Pokemon Go, The Professor Program, and things you should know.
Okay, since Pokemon Go has begun it’s international release and thus, begun building the player base - it will be very likely that Professors may get some perks eventually. Sooner or later, Go will add battling, trading, and who knows what else. As time goes on - it’s more than likely they will give Professors/Judges something Go related. Now I get that this game is free, and I get that people will try to find as many ways possible to keep it that way.
But if perks for being a professor are going to become a thing - please, do not sign up to become a professor if you just want to try and get better stuff. It will most likely be something others can benefit from, but for the sake of your local community, the players, and TPCi - DO NOT BECOME A PROFESSOR FOR SELFISH REASONS.
You have no Organized Play support in your city yet.
You are helping others, not just you or your friends.
You city is short on professors and you ask/volunteer your time to your tournament organizer.
Do Not Become a Professor if:
Your city already has more than enough professors.
You want cool perks/potential things in Go.
You aren’t involved with your local organized play community.
You want to clash/boot out your local organized play community because it stands in the way of what you want. (I’ve seen this happen/be attempted. It’s a shit show at it’s finest.)
Your interest purely stems from Go and (as stated above) you have no intention of being involved with your actual organized play community.
It’s cool you’re all loving Pokemon, and I totally wanna see this love grow! but please, please, PLEASE, do what’s right for your community. If you want to be a professor that’s fine - but please make sure your organized play community needs it. If you have no organized play community (Official Pokemon Leagues, Sanctioned Large Events, etc.) then go ahead and become a tournament organizer and start one up! Help Pokemon grow!