What a great time at Nationals!!!
(link to my pictures and videos below)

(this awesome photo from the main OP website... see more here)

They broke all records for attendance there! There were over 1500 players who came for the Video Game and Card Game National Championships, which was all held under one roof, at America's Center in St Louis MO. It was Amazing! Lots of our TIY players were there too!
So many players...for the TCG
There were 7 rounds for the Juniors, with a Top 64 Sat eve
8 rounds for the Seniors, also with a Top 64, and
2 flights of 8 rounds for the Masters, with a Top 64 for each!

The final Top 32 matches took place on Sunday.

That's incredible! And the event went amazingly smooth, considering the massive number of players attending! And it was great having both the Video Game and Card Game events both going on together.

They also had Side Events and the Pokemon League going on all 3 days. At the League, you played a game with someone, you both went up to the computer, told them who won, then you each drew a card, some were straight up Pokemon Cards... commons, uncommons, rares, Lvl X's, some had things written on them, like Sleeves, Notebook, Booster pack... that sort of thing. Whoever won the game got to pick what they wanted of the two choices. It was great really! I got a bunch of fun stuff, and Derrick (our Judge at TIY sometimes) even won Platinum with a DSi to play it on!

The Video Game Championships had 4 different color 'flights', playing 5 Swiss rounds, with the top 4 players in each color 'flight' going on to play in the finals on Sunday. I got to help out as a Game Assistant in the Orange zone, which was great fun. Our own Ben M was entered, but unfortunately came in 5th, so just missed the finals. On Sunday the top 16 played in best 2 out of 3 Single Elimination rounds, until they had 2 finalists in each of the 2 age groups. The final matches were played on the big stage with monitors so the audience could watch in 3D action. Was a lot of fun to watch!

It was an incredible couple of days, and I was so glad I could go! Unfortunately I missed attending my PTO Conference because we didn't arrive until Thurs afternoon. Shortly after we arrived my back was giving me some serious pain, so I didn't walk down to the other hotel down the street where my conference was. But later that eve I was able to attend the special PTO dinner they had for us at a wonderful restuarant right in our hotel. (We stayed at the Renaissance Grand) It was great being able to meet a lot of the other PTOs that I'd previously only spoken to online.

Well, I did try to take a lot of pictures and videos, and I'm sure you'll find others from Youtube as well. Pokepress did some great interviews and coverage, you'll find them in my favorites there. Like I said, I'll have my videos up shortly.

Click here for pictures from my trip

Click here for my Nationals Videos on my Youtube channel

And be sure to check out the OP website for all the details on the event!