PAX Pokemon League

fun note for the scarves: if you wrap your head in them in just the right way, you look like a neon green Cthulu.

Brainstorming: Maybe a quicker way to determine if someone was elite four or a gym leader, a band on the scarf perhaps? (If such a mechanism existed... my bad!)

yeah, we needed something like that for the first PPL as well.

that would be a good thing to brainstorm

This is to anyone that was unhappy with the way I acted at PAX. I'm sorry that I'm a sarcastic teenager...I can't help it I'm like 16. I know I may have been rude to some of you, but thats only because I was being challenged every time I walk somewhere. And I know that I signed up for it, but it can still get annoying after you spend 5 and a half hours playing non-stop pokemon. As I said I'm only 16 so I don't have the ability to hold back my impulse sarcasm sometimes, and yes I do regret it afterwords. Anyway I will be better next year...seeing all the other older leaders made me feel childish and unprofessional. But in my defense the challengers weren't always nice either, I got some people that were seriously criticizing my ability to play pokemon and saying that I didn't train my pokemon well. I mean they may have not of meant to sound so harsh, but it came out that way. So yeah...sorry.
[imgzn0]http://i52.tinypic.com/wsabt0.gif[/imgzn0]

That final meeting, when I (the Champion) finally got challenged, was really fun. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to hang out more but my Enforcer duties dictated that I be elsewhere. I'm glad that I got beaten so that other people could take on the "new" Champions in my stead. To be fair, I don't tend to IV/EV train my team and mostly pick ones that I think are neat/ cute/ fun (like Sableye. Seriously, who the hell uses a Sableye?), so I suppose I was doomed to lose from the start. Still, it was a lot of fun for me and it seemed like everyone else around was also having a good time.

That being said, here's my thoughts:
*) I like the idea that someone else came up with to show that you're an Elite Four rather than a trainer, whether it be a large button with a "4" on it on your scarf or even a stripe of colored tape above and below your PPL patch. I found that when I wandered with just my scarf but not the Champion hat I got stopped a lot and had to politely turn people down, but when I wore the hat it immediately identified me. People still stopped to talk about the League and all, but knew where I was in the challenge order.
*) There are a lot of new ideas and concepts being bandied about, many of them really intriguing, that involve collectible emblems or Trainer "henchmen" that would have to be battled first, but my one fear is it simply becoming too complex and people losing interest. Being told to find a certain number of badges is one thing, but now having to find other items/ people runs the risk of getting harder instead of easier. Maybe it can be simply fixed by adding more Gym Leaders and maybe even an Elite 8 (of which you need 4 victories to progress). I accept that having more people in the "gym" makes it more like the games, but sacrifices need to me made to make it workable in reality. I'm trying to consider this from the stance of a challenger as well as a leader, and I can see pros and cons on both sides.

I had other ideas, all of which escape me now that I'm trying to make them public.

--A