In Layman's Terms

PokeBeach reported on Friday that the location of the U.S. National Championships for the tcg will be moving for this coming POP season.  Previously the tournament had been held as part of the Origins Gaming Expo in Columbus, Ohio.  Now though POP has opted to move the tournament to St. Louis, Missouri.

"Pokémon is pleased to announce that, due to overwhelming success and growth, the Pokémon TCG U.S. National Championships will be moving to St. Louis, Missouri!

Events will be held at America’s Center, in the heart of downtown St. Louis, from Friday, June 26th, through Sunday, June 28th, 2009.

• Events taking place during the three days include:
• North American Professor Cup on Friday, June 26th
• The U.S. National Championships on Saturday and Sunday, June 27th & 28th

Side events beginning Friday, June 26th. We would like to thank the Origins Game Fair and GAMA for their unwavering support of the Pokémon TCG over the last decade.

Please check back in the coming months for more details, including special room rates that will be available at area hotels."

In a way this is probably a good move by POP. I actually attended the Origins gaming expo and participated in Nationals back in 2005, and that was a lot of fun.  So I'll always have fond memories of it.  But despite nostalgia, with POP's move of the national tournament this will hopefully mean that more people will be able to attend the tournament.  After all, it's kinda the same premise as having Nintendo World just in NYC, it's not centrally located in the US, which means fewer people will be able to go.  While Ohio isn't a terrible place to have the tournament, Missouri represents a much more central location, they could probably have done better by moving it out west a little more, but I suspect they chose Missouri because there's a larger number of players in the east then in the west, and therefore it would have been advantageous to move it into a position where most

of the East gets to participate.  But that's just my 2 cents.

PokeBeach also posted an article about The Bonds to the End of Time being the next tcg expansion coming out.  I'd honestly like to have a little more tcg news on the site, just for ducks, so I'll try to make tcg related a little more often, or at least try to make it as often as regular pokemon gaming news.  In any event, credit to PokeBeach for the following:

• This is our "Gym Leader / Elite Four" Pokemon set.
• The main set will feature Gym Leader Pokemon-SP, as we previously predicted. They will have "GL" in their names for "Gym Leader," like "G" for "Galactic" in Galactic's Conquest.
• There are 5 LV.X Pokemon in the main set.
• All five of Rotom's forms will be featured on a card.
• Surfing Pikachu, Flying Pikachu, and an unknown Pikachu (Birthday Pikachu?) are the classic reprints.
• The "Gallade vs. Infernape" 30-card theme decks feature Elite Four Pokemon.
• Expect Infernape LV.X and Gallade LV.X in the above theme decks (not confirmed as LV.X's, but known to be in the decks). They could be named Infernape E4 LV.X and Gallade E4 LV.X, though this is just speculation.

 Looks like it'll be pretty epic.  My last deck that was playable in the modified tournament was back in 07, so I kinda need to update.  I've got a lot of cards that are no longer tournament legal. =\