Pokemon Worlds Information

[rax]

Hi all! Today I am leaving Seattle to go up to Vancouver for the Pokemon World Championships. I mostly won't be answering texts or my phone, since it will cost me money, though I'll try to keep people posted about how I'm doing. I'll post updates to Twitter (@raxvulpine) --- which I otherwise don't use --- and here when I can. The main reason to follow Twitter would be to see if I'm going to be in a featured match --- some matches will be streamed on www.twitch.tv/pokemon and if I know I'm going to get featured I will let people know. You can also see standings once the event starts Saturday at http://www.pokemonworldchampionships.com/2013/standings/ ; I am in the TCG, Masters Division.

I also got some positive press going into the event, being picked as part of a fantasy draft:

For the first time, a female player was chosen in our draft! After qualifying through the last chance tournament at US Nationals, Rachel Dillon from Arizona will be playing in this year’s World Championships (and for the Black Ballistas). Historically the Pokémon TCG has been a male dominated game, but that doesn’t mean things can’t change. Rachel did knock Jason Klaczynski out of the last chance tournament, so she’s a great player who’s on a roll.

So that's pretty awesome, although pronouns argh. Expect a post about gender, Pokemon, and competitive gaming in general when I get back.

Comments

[kelkyag]

Woot, best wishes for the Championships! Take some time out from the cute cartoon critters to check out the city, too. :)

If the article is actively identifying you as a female player (the first one, really? Gah), talking the author(s) into using other than female pronouns is going to be like talking to wall ...

[rax.livejournal.com]

I'm not the first presenting-female player at Worlds, I'm just the first anyone publically said might win as part of a fantasy draft. There are less than 10 presenting-female players out of 250ish qualified in the adult age division, though.

The last couple of years I don't think any female-presenting players have advanced into elimination rounds. I'm hoping that changes this year, whether it's me or not.

[kelkyag]

I don't understand why this game is so male-dominated. Is that true of younger players, too?

Also, I boggle that there's a fantasy pokemon draft. That hadn't quite sunk in on my first reading of the article. :)

[rax.livejournal.com]

It's not true at the local league level, but the more competitive you get the more true it is, and the older you get the more true it is. There's definitely a leaky pipeline thing going on. :/