Help How to Become a Competitive Player in a Remote Region

[Jacob Marshall]

I'm searching for advice on how any players have successfully gotten into the competitive scene whilst living in an area that doesn't have much going on in terms of official tournaments/events, but also not having the best of funds for travelling to and from any events that are just outside the area they live in?

To provide a little context, I live on the east coast of Australia, where there is at least a casual scene in local card shops and the likes. I've just moved here from north-western Australia, where I'm certain I was the only TCG player in my small mining town of 4000 people - so at the very least, I'm already much better off on this side of the country than I was in the north-west. But with the 2018-2019 season coming up, I really want to get into playing the game in a constant competitive manner in the next year.
However, with full time studies coming up, as well as working a part time job to make ends meet, I'm not 100% certain I'll have the time or money to travel every so often to make official events like regionals (not that Australia has very many, to my knowledge).

What works for those in circumstances where they don't have means for travel to legitimate events consistently? How do you manage work/study/other priorities in life around going to as many regionals, IC's, etc.?

Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Attix]

Living in remote regions is the scourge of competitive games in general, not just the PTCG; there really aren't a lot of high-profile competitive Overwatch, TF2, Dota 2, Counter-Strike, Magic, etc. player for this reason. My suggestion is to make the absolute most of the resources available to you, go to every single points event in your area, and really, really practice to make sure you're on fleek. The PTCGO is a great place to practice before hitting up the real thing.

One thing I find helps is to restructure your mentality when it comes to playing competitively. Don't treat it as a hobby; instead, think of it as a sport, one which you sink just as much time and effort into perfecting your technique as any martial arts competition, or preparing for the Olympics or big-league tennis. While you shouldn't let the game control your life, you should explicitly make time daily to practice, time monthly to go to tournaments, budget for travel expenses (this means making sacrifices, like maybe cheaper electronics and phone/internet service, less visits to the bar, no beach vacation in Panama City, etc.), plan months in advance which regionals you're going to, and most of all, study the metagame and make adjustments to your strategy. This upcoming season will be my first serious one, and I plan on doing exactly this strategy.

 

[Sunderaj]

HI THERE

From South Africa in a little nowhere town called East London. Back in 2012 I got my first job after varsity and discovered by chance that pokemon tcg was a real thing (aside from when I was a 10 year old and nobody knew how to play back here).

So I did some research and connected with some people in cities 300km's away to 1000 km's. Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. The competitive scene was growing and tiny in the entire country, let alone in my city where I was sure I was the ONLY PERSON interested in getting into a competitive pokmeon game (now that I finally had a salary after the poverty stricken varsity years).

I knew I couldn't travel out of town every week or every month but I really wanted to see if i could play and get involved. So I started my own Pokemon TCG league. I'm a teacher so I ran it at school. Started with my gf, my brother and me. But I worked hard, got people to join, helped build everyone decks, read everything I could online, watched streams, kept in contact and connected with other people around the country. Think at one point I had over 30 people attend a tournament!

Running a league meant we started running tournaments and inviting the closest city to join if we promised to travel up for there's. City champs and battle roads. I made friends, got better and went on to 4 great years. Winning many trophy's, almost winning our SA nats a couple of times too. (got disqualified in semi's at SA's first nats because I played Juniper and in exhaustion I thought it was N so I put my cards on my deck to shuffle instead of discard...in a sudden death round as I was about to win the MEWTWO EX wars- that's going to haunt me for the rest of my life)

Bottom line: Buddy I was in a country where pokemon was in its infancy as a tcg competitive game and in a city with no comic store retailer that even stocked the game. But I poured my heart and soul into growing a league. I did all the leg work to get tournaments hosted here, and got better for it. It was very tough and draining but rewarding at the end of the day. Made tons of friends around the country and memories that will last a life time. Playing pokemon! (living my ten year old dream)

SO my answer is: Grow the game. Every player you create in your area will help the game grow and your competition. And eventually when they start beating you, that's when you up your game and become really competitive because its like you're beating yourself.

Sadly here in East London when I stopped playing (having kids is rough!), the league died with me. Such is a small town way of life. But if I can do that in South Africa, imagine what you can do in AUS! Start a pokemon league! Grow the game! And watch how good you become!

Myself? Two year break from the game and my kids passed the terrible two's? I'm ready to get back into it! 2018/2019 season here I come. Immigrating to Canada (to play competitve pokemon but don't tell my wife that) so lets see what challenges await.

Goodluck growing the game and getting good! Maybe one day will sit across you at a table at World Champs! Who knows!