Thank you for your feedback on the policy change announcement regarding the use of foreign-language cards for the 2009-2010 tournament season. This decision was not an easy or quick decision to make, and we do understand the implications of this change. However, we truly believe that these limitations will have a long-term, positive impact on the organized play environment.
One of POP's primary concerns is to create an environment that allows the most number of players to have fun. Part of creating this type of environment is allowing the people running the event to do so efficiently. While some players may enjoy a 12+ hour event, or round delays due to Sudden Death, most don't. As such, we're constantly discussing ways in which we can reduce event delays.
The simple fact is, playing with foreign cards creates event delays. Some people are better at limiting this than others, but most aren't. There are reports all over these forums, the PTO forums, POP's inboxes, etc. about players who fail to provide reference text, have the wrong reference text, scramble to find reference text mid-game, or have binders of reference text. These types of errors lead to frustration for players, judges and organizers.
That said, we still have the North American PTO conference and the International OP conference ahead of us. This new policy will be discussed at those meetings, and there may be a bit of a softening before it is actually implemented. However, this decision will be based on what POP feels is best for the tournament environment.
Thank you,
Michael Liesik
Pokemon USA, Inc.
333 108th Ave NE Suite 1900
Bellevue, WA 98004
www.go-pokemon.com/op
