Discussion Officially Sanctioned Tournaments on PTCGO

[josie0001]

As a recent convert to Magic: The Gathering, I was somewhat startled to learn that MTG regularly holds PTQs (Pro Tour Qualifiers, which I guess you could say are kinda sorta akin to our Regionals) online, which allows players to qualify for the Pro Tour without having to pay the travel costs usually associated with attending large tournaments far from home. The most well-known example of this is Reid Duke, who first qualified for the Pro Tour years ago in an online PTQ and has been playing Magic professionally ever since.

My question is why hasn't Pokemon done this as well? It seems especially odd considering that PTCGO is widely considered to have a vastly superior interface and a much better online gameplay experience in general. Wouldn't it be amazing to earn CP without necessarily having to leave home? Even just one Regional tournament or a series of League Cups - just spit balling here. This is definitely something I wish Pokemon would steal from MTG.

Are there other things you guys wish Pokemon would steal from other card games? I've never played YuGiOh, but maybe there's something they just do better than we do.

Another thing I'd like to see is 5 extra turns once time is called instead of 3. How many times have you or your opponent needed just one more turn to close out the game and not end in a draw? Seems like a no-brainer to me, but I'm interested to hear some other opinions.

 

[Hiker Tony]

I would love to see this! I'm from Montana, and we have very little competitive interest here. The last League Cup only had 8 people, 2 of whom might have belonged in sr. division. Its about 31/2 hrs to anywhere that has real competition, which isn't something I can do every weekend. Being able to compete online and actually have to count for something would be great for me.

 

[uncleyuri]

I would love to see this as well. There are a few things that are likely preventing this from happening though. Mainly the current software. They would likely have to do a pretty big overhaul to the program itself to be able to do this. You couldn't rely on individuals just challenging each other in order to complete matches. They would have to incorporate something into the current game that automatically started matches between users. They obviously do this on a very small level with the current 8 person tournaments, but that's nothing compared to what they'd have to do to make a 'regional' type event work. It would be a huge software overhaul needed.

Secondly you just run into the issue with people playing on different accounts. You'd have to figure out a way to police this. I'm sure there is a way to do it as you see this issue with stuff like online poker and other things but it's still something they'd have to figure out.

At the end of the day it might not be worth it to them to start this endeavor. I personally would love to see it happen.

 

[Fayld]

I think the real reason we will never see this is that it doesn't sell the physical cards. All about the Benjamins.