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Published on November 29th, 2014 | by Crawdaunt

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Starting a Pokémon League: Tips and Troubleshooting

The season is in full swing and Worlds information has even been announced! This has gotten a lot of people excited about the upcoming World Championships, and of course how one qualifies for them! I don’t know if you’ve heard… but a select group of approved Tournament Organizers (TOs) have been running these things called Premier Challenges. These Premier Challenges are worth up to 200 Championship Points towards your Worlds invite. As such, a lot of people are not only excited about Worlds, but are also looking to try and take advantage of these Premier Challenge events as much as possible.

The only snag is that not everywhere has a TO that hosts Premier Challenges.

A realization that has only been entrenched in my mind more and more as I continue running our Pokémon League and hosting local tournaments is that these events only happen because someone makes them happen.

You can have 30 people interested in playing Pokémon, but if no one is willing to take the extra ~30 minutes every week to run a league (instead of just participating), if no one is willing to give up a few hours one weekend every now and then to host a tournament, then Pokémon events won’t happen.

That’s why I’m writing this article today. There are many people out there who want local Premier Challenges, but either don’t have a local video game TO, or don’t even have a local video game league! My goal is to provide the basic info you’ll need to start a league, and go over ways you can help entice store owners to lend you their space for a couple hours a week. So today I’ll talk about:

1. Starting a league and becoming a TO
2. Some stores don’t like video games
3. Troubleshooting with a local store

Just to establish who I am and why I’m writing this. I’ve been running our local league for over 4 years now, and have been a TO for much of that time. I am approved to host both TCG League Challenges and VGC Premier Challenges. Starmetroid and I are also active players and run the blog VGC with Hats. With that, let’s get to it!

1. Starting a League and Becoming a TO

First and foremost, you need to apply to start your very own weekly Pokémon league! Pokémon has some useful info posted here which I’ll try and summarize for you guys briefly; I definitely recommend reading through the “Pokémon League Instructions” document for yourself.

Step 1: Finding a Location

First, you need to find a location to run your league in. Here’s what Pokémon recommends:

Pokémon Leagues must be run in a clean, safe, public location. While we prefer leagues to be run in game stores, we realize that it is not always possible. Libraries, community centers, and malls all make great alternate locations. The most important thing to ask yourself when selecting a league location is, “Will my players feel comfortable playing here?”

As is mentioned, it is preferred that leagues are run out of game stores. If you don’t have a (willing) local game store near you, then here are some less-obvious alternate ideas I’ve seen put into action:

• Internet/Gaming cafes
• Food court of a shopping mall
• Local McDonalds or other larger fast-food restaurant
• Local elementary/high schools
• Colleges and Universities*

I’ll include a cautionary note on the college/university point. Pokémon wants their leagues to be run in a stable location with stable leadership. University clubs often have to book rooms for their activities, and can shift around a lot on campus. The leadership also turns over quite frequently. Neither of these traits makes a university an appealing location for Pokémon to give a league to. But if you have a stable location at the university, and can provide stable leadership (i.e. you’re not a student or at least you won’t be moving away when you’re done school), then these locations work just fine. Be sure to include those relevant details in your league application!

Step 2: The Registration/Application Part

This is probably best described in a numbered list:

1. Get a Pokemon.com account
2. Get a Pokémon Player ID and link it to your Pokemon.com account. If you’ve attended an event, you’ll already have a Player ID.
3. Apply for a league. Include info like how large your venue is, why it would make a good location, and how you plan to run the league and help it grow. Pokémon won’t grant a league to just anyone; be sure you are professional in your application and have a plan of action.
4. Fill out the background check that pops up after you submit your application.

Step 3: Other Relevant Points

At this point, you’ll have to wait and see if you’re approved! Again, I recommend people read over the “Pokémon” document supplied by Pokemon.com. I’ll just include some tidbits here that are helpful to know:

• You’ll need to report who attended your league every ~1.5 months if you want to continue receiving league promo materials. It’s ok to have these materials sent to a home address rather than a business address if it is more convenient.
• Let league attendees know that they need to activate Player IDs on Pokemon.com in order for your league to keep receiving promo materials.
• Organize a forum or web page to post league information in. An email list or group is also very helpful for parents or anyone else that avoids social media sites.
• It’s ok to charge a small fee to participate in your league. This fee should go towards covering venue costs or providing additional prize support for your league. If you do charge a fee, be sure to let players know what their money is going towards.
• Leagues are more likely to be approved if you plan to host both Trading Card Game and Video Game players.
• Leagues are a casual, friendly environment. Pokémon would prefer that people do not run tournaments during league sessions. If you feel like your community would benefit from the option of having fun tournaments during league sessions, that is your judgment call to make. But you may not sanction a tournament on Pokemon.com that is run during a league session.

Step 4: Becoming a TO

For those looking to become a TO and host Premier Challenges:

• A successfully run league is a great way to let Pokémon know that you’re ready to host events like Video Game Premier Challenges. This is a near-essential resource to have on your resume if/when you apply to become a TO. Pokémon also has no reason to approve a TO in an area without an associated league.
• You’ll need to sanction grassroots tournaments locally to show Pokémon that you’re capable of hosting successful tournaments and reporting them in a timely fashion. This also gives Pokémon information about how many players would play in a Premier Challenge if they did grant you one.

2. Some Stores Don’t Like Video Games

This is a Pokémon Video Game Championships website. We’re here to play VGC, and we want to play at local Premier Challenges! I hear you loud and clear. The best way to do this is to find a league near you and see if they’d be willing to apply for and host Video Game Premier Challenges. But this is where we hit a snag…

The video game isn’t like the card game. Running a league at your local card shop requires staff to be on-site to handle the influx of players. This is an expense that card shops can only justify if they stand to profit off of running a weekly league. This is an easy task for the TCG to accomplish, as players are more likely to purchase cards from the shop if they are at the shop on a regular basis. But we video game players have nothing to contribute to local card shops:

We don’t want to buy TCG booster packs, we don’t need card sleeves, and we don’t buy deck boxes or packs of dice. We just sit there and take up space; we cause the store to pay staff for extra hours while they gain nothing.

It’s no wonder some local games stores don’t want to host Video Game events.

How can we make running a VGC league or Premier Challenge more appealing for local game shops? The answer to this question is pretty obvious:

Support the shop.

I noted above in the other relevant points that “It’s ok to charge a small fee to participate in your league.” If it meant you could have a VGC league to attend near you, would you be willing to pay a small fee to support the store? I’m sure most everyone reading this would say “yes.” But there are ways to help sweeten the deal for the players too.

3. Troubleshooting with a Local Store

It would be great if your local store wanted to host your local league for free, say… provided you organize and run it. But in many situations, this ideal solution won’t magically appear (nor should it). Thus you must offer the store a way to make a living off of hosting a league.

Before I get into entry fees, I want to help people understand why they are necessary:

If a store devotes its space to your league every week, that means they can’t use that space for other events. A successful card/game shop is running weekly events all the time. Card game tournaments or free events centered on a product that they sell, help maintain interest in those products. A Pokémon TCG league is an example of a free event that a store hosts to maintain interest in one of their products, Pokémon TCG booster packs. If they dedicate space to a VG league, that is space and time they could have used to host e.g. a Magic the Gathering tournament. Thus, even if it costs the store “nothing” to host a free league, they take a net loss by devoting that space and time to your event.

For this reason, personally, I don’t feel like we should prey on a store’s kindness or naivety. Even if a store was willing to host a league for free, I feel like we VGC players should make an effort to support the store.

If we don’t support stores, I fear at some point these “free league” parasitic relationships will break down, and stores will require a change. As long as we video game players understand this, we can try and make running a VG league a mutually beneficial experience.

One solution is to propose that players pay a registration fee to play at the league. You can also ask if that registration can be put toward providing prizes for video game tournaments. By doing so, the league essentially makes purchases from the store, rather than simply paying the store to rent space. This system still benefits the store, but prevents league-attendees from siphoning money into the store with little tangible being given in return. If a store wanted to take a small percentage just for hosting the league, it’s your judgment call as to what is acceptable. Here’s an example of this sort of scenario:

I approach my local card shop and ask if they would host a video game league, provided players paid $5 as registration at the beginning of each league cycle (~1.5 months). I suggest that the registration fees go towards prizing for grassroots video game tournaments or Premier Challenges. The store could offer gift certificates as main prizes, and small purchases like Pokémon-themed merchandise or even just TCG booster packs to round out the spending. I offer to run the league every week, and tournaments every month.

The store owner replies that they would prefer if their own staff ran events at their store. As such, they would run the league if they could take $2 from every $5 registration to cover costs for the time their staff will put into running the league and tournaments, and the other $3 can go towards a prize pool for those tournaments.

I believe in your negotiation skills, and your ability to reach a fair compromise! My intent in outlining this scenario is just to give an example of a possible mutually beneficial outcome. It’s even better if the store will put all $5 towards prizing! Of course, when money is involved, everything gets a fair bit more complicated. As such, it’s perhaps recommendable to leave the handling of monies to the store. But if the store handles the entry fee, they may prefer to run the league themselves. After all, too many chefs spoil the pot.

But despite your valiant efforts to make things appealing for the store, they still have reservations about hosting a VG league. Perhaps it’s just too far out of their comfort zone, or they actively dislike the din that is created when ten 3DS systems all have their volume on. For whatever reason, they feel like this plan is more trouble than it’s worth. What can you do to help ease their concerns?

This problem is more difficult to resolve, and really has to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Suggesting that they keep a portion of registration as rent for the space is a good way to respond. Suggesting more regular pay-to-play tournaments (e.g. weekly) is another good way to provide the store with income. Perhaps these weekly pay-to-play events could be enough to avoid requiring registration fees for local leagues. The challenge then, is simply to figure out a good prizing scheme for these tournaments. Despite making more work for the store, you could suggest they bring in more Pokémon or video-game related products like Nintendo eShop gift cards, or small things like Japanese Pokémon merchandise (e.g. Pokémon). This may not be all too appealing for a store, but it’s a decent last ditch effort.

Our local card shop is where I get the example of the “ten 3DS systems with their volume on.” The owner really dislikes the idea of video games in the store. But they have agreed to host their first Premier Challenge with the condition that players either leave their volume off, or have headphones in. If a store simply isn’t comfortable with video games, and won’t let you run the VG league in their stead, the best answer may just be to move on to a different location. Hopefully the list I’ve provided in section one gives you some ideas about potential locations you can propose a league to.

In Conclusion

The best way to get a league in your local area is to start one yourself. The best way to have Premier Challenge tournaments hosted in your local area is to host them yourself. This isn’t ideal for a lot of people, as you cannot compete in your own tournaments, but everything has to start somewhere. The ideal solution to this problem is to get a local store to run the league and tournaments for you. But in the event that this doesn’t work out, you can try to host a league at an alternate location. If a friend is willing to pitch in and become sanctioned as a TO, then perhaps you could share the load so that each of you will have local Premier Challenges to attend.

Either way, starting a league and getting Premier Challenges doesn’t happen overnight. It also doesn’t happen without a lot of work put in by everyone involved. If you start a league now, you likely won’t have Premier Challenges before this VGC season comes to an end. But Play! Pokémon is looking to keep expanding support for the video game, and they’re going to want new areas that they can support. If you start a league now, and show Pokémon that your area has a community, they’ll be more likely to approve you as a TO. And if you host sanctioned Video Game tournaments successfully, they’ll be more likely to approve your area for Premier Challenges.

If we as players want to see the VGC community grow, we need to put in a bit of our own time and effort. After all, if we VGC players won’t volunteer our time to host events, why should we expect anyone else to?

About the Author

Crawdaunt started playing VGC off-and-on in 2011, but only really jumped into competitive play starting in 2014. He founded and runs the University of Victoria Pokemon Club and weekly league, and hosts Premier Challenges in Victoria BC. He also writes for the blog http://www.vgcwithhats.com/

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