Belated Cities Report. Auckland City (New Zealand)

[guiltysky]

Mid Dec. 2010, I attended my first cities since learning how to play TCG in Oct. It only took 1 day lol.
I think we are the smallest nation involved in POP? Maybe so but Auckland City is supposedly the biggest and most densely populated city in the country with highest vehicle ownership per person in the world.

However, entire cities turnout was like... 10 people.
So little, we had to mix Seniors with Masters. My friend Tony and I are currently trying to promote more play and attendance nationwide however all the players are spread across the nation with no POP support in other cities. We also played best of 3 rounds per match-up.

Quite a few collectors in the nation, not alot of players who take the game serious enough to go competitive. I have been told it has died down a bit from recent years.

I rolled Umbrizor with Shaymin UL tech. and Skarmory tank up.

Hence,
Masters:
Myself, Tony (Gdos), David (2 time national Champ), Thomas (current national Champ).
Seniors and Juniors... bunch of kids lol.

Round 1: VS Random Metagross and Jirachi UL deck.
2-0 in 7min

Round 2: VS Thomas SP toolbox? Didn't last long enough to see whole deck. Had honchcrow SV
2-0
He scooped first game due to me forcing him to discard 1 basic energy and other ones in prizes.
Second round straight tank up and Stolen.

FINALS
Round 3: VS David Shuppet Donk
1-2
New to the game so didn't expect donk to be so brutal in first round.
Round 2: David overdrew by midgame. I play Twins twice with vs seeker then bring out Scizor tanked. He doesn't scratch me. He loses by drawing out.
Round 3: Overtime 1 prize sudden death. Zangoose drag out on me, then donks injured Skarmory. Sad.....


Not bad for my first cities but
Placing by points:

David
Tony
Me and Thomas tie

.. dunno about other divisions.

Pity no one decided to play Vilegar....

Any tips on how to promote more widespread POP support and player encouragement would be appreciated.

 

[Reptile]

Wellingtonian here (another NZ city).

We too are struggling in Wellington with getting interest in Pokemon play. It's at the point where we are giving cards to potential new players so we can increase numbers. A group of 5 of us turn up every Sunday with 3-5 more people every week (today one of our core 5 was on holiday and we peaked at 9..).

I run a VileGar, one of our core rolls an SP toolbox but the 2 of us dominate everyone else that shows up so we started dumbing down our decks to not discourage any players. We have 0 support in terms of promotion and prizes at the moment and it's hard to have people turn up and not being able to tell them if there's any tournaments soon and telling them that winning the most games for the day means you can get a common out of a folder the store has which we actually restocked with our crap..

I have been speaking with Melvin in your Auckland community and it's just sad hearing you guys with the same issues up there and having to resort to skype league for a competitive match against someone new.

 

[vareki]

We've got a similiar, but not as pressing, problem in my area. Canberra is never gonna be a hotspot for anything, but we've got a fairly sizeable Yugioh/Magic/Pokemon Community. We've grown Pokemon by (basically) approaching players of the other, much larger games and offering to teach them how to play, and occasionally building decks for them just so they can get started fast.

I was actually brought into the game like this, because Corfield (the person who started pokemon in canberra) offered to give me a fairly expensive Yugioh card if I learnt how to play. I would have done it for free, but hey.

Since then, we've managed to get up to around 12-18 core players, with varying numbers of Juniors and Seniors rocking up randomly.

So, I guess I suggest going out and finding people who might be interested, get them involved and start them onto the game. Make a Facebook group, talk to friends, chat with people who play other games, walk up to people in the street if you're desperate.

I wish you luck.