Blacjac here, I totally agree with you Ness. I think getting rid of the 15+ divisions is a bad mistake. Even though I myself am only 13 ( turning 14 in june ) i still think this will greatly affects me and everyone else.

Turning 15 isn't a long ways away and i plan to still be playing pokemon by the time im 15. This is a great game and i think by taking away the 15+ many people will quit pokemon because there are no more big tournaments to go to. I think big tournaments are a very important part to the succes of pokemon. I mean look at all the great pokemon players who are 15 and over. For many of them large-scale tournaments are there life, alot of pokemon players look forward to the STS because that might be the only large-scale tournament they go to all year. With out these tournaments i think pokemon will loose alot of players thus loosing alot of money.

Think of this, if WotC takes away 15+ its like taking away Major League Baseball and all its farm and college teams. Only the people old enougth to play little league would play organized Baseball. Organized being a key word, WotC is not saying that 15 and older people cant play pokemon anymore, it just wont let people 15 or older played in organized tournaments put on be WotC. Now many 15 and older people can attend other tournaments but i dont think anyone is capable of organizing a tournament as big as the STS. Now back to the baseball stuff, i think that when you look at it that way its very, very unfair.

I myself have never participated in the STS but i would like to be able to in the near future. If WotC gets rid of the 15+ division many people like me will only have 1 or 2 times they can participate in the STS before we are to old. This will come as a disapointment to many people along with myself. If WotC does this many people will not even be able to participate in the STS because they were to old by the time they started playing. Now maybe some of the people reading this article might think that pokemon is kinda dead and that only the people that have been playing it for a while still play. Well your wrong, i still attend my local league and a new person shows up every month or two. That is alot considering I live in the small state of Massachusetts. Pokemon is still growing.

I noticed that in one of the responses to Ness' rant someone said "why not keep the 15+ and get rid of the 10- there are not alot of them still playing". I think that that is wrong too, how would you feel if you were 10 and could'nt play because you are too young. I bet you can remember when everyone was saying "you cant do that your too young" or " your too young for that". Just put yourself in there shoes for a moment. I would just like to make clear with the person whos said that that i am not trying to make fun of them in any way i am just expressing my opinion.

WotC if you get rid of 15+ you will be making a big mistake, probobly one that which will cost you lots of money. Thank you all for reading my article. O and one last thing WotC i am not trying to be mean, i just strongly disagree wiht your desicion to get rid of 15+. Thank you all and good night!