we doing here? Right? That's a disaster.

Liam: 13:05

Yeah, dude, I've seen this now on Twitter, so this is like a somewhat popular take, but I think Canvas agrees. You don't need to go to all three ICs to top, like, top 125, bro, to get your invite.

Cam: 13:16

you don't need

Brent: 13:17

I mean, I,

Cam: 13:17

you don't need

Brent: 13:18

you don't need

Liam: 13:18

whole thing

Cam: 13:19

You don't need to. do anything. Well, you know, you can go to just, you can probably do it straight off in regionals. It's always a possibility. I'm just saying it's a whole lot easier just going to all three

Brent: 13:27

I, I know when I talked to Liam yesterday before they made the stats, but he was like, as long as you can get your invite off winning a regional, I'll be fine.

Cam: 13:34

Of course, of course.

Brent: 13:36

We love it. We love it. Cash prizing is the same. I know there were people freaked out for a second. Like, that's fine. Right? Right.

Cam: 13:46

So this also

Brent: 13:47

Winning Worlds now is 50 grand for all age divisions? Man.

Cam: 13:51

that's what I think it is this year too,

Brent: 13:54

Yeah, it wasn't two years ago, I'll tell you that.

Cam: 13:57

unfortunate.

Brent: 13:59

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Cam: 14:00

But I, like, It does bring up the case that Cal, Connor, and I were talking about. So, this is once again, like, there is no perfect system. There's always gonna be, like, ways to break the system. And I was telling him, like, wouldn't it be funny if, because him and I were talking about just what events we're going to, if our BFL is three ICs and three Australian regions. Like, because we live next to Australia, and we're probably the closest you can be in the States. It's just, there's just still ways to break the system. It's not perfect by any means. And the money, that's a big part. The money not changing is a big part of why we consider going to Australia, right? If the money is lessened and you have less of a chance to cash, I'm not saying it's free, I'm not saying it's easy, it's just easier, yes, at a 250 person tournament, it is easier to cash than at a 2, 000 person tournament, but, you know, if they have lowered that, we probably might be reconsidering it now. I think you should be considering going to Australia if you're on the West Coast.

Liam: 15:03

Silence.

Brent: 15:10

is the travel prize updates. Travel prizes. Like, you always have an incentive to go to like tons of tournaments in a given period if you think you might get Stipends, right?

Liam: 15:22

Yeah. I guess.

Brent: 15:25

But obviously the other thing they've done is they've now rolled out to and, and I, I just had a meme y comment so I have to make it here. They've rolled out to the top 32 priority registration for Tournaments.

Liam: 15:37

Yeah,

Brent: 15:47

and doesn't get priority registration and then doesn't get into an IC, that's some salt, right?

Liam: 15:54

no, absolutely. You're. If you're only gonna, if you're planning on going to one IC, and you don't get into NAIC, and like, that was the IC you were planning on going to, you're cooked. You're done for. Like, pretty much munched upon,

Cam: 16:06

You just can't plan to go to one NAIC, that's why it matters to go to multiple.

Liam: 16:11

yeah, yeah, you gotta go to

Cam: 16:12

And the thing for most Americans is they rely on NAIC and it's like, that is the last event, if you miss, it's just over, so that's why it's the worst one. The bank on.

Liam: 16:21

that it's at the very end, right? But,

Brent: 16:23

Yeah, I, well, like,

Liam: 16:25

is like the worst thing ever.

Brent: 16:27

I, I reckon, I'm glad they're extending priority registration to top 32. Wish they would extend it further, like, I mean, I guess what's funny is, I mean, they have 3, 000 people going to these tournaments,

Liam: 16:40

Mm hmm.

Brent: 16:50

126 gets in, You're cooked. I mean, 126 is terrible, and he's gonna get to 20 points, because we just said, like, it's easy to get 20 points, right?

Liam: 17:00

hmm.

Brent: 17:06

gonna extend priority registration to the top 125 in a region, then, like, that 126th person, they're cooked, right? it's, it's just the rich get richer, but, like, man, oh, man, priority registration is so important now, because it's so hard to get into these tournaments. We did not get to go to EUIC this year.

Liam: 17:26

But you know, I mean, it all really just comes down to, like, show up at a regional, bro. Cop a big W, get that World's End play, might work.

Brent: 17:34

Yeah, so let's talk about, let's talk about getting that big W adjusting Swiss tournament format, because I think that was the other big, big, big announcement, right?

Liam: 17:42

Oh yeah, they switched it all to X two and you're playing eight rounds if it's under 2000 people, nine rounds. If it's over and it's X two,

Brent: 17:51

yeah, so I mean, I think we could just assume every tournament we go to is going to be more than 2, 000 people but yeah, yeah, you have to go seven, you have to win seven, you need 21 match points, or 603, right?

Cam: 18:04

we sure that every regional will be above 2000? I think there,

Liam: 18:10

Yeah, I mean, that's where they're trending.

Cam: 18:11

I think there's like a good amount

Brent: 18:13

be less?

Cam: 18:13

I mean, there's a lot of them who were teetering on the edge of 2000, like the 2,100, 2,300. Like how many people are not going now because of the change to the season

Liam: 18:24

yeah, I, exactly, he's gonna talk about how, oh my god, everybody's gonna quit the game now

Cam: 18:30

Not, it's not like, it doesn't even have to be, everyone quits the game, but it's just like that's not that big of a drop off, like 2000 to under 2000, whatever it like. That's just a hundred less people not showing

Liam: 18:42

about, like, the growth, the growth of the game is like, it's been, like, exponential, dude, like, two, or like, two years ago, I guess, we had, like, a thousand player regionals, and then, or, like, last year. I guess last competitive season we had 1, 000 player regionals, now we have 2, 000 player regionals. Like on that

Brent: 19:01

I mean, you could have said the same thing last year when they said, we're taking the points from 400 to 600. Oh my god, people are going to think the world's event's unattainable, nobody's going to go. would be crazy, man. I think the assumption that tournaments will ever be smaller than they were in the past. We should not assume that.

Cam: 19:18

so you don't think there'll be, I mean, there's there's already still a ton. 8 round tournaments on the West

Brent: 19:23

they, they, they literally added kickers for over 4, 000 people now to the chart. Like, 4, 000 people is a lot. Like, they're planning for a world where somebody says, oh my god, we have a 5, 000 person tournament. Orlando Regional is coming to you this spring!

Cam: 19:43

No, I agree. It's just, I live on the West Coast. It's definitely not happening in Vancouver.

Liam: 19:47

Yeah, no, and I think there definitely will be some events that go under 2000, right? I mean, that's not

Brent: 19:53

Peru special event.

Liam: 19:55

right? That's very reasonable.

Brent: 19:57

Peru special event will be, is, is, the chance,

Liam: 19:59

Oh yeah, for sure. All the all the SPEs

Brent: 20:01

But, But, also, let's be clear, those events will be smaller, and they'll be sold out. I'd be stunned if they were not sold out, you know? Except, maybe for Lima. But like, if it's a Europe ESP, sold out, for sure. Mortal Lock.

Liam: 20:12

yeah, well, all the Europe SPEs already sell out. I think we were talking about was there, this was maybe my other group chat, but, yeah, bro, you think the Cape Town SPE is selling out now?

Cam: 20:22

Probably.

Brent: 20:23

I mean, how many people, how many people are you know, what's the cap? You tell me the cap, I'll tell you if it sells out.

Cam: 20:30

60, I think it was 60, I think it was 64.

Liam: 20:35

64 was the cap?

Cam: 20:36

Yeah, I don't think they, I don't think they're ever, I don't

Brent: 20:38

ha ha

Cam: 20:39

think it was like 64 or 128. I don't think it was that crazy. I was looking at it with a couple people.

Liam: 20:45

No, yeah, I know it was like, there were like 80 people this year, and it was held in like a card store.

Cam: 20:50

Yeah, it's not crazy. Like, it could definitely

Liam: 20:52

yeah, but, yeah.

Brent: 21:00

was a little disappointed, and I know it dramatically increases the complexity of all these charts and all that stuff, but, like, the idea that points extend down as the tournaments get bigger, but points don't go up as the tournaments get bigger, like, put me off a little bit, right? The idea that, yeah, there's gonna be a 5, 000 person Orlando Regional, and it's gonna give out 350 points, I was like, man I was hoping they were gonna do a little more than something something there.

Cam: 21:23

I think what they've been saying this for the past year, like what they should have done this year and what they should do this coming year and off for future because, I mean, it might change a bit because the Day 2 sizes are going to go down just because the format has changed but it feels bad when you, when you make Day 2 and you don't get anything more than the people who are just behind you. But, you know, we're like 6 3, or whatever it is, 6 2 1 now. Like, they should just give more points to people who made Day 2, like an extra 20, 40, X, whatever it is. That should probably be the solution in my

Liam: 21:59

Oh, yeah, dude, also, I just forgot, but I just saw Pram's tweet, and it reminded me that people like Pram exist. That's actually a strat. I don't even need to win a regional next year, because I'm winning worlds this year, so I get the auto invite.

Cam: 22:12

I'd be at top 4,

Brent: 22:13

you go! There you go! all this conversation will be moot in just a matter of weeks.

Liam: 22:18

Yeah, even more ways to get the auto invite to flip. Forgot I had that W opportunity.

Brent: 22:24

asymmetric cut is obviously awesome, and everybody loves it, right? Yeah, I mean, asymmetric cuts are just good. You know, if you have a problem with asymmetric, get good. Like, asymmetric's really good. If anybody denies it, it's wrong. Love the idea of at home competitions. More Players Cups. Let's bring it back.

Cam: 22:42

I think that's VGC.

Brent: 22:43

they didn't do Players Cups. No, no, no, I think they said more online tournaments are coming, giving more people opportunities towards earning an invitation to the Pokémon World Championship. I don't think that was, that was not, they did not

Liam: 22:55

that,

Brent: 22:55

say VG. They did say they were going to have Unite.

Liam: 22:58

That's for VGC.

Brent: 23:00

Really? What makes you say that?

Liam: 23:03

It's what does it say? Yeah, like,

Brent: 23:05

After that it says Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet players can look forward to more global challenge events throughout the season, but that was not specific to The first sentence was very general. Then they say Pokemon Unite will also have online tournaments,

Liam: 23:20

yeah, I mean, there's nothing about TCG. There's, that's,

Cam: 23:22

mean, maybe. Maybe They can have it. on live. Good luck

Brent: 23:26

They should have Players Cup, everybody knows it.

Cam: 23:28

luck to anyone who wants to have an official tournament on live.

Brent: 23:33

Dode. I mean, try,

Cam: 23:36

is pretty

Brent: 23:37

I thought, I thought, my god, I'm still waiting for Pokemon to call me to say Brent come product management the crap out of PTCG Live. I could fix that thing in, like, six months. We could be killing it. All right, let's talk about the schedule. It's, I haven't actually done the comparison, but I feel like fewer North American regionals, because they're like once a month ish. We got Baltimore September 13th, Kentucky October 11th, Sacramento November

Liam: 24:08

we got events released

Brent: 24:10

Toronto December 13th.

Cam: 24:12

As long as there's three per quarter, that's normal, which is like once a month and occasionally,

Brent: 24:18

Yeah.

Cam: 24:20

Because it's 12. It was,

Brent: 24:21

in a while there was two in a month,

Cam: 24:22

I mean, they've gotten better at scheduling it because

Liam: 24:26

actually pretty good pacing. I thought there was only two announced for

Cam: 24:29

yeah, that's pretty normal. Yeah, there's occasionally like overlapping months, but usually it's like three a quarter. So once every three

Liam: 24:37

so were there three announced for NA? Yeah.

Cam: 24:40

I think so.

Brent: 24:42

There were four announced for NA. September, October, November, December.

Cam: 24:46

But the December is not in

Liam: 24:47

wow.

Cam: 24:48

Q1, that's in Q2, so yeah, that seems pretty standard, that would be like

Liam: 24:52

No, yeah, but I mean, yeah, well,

Brent: 24:53

No, so, so last year there were five in 2023 they had one in September, Pittsburgh, and then in October they had three, Peoria, Sacramento, Toronto, and then San Antonio in December, they didn't have one in November. So they, there's one less in the first half of the year.

Cam: 25:10

Maybe they're just like the NBA, getting better at scheduling. No no, no back to backs, or less back to backs.

Liam: 25:17

Yeah.

Brent: 25:18

Yeah, maybe that, maybe that was the goal, I, I also did think, I think it's I look at this through a lens of how does this suit my son and the answer is pretty good. You know, Baltimore, you guys can all come stay at our house. That's dope.

Cam: 25:32

How far is that?

Brent: 25:33

Kentucky like 45 minute drive, hour

Cam: 25:35

Oh, wow.

Brent: 25:38

mid. When, when, when Liam completely tanked at Baltimore and went, what'd you do Liam? Like one, three drop,

Liam: 25:44

2. Okay.

Brent: 25:45

two, two, two drop. We like, we immediately, we didn't have a hotel. We just drove home and it was totally awesome. I, I was like, yeah, I'm totally fine with you dropping because we're just going home.

Cam: 25:55

Nice.

Brent: 25:56

Kentucky. Whatever. Then Sacramento will be, like, local for Liam, yay? And then Toronto in December will be after school lets out for him, so, like, awesome?

Cam: 26:08

The big question is, are you going to LAIC? Oh,

Brent: 26:12

Yeah. Yeah, that is the big question. And then, oh, and then, and then, February Excel Center, Liam will be in London. I'm like, let's go.

Liam: 26:22

well.

Cam: 26:22

it's just working out

Brent: 26:23

then he's not gonna, he's gotta, he's gotta lock up the priority registration before that, I guess, because apparently that's a thing, but there you go, right?

Cam: 26:33

I'm so interested to see what LAIC's is for next year, because I don't think, like, I didn't go to any locals, but I did decently a lot of the things. Maybe I sneaked into, like, the last lot. Probably not, but, I don't know. See that's good. Whoever was

Brent: 26:48

yeah, like, are people still gonna be on the local grind to try to get, like, travel stipend and stuff

Cam: 26:53

I mean, 17 through 32 were gifted priority registration. This one'cause no one knew, right?

Brent: 27:00

Yeah that's yeah, the internationals, I think you've covered the hot topics, like they've announced it's back in New Orleans, it's back at the Excel Center, it's back in Brazil, LAIC is the only one in the first half of the season all that seems fine.

Cam: 27:14

No, OCIC said oh, and something that's interesting I think is something that Henry Brand brought up and I wanna, I wanna know if you wanna talk about it or we can cut it off. We're getting to like 30 minutes, but I think the new system, the tournament format system disincentivizes ties. Kind of heavily, like it just really hurts ties much more than the current system.

Liam: 27:38

That's it? I mean, I, I have to see what the math is for the

Cam: 27:42

Yeah, we definitely need to look at it.

Liam: 27:43

it's We had stress about it on day two, right? It's about the the top cut, and I think usually going in, like, at least in the current system, like, there was like a brief period where ties were pretty bad because X3 made cut, but then I think we got to a point where like, X2 1 was where you wanted to be, so like, ties were actually not, not that bad.

Brent: 28:02

No, I, you're absolutely right, in that, like, if you, if you get a loss, a tie after that is a loss.

Cam: 28:09

Yeah, especially if you need to win seven, right, at that point, especially getting three.

Brent: 28:16

Right, like, like, the difference, once you're six, you know, if you're, if you're 4 1, 5 1, 6 1, it has a loss.

Cam: 28:24

might as well gentleman's the whole way out. And I, I think I've seen that actually a lot more this season, and I've been willing to do that a lot more too, just at some point, just, and it's like early on, I like round four, you just start, or round five, you just start gentleman's ing with people, just like, that's, if you know, like, it's just better for

Liam: 28:40

I think it depends on where the top cut is. Like, if the top cut is, like, X2 1, coming in at, like, X1 1 is so much better than coming in at X2. And

Cam: 28:52

for sure.

Liam: 28:54

I think an X2 1 cut, like, might be, might be something. Maybe an X1 1 cut, or like, X1 1 Dodge the Bubble, like,

Brent: 29:02

You know, I think it'll be interesting to see, like, whether or not asymmetric cuts make people play to try to stop, like, to avoid them having to participate in the cut, or if it, if the result is, like, there's more weird IDs for people who are, like, table 10 or something like that, because, like, they're going to be able to get in on the asymmetric cut. It might encourage people to try to drive up points, it might encourage people to start IDing sooner on day two, to like, lock in their, their like, mojo, you know?

Liam: 29:32

us

Brent: 29:36

if you get a tie, if you're not planning on going 6 0 3, like, what's the point of the tie, right? Like, it gets really hard to get to day two. I mean, they're making it harder to get to day two, they want smaller day twos.

Liam: 29:49

event.

Cam: 29:53

And that's good, I think it's just better for the game, like, from a logistic standpoint, like, less people to manage in day two, you can shut down most of the building you know, from, from them running the event, actually, which no one really cares about, but You know, and things of that nature.

Brent: 30:12

well, and, and probably, I mean, if they're anticipating a 5, 000 person Orlando Regionals, then they're like, Oh my god, if we have a 600 person day 2, it will be abject chaos. We gotta, like, do what we can to start controlling that situation, right? And I hear that, like, if, if there was a day 2 with over you know, 350 people, I'm sure people would say, Oh my god, what have we done? Right? And it's, like, that's, I think, super easy to imagine if you have a regional that's, you know, 5, 000 people. It's crazy. Guys, anything else we need to say? We're 32 minutes.

Cam: 30:52

I think those are good first

Liam: 30:54

yeah, I think that covers most of the news today. It's a, it's a wonderful day for Pokemon. We've actually been saved. It's safe.

Brent: 31:04

all right. Oh, the, the things I was supposed to say, guys. One Dragon Shield is our sponsor. They are sold out of Ivory Matte. If you see Ivory Matte and you're not buying Ivory when you get the chance, you should, because those are hard to get. We're trying to get a bunch of Ivory sent to us for Hawaii. And we are waiting for the supply lines to open up, because Ivory is apparently the go to color for Hawaii. That's your hot tip for the day. We're the only podcast about the Pokémon Trading Card Game. You can read a lot of tweets, but there's only one podcast. This is the one. I'm committed to the bit.

Cam: 31:35

And be ready for for Liam's victory lap.

Brent: 31:38

were saying they want the bit.

Cam: 31:40

This season's gonna be, this is gonna be Liam's victory lap. Heh, heh, heh. Heh,

Brent: 31:44

Yeah, I mean, we will be on the beach in Hawaii, lapping. In the water. Just laps, laps, laps.

Cam: 31:51

heh.

Brent: 31:53

Alright guys we'll, we will be back on Tuesday with non emergency pod, it's that easy.