Competing as a way to earn trophies

General
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I had recently went into my first Pokémon LCS, and I was really excited to find some cool graded cards for my collection as I’ve seen some of you come back with. But this place was a lot more focused on actually competing (the shop owner and their son just came back from qualifying at worlds!)

I was surprised to find that the champion ship decks themselves don’t cost that much less than $100.

It got me thinking of whether getting into competing would actually be an interesting way to find collection goals and possibly win a trophy or placement card.

A long play but let me hear you thoughts from my food haha

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I’d say knock yourself out and try the TCG, no strings attached! If you happen to enjoy it and want to learn more, possibly compete and become dedicated, that’s an added bonus.

Variety is the spice of life.

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The expensive part isn’t the decks, it’s the travel :slight_smile: But a fun journey nonetheless, I say go for it!

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You could always try to hop on TCG Live to see if you’d like playing the actual game first. I haven’t played much of Live, but it’s predecessor PTCGO was great for testing out things before commiting to the physical card game. Just a thought :slightly_smiling_face:

Personally, I’d like to try playing the physical TCG, but I am too lazy/don’t have much time to commit to driving to local leagues to play (for now–hobbies are always in flux!).

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That’s a good idea, I’ll check it out sometime this week and report back :saluting_face:

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Worst case scenario, you’ll have fun! It’s definitely much cheaper than MTG, that’s for sure!

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If you thrive on competition and enjoy testing your skills against other players, then the challenge of competing in tournaments and striving for a trophy can be highly rewarding.

It’s not an easy path; time, money and skill are required to get you there.

It’s all about your commitment.

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Not a good idea as a money maker, the full travel for the year is going to be about 10k going to regionals, another 10k for Worlds on the off chance you win a 50k trophy?

This does not seem like a money maker

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It’s probably easier to become ‘good’ today than ever before, with all the help/resources available.

At Worlds in London, what struck me most was how good friends a lot of the competitors were. I strongly believe that is the best reason to start playing; the vast majority of people who have been playing for years haven’t gotten close to winning Worlds.

But no one ever won by not playing.

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The Pokemon TCG requires some amount of luck. At the highest level, most decks are running the same cards and strategies.

Here’s the list of 2023 Worlds decks. You’ll notice that a lot of competitors are running the exact same decks.

http://www.ptcgstats.com/search/label/2023%20World%20Championship

I would recommend giving it a shot but, as others have mentioned, it will not necessarily reward you monetarily. There is a lot of money/time that goes into competitive play, and buying the cards is often the cheapest component.

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