Archive for the 'League' Category

Adam Klynsma – Pokemon Master

Monday, September 10th, 2012

I really thought that I would be writing a Battle Roads tourney report this week, but I just can’t. I need to tell you about my friend, Adam. It’s been weighing on my heart. I meant to write this months ago, but I’ve been putting it off. I could make excuses about being busy, but it’s just my fault. I keep thinking about this, though, so I feel the need to put it out here.

I first met Adam around Christmas of 2009 when this site was in its infancy. Since then, I have been going to the Rapid City “South Side Pokémon League” about twice per year. I’m usually there for the 4th of July and again at Christmas time. The problem there is that both of those are holiday weekends, and there aren’t usually many league members around when we show up.

When I knew I’d be in Rapid City, I would usually email Adam to see when/where the league was taking place. From what I understand, Adam started the league in June of 2006, and it has been held in several locations since then, including the library, Hobbytown USA, First Chance Last Chance Games, and Who’s Game House. I wanted to be sure I knew where and when to show up and find out if there were any interesting formats (like 2-on-1 unlimited or old minus current) being played.

On May 25th of this year, I wrote such an email the day before I drove out to Rapid City. I didn’t get a response from Adam, but it was short notice. I had plenty of other things to do while we were out there, and, without his reply to remind me, Pokemon got put on the back burner for that trip.

On June 24th, I wrote to Adam again, telling him that we’d be around for our normal 4th of July trip. Petra (my second daughter) was just starting to play, and I thought his league would be a good environment for her. Again I didn’t hear back, but this time Ava, Petra, and I made it a priority to attend league. Well, we didn’t make it the top priority, because we showed up about halfway through the scheduled league time.

When we arrived, there were no Pokemon players around, but the guy that runs the shop told me that I just missed everyone. They had left, because there weren’t any players (which is kinda typical on the holiday weekends). I mentioned that I had emailed Adam a couple times without hearing anything back, and he said it’s because Adam died. Wow, what a shock.

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Principles for a Healthy League

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Hello OneHitKO readers! My name is Alan Traxler, and I’m a casual player who has been invited by Pikkdogs to write an article about my experience as a league leader in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’ve decided to write about some basic principles I used when running the league; I hope you can apply them to your own league, as a leader or member.

Note: This article is not intended to be a guide for starting a league. For that specific information, here’s a great resource for getting your league off to an excellent start.

Here’s a little background: the Ann Arbor league was started in 2008 by a UM college student named Levester. He chose to meet on Sunday afternoons at a local game shop, Get Your Game On. When the league first started, I would occasionally fill-in as league leader when Levester needed to devote the Sunday afternoon to his studies. Later on in his academic career, Levester decided to study abroad for a semester. I agreed to take over as league leader during this time and took charge for several months. While I was the leader, the league experienced some growth and I attribute it to these ideas:

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