Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Masters T50 vs Spring Battle Roads

I never said that I wasn't going to play in Nationals. I said that I don't plan on playing in Battle Roads and instead, I will be judging some of them. I know I can suffer enough losses until I get to the point where I need to drop when I have enough losses. Sorry for the misleading information that I might have given you, JandPDS.
 
I am more worried about what to play for BRs. Usually I have more time between sets, but this time there isnt much time and I have no clue what to play yet and I have a Battle Road on saturday.

Drew
 
TheDarkTwins said:
I am not sure what I feel the "hardest" event is.

I do know the top 3 imo are the following -

Nationals
Worlds
Grinder

I am not sure how I would rank them, but I want to lean towards the Grinder as the hardest because there is just so much pressure as it is your last oppurtunity to get into Worlds.

Drew
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i would have to say states is the hardest in my area...

i really am not sure if i am playing in BR i don't think it is necessary if there are minimal gains...

my ranking is 1853 and with that calculation i don't think playing vs people with a 1740 record or so will get me a lot of points.

Drew do you think it is best for us to play?
 
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BENDINGSPOONS1 said:
i would have to say states is the hardest in my area...

i really am not sure if i am playing in BR i don't think it is necessary if there are minimal gains...

my ranking is 1853 and with that calculation i don't think playing vs people with a 1740 record or so will get me a lot of points.

Drew do you think it is best for us to play?
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It is a double-edged sword. If your playing to have fun (I am) then yes I would play. I expect to do well. If I gain 4 points from playing in 6 BRs (I dont have a deck so I am not going to play this weekend) then I did okay. I mean if you expect to do bad then dont play. But the fact is that most likely the points are meaningless compared to the points you will get if you do well at Nationals. There is no right or wrong answer, but if you miss the cut for invites by a slim margian, you may have wished you had played BRs.

Drew
 
HoennAsh said:
I never said that I wasn't going to play in Nationals. I said that I don't plan on playing in Battle Roads and instead, I will be judging some of them. I know I can suffer enough losses until I get to the point where I need to drop when I have enough losses. Sorry for the misleading information that I might have given you, JandPDS.
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Thanks for the clarification on that good luck at Nationals I hope you do extreamly well. I know Pokemon No Baka is very much looking foreward to not haveing to face you in the grinder this year :biggrin:
 
Insane

If anyone even considers droping out of Nationals this year you are a complete idiot! Last year you got a paid trip to Hawaii and were one of only 12 Americans to be invited. This year you get a freaking invite and NO TRIP! It's not even close.

I would know, I went 3-0 drop last year... You couldn't pay me to drop out this year.
 
TheDarkTwins said:
I am more worried about what to play for BRs. Usually I have more time between sets, but this time there isnt much time and I have no clue what to play yet and I have a Battle Road on saturday.

Drew
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I am in the boat next to you as I have one extra day and still don't know what I am going to play. Hope you made the right choice today.:thumb:
 
FlipsAreCool said:
You couldn't pay me to drop out this year.
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But they did pay you (us) to drop last year! I know what you mean, though. :wink:

Don't get me wrong: you shouldn't be playing Pokemon if you're all about cost-benefit analysis. Despite that, there are just some tournaments you shouldn't play in if it's particularly detrimental.

Some people may disagree with me, but a worlds invite isn't worth dropping nationals this year.
 
HoennAsh said:
I never said that I wasn't going to play in Nationals. I said that I don't plan on playing in Battle Roads and instead, I will be judging some of them. I know I can suffer enough losses until I get to the point where I need to drop when I have enough losses. Sorry for the misleading information that I might have given you, JandPDS.
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Me to, I am so excited I have never judged before.
 
Scizor said:
It should be a requirement to play in Nationals to recieve an invite. I'm going to go on record and say Paul is a moron if he doesn't play a National round with a ridiculous rating that would require him like 4-5ing to miss an invite. It wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.

I just don't get some people sometimes. Do people NOT want to win Nationals? Do they think Worlds is EASIER? I don't think I could ever bring myself to a 3-0 drop for even a Worlds invite. What if that is YOUR event? What if it's "the one"? You just threw it away. You have to be doing SOMETHING right if you're 3-0. Have some freaking confidence. Dropping just makes me sick. You're speaking for all of WA it seems JandPDS, and isn't your guy's thing "you play to win the game"? So much for that.

Play it out people, this is freaking ridiculous. It's a game.
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I just wanted to get on here and say that I agree with this 100 percent. I was considering not playing Nationals if I was guaranteed an invite to Worlds, but Chad has convinced me otherwise. He's right in what he's saying. I would feel cheated if our World Champion didn't even play Nationals and chose to sit on a rating instead.

My decision to not play Nationals stemmed from a few factors. First of all, it sounded so easy to just sit out Nats and skip on over to Worlds with a guaranteed invite. Second, I wouldn't have to work on deckbuilding or playtesting, and given my busy schedule until Nationals, this seemed preferred. Last, my 2006 Nationals experience was extremely unfortunate. I had the worst opening hands all day long (no Supporter in my starting hand the entire day), I had to play a deciding game against my brother (out of how many hundreds of people), and I got blatantly donked twice. All of these factors made me feel that sitting out Nationals was the best option.

After talking to Chad, however, I began to think about that single word: option. When I started playing this game, I never considered such options when it came to participating in tournaments -- I simply played out of pure enjoyment of the game itself. Such "important" considerations seemed to me a joke at the time -- I couldn't be paid to drop out of a tournament, nor could I be convinced to sit out from one to satisfy some "larger goal." Just like Chad said, it's a game.

I started to think, What if I ended up being our World Champion? Would people appreciate the fact that I sat out at Nationals? My answer to that imagined situation is that even I wouldn't appreciate such a fact. How could I? To think that the "best" Pokemon TCG player in the world rose to that position by not playing is absurd at best. After thinking about some of the things Chad has said, I finally realized that I, as a fellow player who does in fact dream about possibly becoming a World Champion, should play Nationals. To not do so and get a trip to Worlds would be nothing more than the blatant abuse of a flawed system.

With all of that said, I too believe that anyone who expects an invite to Worlds should play Nationals. It is, after all, the biggest Pokemon event of the year. I can only hope that our 2008 World Championship participants will be in attendance.
 
JandPDS said:
I am not discounting Nationals, anyone who wins that event has every right to be extremely proud of that accomplishment, but it is not the top prize of the year. As for scholarship I guess that cool and everything, but in Addition to the Scholarship the #2 worlds player has the chance to have their deck immortalized, something that has never happened to a National winners deck.

Just like a City Championship is less important then a State, and a State Championship is less important then a Regional. Nationals is and always will be Secondary to Worlds. Nationals is and always will be the biggest "Open" of the year it will never become the most important tournament as long as Worlds exists. All the top players here have the same goal all year long, and that has nothing to do with necessarily doing well at Nationals. All year long the goal is to play well enough to be able to participate in Worlds. One local player skipped Nats last year because he did not wish to jeopardize his spot at Worlds. I believe he would do so again this year if he is in a similar situation. And this year with the top 35-41 ranked players getting invites into worlds I feel that you will see even more top players either sit out or drop after a few rounds once they feel that there spot is secure. Remember there was one Top 10 Masters player last year who lost his invite to worlds by playing in Nationals. I do not see anyone making that mistake this year.
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Delta still lives on.....
 
Yeah, after talking to Nance, I can see where he was coming from. The thing is, it would take a pretty good reason for me to drop from Nationals. Basically like, I just don't like the way my deck is running, my resistance is terrible and I'm 4-1 and would have to win 4 games in a row, etc. I would ONLY do it if I was for sure getting an invite, and that's pretty hard to say.
 
T50 following week one of BR's

1 Paul Johnston 1992.56 MA WA US
2 Matthew L 1907.38 MA LA US
3 Emmanuel Divens 1905.37 MA MN US
4 Adam Garcia 1895.45 MA TX US
5 Colin M 1895.03 MA MO US
6 Pablo Meza 1891.83 MA DF MX
7 Ian Brander 1890.04 MA CO US
8 Con L 1886.59 MA MA US
9 kyle sabelhaus 1879.46 MA SC US
10 Austin Reed 1874.72 MA OH US
11 Erik Nance 1874.34 MA NC US
12 Tyler Ninomura 1874.30 MA WA US
13 Not Opted Into Rankings 1871.10 MA OR US
14 Breton Brander 1870.61 MA CO US
15 Jay Hornung 1868.38 MA IA US
16 Ulises Santamaría 1867.41 MA DF MX
17 Josue Palomino 1865.10 MA MX MX
18 Jason Klaczynski 1862.62 MA IL US
19 Darrell Moreno 1862.23 MA NY US
20 Alex Hill 1860.42 MA FL US
21 Alex Frezza 1858.58 MA MA US
22 Dustin Zimmerman 1857.84 MA IN US
23 Andrew Cox 1856.93 MA MA US
24 Stephen Silvestro 1856.42 MA FL US
25 Ian Ryave 1853.83 MA PA US
26 John Kettler 1849.55 MA TX US
27 Gino Rotondo 1846.05 MA RI US
28 Aaron J. Schumacher 1845.75 MA OH US
29 Andrew Mondak 1841.66 MA OH US
30 Spencer Nalle 1840.07 MA VA US
31 Bobby Malec 1838.22 MA FL US
32 Michael Perucca 1837.30 MA CO US
33 Roy (Jr) Roberson 1834.75 MA OK US
34 Frank Diaz 1834.72 MA NJ US
35 Jordan Hill 1832.24 MA NC US
36 Dana Lynch 1828.18 MA TX US
37 Chad Harris 1825.35 MA CA US
38 Drew Guritzky 1823.46 MA NJ US
39 Eric Craig 1823.35 MA FL US
40 Francisco Avila 1821.13 MA MX MX
41 Miguel Angel Lopez Bernal 1820.83 MA DF MX
42 Matthew Koo 1817.96 MA ON CA
43 Will Berry 1817.80 MA OK US
44 David Nájera 1817.48 MA DF MX
45 Roberto sora 1815.55 MA DF MX
46 Randy Abrahamson 1815.34 MA WA US
47 Daniel Rattray 1812.68 MA WA US
48 Kason Day 1809.21 MA MO US
49 Benjamin S 1806.93 MA PA US
50 Matt Alvis 1806.57 MA IL US
 
Kettler is doing his "BR" magic again. He is 14-0 and has gained 30 points to seriously rocket up around 20 spots in the Rankings. :eek:

Drew
 
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