After the Faraway Tournament

If you recall, I posted in this blog two months ago about a major VGC tournament that was also held in a faraway location. Well, that tournament has concluded, and it could be said to have been a success. If I had more time and flexibility, I probably would have tried to take part somehow and with whatever team I can muster - which is only right that I do so, as an avid fan of the Pokémon games. Instead, I can only put in some of my money to help the tournament proceed as well as it should. I think that I did a good thing for this matter.

An interesting story happened as I was contributing money to the tournament. Out of all the fundraising options, there were quite a few with additional merchandise and bonuses. However, I wasn't interested in and couldn't quite afford the merchandise, so that left the fundraising options with no bonuses or just a few bonuses. I chose the option that also had a ticket for the Last Chance Qualifier, since I felt the one with no bonuses was lacking and the one with both the LCQ ticket and event ticket was a bit much. I was then informed that I could still register for the LCQ, but I turned this down because of my unpredictable schedule... which turned out to be true, not allowing me to come down and participate. Regardless, the contribution was appreciated, and that's all that matters.

In any case, I know well some of the participants of the tournament, not the least is because I dropped by to meet them last year (as I've mentioned in my post about friends) and got in a tournament with them too. The experience was more than wonderful, even if I didn't get to speak up much during the tournament. In addition to becoming good friends, they became good advisers in providing some important team-building information, and they also made for good "sparring partners" to put theory into practice. Now I'm just wondering if and when I'll be able to meet them again.

Seen from the success of this tournament, in the future there might be further developments to the tournament series (as a whole) and format. If it means the chance for more people to participate, including myself, I'm all for it. Even if I can't actually come down for the live portions of the tournament, I might still be able to participate in a different way. And if there is a fundraiser like this year, I'll definitely take part too and contribute to ensure continuity of the tournament.

I would say that this year's tournament series has been well-organized and drawn quite a large interest. Now it's just a matter of keeping this momentum going in later times, even increasing it. And I want to do what I can to that respect.