I'm back from my trip to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and it was quite the experience.
I'll get this out of the way right now. I didn't get in. What I had feared from the beginning, and the main reason I didn't want to go in the first place, happened. I wasn't one of the random people to get chosen after I had registered. A record setting 600+ people signing up for my division alone contributed to that.
However, it wasn't all that bad. I did have a good time there and met some nice people. Some had traveled even further than me to be there! I also got my complimentary shiny Milotic which soothed the disappointment.
It was a great success for Nintendo but the so called, "competitive players" (myself included), felt jipped out of training our teams carefully and for a long stretch of time only to be turned away. Many of the people who did get in I considered mediocre in terms of experience. Here's hoping that the rules change next year since it was a letdown that a random drawing was what determined your participation and not on skill. A record number of people showed up so maybe this will be the incentive for a change to happen.
I have pictures posted below for those interested in seeing what I saw during my time there. Hope you enjoy them!
Now that that's done, I need to get back to Fighter's Pride. I've barely touched that thing since this whole trip was planned.