One Hit KO

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.

Continue reading "Adam Klynsma – Pokemon Master"

Hey guys. Today’s article starts off with an apology from Jay. You need to realize that Jay is now at Worlds. I got this from him via email so late on Friday night that I didn’t even see it until Sat morning. Jay has better things to be concerned with at this point, yet he was up writing this article for you and I. I think, in his mind, he agreed to write something, and he wasn’t going to go back on his word. In that case, he could have just gotten behind and just gave it half an effort. Nope. He gave us a great retrospective and then apologized that he wanted to give us more but couldn’t. Thanks Jay! We hope you’re killin’ it at Worlds!

– Ed

So first an apology.   Originally I had intended this to be a very detailed look back on the formats of the past.  I always enjoyed looking back at some of the different formats and seeing what was competitive, what people liked to play, etc. and I was hoping you guys would to. I ran into two major problems when I was writing this article though.

First, I told Ed I would have this done the week I was leaving for Worlds, which, at the time, I didn’t think was a major issue.  This deadline snuck upon me much quicker than I thought it would, and real life got the better of me.  Those of you who have read my Underground Articles for Six Prizes, know how important good solid articles are to me, and I’m afraid this doesn’t live up to my normal standards.

Second, going in, I didn’t realize how lengthy this article could and should be.  I could write a full article about each one of these formats, and it wasn’t until I started writing did I realize how much information I was leaving out that I really wanted to put in.  All of this being said, I really do hope you get some enjoyment out of this article, since I do feel it does have some nice information in it people will enjoy.  I guess what I’m asking is for all of you to accept this more as rough draft or partial article rather than a finally polished one.  I will be more than happy to answer questions or comments about anything I talked about or a deck I didn’t get to you wanted to know more about.

-Jay

Something I’ve always found interesting is going back and reading tournament reports from previous years.  It normally brings back good memories of friends and tournaments, so for those of you who’ve been here since the beginning hopefully you’ll enjoy this walk through memory lane and for those of you who are more new to the TCG hopefully you’ll enjoy learning a little bit about our history.

The Early Years

I don’t remember how the divisions worked, but I knew there was two divisions an older and younger division.  The older division actually had a metagame that was mainly dominated by variations of Haymaker, Raindance, Mr. Mime/Alakazam, and Wigglytuff/Basics.  The younger was dominated by mostly random stuff. 
Continue reading "The History of the Pokemon TCG Through the Ages"