From: Matt Hancock [matthew-h@netaccess.co.nz]
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 10:42 PM
To: cardtips@pojo.com
Subject: Ness's rant - from a Kiwi Perspective
New Zealand. The land of the long white cloud, current home of the Americas Cup and a lot of sheep.

And we're probably the worst country to get any reception from WoTC - all they do is give some other people the right to import all their card games into this country, months after the American release and that's where it stops. No leagues, no promos, no way to enter all these championships (expect with Magic, but it's a 7 hour drive to attend one of those).

Let's make one thing clear - I am 18. A couple of years ago, I'll probably have some raised eyebrows from other people if I was to enter one of these competitions. But I live in NZ, where we get sod all treatment. It's kinda funny that they get it across the ditch and halfway around the world, but refuse to accept the little country which used to have the best rugby team as a sellable region. I have heard rumours that the League does exist up North, but I'm at the bottom of the world, so what's stopping them from expanding it downwards?

And now Wizards want to ban the 15+ sector from entering. Forcing all of us to go off and play Magic, Harry Potter and Dragonball Z. Have they realised that Pokémon has got a winning formula here and are now pouring it down the sink just so they force us to play Magic?

I don't care if we are past the 'demographic' - they thought it was for kids. A few fanboys got involved in these tourneys and now STS usually has 2/5ths of them now. Is this totally unfair or something to the little ones - they have their own section, we have ours? Or are they trying to protect us from the 'teasing' that we would get for playing a 'kiddy' game? We can stand up for ourselves, thank you very much.

The game is finally dying and for once, it's Wizards incompetence to identify the 15+ sector as eligible as everyone else.

Land of the free? I think not!

l33t k1w1

Note: sorry for sending this, but I thought it would be good to have an international take on this current situation.