Mitchell Johnson

Warning -- this a wall of text. Mainly a reflection on the 2025 Pokemon season. This season's changes really highlighted a handful of notable topics that I want to share as a Pokemon parent. 1. Time and resources: Last season, having the fixed threshold made it actually attainable for newcomers to qualify for worlds. It was inspiring to watch Road to Worlds, or Path to the Peak, and start your competitive trainer journey. This season demanded more time and more resources from families. Even if you placed well at a couple of regionals, you weren't ever quite sure if it was enough. This really forced parents to commit to the circuit, spending tens of thousands of dollars on travel and missing out on school. Families with financial freedom had access to more opportunities. This amount of time and financial commitment is straining for a lot of families and is very inaccessible to the broader population of children who would love to compete, or attempt to qualify for Worlds. 2. Joy: Ethan's in the phase of his life where hanging out with friends and playing Minecraft or birthday parties is a big part of being a kid. No responsibilities, no schedule -- sleep, eat, game, repeat. Last year, playing Pokemon was really rewarding. New cities, new friends, finding consistency and learning to compete. This year, the commitment became sacrifice. Half of the cities we traveled to were the same as last year. We were waking up early every day to practice online and going to team practices late in the evenings. We were grinding hundreds of games of leading up to every event. The joy of playing Pokemon TCG was fading. Playing the game so intensively this season became work. When EUIC rolled around, he completely burned out and we had to take a couple of months off. No Pokemon TCG at all. Sitting out for a couple months was healthy for rebalancing, but trying to re-acclimate after rotation was difficult. We immediately felt like we were behind on understanding the meta, or comfort on new archetypes. Getting him to practice at all would become an argument or a source of frustration. This season really taken a toll on us, and I'm not sure Ethan has it in him to play next season. 3. Goals vs expectations: Every kid wants to win. Realistically, young kids can't quite distinguish goals vs expectations, and how to set reasonable goals for themselves. I think it's so crucial to have reasonable goals like "win 2-3 games at your first regional" or "don't commit any mistakes that result in a DPL". As the players advance in skill level, I've been seeing their goals morph into really challenging expectations. The kids start to expect themselves to reach day 2 consistently. Or that they should be top-cutting at every regional. This results in so much self-inflicted pressure and stress. Before every event, I would try to spend some time with Ethan to define reasonable goals, and every time, I've been surprised at how mismatched his expectations are from mine, and how much pressure he puts on himself to make us proud as parents, or to compare his performance to his peers. 4. Resilience and dedication: Playing Pokemon and learning how handle wins and losses as an individual is incredible for the kids. It puts the full responsibility of playing and decision making on them. This really tests their commitment to improvement. I love that there is a large and diverse player base, and sets of elite players that clearly demonstrate that mastery is possible, and that dedication and hard work can result in amazing accomplishments. Recent repeat champions like @IsaiahBradner @Gabriel57504708 @hchao999 @LynnOono are all shining examples of this. At the same time, there were also plenty of kids who worked hard, went to multiple events, and still weren't able to qualify for worlds. What's our message as parents here? Work harder? Get a coach? Practice more? Get good? It's an important life lesson to experience failure, but should it be this grueling or heart breaking? 5. Community: The Pokemon community truly is amazing. It really is so heart-warming to travel around the world, and hang out with friends and parents from other countries again and again -- sometimes it feels like it's less of a competition, and instead, expensive playdates with their Pokemon friends. As parents, we're so invested in our children's success and when we see that in other parents too, it's rewarding to be able to help each other along that journey. We've been incredibly lucky to have a great Bay Area community, as well as a multiple card shops (@88Cardhouse @SVCardArt) that are willing to sponsor the kids and invest in young player development. I can only imagine how much harder it is for players that don't have this sort of support system locally. The grind that the Masters players need to go through really doesn't translate well for Juniors and Seniors, especially when they're deep in their formative years of school and social development. What was joyful competition has become fear of getting passed on the leaderboard. I really hope that TPCI takes some of these factors into consideration for the next season. #playpokemon