DELETED POST?!?! Mike Janis & Viking Cue tour????

[nfty9er]

This worked

I like the poker machine idea. It gives waiting, non-drinking, non-eating players something to do between matches and it generates additional revenue from the cost conscious.

What other activities could be introduced into a tourney that would be of value to the players and profitable for the producers? I'd like anything that relieves the boredom of waiting and waiting and waiting for a match. Any ideas, anyone?...or are we all too mad to think?

Jeff Livingston

My last tournament I kept my tight table open for a 10 ball ring game during the tournament. It was busy from 11 a.m. til 8. It was very popular and kept people around.

 

[Teacherman]

In an unprecented move, Club Simpleton has ousted nifty.

Club Simpleton president Templeton had this to say about nifty............."Is he on drugs"?

 

[MikeJanis]

Good news to players in the St. Louis area. There is a very good possibility that the Viking Tour will not only be having an event at Sharky's in Collinsvile but we may be having one at Side Pockets is St. Charles.

Teacherman, when we do these events I would like to invite you to come and play. It's on me. It shouldn't be too hard for you to get to either of these events especially since Side Pockets is just a stones throw away from your location.

I hope to see everyone there.

Mike Janis
The Viking Cue 9-Ball tour

 

[Teacherman]

Thank you. Please confirm the date. I am very excited that I will have another riff raff free weekend. And, I appreciate what your tour's influence can do for my competition and therefore myself indirectly.

I'm not good enough to play. Attempted to at one time but............

But, I would like to meet you in person. Call before you come. I'd hate to miss it.

BTW, have I ever asked you for an accounting of the money payouts from one of your events? If not, can you explain how it works.

And say hi to Chantel if she's not drunk.

 

[nfty9er]

I will try to explain again

I don't care if you "take" my recommendation. But again it is very telling that you won't discuss it.

And, your refusal to discuss it is simply because the facts that would come out (if discussed fully and openly) would really hurt your cause.

I'm not sure why you care though. Your little posse on this board will support you, no matter the facts.

Please show me how you can get a 64 field tment done within the time frame you say. Your statement about how you will keep the tournament within certain hours, however the players don't like it is also very telling. Especially when you pass off the reason as "the owner insists". Of course the owner is now blamed. Yet, your event is the cause. The financial demand causes this. And, the players complaint shows exactly what customer is in my room.

Good job on the bob and weave also. You know what I mean. I would try to change the subject from food and liquor cost if I were you also.

For that matter you should direct attention from anything business.

I have told you to re read my post but evidently you refuse. So I will spell it out again. And it is not important whether the players like it or not, they understand ahead of time. Most tournaments bring back the final 16 or 12 the next day. Thats the way it works. So here is how you keep it within the hours. Very simple. Especially at your place with 18 bar tables. Should be no problem. 64 players.
You start at 11 a.m. with 16 matches. 16 more at 12. And this is a race to 9, on both sides of board. You can shorten it more by having race to 7 on losers if you are worried about time, but on bar tables should not be a problem.
You need 8 rounds of play for the final 16. Figure that out. You start your last round for the day at 6 p.m. And you only need 12 tables then, more if the finish fast on the winners side. Done by 7. Allow for long matches, 8 at the latest but you had 6 or more open tables available before then. What is the problem? Saturday night business always starts later. Do you agree? Now all day you had 2 open tables. Not only that customers come in, either use those tables, leave or most likely stick around and drink and eat and watch an exciting tournament. I would not be surprised if you still did your regular 300 above what the people and spectators come in and spend.
Was that too much common sense for you from someone who has run tournaments for over 30 years for no extra pay.

 

[MikeJanis]

Thank you. I am very excited that I will have another riff raff free weekend. And, I appreciate what your tour's influence can do for my competition and therefore myself indirectly.

I'm not good enough to play. Attempted to at one time but............

But, I would like to meet you in person. Call before you come. I'd hate to miss it.

BTW, have I ever asked you for an accounting of the money payouts from one of your events? If not, can you explain how it works.

And say hi to Chantel if she's not drunk.

TM, I will be at the events, your pool room will get a flyer about them and I'm sure everyone will be talking about them in your area. It shouldn't be to hard to find out about. Also, If you can't make it to one of the events, I will stop by your place while I'm in town.

The money payouts have already been given - Somewhere in this thread. It's real simple as it states in all of our promotional emails and postings. there is a new one in the tournaments section on AZ.

I don't know who Chantel is but that's not a nice thing for you to say. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Mj

 

[Barbara]

I edited my post - I was too brain dead when I posted it to see some mistakes I made in the wording.

Thank goodness writing is not my main job!

Barbara

 

[Teacherman]

Whether it's your tour, the Midwest 9-Ball Tour, the McDermott tour or any other tour, they come to town all the time. They've been coming around since late 80's early 90's.

I've never held an event. I've never been affected by one of them holding an event. Indirectly I have benefited. I have seen rooms lose and it has affected my interest. I have seen tournaments with less than 30 players often. And, short of the poker machines, I can't see how a 64 player field gets them even.

You must think you're pretty important because "everybody" talking about the event is a little strong. Especially when I'll have 2-5 customers who will play. Maybe another 5-10 will go to watch.

When you realize what rings a pool rooms register give me a call.

BTW, can you give me a complete accounting of the added money, entry fees, and calcutta money of any of your events.

 

[nfty9er]

I am sorry, you are not looking at the whole picture.

What I find intersting is that while many are very quick to attack Teacherman's views and his methods for explaining his position, very few fail to realize that he is absolutely correct in all of his asessments, and here is why:

It comes down to what Mike is offering. As a room owner, I can't pay my bills with a Viking Cue that will sit in a display case from now until after next Christmas. That's where Teacherman is coming from. Respect his position or not, he is correct to say that he won't win until someone buys that stuff. Your job as a business person is to move your inventory.

The Viking Tour/NUTS is successful, but would eliminating the calcutta drive away business? Of course not. Not for the room owner. A large majority of the people that buy into the calcutta have NO INTENTION of spending money in my establishment anyway, but they are are there to earn a bigger monetary profit than I will see that weekend. In my opinion, this is why nobody (vendors, sponsors, room owners) aren't making money. The calcutta money does nothing for a room owner at all, except limiting thr prospective patron of his purchasing power. I have said all along that it is misdirected energy and misdirected money. Mike's system will work for some room owners but not for all, and he knows that.

One of the biggest problems that I have faced in speaking with people about this subject is the facts about the money. It is a myth that there is no money in pool. Its there, and those that see it, or those that have it won't talk about it. That frustrates people like myself that have seen tour after tour self destruct over the years. In the end it doesn't even come down to money, it comes down to power. Those that have the power take on their own private agendas and the rest of us pay the price for it, and in the case of the MPBT, they blamed the players for it. Until this is changed, we will continue to have tours trying to build empires instead of promoting our sport to the mainstream. Significant outiside industry sponsorship will not be a possibility if this is all we have to show them.

Agree or disagree with that, its the history of our game. Nobody takes us seriously because we don't take ourselves seriously. Many of the tour leaders won't listen to any suggestions because they are stubbornly intent on doing things their way - or their ears only pick up signals that are attached to dollar signs. I'm not pointing fingers at Mike Janis at all, but history shows that this is the case, we usually don't do anything about it except point and laugh when its too late to save it. If there is one thing I will say to Mike Janis, is that avoiding these types of public debates would serve your tour well. This is where the UPA made some major errors in the past. Instead of opening this up in a public forum, a simple press release would have sufficed and you could have avoided wasting all this time debating in 2 threads, one of which you deleted.

I certainly agree about the product sitting for months possibly. But like I said, like anything else it is an investment, you got it for free as I will explain. If you invest in several cues around christmas time and you pay up front can you gurantee you will sell them No. and you won't sell them all and they will sit. This is part of the whole business.
Second , I do not know how Viking tour exactly runs but I have the regonal Pechauer tour and I paid nothing the first time and very little the second time. It was worth it. Here is why and here is what people don't realize but I have computer figures from pool time to prove it. But as an example I will explain.
I have about 20 players that practice or play or gamble cheap pretty regularly. Prior to a tournament the average of those players is about 10 of them play a day maybe 5 days a week. They spend 6 bucks an average as a discounted vip price. that is 30 bucks a week times 10 players daily. $300 a week. Now at a minimum a month and usually 2 but for arguement sake we will say one month, twice as many average playing, at 6 bucks a day to practice for the tournament. Figure it out, I made an extra 1200 dollars because the tournament was booked. That paid for the added. I put the money aside so when the tour people show up I just take it out of my pocket and it is like it cost me nothing. Now this does not count that when more people get together also more gambling and action happen. When they do that they pay regular prices and sometimes play for hours. Again extra money from regular customers. Take it from a room owner, I do not lose money. And this is just part of the whole picture. Like I said in a previous post or similar to it.
The cost to enter tournament 40
The cost of extra help $100
The cost of the tournament "PRICELESS"

 

[Bob Romano]

I wouldn't miss this tournament, count us in. I will make sure to do a complete mass e-mail to all on my address book of 6000+ to make sure that it is a nationally advertised event.

Looking forward to another Mike Janis Viking Tournament.

Eydie

 

[Teacherman]

For the longest time I thought the main group that had no clue how a pool room generated revenue was the avid player. I'm not so sure any more.

 

[frankncali]

TM,
You have already let it be known that you dont think that having the event is
good advertising and is wasted money when thinking about it being
a promotion for your room.

What do you consider the best promotion or advertising method for your room?
What brings in new people or keeps the existing?

I am not trolling but honestly interested.

I see your points on the tournament but there has to be an answer somewhere. One of my first inclinations to NUTS was that it would seperate the pool world rather than unite it. I hope that is not the case.
It seems to me that all the Pros are on these Mini-tours rather than a Pro Tour.
Here in SoCal I have kicked around a few ideas for a sort of mini-mini event
string and have been trying to figure out ways for it to be worth it for
the RO as well as for the player. Also for the TD and I always seem to fall short in one or the other. This thread and a few others has really helped see the differences in opinions. No real solutions yet but hopefully some will emerge one day.

 

[MikeJanis]

Whether it's your tour, the Midwest 9-Ball Tour, the McDermott tour or any other tour, they come to town all the time. They've been coming around since late 80's early 90's.

I've never held an event. I've never been affected by one of them holding an event. Indirectly I have benefited. I have seen rooms lose and it has affected my interest. I have seen tournaments with less than 30 players often. And, short of the poker machines, I can't see how a 64 player field gets them even.

You must think you're pretty important because "everybody" talking about the event is a little strong. Especially when I'll have 2-5 customers who will play. Maybe another 5-10 will go to watch.

When you realize what rings a pool rooms register give me a call.

BTW, can you give me a complete accounting of the added money, entry fees, and calcutta money of any of your events.

TM, you really need to do something about your reading comprehension problem. You keep asking the same questions over and over agian that have already been answered. Not just of me but of many other people to. Get off your high horse, step off your soap box and go back and take a look at previous posts.

Speaking of Horses, I need to get on mine. I'm leaving for the events down South and need to pack. It's about an 11 hour drive just for me to get to work down there.

You also mentioned that only 2-5 players will play in one of my events from your room and maybe another 5-10 will go watch. With the # of pool rooms in your area that averages to about 35 players coming to a Viking event just from your area and 75 spectators. I like those #'s, please keep'em coming.

Those #'s you mentioned also seem about right to me. Based on the event at Sarky's. We had 68 players and quite literally hundreds of spectators over the 2 days. I'll admit that the spectator base was larger than usual but that's mosty due to the fact that Jeanette Lee was there and played in the tourney. Also do to that, our sales of products at the event beat all our previous records. Gary at Sharky's sure was happy and I realized the the St. Louis area is a great market for us to be in.

What your #'rs represent to me along with the #'s we had at sharky's tells me that the players and spectators in the St. Louis area enjoy and support the Viking Tour events. It also tells me that with 35 local players coming to an event along with the # of traveling players that we attract and the amount of spectators we can expect to be there would be a great promotion for any room that wants to succeed in todays market.

Mj

 

[Teacherman]

...What your #'rs represent to me along with the #'s we had at sharky's tells me that the players and spectators in the St. Louis area enjoy and support the Viking Tour events. It also tells me that with 35 local players coming to an event along with the # of traveling players that we attract and the amount of spectators we can expect to be there would be a great promotion for any room that wants to succeed in todays market.

Mj

No question about the local player turnout, usually. Probably a few exceptions but the locals usually come in with around 30-40 players. Be careful in the summertime. St. Louis has a good base of regional tour type "entry fees". Players who can't quite get there but enjoy the competition and may upset someone now and then. Of course, we have a few players who can win it also.

But, the part of your post that I quoted above is really misstated. What you see is the money you can make while you dump off some product before you leave for your next heist.

And on the web site, I see no mention of added money and auction money. Can you direct me to it?

 

[Blackjack]

I have about 20 players that practice or play or gamble cheap pretty regularly. Prior to a tournament the average of those players is about 10 of them play a day maybe 5 days a week. They spend 6 bucks an average as a discounted vip price. that is 30 bucks a week times 10 players daily. $300 a week. Now at a minimum a month and usually 2 but for arguement sake we will say one month, twice as many average playing, at 6 bucks a day to practice for the tournament. Figure it out, I made an extra 1200 dollars because the tournament was booked. That paid for the added. I put the money aside so when the tour people show up I just take it out of my pocket and it is like it cost me nothing.

It costs you nothing... excuse me. (Stands up, rubs eyes and reads that over to make sure you actually said that). IT COST YOU $1200!!! Now we know how much you put in, what did you get back? Was it more or less than the $1200? I have been a room owner and I know that I never did my books that way that you just described. You made an extra $1200 and tossed it somewhere - what did you get back from $1200 investment? This is the same question Teacherman has. If you didn't toss that $1200 towards "the added", where would it have gone or stayed?

Also... If you need to raise the $1200 from table time its a bad idea anyway. Also, you forgot something in your priceless speech:

The cost of getting merchandise that you can't sell: Looking foolish

I have no problem investing the money, but I want to know what my return is going to be on the investment. The tour knows their return, at least give me a ballpark estimate of what I can expect in return. If you (the tour) cannot provide me with that information, chances are that it is
a) an unknown
b) you don't care about anything except what YOU will make
c) you know - it's not good news- and you won't tell me

It's one of those three things. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm not about to drop that kind of money against choices a, b, or c.

 

[Teacherman]

...
What brings in new people or keeps the existing?

The $100,000 question.

TRANSLATION: How do you get to one of the smallest markets in the most cost effective way. A market so small that it could fit in the head of a needle when comparing it to "normal" businesses.

It varies from area to area. I have no real answers to this question. At least answers that I'll share.

 

[Teacherman]

It's been a long time so bear with me. This thread is starting to remind of brar (sp) rabbit and the briar patch.

 

[MikeJanis]

Taken from Viking Tour Promo Packet.

Page 1

I would like to introduce to you, the Bigger & Better Than Ever - Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour. This tour began as an Ohio based tour in 1994 and has steadily grown over the years. The tour is now in its eleventh year and rapidly expanding. The tour is open to all players and skill levels. This season the tour consists of 61 tour events (tournaments), this includes up to four $5,000 added Regional Championships (1 per region) and one $25,000 National Grand Championship at the end of these events.

The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour, the largest tour in the country, offers low entry fees of only $37 into the tour events and a low $20 tour card fee per tour year. Also, to encourage participation by women and junior players, the Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour offers them a free entry fee at all non-championship tour events.

The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour invites your billiard room to become a host location for one of the tour events. The fee for hosting a tour event will vary from region to region but is always a profit to your room. The tour sponsors make this possible by giving free retail product and product discounts. This product is yours to sell, keep or use to offset the cost of the event.

Two levels of events available!
$1,000 added or $2,000 added event.

The Tour will provide all advertising, player/room mailing lists and the tournament director.

All you have to do is call today for more information.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Respectfully,


Mike Janis
President - Mike Janis Productions, The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour.
800-200-7665

Page 2

The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour will be continueing through the new millennium with a more comprehensive format than any other tour in the country. We are offering the players, billiard room owners, and sponsors what we feel is the BEST package in the country. For the players, we offer three separate competitive levels of tournament play. For our sponsors, we offer what we believe is the best promotion for their product that they can get from any tour in the country. For the billiard room owners, we offer the best products and advertising support they can get from any tour. For every tour event we provide all of the advertising, which includes postcards to the players, flyers to all pool rooms in your region and a listing of your tour event in most pool related magazines and on the internet. And did I mention 200+% sponsorship!

No other tour offers you as much as the Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour.

With the above in mind, I am asking you for your support of the Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour for the upcoming season. I know there may be other tours asking you to host a tour event, but do they offer you as much as the Viking Tour does?

The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour caters to the beginning and intermediate players, not the top-notch players. These types of players are the people that play in tournaments for fun and amusement, not for a living. These types of players are the main group that are most likely to support your establishment by returning time and again for social entertainment. And not to mention we still get some of the best players competing in our tournaments. Players like; Earl Strickland, Allison Fisher, Corey Deuel, Buddy Hall, Tommy Kennedy, Grady Mathews, Nick Varner, Howard Vickery, Johny Archer, and many more. Plus an unbelievable amount of local favorites.

If you are hosting any other tours, you may want to consider if they offer you as much sponsorship and support for your money as the Viking Tour does? Do they offer to the players as many programs as we do? (see below)

The Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour will concentrate the tour events into four regions.
Region #1 - Ohio Area - OH, PA, NY, KY, WV, MD, IN, MI
19 events + 1 Regional Championship
Region #2 - North East Central Area - WI, MN, IL, IN, MI, IA, NE 18 events + 1 Regional Championship
Region #4 - South East Area - KY, VA, TN, NC, SC, GA, AL, MS, FL
19 events + 2 Regional Championship

The entry fee for each tour event is a modestly priced at $37, which means that most players will put their money up to play (Woman and Junior players receive FREE entry fees to encourage participation). Our tour card fee is only $20 for the tour season (Apr. 2005 thru Nov. 2006 ). Also, each region will have their own $5,000 added Regional Tour Championship, and players from your area are allowed to compete in all of them. Plus at the completion of the four $5,000 added Regional Championships we will have a $25,000 National Grand Championship, and every player that competes in any one of the local $1,000, or $2,000 added tour events can play.

I look forward to talking with you soon.

Respectfully,
Mike Janis
800-200-7665

Pages 3 and 4 desctibe the proiducts that you get along with their retail values. Most of this is propriatary but I can share these #rs with you.

When a location holds a $1,000 added event they get $3,661 in retail product (cue sticks, cloth, balls, cases etc..) and an additional $1195 in discounts and advertising values if they choose to purchase addditional products. For a grand total of $4,856 in actual products and discounts.

When a location holds a $2,000 added event they get $7,237 in retail product (cue sticks, cloth, balls, cases etc..) and an additional $1,555 in discounts and advertising values if they choose to purchase addditional products. For a grand total of $8,792 in actual products and discounts.

The room owners that sell products in their locations tell me that this is the best deal they have ever seen from any of the regional tours. I'm inclined to believe them.

As far as events and payouts go it's real simple just as it states on our flyers.
The total entry fee is $37. $2 goes to the NUTS fee and $10 goes to table time and registration fees. That means that exactly $25 from each player goes into the prize fund. Using the Murphy's event as an example that was previously mentioned it broke down to this.

46 players in the event with 4 of them being free entry fees to the Women and JR players. That means $25 X 42 went into the prize fund along with the $1,000 added. This made the total prize fund of $2,050 for the event. 42 X $25 = $1,050 + $1,000 added = $2,050. The player auction brought in a total of $920 after the 10% organization fee.
The complete payouts were as follows
1st Place was Bruce Berrong $600T + $450A
2 Jim Jennings $400T + $250A I'll skip the names to save time.
3 $300T + $150A
4 $200T + $70A
5/6 $125 ea = $250
7/8 $75 ea = $150
9-12 $50 ea = $200

This was a total pay out of $3,020.

I also noticed that the AZ page lists the payouts incorrectly.
Mike listed them as:
Complete Payouts:
1st Bruce Berrong $1050
2nd Jim Jennings $650
3rd Billy Tyler $450
4th BJ Ussery $275
5th/6th Steve Cox, Johnny Carson $100
7th/8th Ron Park, Brian White $75
9th/12th Chris Bishop, Kevin Wishall, Chuji Angles, Mike Janis $50

Shit happens, Mike's a busy guy and typing errors happen. Also, I give Mike my results many times when I am driving back from the events over the phone and sometimes I give them to him on the phone while I'm at the events when I'm trying to run the event or watching the finals.


Added/edited info - I'll also add that we Guarantee the $25,000 prize fund for our players at the end of the year so if your gonna complain about tourd card money or anything else. That's where it goes.

Also added/edited - I'm including how we advretise the events. These posts can be found here on AZ in the "Tournament Announcement" section. http://www.azbilliards.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=12615

Below is the Viking Tour Schedule and a list of our newest sponsors.
Note: All Non Professional Women and all JR Players (JR=age 17 & Under) receive free entry fees to all the below events. However, all players must buy the Viking Tour Card and pay the $2 New Unified Tour System (N.U.T.S.) Fee.
All players must have a Viking Cue Open 9-Ball Tour Card for the 05/06 season to compete in our events at a cost of ony $20.
----------------------------------------------------------------


May 7-8 at 1pm - $1,000 Added
Palace Billiards
160 W. Roosevelt Road
Villa Park, Illinois
630-941-3500
The event is race to 7, Double Elimination,
Winner Breaks, World Standardized Rules
Entry Fee is a total of $37 + Viking Cue Open 9-Ball Tour Card
Entry Fee Breakdown = $25 to Tourney Prize Fund,
$10 Table Time / Registration Fee and $2 N.U.T.S. Fee
$10 Minimum Player Auction Bid (optional by player)
This event is played on 9' tables
The TD for the event is Renee Edmiston

Also, here is the list our sponsors that give you all the product.
The 2005/06 sponsors for the Viking Cue 9-Ball Tour are:

Viking Cues - ( http://www.vikingcue.com )
Championship Cloth - ( http://www.champbilliards.com )
Brunswick Billiards - ( http://www.brunswickbilliards.com )
Aramith Balls - (http://www.aramith.com )
Mueller Recreational Products - ( http://www.muellers.com )
Joe Porper's Creative Inventions - ( http://www.porper.com )
Stinger Jump/Break Cue - ( http://www.jumpbreak.com )
Tiger Products - ( http://www.tigerproducts.com)
Platinum Billiards - ( http://www.platinumbilliards.com )
Sir Joseph Cue Gloves - ( http://www.sirjoseph.com )
The Frog and TadPole Jump Cues - ( http://www.robindodson.com )
Pool Cube - ( http://www.poolcube.com )
Billiards Press - ( http://www.billiardspress.com )
Pool Player Billiard Accessories - ( http://www.cuecare.com )
AcCueShot - ( http://www.AcCueShot.com )
The Spider - ( http://www.thespideronline.com )
Hustlin USA Clothing Company - ( http://www.hustlinusa.com )
Quick-Clean Pool Table Cleaner - ( http://www.quick-clean.com )
The Billiard Guide Book - ( http://www.phoenixbilliards.com )
Jimmy Reid's Free Pool Lessons Dot Com - ( http://www.freepoollessons.com )
IVOR-X Ferrules - ( http://www.ivor-x.com )
Five Star Billiards - ( http://www.5starbilliards.com )
BCA Pool League - ( http://www.playbca.com )
Bunjee Billiards ( http://www.bunjeebilliards.com )
Tiger X Shaft - ( http://www.tigerproducts.com)
Sledgehammer Break/Jump Cue - ( http://www.babysproshop.com )
The Monk Billiard Academy - ( http://www.themonk.com )
Pool & Billiard Magazine - ( http://www.poolmag.com )
Billiards Digest Magazine - (http://www.billiardsdigest.com )
Professor Q Ball Magazine - ( http://www.professorqball.com )
AZBilliards - ( http://www.azbilliards.com )
Red Roof Inn Hotels -
USE CODE CP530832 for a 12% DISCOUNT
1-800-RED-ROOF - ( http://www.redroof.com )
PCC Products
Willard's Cue Tip Shapers
Inside Pool Magazine
Silver Cup Chalk


There doesn't seem to be anything missing in there to me.

Can I help you with anything else ?

Mj

 

[chefjeff]

Did anybody else see the South Park episode where Cartman was ignored by everybody after he pissed off his friends?

I caught part of it...why?

Jeff Livingston

 

[UGOTDA7]

I caught part of it...why?

Jeff Livingston

Because after seeing Teacherman's posts for the past few months (how could I not) and then seeing that episode of South Park, it dawned on me that Teacherman and Cartman are very much alike.

The beginning of the episode and understanding their reasoning for ignoring him have many parallels to Teacherman's situation here.