>>29542538Whoops guess I fucked up the list. I blame it being 5:30 in the morning.
Anyways, the first year is the most awkward, but after that you get a group of people you know and there's usually someone you recognize either playing you again or playing next to you.
Plus there's places for pick up games and vendors selling old merch, rare cards, and merch from Japan.
Basically it's a nice chill weekend for regionals. If you get a jerk, just lay low for the match, get through it, and you likely won't deal with them again. You get a talkative person, well, as long as they don't mess up the match, they shouldn't be too annoying, and if they are, same deal.
US Nats meanwhile is more competitive, but there are so many first timers. For as many competitivefags there, there are just as many doe-eyed players that have never seen thousands of pokemon fans in the same room. You're more likely to get a dick, and in the past we had people try to pressure players into flipping a coin to settle ties or decide matches (almost always their own coin and a non-tourney legal one at that). Luckily this is illegal in the rules to pressure for a randomizer-induced outcome.
I also was a professor for a couple of years which meant I could help judge tournaments and help the staff out. Mainly it just helped me understand the process better and how to help situations and catch certain things happening on my games that I normally wouldn't. But judges are generally pretty friendly since many are parents or good college nerds. Just don't expect them to take crap.
