I was just in a tourney about 8 days ago, and lots of things suprised me.
Lots of kids, and I mean LOTS are really, well, interesting.  Little,
annoying, bratty 7 year old kids complaining, whining, cheating. It's like a
phobia all players have in a tourney. Maybe the kids are a little too
stressed? At the tourney, I was watching my friend, after he played 4 Energy
Removals, the kid got tensed, and even said, "Ok, that was your 4th one. You
can't use anymore, so if I see another one out of your deck, its an automatic
disqualification!"

    Things like this suprise me. Stress is a common phase we all go through
in our first, maybe 2nd tourney. Usually, we all want 1st place right? Little
kids get too hyped, always whining and crying after your Haymaker just
obliterated their poor Tangela, kids begging you to forfeit so they can win,
its a common thing we've all seen. Why am I ranting about this you ask? Well,
things like this really throw your game off. Phases called "Sympathy",
"Annoyance", and "Anger" are phases we go through when a kid usually whines
and cries because he cant get that 1st. Ed. Charizard his mother needs to
sell, so she can have her tumor transplant, etc.

    A while back, I gave this kid my 1st Ed. Holo-Foil Scyther, because he
was crying since his Mono-Grass went 0-5 in the tourney. Sympathy comes in
play, as I gave away of what could've been a valuable Scyther (Base Set 2 had
Scyther obsolete, and 1st Edition, that's self-explanatory).

    I've never seen this, but I'm pretty sure it has happened. When a kid
starts whining over and over about how bad hes going to lose for 15 minutes
of the game, you might get Annoyed, which could break your concentration for
later in the tourney, etc.

    When your opponent plays SmokeScreen, and you do some funky stuff to try
and evade the effect (like benching, etc.), but when he declines that move to
evade SS, he calls the judge. The judge will probably agree with your
opponent and that would get you frustrated. It'll throw you into anger which
will incredibly destroy your concentration, especially in the Finals, etc.

    I don't know why I'm talking about this, I sound like some whack
Psychologist. Well, this whole rant to put it short, don't let little kid's
whining, complaining, begging throw you off your game. I'm only talking about
this because it affected me in my first tourney , and my friend in the
tourney 8 days ago.

Any comments, question, critiscms on my Psychological thinking can be sent to
PeNnY718@aol.com

Thank you for you time,
GrayFox