Oh, wonderful (not)...
Which are, like, over 350 miles away from us.... Or farther. On our budgets? Not happening....
Like I said, there are NO tournaments in SD, none in Wyo., I think the closest is in Bismarck, ND, about 350 miles away, and Denver, Colo. (just over 400). Over five hours driving time, one way, for the close one, which means probably getting a motel for at least one night, if not two.... And we might bomb the test, and have to do it again.
Grrrrrr.... We've been trying to get this going since last November.... We have a group that has been consistently meeting since then, first in the upstairs room at a local hobby shop, since then at the public library. The public library actually has a far better meeting room than any of the hobby shops in town -- more space, better, more solid chairs (they don't tip or collapse) and consistent hours -- one hobby shop has just dumped all its Yugioh and most of its Pokemon in favor of Magic and has no gaming space at all; and the newest one has no separate gaming space, just shoves things around and sets up tables back in their HO train section, and has no Yugioh cards or supplies (but might be willing to get stuff in, they've been very cooperative with the local Pokemon league); the shop that is the most supportive has a very small room upstairs, with said collapsing chairs, and we were meeting there until he changed his hours and started closing when we were meeting which chased us downtown to the public library (which has been most cooperative, by the way), this last however has been the most supportive of any store in town even though he is primarily a sports card store.
The local anime con wants us to run a tournament (or at least something) in conjunction with them -- and we'd be happy to do something. But without someone taking the judge test we're sort of stuck -- so we can't have a tournament without a judge and we can't take the judge test unless we have a tournament since that's the only place to take it -- which came first, the tournament or the test?
Seriously, I know I'm venting here, but we had at least two, maybe three, people getting ready to take the test with UDE when the whole lawsuit thing came down and we've been on hold for over half a year now. And running anything through a store is going to be difficult because the local hobby stores either don't have the space or aren't supporting the game or both. Pokemon Organized Play sanctions play and tournaments through league leaders, not through shops; Upper Deck and now Konami seems to want to organize through stores only. We have been trying to organize a local league and some kind of organized play for Yugioh because we were tried of playing each other around the kitchen table. And we have a growing group.... We just can't get any kind of official sanction.
Grrrrrrr, again.
Sorry for the rant. You guys don't deserve it. You are the greatest! Thanks for putting up with me.....