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Dear members, during the month may I will go on a roadtrip through the usa. I will go to the west side of america and visit all the familiar places (san Francisco, la, san diego, flagstaf las vegas etc). Since I will be on the road for 25 days I am interested whether there are possibilities to play some pong pong or whether I should leave my paddle at home. Looking forward to your thoughts.
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# of stars is the classification of the tourney, things like playing conditions, prize money offered, etc.
There are some 1 star tourneys that will really challenge you and still have a blast and take a ton of pics.
As an unrated player, you would not be allowed to advance from group stage of a rated event, like say U1600 or U1800.
What would be a good first USA tourney would be a giant round robin tourney. That kind of tourney places you in a group of 5-8 players, you all play vs each other, then the top ones all go into a division, all #2's go into a division, etc, then have single elimination or another group stage then single elimination.
Such a tourney would allow you to play a lot of matches and have a little more fun.
You do that for your first tourney, then you could (if ratings get processed or if you can convince tourney director) then advance in rated events if you make it past the group stage in U1600 or whatever event you entered.
Typical tourney has rated events where it is a group stage with top 2 advancing followed by a knockout stage.
rhonis, for some reason, I would think you shape up to be 1700-1800 minimum. Once you play in a club in USA vs enough players, you will a very good idea of your USA level very fast. The average club player in USA is not significantly different than the average Korean Amature club player. On the upper end of the Amature range, USA has WAY stronger upper end. USATT 2200 would make you a top div 1 city player and a low end div 1 natl level player. (they got two more levels before the pro levels, so div 1 natl is not a super elite level)
Having said that, I mean to say you could encounter a very wide variety of playing levels, some much higher than you would expect.
I have no idea what date range you plan to travel. Some California clubs have toruneys every month or two, some are in the giant round robin format I recommend for your first tourney.
Giant round robin tourney description copy/paste...
...with an opening singles round-robin to determine placement in classes A, B, and C. That determines who gets into what division, then there are 4 player groups formed to play round robin vs each other with the top two players in each group advancing to the knockout stage.
Giant Round Robin tourneys are very fun. You get a lot of matches in a short time vs a variety of players at first, then vs those somewhat near your level, plus the chance to advance and win it all. (within your qualified division) Plus, you get to advance all the way as long as you win. In your first tourney as an un-rated player, you do not get to advance past the group stage, even if you go undefeated! That is why I recommend a giant round robin for your first tourney.
Here is a club in Santa Ana, a little south of LA. They run giant round robin tourneys every few months with a larger tourney in May.
http://www.powerpong.org/Tournments.html
Here is a club in LA area with a few tourneys. They got one early May.
http://www.mypingpongclub.com/
This is the San Diego one...
http://vukeoqx.usoc.com/USA-Table-Tennis/Events/2014/May/24/Neil-Smyth-Memorial-Open
Some clubs run sanctioned tourneys every so often, and some run a tourney for whoever comes to their club every week like this one...
http://www.latabletennis.com/tournaments/
This is giving you a small idea of the TT scene in LA area, expect the SF area to be even MORE robust.
Mr. Richard D or some others can prolly fill you in on some better tourneys, I just listed some to get you a small idea of the TT scene and what to expect.
In the LA and SF area, you can drive to a lot of clubs and find some kind of action daily and a tourney of some sort in a club in those cities every week.
You will not be disappointed visiting the LA or SF area, and you will not be disappointed in SD either, whether it is at the SDTTA or the "garage" that is more like a well-equipped one table TT club for forum members!