Went to a Crimson Invasion Prerelease tournament today. It was a blast! It was my first prerelease experience, and overall it was a ton of fun!
The only downside was there was a super competitive player who was cheating by using cards outside of the prerelease box. He was called out, and caught. I dont understand people like that. I play the game for fun. Win or lose, I still have a good time. So someone that wants to cheat to win, they should stay home!
I no longer play the TCG except for online, but in the past I have never had a prerelease experience like the one you described…sorry to hear about that cheater! I definitely do miss the atmosphere of a prerelease event though, i gotta say. 
As for the cards themselves…I am loving the rainbow rare cards more and more with each SM release…the Gyarados one in particular in Crimson Invasion is a doozy, as is Silvally! Also a big fan of the Ultra Beasts getting their own red-colored accents and “Ultra Beast” specification on their rainbow rare cards. Managed to wheel and deal quite a bit today to secure 6 of the 8 rainbow rare Pokes…will pick the other ones up in a couple weeks unless I see some low prices on eBay.
Can’t say i’m as hyped for this set as I was for Shining Legends but i’ll continue to collect the rainbow rares as long as TPCI wants to pump them out, lol (they’re so nice to look at, especially in PSA slabs).
Seems like they didn’t package the STAFF prerelease promos very well, saw lots of horrible card pictures already.
what condition were your pre-release cards in?
The promo cards are in pretty good condition. No scratches. Pretty good centering. A very small amount of whitening on the backside corners.
I am happy with them!
It’s $25 for the kit.
BUT, the point of the event is to play a tournament with the prerelease cards
So you get a kit, and then you build a 40 card deck out of only the cards in the kit. And then you play a tournament against the other players and their kit decks.
It’s a lot of fun!