Like this. Sorta.

This is probably going to be the last Writer of the Month poll. (wut?) We already made a change in how we’re doing the Underground “best of the best” system, and we’ll be porting it over here as well.

Basically from now on, Writer of the Month will be determined by the total “Likes” your articles received during the month. I’ll tally the totals on the 7th of each new month so that there is time for articles released at the end of the month to have time to be read and rated.

Why are we doing this?

1. The number of voters in the WOTM polls has steadily dropped over the months. 

I think you guys might be losing interest a little bit.

2. Writers who release articles at the end of the month have an inherit advantage over people who write articles at the beginning of the month. 

Their articles are going to be naturally more forefront in people’s minds, and have a clear edge in garnering votes.

I feel that going by Likes is a little more fair in that it doesn’t matter what time of month your article is released, plus it will help get people engaged with the site on a more daily basis.

That being said, since nobody was aware of this coming change, we have one last WOTM poll to tend to:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Voting ends Sunday, February 5th at 11:59 PM EST. You can choose up to 4 of your favorite writers from last month.

Make sure you click “Submit” after you check off your selections!

In other news…

1. Upgraded Scan Linker!

I encountered a lot of these the past week.

Click this link to see how beautiful it is: Cobalion NVI

As per a suggestion I received (thanks Frank!), I decided to spend a few frustrating challenging days coding to see if I could figure out how to make it work… and hallelujah, the new scan linker was born.

Besides the obvious functionality upgrade, I’ve also turned the scan linker into a legit WordPress plugin and submitted it for review to become a part of their official plugin database. Hopefully I hear back within a few days and am able to get it uploaded to the repository.

[EDIT: It got accepted! Yay! Check it out here.]

What this means is if you run a WordPress-powered Pokemon TCG blog, you can also have the scan linker on your site! OneHitKO is currently using a rudimentary version of the plugin and ProPokemon has expressed interest in using it once the plugin gets approved. I’ll be sure to make an announcement when it gets accepted and contact anyone else who’d like to use it.

I am also planning on making a vBulletin version of the plugin too. I should have that fork finished sometime this weekend, time permitting. I’ll distribute it as well to anyone interested. (Who would I contact on Pokegym about it, by the way?)

And if it seems like I’ve taken forever to respond to e-mails and messages lately, this is why. I’ve been living under a rock trying to get the scan linker coded up. I get so distracted when I answer messages, so I decided to just ignore them for a few days almost a week now so I could focus on this project and get it done. Once I’m totally finished, I’ll start responding to e-mails more promptly again.

2. PkmnCards needs Next Destinies scans!

I uploaded what images I could find on Bulbapedia, but a lot of them are Japanese and I want to replace them with English scans as soon as possible. Immewnity from Pidgi.net sent me some raw scans, but I’ve been too busy  with coding the scan linker to crop them, plus I have like zero image editing skills anyway and it would take me forever.

If you have some free time, are adept with graphic design, and would like to lend a helping hand, you can download the raw files here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6018932/nde%202.zip

[EDIT: Spike P. edited the scans! Thanks so much dude!! I'll upload the new pics tonight... time permitting.]

As far as image sizes and stuff… I don’t really know. I guess copy the dimensions of the typical scan on PkmnCards. Make sure the finished file sizes aren’t TOO big… under 250 kb should be good.

Anyway, I guess that’s about it! Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you later.

-Adam

POLL TIME! – Writer of the Month – January 2012 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist the opportunity for a Pokemon pun.)

I hope ya’ll had a great 2011 and strive for an even better 2012. I know I’m planning to have an awesome year.

Since it’s the first of the month, that means it’s time for the WOTM poll!

But first, let’s give a warm round of applause to the top 5 vote-getters from December:

1. Daniel Lee - 26 votes
2. Dakota Streck - 23 votes
3. Mekkah - 23 votes
4. a hahn - 20 votes
5. Zack Ayello – 18 votes

Nice going guys! Click here to see the full results.

I really appreciate everyone that’s written for the site as of late (and in the past). I’m amazed at how awesome the site is, and I just want to thank everyone for contributing. Whether you write articles, leave comments, or simply peruse the site, I consider you to be one of the coolest people on the planet.

I know you’re probably super busy with life, but thanks for taking the time to help to make 6P what is it. :)

This month I’ve decided to cut voting down from your 5 favorite writers, to only your 4 favorite writers. I thought I’d change things up and see how that goes. Voting ends on Thursday, January 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

As always, the top 10 (or 15… usually closer to 15) vote getters will receive a FREE month subscription to SixPrizes Underground.

If YOU would like to become a contributor to the site (and have a chance to snag one of those free UG memberships), check out the instructions here.

THE POLL

Vote for your 5 favorite writers from last month (December 2011).

Poll closes Thursday, January 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Make sure you click “Submit” after you check off your selections!

In other news…

1. TcgScans = PkmnCards

I decided to change the name of the site to PkmnCards.com for various reasons. That site is going very well by the way, and I want to thank everyone that’s been using it. It was a lot of work putting it together, so it’s nice to know at least a few people utilize it every day.

2. Affiliate Program

I might be re-opening the Underground Affiliate Program. Basically you’d get a special link, and if someone signs up for UG through your link, you’d get a commission.

I need to do some planning with that… but leave a comment if you have any interest!

I guess that’s it as far as new goes; not many interesting developments last month, unless you count my birthday which was on the 17th. :P

Adam

Vote for Writer of the Month – December 2011 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Delibird says 6P UG is the perfect stocking stuffer.

What up everyone? It’s December 1st, which means it’s time for the November WRITER OF THE MONTH POLL!!

But before we get to this month’s poll, let’s give a warm round of applause to the top 5 vote-getters from November:

1. Ross Gilbert - 23 votes
2. Carl Scheu - 20 votes
3. Daniel Middleton - 16 votes
4. a hahn - 16 votes
5. Celebi’ - 16 votes

Way to go guys (and gal)! Click here to see the full results.

Like last month, you’ll be able to vote for your top 5 favorite writers. Voting ends on Monday, December 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

As always, the top 10 vote getters will receive a FREE month subscription to SixPrizes Underground.

If YOU would like to become a contributor to the site (and have a chance to snag one of those free UG memberships), check out the instructions here.

November was a pretty epic month, so I predict a close race. All votes will be huge, so your vote really does matter. No electoral college shenanigans here!

THE POLL

Vote for your 5 favorite writers from last month (November 2011).

Poll closes Monday, December 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Make sure you click “Submit” after you check off your selections!

In other news…

1. Cities are going on!

Didn’t Regionals just end? Click here to find a City Championship near you!

2. TcgScans back to normal

If you didn’t hear, long story short, I was blackmailed and forced to remove all the Pokebeach scans that were on the site. A lot of scans were missing for a while, but Martin from Pokemon-Paradijs agreed to hook us up with new scans that don’t even have watermarks on them, which is pretty cool.

So over the past 5 days, a few incredibly helpful volunteers and I got the new scans uploaded and organized. It was tedious, but the 2 minute, 6 seconds long Beavis and Butt-head theme song put on infinite repeat got me through those long, boring hours. (12-bar blues ftw.)

In the future I could use help with getting scans for any new sets coming out, but I’ll put out an inquiry for that when the times comes.

Anyway that’s it for now… catch you later,

Adam

Vote for Writer of the Month – November 2011 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Sup homie? It’s the 1st of the month again, which means it’s time for WRITER OF THE MONTH! woooo

But before we get to this month’s poll, let’s give a round of applause to the top 5 vote-getters from September:

1. Kenny Wisdom - 40 votes
2. Ross Gilbert – 31 votes
3. Daniel Middleton - 30 votes
4. a hahn - 28 votes
5. Mekkah – 25 votes

Way to go dudes! For the full results, you can look back at the poll here.

Like last month, you’ll be able to vote for your top 5 favorite writers. Voting ends on Saturday, November 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

As always, the top 10 vote getters will receive a FREE month subscription to SixPrizes Underground.

If YOU would like to become a contributor to the site (and have a chance to snag one of those free UG memberships), check out the instructions here.

THE POLL

Vote for your 5 favorite writers from last month (October 2011).

Poll closes Saturday, November 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Make sure you click “Submit” after you check off your selections!

In other news…

1. Regionals are just over 2 weeks away!

Crazy, right? Click here to find a location near you.

2. You can go to 3 States?

PokeBeach is reporting that States will be held over 3 weekends. Expect new attendance records this year and possibly the fiercest States competition ever! Pokemon seems to really be setting this up for the most competitive season yet. Hopefully they continue this trend of improvement, and maybe we’ll see better prize support in the future.

3. Yanmega Prime… a $5 card?

PokeGym is reporting that new “Prime Challenge Boxes” will be released on November 15th, and one of the promos included will be former $75 card, Yanmega Prime.

Expect prices for the bug to drop dramatically. I can see how some people would be stoked about this announcement, but I know that there are going to be plenty of people bummed considering the monetary investment it took to garner a playset of 4.

Personally, I think it’s cool that they’re making playable cards readily available for less-financially funded players, but they probably should have released it as a promo long ago. I echo many of the thoughts Chris Fulop spelled out on the Gym.

It really sucks to have payed $160+ for a playset, and then only be able to recoup a small fraction of your investment later. It becomes a slippery slope with Promo releases like this. It’s not like Yanmega was even an overly expensive or super hard-to-obtain card like Tropical Beach. Yes, $40 is pretty expensive, but it’s nowhere near outlandish in my book.

I think it’s best to release Promo versions alongside the regular versions like they did for cards like Typhlosion Prime and Garchomp C LV.X (of last format). That way the price for the card will stay fairly stable, and you can make safer investments in your purchases. Pokemon USA should know ahead of time which cards are going to be popular, considering the time between Japanese and US releases.

4. Shout outs!

A. The Top Cut

I think they recently revamped their site design and it looks really good! Check it out and give those dudes some love; they’re doing great stuff for the game.

B. Colin Peterik aka Sijay

Colin is a really cool dude and from what I understand he has an album coming out soon, so check out his Facebook page and buy the album when it’s released!

If you don’t remember, Colin designed the first 6P t-shirt and has also written some great articles for the site.

C. The Deck Out

Esa’s continued to crank out great article every few days, so make sure to bookmark his site and show him some support!

D. One Hit KO!

Pikkdogs has this new extra-dimensionary sidekick Pedro who is pretty funny. Check out some of his recent articles for some lolz.

Anyway that’s it for today… catch you later,

Adam

Vote for Writer of the Month – October 2011 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Now THAT is scary!

It’s October and the 2011 tournament season is already well underway. Can you believe that? I know I’m having a hard time figuring out how September snuck past me…

And with the changing of the calendar, it brings with it the SixPrizes Writer of the Month poll. Wooo!! It should be a really close vote this month since there were a lot of great articles written.

But before we get to the poll, I want to give credit to the top vote-getters from last month:

1. Kenny Wisdom – 41 votes
2. a hahn – 39 votes
3. Daniel Middleton – 37 votes
4. Carl Scheu - 31 votes
5. Tamoo – 23 votes

Way to go guys! For the full results, you can look back at the poll here. I sincerely want to thank everyone that’s been writing as of late; I know ya’ll are super busy with school, work, and life in general, so I really appreciate you taking the time to contribute to the site. :)

I do have to say though I’m honestly a little surprised we’ve only had 1 Battle Roads report so far… if anyone’s been going to any, I know I’d like to read about they’ve been going for you! Who’s with me?

Anyways… back on topic:

Like last month, you’ll be able to vote for your top 5 favorite writers. Voting ends on Thursday, October 6th at 11:59 PM EST.

As always, the top 10 vote getters will receive a FREE month subscription to SixPrizes Underground.

If YOU would like to become a contributor to the site (and have a chance to snag one of those free UG memberships), check out the instructions here.

THE POLL

Vote for your 5 favorite writers from last month (September 2011).

Poll closes Thursday, October 6th at 11:59 PM EST.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Make sure you click “Submit” after you check off your selections!

In other news…

1. The Dislike is Done… Sorta.

Last week I posted some news and mentioned I was thinking about pulling the plug on the dislike button. With some help from you guys (J-Wittz and David G in particular), we’ve come up with a new solution. The dislike button is still there, but here’s how it works:

Likes still do +1 to an article’s overall rating. Dislikes now do 0 to the articles ratings (before they did -1). However, I am still keeping tallies on dislikes, and if an article gets too many dislikes, then it will be pulled from the site for revising.

So the dislike functions more like a flag button now. If you really dislike an article and want to be noticed, then you can leave a comment detailing your displeasure. That will at least give the author more feedback than the -1 would, and disveil some anonymity.

I felt this was a necessary change mainly because of trolls and because how little constructive feedback the dislike gave. Yes, it can be kind of fun to knock down a rating, but the authors work really hard on their articles, and it’s disheartening to get a bunch of dislikes when you don’t know why. I feel that’s part of the reason contributions have been down as of late.

2. Auto-Linking Card Names

Energy LINK. Get it?

I worked really hard trying to get this feature in shipshape whenever I had free time on Friday and Saturday. I THINK I got almost all the bugs knocked out, and it should be working smoothly now. But as always, if you notice any bugs, please let me know.

Incase you don’t what the auto-linking is, it’s this: Tropical Beach

Cards within articles get magically linked to their appropriate page on TcgScans.com so you can easily look them up if you don’t know what they do (or have forgotten).

One thing I’m still working on right now though is linking all card names within deck lists by default. Right now a card is linked only the very first time it’s mentioned within an article. I was SO CLOSE to making it work, but then the site started crashing out on me. Late tonight or tomorrow I’ll get back on the horse and see if I can fix it.

3. TcgScans.com Has eBay Prices Now

I got them working early last week. If there are any other sites you want price listings for, just let me know. I can add almost any site to the list pretty easily.

Also I’m still monitoring and working on improving that site as my free time permits. I’ve just been super busy with a ton of stuff lately, and unfortunately haven’t been able to really touch that site in about a week now.

At the top of my to do list is to get the site loading faster, then I want to implement a rating + review type system (so you must leave a review along with your rating). Like TcgScans on Facebook if you want to keep up to date with my latest tinkerings.

4. GO PHILS!!!

Please help me forget about the Eagles loss today!

Peace out,

-Adam

P.S. Here’s one of my recent to do lists if you’ve never seen one… they’re pretty epic. And yes, I did do everything on there.

Vote for Writer of the Month – September 2011 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

This is a check-in, news update type post to make a few announcements and get feedback from y’all on some things.

1. TcgScans.com Launch

Most of my time the past couple months has been spent working on TcgScans.com, which is a project I’m sure I’ve mentioned (far too) many times already. The project has taken some twists and turns, but you know I’m cool with that and will just go with the flow, and I’m finally at the point where you could say the site is launched.

Right now, here are my main purposes behind the site:

1. Quickly look up cards if you don’t know what they do

It's like this... except you don't have to discard 2 cards.

I’ve got an search suggest feature (kinda like Google) so if you start typing a card name, it’ll show up in a drop-down list and you can click on the card you’re looking for. It’s pretty slick.

I might eventually add a voice search feature as a convenience for people with mobile devices. I don’t know how good it’ll work considering some of the weird Pokemon names (try Zigzagoon), but it’ll be the same voice recognition thing that Google uses (I think).

2. Compare prices from the biggest card sellers

Right now I’ve got prices from Amazon, Professor-Oak, Troll and Toad, and Collector’s Cache showing. There is also a link that’ll do an eBay search for you, but it’s on my To Do list to pull up the best eBay price and show it on the page as well.

This is a feature that wasn’t in my original plans, but along the way I thought it would be cool if I could show prices for easy comparison, and somehow I figured out how to do it. (Yes, I’m good.)

3. Rate cards

I am honestly not sure how useful this feature is, so I might end up removing it, but for now it’s there. My intentions behind the ratings is basically to give a new/intermediate player a basic notion whether or not a card is good.

Obviously some ratings will be way off (why is this Hoppip a 6.2?), but hopefully if enough people rate the cards, the numbers will even out. I’m still monitoring whether people are actually rating the cards or not… I’d say there is mild success so far.

The advantage to not including the rating option is that I can make the site load a little faster.

4. Comment on cards

This is another feature that may eventually be removed, or down-graded. Right now I’ve got Disqus comments up on that site, but may switch to the default WordPress comments (which will also help the site load faster).

I’m not sure what to expect as far as commenting goes… like I doubt any advanced strategy talk will spring up, but the option is nice to have. I’ll keep an eye on the commenting activity over the next couple weeks and make a decision. I really want the site to load super fast, so I’m trying to cut down to the necessities.

Also, one other advantage from switching to WordPress comments is that I could auto-link card names (more on that in a second).

5. View random cards

If you’re ever bored out of your gourd, there is a random card feature. It’s kinda fun to see cards you might not have seen in a while (or ever).

That’s mainly it I guess. I’m always looking for feedback, so please let me know if you have any suggestions. Literally any feedback you have at all helps me. Even something as small as “this doesn’t work how I thought it would” or “the colors are stupid” is helpful for me.

One thing I know I need to fix for sure is that the pages load real slow sometimes. The reason is that the card pricing feature is energy-extensive, but I’ve got some ideas on how to adjust things so you don’t have to deal with that lag.

And here is bar graph of the site’s traffic (pageviews) so far, incase anyone is interested:

Edit: Pageviews the day after posting this announcement:

Wow! Previous most views was 1,202 and today we’re at 5,888 with a couple hours to go. Snap!

But enough about that… onto the next order of business:

2. Auto-card Linking

You may have noticed card names on the site underlined like this: Sharpedo TM

This wasn’t in my original plans (though it probably should have been), but I thought it would be helpful for newer players to link all card names mentioned within articles to their appropriate page on TcgScans.

At first I was just going to put a link at the bottom or top of every post that said something corny like “Don’t know what these cards do? Look them up on TcgScans.com!” but I thought it would be way cooler if I could somehow automatically link the cards within the articles… so I did some research and figured out how to do it.

There are some bugs at this point that I’ll have to work out, but so far so good. I’m hoping that it’s helped some people out so that they know what cards the writers on the site are talking about.

I can image how confusing it must be for some people when they don’t know what all the cards do, so hopefully this helps get everyone on the same page. So if you’re reading an article and you come across a card you aren’t familiar with… just click it!

I could link elsewhere (like eBay or something), but I think going to TcgScans.com is probably best.

I will eventually look into auto-linking cards on the forums as well, and I could also pass along the code as a plugin to anyone else that has a WordPress site and wants that feature (like OneHitKO… does anyone else run WP?).

One thing I wanted to make sure with the linking is that the links were unobtrusive, since I knew there would be a lot of cards linked within an article and I didn’t want it to be distracting. Is the dashed underline ok with everyone?

Also, I am considering just linking ALL cards within deck lists by default. Right now it links the card only the first time it’s mentioned within the article, so the full deck lists aren’t linked. Any thoughts on that?

For any writers that want to take advantage of the auto-linking within their articles here’s how it works:

The very first time a card name is mentioned within an article, it’ll be linked. Automatically. You don’t have to do anything. Just make sure you type the card name with set abbreviation for Pokemon. Trainers and Energy don’t need the set abbreviation.

And if a set has more than one version of a Pokemon, then make sure to include the set number too. That’s it.

3. Dislike the dislike?

I’m considering removing the dislike button from the site since people are trolling it and I think its put some people off. We’ve had kinda sparse contributions as of late, and I think the dislike button is a part of it.

I do think it serves some usefulness as far as getting feedback and keeping the quality high, but some people take the dislikes personally, and I don’t want them to have to stress over that.

We’d go with just a like button, akin to Facebook, if we were to make the change.

4. Yes, it’s a Saturday night and I’m writing this.

Hopefully next Saturday night I’m out getting into trouble (make it double).

-Adam

P.S. Check out the latest episodes of Prof-It! and PokeClass.

What’s up from Adam is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

The Old System

If you’re familiar with the old rating system, you should be fine with just skipping over this section. Basically, the old system Pokémon used for rating its players was ELO, a rating system originally designed for chess. The way it worked was that each player, at the beginning of each season, started at exactly 1600 points.

At every event, points would be gained or lost for winning or losing matches, respectively. However, losing against a lower-rated player would lose you more points than losing against a high-rated player. Similarly, a win against a high-rated player would gain you more points than a win against a low-rated player.

Pokémon used ELO Rating System! It's not very effective...

Once this idea’s actually implemented, it’s not hard to see why this system was abandoned. In fact, it’s a wonder it didn’t happen sooner. What ends up happening is a variety of things that aren’t healthy for the game:

• Players with high ratings can’t change their ratings positively very much at all. Going to a tournament to boost one’s rating becomes much more difficult with a high rating, which seems counter-intuitive for the purposes of the rating system.
• Because of this, players would drop from a tournament after going X-0. Losing just one game could be disastrous on a rating, so players would exit tournaments to avoid losing any games. This takes away from some of the competitiveness in the game – with the top players (the ones concerned with ratings) not at the top tables, it doesn’t give tournament results as much credibility, and hurts players’ resistances after losing to a player who would later drop.
• Pokémon is a game with luck. Chess is not. While the ELO system was fine for chess because a high-rated player was very unlikely to lose against a lower-rated player, the same isn’t necessarily true for Pokémon. A high-rated player could get a bad hand. Or he could be donked. Or just be playing a good player who hasn’t gone to many tournaments. Any number of things could happen that would mess with the accuracy of the ratings and cause tables to be flipped.

The New Rating System

Pokémon announced this system less than a week ago. The information is accurate as of September 20, but as the website says, it is subject to change. Here’s how it works:

Each player starts at 0 points and gains points for doing well at tournaments. The number of points depends on the size of the tournament, the importance of the tournament, and how well the player did.

The all-new Championship Points: No table-flipping required.

The full description is on this page, so I’m not going to waste my time explaining the full amount of points someone will receive for each tournament, just some specific notes I think should be mentioned.

Players will most likely only get points by making Top Cut. Going X-2 or similar and not making top cut, therefore, will get someone the same amount of points as losing every game (0).

Another reason a lot of players were not in favor of a rating system change before it was announced was that it would likely have been to something similar to what we have now. The argument was that some players had the resources to go to many tournaments, and that points would end up being given out more based on time and money than should be.

However, players are limited to the amount of tournaments of each type they can get points from – for example, a player attending, say, twenty-three different Battle Roads will still only get points from his ro her eight best Battle Roads finishes. This way, so long as players invested in the game can go to at least eight Battle Roads, they have the possibility to gain no less points than players who can go to many Battle Roads.

Why It’s Good For the Game

While many players don’t like the fact that mediocre tournament placement will receive the same reward as an awful one, one has to remember that the Championship Points are for Worlds invites.

I guess dropping in Nationals just to get to Worlds was pretty ironic, huh?

Someone that can’t make it to Top Cut at a Battle Road probably shouldn’t be going to Worlds, so this system makes sense in that respect.

While players that can go to a number of tournaments above the “Best Finish Limits” do have a slight advantage in that it is more likely to do well in just eight of those, players who are worried about points should be able to do well enough in the tournaments they do go to so that that doesn’t matter.

Players who are more worried about an invite to Worlds will also be more likely to go to more tournaments, so there will be very few problems with this being the case. It’s doubtful that anyone who does not deserve to get into Worlds will get in based on rating – in fact, it’s much more likely for the opposite to be true, what with so few spots at Worlds for the number of players there are. This Best Finish Limit is high enough such that players who are truly serious about the game will have a greater chance to have a higher rating than those who aren’t.

What we’ll also start to see in the future is that people won’t drop from tournaments to protect ratings. Now that all that matters is going as far as possible into the tournament, the Top Cut will be a better representation of the top decks at any given tournament, and also add to the competitiveness of the events. Plus, we’ll get to see the best players actually compete at Nationals, States, Provincials, and Regionals rather than drop and leave the Top Cut to players who don’t have a high enough rating to secure a Worlds spot.

In addition to these benefits, luck will also have a much lower impact on the game. Losing one game, so long as one makes Top Cut, won’t matter. That one bad hand or that one bad matchup at a tournament won’t affect a player as adversely as before. This means the points will be not only more precise than before, but also a better representation of who is fit for Worlds as a whole.

No, not that type of kicker.

The weight this system puts on larger tournaments is also really nice. Battle Roads and Cities won’t matter as much, but you can get points from more of them, while tournaments like Nationals and Regionals will offer more points, but less opportunities to go to these tournaments.

In addition to different tournaments offering different amounts of points, larger tournaments of the same type will also give more points. For example, coming seventh at a City Championship will normally give no points. However, if the age division (Masters, Seniors, or Juniors) in the tournament has thirty-two or more players (known as a “Kicker” for reasons unbeknownst to me), it will give three points. This more accurately ascribes points than before.

In Conclusion…

This new rating system is a very positive change for the game. It should lead to a better distribution of points than before as well as a better tournament setting. I know I’ll enjoy the change immensely. This will be one of the best years Pokémon has had in a while because of this change.

All we need now is for the first-turn rule to revert to what it was and P!P will be on a roll.

Until next time…

Scizorliscious

The New Rating System: Why You Should Like It is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Hey everyone! I usually don’t do small news updates like this, but I thought this was noteworthy enough to share with all you.

I mentioned a few days ago to Underground members that I had plans for a quick and clean members list page, so that it would be easier to get in touch with other members for playtesting and discussing cards.

I was able to get the page done fairly quickly, and I thought what the heck… I’ll make one for ALL 6P members.

Thanks to everyone who gave input on Facebook; you gave me the nudge to get ‘er done.

So without further adieu, here are the links:

1. SixPrizes Members List
2. Underground Members List

If you don’t see yourself listed, you’ll need to update your profile page. Even if you thought you were on the list earlier, go back and check your profile page since I added checkboxes to include/exclude yourself from each members list. Before it was showing some people automatically.

You’ll also need to be registered on 6P to get on the lists… so sign up if you haven’t yet.

Both pages automatically update, which is pretty cool. I’m hoping they serve as springboards so you can find new people to partner up with for playtesting. I know sometimes it’s hard to find new people to team up with, so hopefully this makes things a little easier.

Let me know if you have any feedback!

-Adam

New Members Lists! is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

First off, good luck to everyone going to Worlds in a couple weeks! I wish you all the best of luck and hope you have an awesome time. I will unfortunately not be able to make it this year due to a once-every-two-years family vacation that I’m obligated to attend. I’ll be there for sure next year for sure, as long as it isn’t in Hawaii again.

Secondly, congrats to the winners of Writer of the Month in June! Here were the top 5 results:

1. Mekkah – 42 votes
2. Aron Figaro – 41 votes
3. Daniel Middleton – 40 votes
4. The Purple Pro – 35 votes
5. Tamoo – 24 votes

Thirdly, we had 23 different contributors to the site in July! That equals the total from June, and I am again impressed at the article quality we’ve had as of late. The articles just keep getting better and better… it’s truly an honor to be able to host everyone’s article on this site.

Thank you to everyone that’s written an article for 6P, and to everyone that visits the site and reads our articles. You’re all awesome!

Like last month, you’ll be able to vote for your top 5 favorite writers. I know it’ll be tough to choose from just 5, but take your time, refresh your memory, and pick whomever you think is most deserving. Voting ends on Thursday, August 4th at 11:59 PM EST.

As always, the top 10 vote getters will receive a FREE month subscription to SixPrizes Underground.

If YOU would like to become a contributor to the site (and have a chance to snag one of those free UG memberships), check out the instructions here.

THE POLL

Vote for your 5 favorite writers from last month (July 2011).

Poll closes Thursday August 4th at 11:59 PM EST.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Make sure you click “Submit” after you check off your selections!

In other news…

1. TcgScans.com Progress

Aight… I know this is taking forever, but here’s where I’m at with it:

The site is pretty much done being coded. I’ve knocked out a few major bugs I noticed while testing, and I also optimized the code as much as I could to make the website load really fast.

At this point, I just want to get any scans up ASAP so I can get the site rolling and get feedback from you guys. I’ve contacted a couple sites that have pre-existing scans to see if they’d let us use them temporarily, and eventually phase them out for more high-quality (HQ) scans.

I’m still waiting to hear back from 2 of the sites I contacted… I don’t want to use their scans until I they give us the ok. If any representatives from Pokemon Paradijs or Pokegym are reading this… please e-mail me!

Getting fresh HQ scans will take a while (months, possibly years), so that’s why I want to go with existing scans for the time being. I’ve spent 2 long months building the site and I want to show it off! :P

2. 6P Re-Coded

I spent a few days re-coding SixPrizes last week to try and optimize it a little bit. I’m not sure if there is any noticeable effect on loading times, but hopefully it’s a little faster and a little less buggy!

Anyway I guess that’s about it… thanks for reading and I’ll catch you later.

-Adam

Vote for Writer of the Month – July 2011 is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Is Stantler the unofficial Canadian Pokemon?

First of all, good luck to all my friends north of the border this weekend! I hope Canadian Nats goes well for everyone and I can’t wait to hear how it goes with the HS-on format… the results could have a big impact on US Nationals!

Secondly, we had 23 different contributors to the site last month! I thank everyone who submitted an article. I really appreciate it, and without you guys the site is nothing. I sincerely appreciate the effort everyone puts forth in every single article.

The article quality is just getting better and better too… I’m seriously blown away by some of the articles. I feel so fortunate that people like you contribute to the community and help grow consciousness of the game… it’s awesome!

And now it’s that time of the month again to vote for who was the best of the best from last month (June 2011). This month I’m opening things up so you can pick your 5 favorite writers (last month you could only pick 4).

There were so many good articles this month it’ll be hard enough to choose with 5 votes, but take your time and pick whomever you think is most deserving. Voting ends on Tuesday, July 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

As always, the top 10 vote getters will receive a FREE month subscription to SixPrizes Underground.

If YOU would like to become a contributor to the site (and have a chance to snag one of those free UG memberships), check out the instructions here.

THE POLL

Vote for your 5 favorite writers from last month (June 2011).

Poll closes Tuesday July 5th at 11:59 PM EST.

echo 'Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.';
}
else {
echo '

Please login or create your free account before you can vote.

‘;
}
?>

Make sure you click “Submit” after you check off your selections!

In other news…

SUPER SECRET PROJECT – REVEALED

Last month I posted about a secret project I was thinking of starting… and a month later it’s pretty much completed. Here’s where it starts:

I originally had the idea of having our own card scans on SixPrizes, so we wouldn’t have to always borrow from Pokebeach and Pokegym. (I really appreciate those two sites allowing us to use their images by the way.)

During my planning phase of the project I decided it would be a lot easier from a technical point of view to start a new website, and just have card scans on it. I’ve spent the past few weeks coding this new website during my free time, and I’m happy to say it’s pretty much completed!

It was pretty challenging trying to design the site since it’s a lot different than SixPrizes, but I think you’ll really like it. I have a few more things to get done on my “To Do” list, but I should be ready to launch the site sometime this weekend.

The only thing is that I am going to need help with people contributing scans to the site. I have been in contact with one collector who said he would help out, but I’ve sort of lost contact with him as of late. (Dan… where are you??)

If you’d be interested in helping out, please send me an e-mail at adam@sixprizes.com. I’ll be sure to reward you for your efforts… more info on the specifics of that once the site launches.

Oh and if you’re on the SixPrizes mailing list, you got a sneak peak screencap of the site… look for that in your inbox today.

Before I start rambling, thanks for reading and again, good luck to everyone at Canadian Nats this weekend and I’ll see everyone else at US Nationals next weekend!

-Adam

Vote for Writer of the Month – June 2011 + SECRET PROJECT REVEALED is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.