I decided to throw a little casual tournament for fun and to get people together in our uni.

First I was bombarded with questions about a prize. I mentioned one on my flyer, and many people were expecting cash. When I informed them the prize was minor (a rare in game shiny pokemon), half of the entrants dropped out. Several of them went to lengths insulting me in my email for wasting their time.

Next it was about the rules. People were wondering if I was using the “official Smogon rules” for the tourney. I told them no, this is a casual tournament, that’s a little too serious for this. I got dozens of emails proceeding to tell me how wrong I was, how dare I blaspheme the gospel that is the Smogon rules, and it just never ended.

In fact, it pissed me off so much I added - "Just single Legendary" rule and same People went furious and told me that I can’t do that. I informed them politely its my tournament, I can make any rule I damn well please. This instance was one of the few things that made me give up competitive play.

I'm really sick a lot of people are not seeing Pokemon battles as something more than just Smogon rules.
I do agree Smogon doing good job helping people to build a team and decide on a movesets, but guess what - Their movesets are connected to Their meta. (WOW)

I wish more people make custom metas.